Kayak deep water fails | SUP shallow water successes

September 17, 2018 By Scott 1 Comment

I’ve been relentlessly trying to fish the deeper water (100 ft to 250 ft) on my kayak in the hopes of getting better at catching tasty bottomfish and pelagics, Unfortunately days of small surf and light wind on the south and east shores have been extremely rare. We even tried fishing the north west side of Oahu when Hurricane Miriam was supposed to block the trade winds, but the winds were blowing a dangerous 15 to 20 mph. I bailed after my prescription Maui Jim sunglasses were blown off the top of my cap without me even feeling or knowing it. Those were the best sunglasses I ever had and I was one grouchy guy for the next couple of days. It was only a few months ago that I reviewed those Maui Jim Twin Falls. Here’s that review. RIP Maui Jim Twin Falls.

The last time I caught a fish in the deep worth keeping was back in February. Here’s that write up. That’s a long, frustrating drought. In the meantime Kelly has been fishing the inshore reefs off his foam SUP minimalist-style with his rod tucked in the back of his shorts. His success rate has been much higher than mine this oama season because he has a good grasp of where the shallow reef predators like to hang out, and can handle getting tossed by the waves once in a while. Since I can’t catch fish I asked Kelly to write up his last outing.

Kelly:

Recently, I went holo holo on the south shore of Oahu with the kids after work and got a few oama for pupus and bait. The next day was very windy, so my SUP fishing options were limited. I decided on a semi-sheltered spot that seems to produce small papio regularly and ended with a mixed bag.

The moana kali was about 11” and was a nice bonus fish on my last oama. Note: I sometimes take smaller roi to eat –they are sooo ono steamed– however I cut off the head and belly areas to (hopefully) reduce cig risk a little.

Here is how I made the larger papio, which was about 3 pounds. Please click on the photos to zoom in.

Find the bait, then find the elusive white papio school?

July 28, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

Frank and I have been chasing reports of schools of white papio marauding bait in the deep channels but we’ve always been a paddle or two behind. Bolo-ing on the last mid-morning search, we decided to try the evening bite. Conditions were challenging, with gusts over 20 mph and rain threatening.

Not much was showing on my portable fish finder’s screen so we pushed through the wind to get to the spot we were told held the whites. Fish appeared to be a few feet above the bottom on the protected side of the papa but nothing wanted to take our live oama offering. As we waited for the 5pm witching hour to wake the fish, the steady wind blew me closer to shore. There were pockets of fish hovering near the bottom that I assumed were white papio waiting for the evening frenzy.

Suddenly fish began to show up on the “sidefinder” view of the fish finder, indicating fish near the surface directly in front of my kayak. My Huminbird Fishin Buddy’s display is almost toy-like but I’ve come to learn that when fish are spotted near the surface like that, they are bait fish spread out on the surface over a sandy bottom. I paddled my kayak’s bow like a hammerhead shark surveying side to side until I could also mark fish below me. Suspended fish are either bait schools thick in the water colum or white papio stacked up under the bait fish.

When I took this photo, the surface bait fish weren’t showing up in the sidefinder view on the left of the screen, but the composite view of what I had passed over indicated bait fish thick under me. Despite all this bait, nothing took the live oama I was deep trolling behind me.

Remembering I had brought a jigging rod in hopes that we’d be sitting over a school of whites, I clipped on a 3/4 oz, 2 inch compact tungsten jig and dropped it down but wasn’t surprised when nothing took it. Out of boredom, I cast it out and jigged it back as I watched the fish finder’s screen. Something was pulling back! It felt like a fish but the Shimano Type J rod and Tranx 400 easily controlled it.

When I brought it in view I thought it was a 4 foot gray shark but it turned out to be a 12 inch white with 3 other whites following it. Guess I had been watching too much Shark Week.

Stoked that the compact little jig had worked on the school of whites, I tried to whistle Frank to get his attention but the wind blew the sound inland, not out to him.

Paddling into the headwind as efficiently as possible, the trolling rig went off! I was stunned to land a 12.75 inch omilu on the oama a few feet from where the white had bit. I left the bait out of the water this time and finally made it out to Frank. By the time we made it back in, the whites and the bait fish were gone! Nothing showed on the fish finder and nothing hit our bait. Ugh… I really had hoped Frank and I would finally experience a white papio frenzy.

