Uku, moana kali, yellow spot, 25lb ulua on damashi and 60g tungsten jig – I’ve been doing it wrong before!

January 30, 2024 By Scott Leave a Comment

I’ve been looking for uku and great tasting goat fish (moana kali and weke nono) on the Windward side for years now and kept coming up empty. Ended up changing my jigging setup and the area I searched, and the results were astounding. There’s a video of the action at the end of this post.

There seems to be uku (green jobfish) all over the South and West sides of Oahu. I’ve dedicated hours dragging live and dead opelu all over the Windward side dropoffs and no uku have bitten. Apparently the grounds I was fishing were sloping sandy areas, not rocky rubble the uku preferred.

The patchy reef areas did hold a lot of bait and reef fish, and I’ve hooked a few ulua and kahala jigging before, so the few times I took a break from bait fishing to test the compact tungsten jig, I did so on a rod designed for heavier jigs. Hadn’t been getting much action with that approach. I decided to give the 40g and 60g tungsten jigs the best possible presentation, so I switched to a light action Shimano Trevala rod paired with a Shimano Curado 300EJ bait casting reel with 25lb fluorocarbon leader. To hedge my bets, I used BKK assist hooks with glow in the dark fibers.

I started the morning catching a couple medium sized opelu, put them down on a weighted rig and slow trolled them over the 90ft ledge for 4 hrs. No uku showed up, only bait stealers. Out of frustration, and running out of fishing time, I headed to a slightly deeper but flatter reef structure I hadn’t fished before.

A cluster of reef fish showed on the fish finder, so I dropped the damashi down and a hard pulling fish responded. It felt like a papio and I was stoked to see a yellow spot papio come up. Since they feed on bottom dwelling crustaceans, they have a much cleaner, sweeter taste than their lookalike cousin, the omilu (bluefin trevally).

The next drop hooked a fish that pulled drag also, and I was looking to load up on yellow spot papio but it was a small moana kali. If it were a pound larger I would have been tempted to keep it.

Then the elusive uku bit the damashi but it was much too small also. The moana kali and uku did give me hope that larger versions would be nearby.

On the next drop a small omilu and a taape (blueline snapper) came up, then the action slowed so I moved shallower to a 90ft spot on my maps Capt Erik had given me years ago.

Taape first came up on the damashi and then hard pulls resulted in hooks broken off. I went up from the 12lb damashi rig to a 15lb rig and felt a small fish get hooked that was eaten by a larger fish. That rig had its hooks bitten off too so it was finally a great time to drop the 40g tungsten jig. Unfortunately the drift was too fast for that jig to fall quickly to the bottom.

I switched to a blue/silver 60g tungsten jig and hooked a kawalea on the first drop. That was probably what was cutting off my damashi hooks. I didn’t want it stinking up my fish bag so it was released. The next two drops of the jig yielded large, brown hagi. I’ve never experienced such a hot damashi and jig bite like this.

The next jig fish was a thick moano (manybar goatfish) proving the 2.5 inch jig mimicked small bait. It’s known to have tasty, soft flesh but small bones but I kept it hoping the bones would be big enough to avoid.

The bite slowed at this shallower spot and it was almost 2pm so I made a pass back to the deeper spot, on the way in. Hoping to hook a bigger yellow spot papio or uku with the jig, I dropped it down and the line went limp. I reeled up and the jig was cut off with no tug at all! What the heck was happening in the middle of this calm day?!

I had one more jig, a green/gold 60g tungsten jig that had produced before, and put it on. Dropped that down, slow pitched it a couple of times and the line surged angrily. Right away I knew it was a pretty big ulua (GT) and didn’t know if the light jig rod with only 25lb leader would hold. I tried to pump the fish up when it wasn’t running, and was surprised how much backbone the parabolic jig rod had. Offshore kayak guys like heavy action jig rods to fish for pelagics and I always thought they’d have too soft a tip, but I now understand how the soft tip is forgiving for the seated kayak angler.

I was just praying I’d be able to get a photo of the fish with the jig in its mouth and after a tense 20 minute battle, using the Bixpy motor to chase it down, it was on the surface. I tried to slide it onto the kayak to unhook it but the leader broke at the jig and the fish flopped in the water. It had barotrauma and couldn’t swim down, but was swimming in circles and was hard to tail grab it. Finally I was able to loop its tail with my gaff and pull it on board. I removed the jig and pushed it deep in the water. The fish finder showed it making its way slowly back down. Crazy such a large fish ate a 2.5 inch jig.

So why was the damashi and jig bite so good? Here’s my theory:

The relatively flat reef had enough structure to hold an assortment of fish.
The hot action perfectly aligned with the solunar major bite time for that day.
The soft plastic lures on the damashi and the small tungsten jig mimicked shrimp and small fish.
The 60g jig fell and bounced more enticingly on the light rod with light line better than it did on the heavy action rod with 40lb leader.

Everything came perfectly together that day. I’ll be back soon to see if it was a one-off.

This is what I brought home. The moana did turn out to still have small bones and the yellowspot papio made really good non-fishy, slightly firm sashimi with an oily feel.

The tungsten jigs and BKK assist hooks can be found in the Sinking section of the Store.

Here’s some of the jigging action.

Southside: Calm day, less boats, fished shallow – caught fish!

