It’s been a few months since I’ve checked my “big fish” South Shore spot. The last two times the only critters present were little bait stealers. Boaters had been getting ono and mahi mahi on the troll recently so the plan was to get out, catch opelu and troll ’em up out to 300ft. Unfortunately the few bait marks didn’t bite so I paddled around with the Bixpy motor assisting me, and nothing bothered my 8″ frozen opelu. Since the water was so flat, I went out to a spot about a mile away from my normal grounds, that held tackle busting ulua in the past.
Before I reached the spot I saw some promising marks and dropped the frozen opelu down. Felt some hard pulls and something ran hard with the bait. I thought it was a small shark but it settled into a familiar jerky fight. A long, skinny uku surfaced but had some fresh wounds past its dorsal fin. Something left a 6 inch bite mark, biting down from the dorsal fin towards its tail. Maybe that’s why the fight was so intense early on. What grabbed it wasn’t that toothy since the uku wasn’t shredded, so we’re thinking big ulua.
I drifted around that area, but nothing wanted another opelu or jig. On my way back to my regular grounds something really heavy ate my opelu and didn’t want to budge. I eventually broke it off and lost the rest of my baits, including live moana, to bait stealers too small to eat my big hooks.
The uku was 22″ and only 5.5lb because it was a male that had spawned out. It was pretty busted up on the outside but luckily the bite marks didn’t enter the prime meat.
Water temp was 76.5 degrees, up from 74 degrees two months ago. That’s still a little cold for May, but on its way up to the peak temps of 84+ degrees in the summer. The big fish are back but the opelu are really hard to catch now.