We headed back to our launch spot and stopped at the spot Frank lost a screamer. The fish finder’s screen was blank so we spread out and slowly paddled in. I took a blind strike near the reef edge and had to put the rod in the holder 3 times and paddle back into the channel before landing a 14 inch white.

What was interesting about these 3 fish were their stomach contents. The 12 inch white was stuffed with small opae despite being around the bait school. The 12.75 inch omilu was full of inch and a half nehu, which looked very similar in length and profile to the tungsten jig. The 14 inch white had a small mantis shrimp and a flat, whitish piece of cartilage stretching its stomach. All were well fed and none appeared to have any oama in their bellies. No wonder our oama baits have been ignored.

Ever the team player, Frank was happy for the catches and new understanding gained but agreed we need to improve communication on the water. He suggested looking into 2-way radios like the offshore kayak guys use. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Converting “finding” to “catching”

June 20, 2017 By Scott 1 Comment

Frank and I checked a protected, deeper water spot I hadn’t fished all season. In previous years, the white papio and awa awa would be hitting non-oama bait schools before oama arrive on shore. The plan was for me to locate the bait and predators with the portable fish finder mounted on my yak, and for Frank to bring ’em up for viewing with frozen oama. Once Frank identified the predators I’d try hooking them with a sinking lure.

A few minutes into our launch a large fish symbol appeared on the fish finder, 5 ft off the bottom. Anything suspended above the bottom is a potential predator and sure enough Frank hooked up on his 1 yr old frozen oama he slow trolled in mid-water. The fish battled hard, up and down, and Frank was able to land the first white of the day. I cast out a heavy sinking swimmer that worked well the first time I tried it, but hadn’t worked since. Nothing. Frank baited up with another frozen oama, retraced his route and was on again. This one shook off before he could see it.

The bite stopped so we ventured out into the 12 – 15 mph head wind for a mile and a half or so but there were no bait balls and no bites. I put on a 2 yr old frozen oama and we let the wind blow us back towards our launch point. As we got neared our destination my line felt like it snagged the reef edge. I yanked and pulled and a scuffed up 11 inch omilu came up! It might’ve been pulling a little line off my whipping reel (no ratchet) and I might’ve been dragging it for a while. It was tired but managed to swim back down.

We neared the channel where Frank had his earlier strikes. I checked the opposite edge that had held awa awa in the past after seeing small bait marks on the fish finder but nothing took my oama. When I paddled over to Frank, he smiled and exclaimed “I had a screammmmmmaahhhhhh”. Something hit his oama and made 2 or 3 very strong runs straight down, against his tight drag. Unfortunately the hooks pulled and I wasn’t able to witness the biggest fish he’s battled so far. He asked if he should have run a looser drag but that’s risky too since a big fish could find the reef edge, or take a lot of line in a few seconds. I think I’ve read that 1/3 of the breaking capacity of the line is a good amount of drag to run. ‘Course we go by feel, and don’t pull line off with a scale, but it’s good to remember not to run too tight a drag unless the grounds are really snaggy.

Frank baited up with another frozen oama and circled the area that had been so productive for him. I paddled through a channel closer to shore and my light whipping rod bent over like I had snagged the reef. Line peeled out smoothly so I realized I was actually on a fish. This fish fought up and down like Frank’s and felt bigger than it actually was because of my lighter action rod and small reel. It later measured 14 inches (FL) and was headed for my family’s dinner. I baited up again, paddled over to Frank and we trolled the stretch side by side.

the top fish is only 1/2 inch shorter than the bottom fish but looks a lot smaller due to camera angle

Fish showed up in the same area on the fish finder just as they did when we started the day, suspended off the bottom. Frank had to tell me I hooked up again because my rod was bending from the tip but I couldn’t tell without the sound of a ratchet. The fish felt pretty big but ended up 13.5 inches (FL). While it was fun to battle the whites on small gear it was a big disadvantage not to have a reel with a ratchet to tell me when something was tasting the oama. I liked to imagine I was on Wicked Tuna when a strong fish would scream the small trolling reel.