January 16, 2022 By Scott Leave a Comment

For the second straight week the winds were very light. I picked a day during the work week that was forecast to be windier than the rest, 8 to 12 mph, and it paid off. The boat traffic from the previous week was non-existent. Unfortunately I had run my Bixpy electric motor into shallow sand when I launched and it was turning itself off. Only after returning did I fix the problem; the power cable wasn’t attached properly and the fail safe system was preventing it from shorting.

Because I was without the use of the motor, I stayed within 70ft deep knowing the winds would eventually kick up. The water had dropped a degree from last week to 74.5. Decided to just see what would hit the CHL Minnows on the damashi in clear water. It initially was slow, like in last week’s glassy conditions, so I put a strip of kawakawa on and that turned things around. Taape, toau, and hagi were coming up, and when I took the bait off and just used the soft plastics, moana bit and continued to bite. That led me to believe that boat traffic on very calm days does shut down the bite.

I used a plastic pasta noodle container as a poor man’s bait tube, refreshing the water every so often, and the moana were no worse for wear. With the damashi reef fish test over I wanted to see how live moana would work in the shallows. Not so good, the moana just had its stomach ripped out, and nothing else took it. I let the other moana go.

Next up was a frozen halalu, and that just had its eyes and stomach removed. Hmm… maybe there were only bait stealers in the shallows? I didn’t want to waste my precious frozen opelu so I kept paddling against the current (man was I missing my motor) , and came across a school of opelu I could see from the surface! Unfortunately they didn’t want to bite but I saw what looked like predators cruising the edges of the school.

So I lowered a frozen opelu to the bottom, raised it up 20ft or so and felt the hard taps. Eventually line pulled out and a very jerky battle began. The water was still glassy at this point.

I could not believe how blessed I was to catch a 4.5lb uku at 60ft! Are they always this shallow but just don’t bite when the boaters and divers are churning up the water? I put down another opelu after paddling back to the spot (man, I miss that motor!), and had a smaller uku rip it off. By then, the wind was pushing me west so it was time to paddle in unassisted. Did I say I missed my motor? Nothing hit the 3rd opelu on the way in.

The uku turned out to be a male preparing to spawn in a few months, and that made it nice and oily on the sashimi plate. Gotta love the shallow water winter-time uku!

Holoholo: Live Bait and Vertical Jigs = Mixed Bag

June 11, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

Shea started kayak fishing 3 yrs ago, briefly on an Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro, soon after, moving up to an Ocean Kayak Prowler 15. He built his safety awareness in the confines of Hilo Bay, unintentionally flipping the Scupper Pro twice and found the Prowler 15 to be a much more stable fishing platform. He has only been fishing offshore for 3 months, mainly on a 2015 Hobie Revolution 13, but attributes his rapid success to the years of learning how to catch live opelu outside the bay as well as hours of watching kayak fishing videos on YouTube and receiving tips from the kayak fishing community. He fishes on the Big Island with Coach Haru when their schedules match up. I asked Shea if he wouldn’t mind sharing his most recent outing with us. Here’s his recap, with video of the day on the bottom of this post.

Shea: The surf on Hawaii Island’s east side was flat – 1 foot and winds were forecasted light and variable all through Memorial Day, so my friend and I decided to launch at 4:30 AM. We reached the fishing grounds just as the horizon was lighting up and started searching for opelu to use as live bait. It didn’t take long before we started marking large bait balls feeding 25-50 feet down, and I dropped my home made sabiki rig baited with HiPerformance Lures “fish sticks” and managed to pick up 6 baits before the sun was even up. On previous trips, I had only caught 1-2 opelu after hours of trying, so things were off to a much better start than usual! We moved out into deeper water and passed over huge bait balls that weren’t biting, so I decided to drop an 80g jig that Haru had given me on a previous trip. Within the first 10 cranks of the very first drop, I hooked into a fish that doubled my Tsunami Trophy jigging rod and peeled the 40lb braid from my Penn Slammer III 5500 in long, powerful runs. It didn’t take long for what I’m pretty sure was a good sized Ulua to find some structure to cut me off on.

I tied on a 120g Jigpara Slowfall and dropped again, immediately hooking into something that felt much smaller. It turned out to be a 2-3 lb Uku, and I decided to let it go to and put out my first live opelu on a wire stinger rig in the hopes that some predators might be hanging around the bait schools.

I let out ~100 feet of line and set the drag on my Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 as light as it could go to mimic the “liveliner” function on other reels. After 45 minutes or so of no action in spite of many promising marks on the fish finder and a couple drowned baits, I decided to switch to straight 40lb fluorocarbon leader and hooked another live one through the nostrils with a 5/0 Gamakatsu Live Bait hook. I was still free-spooling this bait out when line started flying off way faster than I knew an Opelu could take it. I gave it about 5 seconds before clicking the bail over and tightening the drag down to set the hook. After a few good runs and a heavy pull that made me think I had a shibi, the fish started giving in and spiraled up to the surface. I was surprised to see a chunky 19-lb Kawakawa float up on its side. I sent out another live bait, then dispatched and bled the fish for ~10 minutes.

Just after stowing the fish in my fishbag, I noticed some promising marks on the bottom ~170 feet down, so I dropped the jig and pulled up a 4-5 lb omilu. After taking a couple pictures, I tossed him back to hopefully become a reef donkey someday.

