oahu offshore kayak fishing

Oahu kayak fisherman Devan Inouye has been posting some helpful and entertaining videos on You Tube and Facebook so I asked if he wouldn’t mind summarizing his 2022 outings. It’s very interesting to see how Oahu’s kayak fishing seasons differ from the seasons Shea Uehana experienced on the Big Island. You can check out Shea’s summary of 2022 here.

Devan:

I’ve been around the water most of my life from my youth, whether it was fishing, diving, surfing, paddling, etc. I really had a fondness for diving, but I’ve gravitated towards kayak fishing for safety and longevity reasons. Getting old is inescapable! It’s always nice to learn new things and have new challenges. Started kayaking a little more than 2 years ago.

1st Kayak: Perception Pecador 12, found the propeller style a little cumbersome as I was not good at paying attention to line direction and keeping my lines clear of the prop when I first started.

Current: Hobie Pro Angler 14 on Oahu and Hobie Outback on Big Island. I love the deck space and stability of the Pro Angler, but it does lack in maneuverability. The Outback rides like a gem, but the stock rudder leaves something to be desired as far as steering in more turbulent conditions.

I’ve had many influences in kayak fishing and have been truly fortunate with close friends teaching me their secrets ofcatching bait, particularly opelu. I’ve learned that there really is an art to doing it, and people on YouTube definitely made it look easier than it was when I first started. Some of the main friends I learned from were Elliott Garma and Dustin Jed (Seagull Fishing), but I’ve definitely shared strategies and gear choices with many other truly great fishermen since then. I tend to fish all over Oahu, but mainly we fish the north and west shores. Recently I picked up a kayak on the Big Island and I’ve had a very auspicious start due to the company I keep and their willingness to help me explore those grounds, thanks Shea and Louie!

You may have seen an article of an Ahi I caught in Hawaii Fishing News or caught glimpses of me on YouTube as “Where’s D-AHI?”. My fishing experiences this year were not nearly as consistent as I would have liked due to many family trips both happy and sullen, as well as coaching obligations for my son Dace’s baseball team. So, sadly this cannot be relied upon as a time table journal of fishing, but I hope it at least can identify for any reader some of the things that can be looked forward to on your own fishing adventures!

January

Unfortunately my year started off quite slowly fishing-wise due to many family trips to Vegas, Hilo, and Kauai. The times I did get out were loaded with bait, both akule/halalu (goggle eye scad) and opelu (mackerel scad). The pelagic fishing seemed a little slow with just a few kawakawas (wavyback skipjack tuna) and some kamanus (rainbow runners) coming up for me this month.

February

This month immediately started off with a bang with some yellow fin footballs (shibis – yellowfin tunas under 100lbs) coming up, start to end this month, with the largest one being about 35lbs. The bait was slightly scarcer, but still around.

March & April

A few more family trips were scheduled these months, and this was the start of my fishing experiences on the Big Island. Getting on bait in new fishing grounds proved to be slightly difficult, so I fiddled with a few different down-rigging strategies during this time frame. A bunch of good sized ukus (7) and yellow spot papios (5) were coming up as a result of this, and the opelu that I was lucky enough to get on to seemed to be getting very large at this point in the year.

May

Ahas and baby kawakawas flooded the fish finders at time during this month. I witnessed huge swarms of them and could not keep them off my live baits and my damashis. This was also accompanied by similar screens of bait in the darkness of morning and sunrise. Tons of bait but very few pelagics this month aside from a few rat Mahis. It feels like the bait schools were piling up at this point and the summer bite was hopefully about to start heating up.

June

This month truly marked the start of the summer for me. It was electric and bountiful with every trip out being productive. The fish tally this month resulted in 2 onos, a few kamanus (rainbow runners), a 25lb shibi, multiple large kawakawas, a few more ukus, and a 55lb ulua.

July

This month was hot again, but it felt like kawakawa purgatory with some days out resulting in 3-5 kawakawas coming up in single outings. Bait felt plentiful but skittish, and basically any opelu I had out couldn’t stay alive in the water. Just as I thought I could only catch those silver and blue footballs, the FISH THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF came up! This is the month I caught an AHI (a yellowfin over 100lbs gilled and gutted) that weighed in gng and tailless at 105.2 lbs (estimated total weight of approx. 125-130lbs).

August

The rest of July was cut short on account of a long family trip to Disneyland with my wife and son. I could not wait hit the water when I finally got back in August and found that the bait was still plentiful and the bite was still on fire. Again, every trip seemed fruitful; I only fished 4 times this month, but here’s how it went. Week 1: 3 kawakawas (with another sharked in half). Week 2: 60 lb shibi, kawa, mahi, kahala (cnr – catch and release which I do with just about all Kahalas and uluas unless someone specifically asks for them). Week 3: 52lb shibi and mahi. Week 4: Mahi, uku, and kahala. Week 5: (There were 5 fishable weeks this month!) 54lb shibi. What a banger of a month! One side note, the sharks seemed much more prevalent and even more aggressive this month and I lost quite a number of fish to them.

September

This month I got out each weekend again and it went a little something like this. Week 1: Kawa and small 19lb shibi. Week 2: Came across some aku (which I tend to find unusual on a kayak) and an uku. Week 3: Loaded bag with a hefty kawa, mahi, and loads and LOADS of opelu. Week 4: Was a special treat getting to fish out at Punaluu on the Big Island with Shea (Affordable Wahoo) and Louie Tres Fishing (be sure to check them both out on YouTube!). Many pelagics were visible on the fish finder and Shea brought up a nice ono, but I only managed a 15lb shibi that day.