All in all, it was a successful day. Frank paddled his custom Fishing SUP further than he had in the past, against a stiff head wind. My cheap fish finder found the suspended whites and the frozen oama brought them up for identification. I was a little disappointed that the sinking lure didn’t get bit. Next time I’ll try to drop a jig on the whites’ head and call them up with a popper on the surface.

SUP with oama = 3; Yak with lures = 0

May 26, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

Kelly, Frank and I hit the deeper water grounds that have been productive recently. Kelly would be trolling frozen oama, Frank would whip lures first, and then troll oama. I was loaded for bear, with 40lb fluoro leader and abrasion resistant fluoro main line so I could bring in a big fish before Sharkey took his cut. I would stick to the lures that had been working the last two times I fished here solo. The wild card was the “King Tide” that would flood the shoreline later in the day.

We started while the tide was below zero. The wind was calm at the launch and we easily paddled to the area that was working last week. Something wasn’t right. The water was a copper-yellow tinge, not the way it would look if it were caused by runoff. Visibility was reduced and we suspected that the turbulence from the big tide stirred up sediment. I marked much less fish on the fish finder, and nothing hit Kelly’s oama he SUP’d around. I even tried fishing the suspended marks that produced big strikes the last time but I couldn’t even get a bump.

We spread out and a couple hrs of no bites went by. Then Kelly found a productive reef and landed a 2lb omilu followed by a kaku that cut the leader, and a roi that took his meal down a hole. He ended his outing with a larger omilu that shook off before it could be landed. Kelly passed some frozen oama on to Frank before having to leave, and Frank began trolling the reef closer to shore while I explored a deeper water papa further out.

The wind was over 12mph with gusts to 15 mph and the papa’s protected side was still bumpy. The drift was fast but I was able to mark larger fish near the bottom. The big boys were there but didn’t take any sub-surface, sinking lures or jigs. Big contrast to the earlier trip when they came up in packs to hit lures. I let the wind blow me back to where Frank was SUP trolling.

Frank had some roi action, then pulled in an oama head that was left by a papio or kaku. After putting out a new bait he instantly hanapa’ad a 12″ FL omilu. Repeating his path again he landed a 12.5″ FL white that was thicker and stronger. After I had covered so much ground for nary a bite I was very surprised that an omilu and a white would be caught in the same area. I put on a Waxwing Boy and whipped the flats and papa edge nearby. Still no love for me. Frank’s last oama bait was pulled down into the rocks so we whipped lures on the way back to the launch site.

I put the trusty sub-surface lure back on and sure enough a roi jumped on. Luckily it didn’t rock me and I dispatched it with a knife. I’ve been catching roi with full bellies lately. Are they pregnant or just stuffed with reef fish? This particular colored lure has caught more roi than any other lure for me. Good for roi roundups but bad when the roi make it into the holes.

We checked the usual spots on the way back in but they were all barren. So was it the King Tide and off color water that scattered the fish and made them unresponsive to lures? The bait schools I had seen earlier were gone. Perhaps the bait didn’t feel safe in water they couldn’t see their predators coming, and without bait, there was no reason for the predators to hang around?

It was awesome to fish with Kelly and Frank. We tried to work together to find fish. Kelly was the “control” with trolled oama, proving that some areas were indeed barren, and some areas held fish that wanted a room service delivered oama. Frank hooked a roi on the same sub-surface lure I did, but no papio. That told me that the heavier leader and thicker main line I was using wasn’t the reason I got blanked. And, it’s always good to fish with great guys who happen to be skilled watermen.

Big papio still around, just harder to find

December 14, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

The winds were down but picking up, the moon was almost full and one of my oama tubs was experiencing a die-off. I scooped about 10 of the remaining oama and headed out on the kayak. The tide was about 2 hrs from the small peak tide and nothing bothered the oama slow trolled at the papa’s edge. An hr and 45 mins into the trolling circuit the ratchet sounded and I tried to set the hook by taking a few more strokes. When I tightened the line I found it stuck in pile of submerged rocks. Hmm, did the bait get stuck in there or did a pesky roi hunker down after it got hooked? It sure sounded like something was running with the bait before it got stuck.