As I was dragging my bait back up to the ledge, I felt the telltale tugs of something grabbing my opelu and quickly flipped the bail open. After a few seconds of letting line fly off the spool, I closed the bail and tightened down again and the first run of this fish was much faster and longer than the kawakawa’s had been. After five minutes or so of tug-of-war, I got my first view of the fish ~50 feet down and briefly saw the sickled outline of a shibi before it took off on a run straight down. Another five minutes of pumping and cranking later, the shibi was exhausted and surfaced, giving me a chance to hit it with my home made kage gaff. Not wanting to take any chances, I sank my handheld hook gaff into the fish as well and pulled it aboard. This was definitely my largest shibi so far, weighing in later at 29-lbs. I brained and bled the fish out and stowed it in a Hobie fishbag behind my seat.

At this point I had what I thought were two live baits left in the tube, so I gave one to my friend who had just lost his last bait to what we believe was an ono. I tied on a wire rig hoping to use my last bait to try for an ono, but the last bait had a busted lip from my damashi and had drowned. I sent it to the bottom on a 4 oz bank sinker, hoping for a shot at a bigger uku instead. After drifting around for a while, my rod bent over slowly as if I was hung up on the bottom. As I pulled the rod out of the holder, line started ripping off the reel and after a seven minute battle, a small ulua came up to the surface. Not the uku I was hoping for, but it was a nice fight. With two fish already in the bag, I decided to release this fish after taking some pictures.

After previously fishing the windward side in 6-foot swell and pouring rain and being unable to catch more than one or two baits, this trip really stands apart and will probably stay with me for some time. It’s not often that the east side is calm as a lake, so I feel super lucky that we got this break in the weather. I gave away most of the fish to my friends and family and made sashimi, tataki, and poke with the remainder over the course of the following week. The kawakawa meat aged especially well and still tasted great even six days later.

-Shea

Check out the video:

Big fish returned to the South Shore and one tried to eat my uku

May 30, 2021 By Scott 4 Comments

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.

The big fish are back and I caught a very expensive PB uku!

December 31, 2020 By Scott 5 Comments

The opelu, uku and sharks were missing on the South Shore during the Fall, and an early Winter check was due. The wind was down and swell was just slightly lumpy going out. A lot of reef fish showed on my 3 yr old Garmin Echomap 44CV fish finder but nothing bit the damashi. The magic tungsten jig wasn’t touched either.

I headed to my go-to bottom fishing spot and was shocked to see a small boat sitting there! How’d they know about my secret spot? 😉

As the boat drifted inshore I took my place behind it, dropped down and had 4 inches of my 9 inch frozen opelu’s tail bitten off. That was an improvement on the previous trips. I reset my drift, with the help of the Bixpy motor, and dropped another opelu down. Tap, tap, line pulled off the reel, then nothing. I reeled up a bit and felt the resistance of the opelu still on, so I put the Avet SX Raptor back in light drag with clicker on and hoped the fish would come back. 5 seconds later, tap, tap, zzzzzzzzzzz… Fish on! It ran so strongly I thought it was a small shark and was stoked when it stopped and didn’t feel heavy like sharks do. Then I felt the tell tale strum of an uku’s teeth on the leader, but this one felt bigger than any other I had fought. I’ve lost previous good sized uku to sharks so I was trying to land it as quick as possible but also being careful not to pull the hook.

When it surfaced, it was my personal best and I could see that the rear hook was 4 inches deep in its mouth. It did a clockwise spiral and the homemade kage, my partner Frank had made, found its mark.

With the fish still on the kage, I tried clubbing it with a small Promar bat to ensure it wouldn’t squirm when I stuffed it in a fish bag behind my seat. Problem was I had to swing backhand with my right hand and I clipped my fish finder! The screen shattered revealing a hole. In hindsight I should have secured the landed fish with my small gaff, and then move it to an area I could safely subdue it. Arrgggh!

The sad thing is that my extended warranty with West Marine ended last month. Had this happened before my warranty lapsed, I could get credit for a newer version. The fish finder worked for a while and I could see bait balls and a school of big preds under me. Then salt water seeped in the hole in the screen and shorted out the circuitry. With a rolling south swell building it was time to head in.

I put another opelu on, started trolling at about 2.5mph. A shark hit that and pulled me back out a ways before the main line parted.

The uku taped out at 26″, nose to fork, and weighed 9lb 4oz. My previous best was 6lb so this fish was quite a step up for me. It was filled with that waxy, fatty gonad stuff and the flesh was really oily, almost like how hamachi tastes. Perfect timing for some family New Year’s meals.

The distinctive opelu bait marks, uku and shark strikes tell me that the circle of life has returned to the South Shore. I have to buy a new Garmin Echomap before going out again, and will need to re-mark all the spots I lost. Very expensive uku indeed.

Motorized kayak damashi and jigging action!

September 17, 2020 By Scott 2 Comments

The wind forecast finally dropped to fishable conditions. It promised a 10mph East wind directly onshore on the Eastside, and a 15mph North East wind coming down the mountains on the south side. So I headed East and had the launch and water to myself due to the social gathering restrictions.

The wind felt like 12 mph heading straight into it but I could push through with the help of my Bixpy motor mounted on my rudder. It was 2.5 miles out to the 130ft spot I hoped held opelu but no schools showed up on my oldie but goodie Garmin Echomap 44CV. I paddled around with the motor assisting me, at about 3mph, as I scanned around for bottom marks.

The first scattered mark, slightly off the bottom, produced a lai which I kept for a buddy who makes flies out of the skin. Next up was a surprise nabeta which must have been in a sand patch I didn’t know was there.