October

Only got out 3 times this month and they were mostly short trips as we were in the throes of the baseball season. This is the month the I got to first try the Sufix Invisix fluorocarbon leader that you can find on this site! Week 1: 42lb ono, mahi, and a stud uku that lost his tail to a shark (this is that ono that I caught on a circle hook and straight fluorocarbon with no wire, truly a lucky hookup!). Week 2: Dud checking out new grounds for me at Hawaii Kai, only landing a giant kahala. Week 3: Oahu Pelagic Pirates (OPP fishing club, be sure to check them out on Facebook Groups pages!) team event where my buddy Elliott and I took first place with a couple akus and got to witness a few of those elusive and odd red opelus be brought up.

November

Sadly, I only got to get out twice in November. I started experimenting with the GoFish underwater cam this month and I’m sure it had some negative effect on the bite, but perhaps the summer rush was also slowing down here as well. The underwater cam showed me that some aku schools and shibi schools were still lurking around, but most of my production came down lower in the water column with 3 ukus, 2 kahala, and a few ulua. One of the ukus was a PB weighing in at 18.6lbs. We also found a bunch of little baby shibis on the damashi, so perhaps that indicates there was some spawning going on which is exciting!

December

Again, this month was consumed with travel, however the trips off Oahu were productive and luckily I got to fish on the last trip! A Hawaii Kai outing produced 2 ukus (13 & 16lbs) and a kawakawa (11lbs). Two more outings right before Christmas brought in one aku each and some nabeta. The last outing was at Punaluu on the Big Island which was a bit of a dud for me being that I plowed through about a dozen baits and only landed a small 12 lb shibi and a big kahala. Ironically as I was fighting that kahala, Shea asked if there were still marks by me, I told him yes and he hooked into a 50lb shibi during that fight haha.

That’s a wrap of my year. I hope you found the read interesting and could glean some useful information out of this and I look forward to seeing you out on the water!

‘Tis the season to fish the South East side since the North swell is sweeping through the Windward side spots now. Woke a little earlier and got to the bait spot before 8am, and it made a difference. 🙂 Got 3 opelu in the tube, my best effort ever, and paddled them out to 220ft per Big Island Hammah Shea’s recommendation to avoid the shallow water bait stealers.

Let the first one out and it got picked up but the fish didn’t run hard with the bait. When I applied a little pressure I heard a splash behind me and the bait was dropped. The opelu came back mortally wounded and looked like it had been grabbed sideways by something other than aha and kaku. I put on a lively opelu, dropped it back and went out to 500ft and back inside 150ft and nothing bothered it. Decided to try for uku so I weighted it down with a 1.5 oz bullet weight and it got nibbled on when it got near the bottom. The nibbles turned to a screaming, unstoppable run. 300yd were out and I tried to slow down the Beast but my Strike drag setting had no effect on the run. I inched up to max drag and the braid backing shattered! The same thing happened last November in the same general area. Check out what happened that day.

My 70ft fluoro shock leader and 6ft fluoro leader was taken so I had to retie a leader directly onto the braid. No longer a stealthy setup, I just hoped a not-so-smart uku would happen by. Instead I got another fish that ran out 70yd and slowed. After a tough battle with a lot of vertical yanks, a 5ft to 6ft sandbar shark was pulled up from the depths and cut free. That shark really fought above its weight class compared to other sandbars that size. This made me think that the previous beast was a very large, fast running shark, not the ahi I hoped it was, since both times it bit near the bottom.

Finally I felt the telltale bite and jerky fight of a small uku and I landed my first one since January. I love catching uku. They’re easy to handle on the kayak and very versatile to prepare. I was hoping for a few more since it was small (3 to 4lb) but the winds picked up and water got choppy. The few boats out there left and I couldn’t get my bait down near the bottom anymore. It’s funny, I’ve never gotten more than 1 decent sized uku on a trip.

A friend was in town with his wife, visiting in-laws and he and his wife’s family had never eaten uku before. They wanted to dry age the uku but Christmas dinner arrived 4 days after the fish was caught and they couldn’t wait any longer. They wrapped the uku in foil and baked it at 450 degrees for 20 to 30 mins, intermittently checking on it after 20 mins. Ginger slices had been stuffed into slits in the body and after it was done “steaming” in the oven, a sauce of shoyu, sugar, sesame oil, mirin and oyster sauce was poured over the fish. The seasoned fish was eaten over a bed of rice, with a side of zuccini and kale, and from the looks of the photo, the bones were picked clean. When I pressured my friend for a review of the steamed uku he said “it was nice and meaty, medium-fluffy, not too oily, but not dry, not really fishy. It was fresh tasting, and a great base for the sauce that was poured over it.” What a descriptive, easy to relate to review!

Better Oahu kayakers are getting ono, mahi, and kamanu (rainbow runner) in the Winter so I’ll be out again when the weather allows, but won’t be disappointed if another uku bites the bait.

Holoholo: Offshore Kayak Fishing on Oahu – A Summary of 2022

Returned to kayak the SE side, the usual winter suspects were there including the Beast. Uku catch and cook.