It had been raining off and on and I had been paddling against a 12 mph onshore wind. I rounded a papa and started paddling in. Again it seemed like something grabbed the bait and wedged itself in the rocks. Well I’ll teach that blasted roi! I set the drag really tight to the point it was hard to pull line and continued paddling with the papa’s edge on my left as I paddled straight towards shore. This time the rod got yanked and something kept trying to pull line. I loosened the drag a bit and the fish ran, then shook its head repeatedly. What an unexpected hit at the nearest papa to shore. I was hoping for an awa awa since we aren’t tagging those, but it turned out to be a hard fighting white papio, bigger than any I had caught at this particular spot. I looked at my watch and it was just past the top of the tide.

I kept the fish in the water near the kayak and readied my tagging kit. I lifted the papio onto the area right in front of where I was seated and measured it. 14 inches, head to fork in tail. That was the easy part. Tagging a fish while seated on a kayak is very different from tagging a fish laying on shore. My perspective was off because it was almost on my lap and I was pressing straight down on the white’s 2nd dorsal fin area with the tagging applicator. I pushed too hard and the tag’s barb went through the other side of the fish! Oops, sorry fish. Papio are tough so I knew it could survive that superficial wound that didn’t draw any blood. I tried again and this time my angle of entry was too shallow and I didn’t penetrate the dorsal fin ray bones. I had to pull the tag’s barb back out and left a larger second hole. Poor guy. No blood this time either though. 3rd time was a charm and I properly inserted the tag just after the start of the 2nd dorsal fin and stopped after penetrating the fin ray bones. I thought the fish would be limp after being poked 3 times but it took off as soon as I placed it in the water, not wanting to be stabbed anymore.

I had a lot more oama and 1 more tag so I made the turn around the papa, counter clockwise, and just started heading away from land when I got a bigger strike. This fish was stronger and kept resisting being pulled in as if it were foul hooked. Turns out it was a larger fish that measured 16 inches (FL) and about 4lbs. Whites are thicker than omilu for their fork length. I had learned from my previous tagging mistakes and tagged the second fish with just one try.

I was out of tags and the next fish could be brought home. Problem was I didn’t get a bite within 10 mins. The wind picked up so I let it blow me back to shore.

Take a look at the way those two fish were hooked. Both hooked in the right corner of the mouth. That means they turned left after hitting the bait. Left would have driven them onto the papa if they hit the oama from behind so they must’ve hit it from the front they way papio are supposed to, and turned left towards deeper water. I gotta take note of how other fish were hooked in relation to the reef now.

Not bad action for mid-December. It did take live oama and 2 hrs of kayak trolling but those 2 whites were larger than any other combined kayak catch this year. I guess they’re still out there if you look hard enough.

Surfboard trolling scouting report

May 25, 2016 By Scott 7 Comments

Guys have been reporting sightings and catches of 1lb – 3lb papio on the South Shore so I dusted off the longboard and hit a favorite spot. I brought 4 live oama I had been raising and a couple of frozen ones. Being off the board for 5 months took its toll; my triceps and upper back seized before reaching the surf. After a lot of rest breaks, I headed into the 15 mph trade winds so I would be blown back to the launch site when pau.

Nothing bothered the frozen oama I had towed until I got to a wide channel next to a surf break. I paused to catch my breath and saw my floater go under. An oama head came back on the front hook. That gave me some hope. I put on a live oama and started paddling again. Something pulled the floater down but this time, when I checked the bait, a foot long reddish-brown ika was hanging on to it! I pulled the oama away and it had a one inch piece missing. The ika stayed around my board even after I prodded it with my rod tip. I finally fed it the oama in hopes it would be full.

I paddled over to the eastern reef edge to get away from the pesky ika and the floater dipped again with no line taken. This time the middle of the frozen oama was eaten and the hooks remained in the head and tail. 3 baits down and no drag pulled yet. I decided to use the live oama before they died in the bait bucket, and loosened the drag so the weak strikers could take the oama deeper.

Suddenly the clicker screamed and I had trouble getting the rod out of the holder. But when I tightened the drag and pumped the fish back, it felt like something streamlined shaking its head. I expected to see a small trumpetfish but instead landed a 13.75 inch fork length omilu. I guess it spent all its energy on the initial run. It was bagged for my parents since I hadn’t brought fish home for quite a few weeks.

