toau

Winter is the season of light wind days, large north swells and the scarcity of pelagic predators. It’s the time when opelu and other prey fish are abundant and actively feeding because they aren’t being harrassed. Makes for a great time to brush up on opelu catching.

I fished the Southside the day before New Year’s eve and I guess a lot of guys had the day off because I counted 5 boats, 5 kayaks and 2 jet skis within a mile of us. Needless to say, the fishing was lousy and all I took home was a toau. That turned out to not be as forgiving as uku. The person I gave it to overcooked it and said it had rubbery skin, small bones and just an “ok” taste. But at least that invasive was taken off the reef.

The bottom opelu was actually used as bait and scratched up but not taken so it’ll be used again!

One crowded day on the Southside was enough to sour me from fishing there, so I went back to the Windward side the following week and found the opelu biting, even though I starting looking for them at 9 am. Ended up with 5 opelu, my PB so far, but the 12 inch opelu were too big to be swallowed by the small predators and the 7 inch opelu were pulled off the hooks. At least I had bait leftover to vacuum seal and freeze.

Followed that up with another Windward trip. This time the opelu bit late again but the small predators didn’t want to take on the 12 inch opelu and a 7 inch opelu got pulled off in the shallows. I caught one nabeta early and when I went back later to round out the catch I couldn’t find ’em. Since nothing big seems to be around in that area I’m gonna try another Windward spot I haven’t checked since last March.

The better kayak guys have been loading up on opelu and some have even found the elusive pelagics. So always got chance for something good when you have live opelu.

Fishing had been slow onshore and nearshore for the past two months due to the drop in water temps. It’s been warmer on land lately, so it was time to check for improved water conditions. My fishing partner Frank invited his friend Christine to fish off his Hobie Revo 13 for her inaugural kayak fishing outing, and Frank tied lines, rigged baits and provided safety support on his fishing SUP.

We couldn’t have picked a better day to take a rookie out to the deep. The waves were small and the wind stayed under 8 mph most of the day, and when the west wind did blow, it was countered by the east current that bumped the water but kept us from drifting much. There even was a small rising tide to stir the fishes’ appetites.

2nd, smaller shark. Photo by Frank, off his SUP.

My first 3 drops in 130 to 170ft of water resulting in instant shark hookups. Well, the first could have been a fish (wishful thinking) because it never stopped running and popped the uni to uni splice of my Sufix 832 about 75 yds in. The other two back breaking battles were confirmed sharks that I brought to color. The 3rd shark was bigger than the 2nd, and popped the line when it saw the kayak. I licked my wounds and paddled shallower, taking Frank and Christine with me.

Bait and small predators showed up on the fish finder at 80 ft so I put a 7 inch frozen opelu down. After some hard non-hage (triggerfish) tugs only the head came back. Next opelu resulted in a wahanui, my first at this spot but Frank has caught them on past trips. You can see why the Hawaiians named the fish wahanui, or big mouth. It’s a jobfish/snapper, related to the uku, or green jobfish, but can swallow much larger prey whole.

Frank changed Christine’s bait from oama to small opelu and the bite was on for her! She added a thick wahanui to the aha (needlefish) she had caught trolling. I dropped down another opelu and patiently waited as my rod tip went “tap, tap, yank, tap…yank” and the ratchet went off. The fish was shaking really spastically, and running but didn’t feel too big. I was thinking it was a small, angry aha but was stoked to see a small uku, hooked in its side, come to the surface. During the frenzy with the other bait stealers, it must have run into one of the hooks.

Meanwhile, Christine was hooking and landing more wahanui and a toau (blacktail snapper). I missed a few more fish that pulled line and missed the hooks. I even fed line in freespool to a fish that eventually was hooked but had swum into a cave. Soon we were out of bait and happily headed in with fish in our cooler bags.

A bunch of kayak fishermen had landed before us and I noticed one of them had an Ocean Kayak Trident 4.7, the big brother of my Trident Ultra 4.3. His name was Robert, and it was only his second outing on his Trident (was my 2nd outing also) but he did a lot better than I did. He caught a few live opelu and fished near the area I was doing shark isometrics, and caught an 8.8 lb uku, his PB. Robert also had a kawalea (deepwater cuda) and some aweoweo. All really good eating fish!

For her first kayak fishing outing, Christine really did well. She and Frank planned to share the catch with friends and family. I did brief Frank on the perceived concern of ciquatera poisoning regarding wahanui and toau, but those two species probably aren’t any “hotter” than papio and uku. The fish weren’t too big, and the consumers weren’t people who ate a lot of reef fish, so they should all be ok.

Sure looks like the Winter Doldrums are over and it’s time to get out and fish hard!

It’s that time of year. Opelu is catchable because there’s less predators around.

Red hot bottom bite on the kayaks!