Then I went deeper, all the way out to 180ft but didn’t see anything good and my frozen opelu went untouched. The wind brought me back in, and I started exploring the shallower water. A very active mark showed up on the bottom so I used the motor to hold me in place against the current and dropped the 2-hook damashi rigged with CHL Minnows. As soon as I lifted it off the bottom the pole arched and line pulled off the reel! I was trying to remember how heavy the branch line on the damashi was, and was hoping it was at least 10lb test. The fish battled me all the way up, on the light drag, and I was surprised to see an uku that later was weighed 2lb 10oz. The other branch line was broken off so maybe two uku hit the rig. I had been searching for uku in this area in the past and never expected to catch them on a damashi!

When I checked my opelu it was gone and the 2oz tungsten bullet weight I was testing had teeth marks on it! Man, that was a crazy frenzy.

With the bite this hot and my damashi rig only having one hook now, I switched to my jigging setup rigged with a 2 oz, 2.75 inch prototype tungsten jig I’ve been hoping to test. I couldn’t find that mark despite having set a “Man Over Board” on the GPS so I searched around the area.

Found another good mark in 90ft, dropped the jig on it and “kapow!”. A good fighting fish jerked the tip, pulled a bit of line and gave a good account of itself. The compact jig had fallen like shot and must’ve hit the omilu on the head, haha.

I had another jig shape to test so I switched and went hunting for a good mark again.

Dropped the second tungsten jig on the mark and “whammo”, hooked up! This fish wasn’t taking line but still felt fun. A nice moana came up. Both the omilu and moana were released. I was stoked to see how well the tungsten jigs worked.

I moved off the spot and only saw scattered marks on the fish finder so I went back to the damashi, with 3 hooks this time. By now it was midday at the top of the big King Tide and the current went slack. Fish didn’t bite for a while but then it picked up with a smaller uku and omilu. I released those and the misc reef fish that were keeping me busy.

When small, brown hagi started coming up it was time to head for home. I ran the motor at a 3/4 speed and the battery died about a half mile from my landing. Running between 1/4 and 3/4 speed for 6 hrs drained the battery. Now I know and will keep more juice in the tank just in case.

Without the assistance of the Bixpy I couldn’t safely do the 7 mile round trip, and wouldn’t have been able to stay over marks while I dropped on them. Thank you Bixpy!

Stay tuned for more testing of the compact tungsten jigs. Even though they are only 2 oz (60 gm) they fall like a 3 oz (90 gm) jig because of their compact shape.

Fish bite after the rain too! – PB uku catch, clean and cook

March 25, 2020 By Scott 9 Comments

The lingering Kona Low storm we had last week finally cleared and the winds dropped for a day, so I prepped to kayak fish. Only problem was that all State and City beach parks were closed to enforce social distancing! When it was confirmed that fishermen could transit through the parks, I parked outside, wheeled my kayak through and launched on an empty beach.

The wind was initially light and I paddled my way to the bait spot. Small bait schools passed under me but I could never connect with them. Gave up and went out deeper than I have been, to try to avoid the sharks. This must’ve been the spot because 3 boats kept drifting into my social distancing space. I guess they had no problem accessing the boat launch.

Felt hard taps about 20 secs after dropping down a frozen opelu and I was on with a hard pulling, jerky fish. Tightened the drag and tried to get it up before Sharkey caught wind of what was going on. It pulled hard until about 15 ft from the surface and was pretty worn out at color. Hooked in the corner of the mouth on the rear VMC inline hook. CHEEEHAAAA!!!

Its tail was sticking out of the Promar floating net but luckily was too docile to try to squirm out. Definitely the biggest uku I’ve landed and was stoked to get another since local fresh fish in the market is really hard to come by because of food supply issues.

Missed a fish on the next drop that pulled the bait off. Then had a bait reduced to just the head. Dropped the head back down to catch the culprit and something that felt like a school bus ate it and didn’t want to be lifted off the bottom. I finally broke free of that. My next bait got picked up by a heavy, head shaking fish and I was able to stop it and bring it up a little before it got real heavy and jerky at the 5 min mark and the line cut midway up the 40lb fluoro leader. I think it was some medium sized jack that got sharked.

The east winds picked up at this point and all but one boat headed for safety. I took their advice and paddled in to a deserted beach.

The uku ended up being my personal best at 23 inches and 6.5lbs. Since I didn’t have many pics to put up I decided to video the fish cleaning process, and planned to pull stills of what it had in its stomach. Well, turns out it had a small opelu, a baby tang-shaped fish, and something that looked like a small squid, but they were pretty decomposed looking so I decided not to use the stills. Fishing buddy Kelly reviewed my slowly improving fileting skills and pointed out areas of improvement:

Cut the fins off before scaling, so they wouldn’t get in the way
Scale the fish completely even in the hard to reach spots
Pat dry the fish if rinsed with water
Cut with long strokes to leave a smooth edged filet

I decided to share the compressed 2 min video of the catch and time lapse fish cleaning so others could learn from my mistakes. Shout out to Thad, our JDM fishing tackle purveyor, for providing the super sharp, super strong “SK11” all purpose shears from Japan. I was able to cut through all parts of the fish including the center bone!

The fish was shared with family and friends, consumed raw with citrus finger limes, steamed, baked and fried.