I decided to drift back in but the current and winds tried to blow me out to sea. I wasn’t making much headway and considered belly boarding a wave in, which is fairly risky with the milk crate mounted on the front of the board, but eventually made it around the waves. When I pulled the bait in, I saw a reddish brown ika pull off the oama. Either there was a pack of them or that one ika was a pig. I set the remaining live oama free away from any hungry ika.

The bite wasn’t red hot but there was at least one decent papio prowling around. Maybe the papio season is slowly starting.

One strike in 3 hrs of paddling

March 16, 2016 By Scott 1 Comment

Monday was the only day with relatively light wind/good tide/time to fish this week. The windward side was drizzling off and on but it looked like it was clearing so I headed out on the kayak. The synthetic fiber clothing I wear shed water fairly well but it did get cold when I stopped paddling.

And paddle I did. I headed out to where I last hooked an awa awa, about a mile from the launch point. I passed over some small fish on the bottom but nothing wanted to eat my oama. Got to the area that had action before and it was holding bait and suspended fish. It still took about 10 mins before I got a strike. The fish hit, then jumped but this time it couldn’t shake the hook. Had I not seen that I would’ve hoped it was a papio by the way it took line. Instead it was a 3lb awa awa youngster that didn’t know how to pace itself. After pulling hard against a stiff drag it came up tired.

I decided to let it grow up a bit, and after taking this photo it popped off as it rubbed against the kayak. Slack line really does allow the hook to wiggle loose even when it appears the fish is hooked well.

The rain fell harder closer to land and the wind was choppy at times. Nothing else hit the oama or flat fall jig.

Trade winds returned bringing cooler water conditions

September 19, 2015 By Scott 4 Comments

What a difference a few days of trade winds make. The humidity dropped considerably and the inshore water cooled off. I took the longboard out in the morning and the water was almost cold. The first fresh dead oama didn’t get touched until I was almost to the surfline, and what touched it just pulled the bait off. My next live oama brought up an 8 inch C&R omilu so I alternated live and fresh dead oama for either more small omilus or yanked baits.

pliers in the background are 11 inches long

The trade winds had exceeded 20 mph and the SSW swell made for a bouncy, choppy outing. I put the largest, strongest oama out and it got hammered and killed but not taken off the tandem hooks. The poor oama looked pretty bad, with raked sides, tattered fins and a washed out coloring. Disappointed with the size of pesky predators, I left the battered bait on and paddled over a bouldery section so shallow my hand hit while paddling. When the ratchet went off I thought the bait was snagged on the rocks but the orange floater moved between the boulders. After a brief fight a 15 inch omilu was landed. This season’s omilus I’ve caught on my board have all been skinny and weak. The omilus of the same length last year were much thicker and fought much harder. Are the omilus not able to catch enough bait fish to fatten up this season? Maybe the unusually hot water makes them weary like we would be if we had to run a marathon in hot, humid weather.

When I cleaned the omilu, I found a parasitic worm that looked like a long udon noodle in its intestinal wall and absolutely nothing in the omilu’s stomach. Other than being thin, the fish looked healthy.

Papio season isn’t over, it’s just different

October 3, 2014 By Scott 2 Comments

best day so far

Since the “productive” spot still had some papio yesterday, I wanted to check on my other spot that had been filled with bait killing small papio and aha. I had let this spot rest for more than a month, waiting for the papio to be large enough to take the hook properly.

I ran into a fishing friend on the beach that had seen me land a papio at another spot a month ago. Always good to have a witness in case people are thinking I’m just photo shopping pictures! Click here to read what had happened that day. My friend, who is a world class oama catcher, gave me some pointers on where to troll today.

As I was about to paddle off, a guy called out to me, asking if I was the guy writing all these crazy posts about South Shore papio fishing. He explained that he had been searching the web to gather knowledge since he recently moved from the mainland, and recognized my surfboard rig from the blog pictures. Luckily he appreciated the blog info and wasn’t part of the fishing mafia that might want to censor some of the info being distributed!

eBay Calcutta 400 – half price!

