Holoholo writer Hunter Young has evolved from a shore fisherman to a diver and now a boat fisherman and is still in high school. He’s recently been focused on getting better as a Deep 7 fisherman.

Hunter:

If someone told me 4 years ago that in 4 years I’d be primarily targeting deep bottom fish on my boat, I would probably have asked them “what’s a deep bottom fish?”.

When I first started fishing many, many years ago, I stayed simple, targeting reef fish. During summers I would catch oama and halalu and use them as live bait for papio. During winters I’d baitcast tako legs for oio. Main point being I was a very casual shoreline fisherman, and it remained that way for a while. Throughout the years, I gained knowledge from experience and old timers at the spots. 

During the summer of 2020, my dad brought home a small 15ft Mikuni boat. It had an old and beat down outboard which would die out every 5 minutes.

Though I now look back and realize just how sketchy that boat was, at the time I thought that I had just unlocked an entirely new world of fishing. We owned that boat for a little over a year but during that time, I discovered the deep bottom fishery. My first time hearing about the Deep 7 was when I saw one of my friends post a picture on Instagram with a lineup of weird looking yellow striped fish (gindai). I was intrigued by the colors on this fish so I did some research and found out about the Deep 7. I kept researching and the deeper I went the more and more amazed I became. To me, it was absurd that fish could even thrive in waters that deep. From that day on, I made it a mission to learn how to catch these fish. 

We were lucky enough to be gifted two Daiwa Tanacom electric reels from a friend of my dad. These electric reels allowed us to explore the deep dark waters 600 ft deep. On our first trip I vividly remember catching a big gindai on my first drop. I was so happy that I kept looking in the cooler and staring at the colors on the fish. I was so happy in fact that I forced my grandma to cook it up that same night I caught it!

Fast forward 3 years and we arrive at the middle of the summer of 2023. During the 3 years that have passed, I learned tons of techniques and information on bottom fishing. Still, I was only catching small fish, like ehu (squirrelfish snapper), kalekale (Von Siebold’s snapper), gindai (Brigham’s snapper). I hadn’t caught anything big yet. This was also around the time that I made my first trip to the infamous Penguin Banks. Funny story, on that first trip to Penguin Banks, I didn’t catch a single bottom fish! Just a bunch of aku. 

On my second trip I decided to try a pinnacle that came up to 800 ft from around 3000 ft. I ended that day with a good lineup full of big ehu and hogo (scorpionfish) . My trips remained this way for a while. Catching ehus and hogos, but never really hooking any big fish.

Until one day I decided to try a different rig and change up my bait. It seemed like the trip would be another lineup and ehus and hogos but on my 5th drop my line went slack on the bottom. “What?” I thought to myself, there was no way I could be on bottom because I had brought my rig up 40ft. I pushed the jog lever on my electric reel up to bring in some line. When the slack disappeared and the tension came back my pole tip started going crazy! Then the line from my reel started peeling out. I quickly tightened the drag and stepped back. I waited anxiously on the boat hoping the fish would not come off. When the number on the reel screen read 30ft I still could not see a fish in the water.

As I reeled up the last few feet of line I grabbed my rig and started handlining it up. I was confused because it seemed I had lost my lead and my rig was floating up. Then all of a sudden this big mass of the most beautiful hue of red I have seen in my life appeared out of nowhere. Onaga (longtail snapper)! I quickly reached down and grabbed the gills of the fish pulling it up into the boat. “NO WAY!” I screamed over and over. The onaga ended up weighing just over 12lbs. That was my first experience with the true intensity of deep bottom fishing. 

Every trip after that provided me with onaga ranging from 3lbs to my biggest ever 16lbs.

It seems like the closer we get to the winter months. The more onaga are caught and the bigger they are. Around the end of November I had an especially crazy day where the onaga seemed to bite on every drop. I even got a triple onaga on one of my drops!

During one of my trips at Penguin Banks It seemed like the onaga bite had slowed down early, so I decided to take some dead opelu onto the banks in 150-200 ft of water. I hooked up an entire opelu and dropped it down onto some big marks on my gps. As soon as I closed the bail on my reel, I was hooked up! And it was big. As I brought the fish up I saw the silver flash of a big uku. That was my first uku weighing over 10lbs. After that day I devoted some time to learning how to master this, and although I have only dedicated one day to strictly ukus, I managed to get some good sized ones. My biggest one weighing in at 18 lbs.

I’ve learned quite a few things over the past few years but I have 3 tips which I think are the most helpful for people starting to get into bottom fishing. These tips might not work for everyone but in my experience they work for me.

1. Bait quality matters. Don’t leave your bait out in the sun on the boat and don’t use bait that’s been sitting in your freezer for a year. Fresh bait is always best, and I’ve found bottom fish like bloody baits. 
2. Check tides and current. Bottom fishing in strong currents is like asking for trouble. It’s harder to stay on the spot, easy to tangle lines, and I feel like the fish just don’t bite as good. You can’t control the current but if it’s too strong you might be better off trolling around the area until it calms down. 
3. Rotate spots. I made the mistake of hitting the same spot over and over again and I regret it. You should be giving your spots time to replenish themselves. This will ensure that there are fish there in the future and those fish bite well. 

Oh also if you’re getting sharked, move spots! The sharks will keep taking your fish without mercy.