Wasabi kewpie mayo poke with red finger lime

I made a point to emphasize that the fish was only touched by my Coronavirus-free hands through the whole process, unlike a fish you find at the market. 😉

Everything wanted to eat before the storm!

March 18, 2020 By Scott 3 Comments

Last week, the wind dropped right before a significant rain storm was expected. The fishing conditions weren’t ideal though. The tide was falling to a negative low, and it was just a few days after the full moon. Usually the slack low tide means sharks and ulua, but I couldn’t pass up the safe kayaking conditions.

The 8am sun was partially blocked by the gray clouds so it looked like dawn. I was hoping the fish thought the same. My first drop of the store bought damashi meant for opelu got hit by something much stronger. The small gold hooks bend easily so I kept the drag a little loose and just wanted to see what hit the tiny fly in 75ft of water. What finally showed was a brightly lit omilu. Proof that omilu do frequent the deep structure areas when there aren’t bait fish to draw them into the shallows.

I kept trying for opelu but the bait balls were small and moved too quickly. There was some type of bait fish on the surface getting hit by birds and dolphins but I couldn’t catch up to them. With no live opelu, I paddled out to 110 ft and lowered a frozen 9 inch opelu down. Before it reached the bottom something yanked at it before running off with the bait. The fish pulled the rod tip under water a few times in a very spastic fashion and fought very jerkily. I’ve fought bigger fish in the last 4 trips with nothing landed so I was cautiously hopeful this was an uku. Was stoked to see one but surprised how small it was compared to hard it pulled. Small oio are the same way. They pull as hard as they can and wear out.

Buoyed by the instant bite I dropped another opelu down and it sat for about 20 secs before something started tasting it. Then the line took off and soon it became apparent the sharks had arrived. I tried to bust if off but it took a long time to do so and the braid parted high up. Next 3 baits were eaten within 30 seconds and were sharks too. The sharks felt like they were smaller than the normal ones but still a pain to bring to the surface.

After losing time and tackle I switched to the Daiwa tungsten jig that hooked ulua before, and had a hit that didn’t stick. My arms were worn out by then from fighting sharks so I went in.

I had dropped the GoPro down once, in the area where I hooked the omilu (about 75ft) and looked at the video at home. At least 3 wahanui and a toau swam up to the camera as it reached the bottom and there were the eerie sounds of whales in the background.

I kept the omilu and the small uku because I hadn’t kept fish for a long time and we wanted safe, Covid-19 free fish to eat. Both fish weighed 2.1 lbs and the omilu had a 5 inch fat red oama in its stomach.

Negative low tide, big moon, yet everything wanted to feed before the storm. I’ve never experienced a bite like that before. I just gotta figure out how to stay away from the sharks.

Big Moon Day: Sharks and bait stealers not around but the uku were!

March 21, 2019 By Scott 7 Comments

The last 3 deeper water kayak trips were plagued with sharks and bait stealers. I went out solo this week, in light wind, but wasn’t too optimistic because the moon was so big. My plan was to catch opelu (which I have yet to accomplish), then drag them around to entice the sleepy, pelagics with full bellies.

A school of 8 inch opelu actually swam by me, 10 ft below the surface, but I wasn’t quick enough to drop the damashi down, and they didn’t look like they were feeding. When I did find some marks on my Garmin Echomap 44CV, nothing bit my damashi. I could hear other kayakers on the VHF expressing how hard the bait bite was so I gave up and paddled to my spot that has yielded an uku before but lately has been the shark fighting gym.

This was still the bottom of the tide, and the current was slack. Even more reason not to expect any action but soon there was the tell tale “tap, tap, tap, yank, tap” of the uku. The yanks were harder than I had been feeling in the past, so I kept the rod in hand, with light drag and clicker on, and soon the line took off. But the fish felt too strong for an uku and I thought I was fighting another shark. Sigh. At least this one stopped after its first run and didn’t feel like it would be a half an hr battle. Then I felt the spastic headshakes of an uku, much quicker than papio headshakes, and began to hope.

My GoPro battery was drained ‘cuz I forgot to turn off the “connection mode”, so I wasn’t able to video the battle. The fish battled longer than any other uku I fought so I was still unsure what it was. When I saw my biggest uku at color, followed by a free swimming uku about the same size, there was no one to yell out to. I unsheathed the kage Frank “The Fabricator” had made for me, and was stoked to use it for the first time. Course my first stab missed the head and just caught the tip of the nose, so I pulled it out and stabbed it again. This time I got it in the collar, so it wasn’t brained but I pulled it onboard.

Used the kage again to try to kill and bleed it, hence all the holes you see in the pictures. A kage really is easier to use than a hook gaff, to penetrate fish with thick scales and skulls. Thanks Frank, it felt good in my hand. Just need more practice. 🙂

I had drifted off the spot, fighting the fish and stowing it in my fish bag, but had marked where the uku bit, so I was able to return up current of it. Dropped down, and felt the strong taps again. Maybe it was the one that came up with the first fish? This fish ran with the bait eventually but managed to shake the hooks. I planned to fish the reel in freespool with no clicker the next time a fish tapped, but that was the last bite I had for the rest of the day. The bite ended right before the tide started rising. Odd huh? Not even the pesky aha took a swipe at the bait. Is that how it works on big moon days?

I sent this pic to the guys the night before saying I hoped to catch something worth sticking

Well I had two goals for the day. 1) Catch more than 1 uku since I have never done that before, and 2) poke something with the kage Frank made per my specs: short and light.