Feeling good about the advice I got and the good will exchanged, I paddled to my go-to spot but only had yanked baits to show for it. Ugh, the bait stealers were still around and even they weren’t biting that frequently. Down two baits, I had five good sized oama left. Then it slowed even more. An hour of no bites went by and I was beginning to write this spot off. Remembering the advice my friend had given me on the beach, I paddled further down reef than I normally do and looked for the sandy cut in the surf break that would allow me to fish deeper without getting hit by the waves. Bam! My rachet on the newly purchased, used eBay reel went off. It sounded good as I tried to remember how to fish a bait caster without a level wind; basically a very small conventional reel. The fish pulled drag, then came in pretty easily. Turns out it was a 5 inch papio foul hooked on its dorsal fin. Hoping it was meant to be a practice fish, I put on oama #4.

how heavy does this look?

Bigger Bam! The rachet went off again and the fish felt much more solid. Took a little while to remember how to crank and evenly distribute line. When I looked up I was close to getting battered by waves so I tightened the drag a bit and worked the fish in. 16 inches, largest this season, on a new (used) reel. Yay!

I put oama #5 on and paddled back to the 20 ft x 20 ft break in the reef. Smaller Bam! A hard fighting, elongated 13 inch papio came in. Thinking I didn’t want to fish out this little spot in the reef I headed in. Halfway to the beach I put on oama #6 just to see if there were fish closer to shore. Big Bam! The drag pulled and it felt like another bigger papio but turns out I had foul hooked this papio on its dorsal fin also. They must’ve been slamming the fish in the middle and getting hooked on their fin as they tried to make their getaway. Bait stealers eventually get their due. This last one was another stretched out, not so deep, 13 incher. I was about to let it go since it just had a small hole in its fin, but decided to keep it for my advice giving friend.

3 papio in the bag, I gave my last oama his freedom. I ran into another friend on the beach who has really helped me figure out how to fish this spot over the last year. Proudly showing off my catch, I asked him how much the 16 incher weighed. His mental “Hilo scale” put it at 1.5 lbs while I was hoping it was a legitimate 2 pounder. I couldn’t find my fish scale at home so I weighed myself on the bathroom digital scale, and then myself holding the fish. The fish varied between 1.8 and 2 lbs. I’ll take the 2 lbs!

Surgical strikes on a clear water day

September 18, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

With the wind and surf light, I thought today would be the day I’d finally get a decent sized papio.. I trolled the spot I had previously fished in large surf and was hoping the papio would be around in the calm, clear water. The first 3 live oama got ripped so hard it was difficult to pull the rod out of the holder but all unbuttoned in a few seconds. I got one oama head back; the other two oama were pulled off the double hooks.

large trailer hook on left

I was using a large Owner bait holder hook in the oama’s tail to prevent papio from swallowing the hook and maybe it prevented the aha (giant needlefish) or kaku (barracuda) from getting hooked easily. Those strikes were much harder than the papio strikes I had been getting and I never saw the perpetrator. When I checked on my fourth live oama bait, the oama was still nose hooked but there was a 4 inch papio foul hooked on the trailer hook! Funny that the little papio could get hooked but not the larger fish that were stripping the baits so ferociously.

I trolled dead oamas in between the live oama strikes and never got any hits. I think the water was so clear the aha or kaku could tell whether the oama was alive, and could aim it’s attack to miss both hooks.

Big oama = bigger papio?

September 11, 2014 By Scott 1 Comment

these seemed larger before they got bent

I went back to troll the “strike every 5 minutes” hot spot. Took the jumbo sized oamas with the hopes that the small papio would leave them alone. The first two papio bit within 5 minutes and seemed larger so I bagged them. I thought they both were 13 inches head to tail but the one in the foreground looks smaller yeah? It was still curled from sitting in my game bag. The pliers are 11 inches long.

The papio that followed took about 7 minutes to strike and were the just legal or under legal size so I released them. One was a 4 inch papio that somehow dislodged the 5 inch oama and got hooked on the back hook! And the last papio landed was short but took the hook fairly deep in its gullet. I was able to unhook it but it didn’t revive well after trying to resuscitate it for 5 minutes. I had to eventually release it wounded since it’s illegal to possess a papio under 10 inches (head to fork). That was a downer.

I trolled two 3 day old dead oamas and they got bit too. My dad fished a very popular pier on a military base and said there were hundreds of 4 to 8 inch papio and very few legal ones. I guess we have to count our blessings and wait until these little guys become 5 lb papio.