At this point I’ve gone kayak or shore fishing 11 times and besides a shark and hage, haven’t landed a thing.  Out of 5 kayak attempts, 3 were so windy we had to cut the fishing short.  Out of the 6 solo shore fishing trips, all either had tides too low for the predators to come in, or choppy conditions due to wind and waves.  But I’m just making excuses for my bolo head streak, Thad was able to catch two large fish in the same conditions, at one of the spots I tried and failed.  Here’s how he did.

It seems that just as I’m getting close to catching fish, something new gets in the way.  When I kayaked the deep with Kelly, he caught a nabeta on damashi at 100 ft and I had some scarred baits that looked like they had been raked by nabeta. Even had a good drag puller come off.  Here’s the write up for that trip.  The next time I went out to that spot solo, the conditions were too rough to safely fish. I’ve given up with kayak fishing the south side until after the fall, when the wind and waves drop.

 

 

 

So I wade fished a spot on Thad’s recommendation and had a bunch of kaku strikes on my go-to sub-surface lure but none stuck because I had changed the rear hook to a strong Owner inline single hook.  I went back with that same type of lure sporting stock treble hooks and the wind and waves cloudied the water and made it hard for the kaku to find that lure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I didn’t come home empty. I gathered some pipihi (those small, black salt water snails you see on black rocks when the tide recedes) for my Toby puffer since he’s been getting tired of frozen shrimp.  Toby couldn’t break into the tough shell so all the pipihi crawled out of his tub! I crushed one for him and he sniffed it and pushed it around for awhile, then figured out how to eat it. I put the remaining pipihi in another tub that didn’t have any fish and they crawled out of the water but didn’t flee like they did earlier.  Pipihi are a lot smarter than I thought.  Well one was hanging out on the outside of the tub, and since he was a flight risk, he became Toby’s next meal.

 

I figured I’d check the spot I last fished in April, hours before the historic flood that tragically dumped mud in East Oahu homes. I was horrified to find the water looking like this, 6 weeks later.   There was so much muddy silt on top of the sand that it was actually slippery to wade.  The normal bait was gone and the few bait fish I saw were darting all over the place because they couldn’t see predators coming. The tide was also too low to fish, so I just waded around, wondering how long it would take to flush out all this silt and debris.

I consulted the guys to see what I could do to end my bolo streak. Kelly said I needed to get a “bolo head” haircut to accept the bolo and move on.  This “side bolo” was the shortest I could handle.  Maybe my catch will improve to a side bolo of at least a consolation fish?

Do any of you have any other suggestions for me? By the way, I’m loving my new prescription Maui Jim Twin Fall wraps, but only wish I was seeing fish on my hook with them.