And while I only caught one uku, it went 21.5″ in fork length and weighed about 6lb, and 5 different families got a taste.

Sure looks like the deep water kayak season has turned on!

Getting it done on the inshore and nearshore jobfish (snappers)

November 20, 2018 By Scott 2 Comments

Frank and I finally had a kayak outing with light wind and small surf conditions that lasted all day. I started out by breaking off my transducer mount that hangs over the side, but Frank did a quick repair with zip ties and duct tape to restore my eyes beneath the kayak. Can’t beat a fishing partner that keeps you safe on land and water, and can quickly repair stuff you break in the field!

We trolled halalu out to the deep and our baits started getting mauled at the 70ft depth, but nothing stayed on the hooks. Then Frank landed a good sized wahanui (smalltooth jobfish), common on the Big Island but not so common on Oahu anymore. He has a knack for catching them; he caught one trolling at the exact same coordinates back in February.

More baits were stripped so we hit a deep area I had marked on the GPS. I kept bringing up just the head of my halalu bait after feeling slight taps, despite the trailing hook tucked in the tail section, so I dropped down to the bottom and brought the bait a third of the way up. This time I got some hard tugs and the bait was completely gone. I put on a whole, 8 inch frozen opelu out of desperation and lowered it to what I thought was more than half way down. Got a hard tug that pulled a bit of drag, and I waited a few seconds and got another tug and then line pulled off quickly. Finally something was solidly hooked! The fish made some smooth, straight runs away from me and I wasn’t sure what it was until I saw color. Uku, or blue green jobfish, as it’s known in other places!

Until I pulled this photo off the GoPro, I didn’t realize that my paddle, net and shirt sleeve match the uku’s shades of blue! I dispatched it with my bat, and squeezed it into my small 20 inch long fish bag that was stuffed with frozen bait and a frozen water bottle. Pressure was off, with each of us putting a good eating jobfish in our bags, and we resumed the job of catching more fish. See what I did there? 😉 Instead, we missed fish and I went through my frozen bait supply and drank my bottle of water. The uku sat in the bag for 3 hrs with just a block of Arctic Ice and wasn’t as chilled as the one I caught a week ago.

I cleaned it when I got home, and the guts smelled a little fishier than the last time too. It measured 19.5 inches, 1 inch shorter than last week’s and this one had male gonads like the previous one. Kelly advised me to filet it right away, wrap it in paper towels, and store in the coldest part of the fridge. My parents cooked one filet on day 2, and I changed the paper towels daily on the other filet. 3 days later it still smelled fresh despite my oversight in not cutting out the blood section under the skin and was made into seared uku poke and deemed “super ono” by Thad our JDM expert.

Sharing fish, a Hawaiian tradition

November 12, 2018 By Scott 2 Comments

It’s Hawaiian culture to share your catch with family and friends, especially with those who are unable to go out and catch for themselves. I’m not a big fish eater and rarely bring home more than one fish, so I didn’t participate in this tradition too much. But a friend from church had asked me if I could keep hage for him, if I caught that incidentally, and I thought that would be a slam dunk. Turns out I didn’t get to fish much since he asked, and when I did, I didn’t bring up any of those bait stealers.

I mentioned this to Capt Darren, so he kept a big, unusual looking deepwater hage during a Penguin Banks trip. When I picked it up, he insisted I also take a yellowspot papio for my friend since he has never had one before, and an uku and yellowspot for my family. Uku and yellowspot are my favorite fish to eat because they are not fishy and you can sashimi/poke them as well as steam and fry. And, it’s possible that I can catch them myself nearshore. Besides ono and nabeta, they are the only ones I cook at home. I felt a little “shame” to take such good fish when I just went to pick up a hage, but Capt Darren said no big deal, he just likes to share with people who appreciate the fish he quickly chills in a salt water/ice cube brine on the boat to slow down the spoiling process.

The uku looked big by my standards, although he said it wasn’t big but it wasn’t small either. I didn’t weigh it but measured it at 20.5″ FL. I told him I’d be stoked to ever catch an uku that size on my kayak. That night, the day after the fish were caught, I made a simple onion, inamona, sesame oil, Hawaiian salt and chili flake poke with some uku and yellowspot. The uku was so fresh it still was very firm, whereas the yellowspot was much softer. Both were very good, and good together with the contrasting texture. I shared the uku and yellowspot with my parents and collectively we ate them raw, steamed, sato-shoyu and fried. I don’t like cooked fish because it tastes fishier than raw, but wanted to see how the day 3 (two days out of the water) uku poke would be lightly fried. Had the tiniest fishy aftertaste but I liked the flavor and texture. Capt Darren really does take care of his fish!

He also gave me their leftover fresh halalu bait that his first mate had caught since I was going kayak fishing the next day. I’d be targeting uku and yellowspot, but I figured “pressure is off” since my church friend got his hage and bonus yellowspot and my family got such prime fish. I was moved by Capt Darren’s generosity and didn’t think I’d ever catch such a big uku on my kayak. Turns out I was wrong! Here’s what happened trolling that fresh dead halalu bait!

Big Island Boat Trip wrap up

June 16, 2016 By Scott 2 Comments

Capt Wes and me after the trip of a lifetime

What an amazing bottom fishing trip we experienced this weekend. The conditions were calm and Captain Wes put us on some really productive grounds. Not only did the shallow water jigs catch the uku I had been chasing for awhile, but out fished bait while landing omilu papio/ulua, kagami ulua, white ulua, nabeta, moana and random reef fish. The 3-piece Cabela’s travel rod held up against a 30lb ulua and the Shimano Curado 300EJ bait caster proved once again, that bait casters have an advantage when heavy jigging.

Thankfully the blood stains on the brand new Patagonia Sunshade Crew I was “testing” came off in the wash that night. It can now be my lucky fishing shirt without looking like I just slaughtered something.

The Tokunaga Challenge weigh-in was the day after our fishing trip, and Naoki was there fish printing ulua on t-shirts. He warmed up with my Kagami before the weigh-in started and now I have a memento of the trip of a lifetime.

While it sounds impressive that my reel had only 15lb fluoro as its main line and landed a fish twice as heavy, it was a serious mistake on my part to be so under gunned. I didn’t expect to hook such a large fish on a small jig, but down in those Big Island dropoffs, big fish lurk. I’m gonna take off the fluoro and just run 50lb braid, which is thinner than the 15lb fluoro I had on. Top it off with a 40lb fluoro leader and I can be boost-happy again!

Big Island boat jigging trip of a lifetime

June 16, 2016 By Scott 12 Comments

Warning: This post will cover action beyond the “nearshore” boundaries and may take a while to read.

I was invited by Neil, the President of Pacific Islands Fisheries Group (PIFG), to boat fish the Big Island the day before the Tokunaga Challenge weigh-in. We would be working the weigh-in, collecting nearshore tagging data and selling Lawai’a magazine subscriptions. I almost declined the invitation because I had gum surgery 2 days before the planned fishing trip and hadn’t eaten solid food since. I’m glad Neil encouraged me to go. I decided to bring a 3-piece Cabelas travel casting rod instead of my 1-piece rods, to avoid paying for oversized luggage. The rod tip was pretty stiff to jig with but I had no other option. I paired the rod with a medium action Curado 300EJ, filled with 15lb fluoro and backed by 50lb braid. There was about 175yds of line in total, and I attached a 25lb fluoro leader. I was hoping for some goats, papio and maybe even an uku on my relatively light gear.

We had Captain Wes at the helm, first mate Braiden, Neil and myself aboard the 19.4ft Alii Kai named the Akemi K. We started by trolling frozen oama but they were quickly mauled by hage so we replaced them with Crystal Minnows. A just-legal yellow spot papio was landed during a long dry spell so we stowed the trolling gear and zipped out to the first bottom fishing spot.

We wanted to field test a few different jigs so I handed Neil a 42gm (1.5oz) Shimano Coltsniper, one I hadn’t fished before. He dropped it down with his medium spinning rig, got a bump, had a fish pull line and come unbuttoned. That was promising. I free spooled a 2oz Promar Live Deception jig, a size I had never fished, and dropped it to the bottom. Jigged it up and down as best I could with the stiff rod tip, and began to do the slow lift and crank. About 15 feet off the bottom the line took off.

It felt like a good-size papio, making smooth runs, shaking its head and resisting being pulled up. The Cabela’s travel rod had a good parabolic arc, bending from the middle of the rod, and performed much better than expected. After about 5 mins we could see what looked like a big omilu making deep circles under the boat. As it got closer we couldn’t believe our eyes – Kagami Ulua (African Pompano), a relatively rare and delicious catch. Braiden gaffed the fish and it was official. Kagami on the first drop of the Live Deception! My first ulua ever. Neil and Wes looked at each other in disbelief, then Neil quickly dropped his Coltsniper back down.

Neil got picked up and the fish fought stubbornly but didn’t shake its head. Uh oh, hage action! That was his introduction to micro jigging.

I dropped down again, jig/pumped and about 20 ft from the bottom, felt a hit. A few nice runs, abrupt headshakes, and a 3lb omilu was boated. I expected a larger fish from the way it ripped line and shook its head. Man those omilu are tough. I checked the line and the 25lb leader had a couple small nicks so I changed it out and made sure the uni-to-uni knot connecting fluoro main to fluoro leader was cinched down. I didn’t want to lose another big fish to a badly tied knot like I did a few weeks ago.

Captain Wes re-positioned the boat and Neil hooked into something that pulled stubbornly but not like a papio. After a fun fight, Neil hoisted the largest cornetfish I had ever seen. Cornetfish are often confused with the trumpetfish, but the cornetfish can get much larger. It was shaken off the jig and set free.

Neil followed the trumpetfish up with a moana and was definitely catching on quickly to this “shallow water” jigging technique.

We moved to a new spot; I dropped the Live Deception down and before it hit the bottom the jig felt like it got picked up in a strong current. I engaged the reel and line peeled off the drag. The line angle looked straight up and down but the water wasn’t as deep as the amount of line out. 75 yds of 15lb fluoro top shot was out and the fish wasn’t slowing. Captain Wes quietly said “this is a big fish”, telling the others to clear their lines. I tightened the drag carefully and the fish still kept going. Finally I tightened it to the point the line started pinging and there was maybe 25 yds left on the spool. The guys were coaching me but we all figured the fight would end in a few seconds. Miraculously the fish slowed and I started making very small pumps, gaining one or two turns of the handle at a time. The fish rested and I got back 1/4 of the braid backing. It surged again, but didn’t take out too much line. I then started doing the drop a few inches and crank quickly method and the Capt remarked that he never saw anyone boost an ulua with such small gear. I took that to mean “be very careful” so I slowed the pumping action and tried to be as smooth as possible so the fish wouldn’t realize it was being yanked out of his home.

The travel rod’s foregrip was half the length of my other rods so my left hand spilled over the ends and was beginning to cramp. My left bicep was engaged the whole time and felt like I was doing a really long isometric curl. But I could hear the voices of ulua vets in my head saying “kill its spirit, don’t give him hope”. So I kept the tension in the rod, hoped my back would hold out, and short pumped when I could. Halfway up, the guys decided to resume jigging cuz they figured it would either be awhile before the fish was landed, or the line would pop soon. The travel rod seemed up to the task but I was worried about my uni-to-uni knot joining the braid to the 15 fluoro main line that I tied months ago. I really hoped I tied that knot well! The fact that I hadn’t eaten real food in almost 3 days also wore on my mind.

At around the 8 minute mark the uni-to-uni splice was on the reel and I had about 75 yds of 15lb fluoro left. The big fish saw the boat and tried to make it down to its home but only took about 30 yds of line. That was the last big run it made. The rest of the way it planed its body and resisted getting pulled into view. We still didn’t know what was on but thought it was some kind of big jack. I had only caught one kahala before, a little more than 10lbs, and just caught my first actual ulua, but strongly felt that this fish was an ulua not a kahala. The one kahala I fought didn’t seem to have the leverage of a wide body that this fish did.

When it was finally at deep color, it looked brown and long like a kahala. Ugh… I was disappointed but still wanted to see how large it was. Then as I pulled it closer, the body shortened and color darkened. Black ulua? It looked huge, even larger than I had imagined. I had always said that I’d photograph and release a large ulua but the Capt had plans for smoked ulua to share with the ohana, so he told Braiden to gaff ’em. Capt Wes had given us smoked ulua and was super ono so I knew the fish would feed a lot of people. The Live Deception’s treble hook was hooked on the outside of the fish’s head and so was the assist hook. This caused the lure to bend but also prevented the fish from chewing through the 25lb leader I had just tied on. Lucky-Lucky. The leader and main line didn’t have any nicks at all. I removed the 2 oz Live Deception to ensure I wouldn’t lose it to a fish or a snag. It was going into “the museum”. I didn’t have any other 2oz lures so I put on a 1 oz Live Deception.

Upon closer examination, Capt Wes said that the fish was a dark, white ulua or GT. Oxymoron, I know, but I guess they can get dark if they live in the black lava tube caves. I would not have believed that my tackle and lack of big fish catching success would’ve allowed me to land that. All credit goes to the Capt who put us on the fish and maneuvered the boat. Near the end of the fight he backed down to help me gain line, deftly keeping the line away from the props.

I told the guys to use my bait casting setup cuz I was done for a while! My left arm felt useless. Neil declined and promptly brought up a monsta hage on his spinning setup. He said he was doing his best to keep the rubbish fish away from the rest of us. What a nice guy! Actually, what he didn’t know was that I rubbed hage-attractant on the Coltsniper before I gave it to him and it appeared to be working. He brought up a good sized moana next that jumped off the hook. I actually saw it break the surface! He still refused to use my bait casting rig so I dropped the 1 oz jig down, did one lift and a fish was on! I had never fished with Neil before and he was beginning to think I could catch fish at will. If you have read my blog you know that was far from the truth. In fact, a fishing buddy Kelly has never seen me land a decent fish. Here’s a classic outing.

zoom in to see the treble near its tail

So I asked Neil to fight the fish on my line and he said “no, no need” (translation: I don’t need your pity, I can catch my own fish). I told him I’m just gonna put the rod in the rod holder and let the fish come undone so he took the rod and skillfully battled the fish. Turns out the omilu was foul-hooked. Neil said “you knew was foul-hooked you buggah, that’s why you nevah like fight ’em!”. He was beginning to think I could catch fish at will and tell how they were hooked!

The Capt had seen enough and took his turn with my bait caster. He had used large conventional trolling reels with right hand cranks, and smaller spinning reels with left hand cranks, and had to adjust to cranking such a small, light reel with his right hand. On the first drop he got used to the action of the rod, the quick free spool release and the level winding of the Curado. On the second drop he hit the bottom, jigged once and was on! The pole bent in its parabolic arc and line peeled off the spool. Another big fish, surely an ulua. Capt Wes took his time and played the fish like he catches ulua every day, which he probably could do if he wanted to. After a patient battle he landed a beautiful omilu ulua, about 15lb. Capt Wes was very impressed with the gear and the way the 15lb flouro held up to such a strong, heavy fish with sharp scutes.

Neil and Braiden switched to damashi to target the tasty kau kau fish. I wanted to see what else the Live Deception lure could catch and dropped down again. Neil started catching legal yellow spot papio, which are tastier than omilus and whites. Braiden started off eradicating a few taape. I felt what I thought was the jig getting fouled on itself and brought up a deep water lizardfish. Uh oh, maybe Neil rubbed some lizardfish-attractant on the jig when I wasn’t looking. The boys started bringing up nabeta (razor wrasse), which were the best eating fish caught on the trip. I hadn’t eaten nabeta before but grew up hearing how it just melts in your mouth when you fry ’em scales and all. Then I actually foul hooked a nabeta on the Live Deception! Man that lure really does deceive everything!

The jigging action slowed down for me, probably because we were in shallower water where there were less predators. A moana came up on their damashi and I dropped it down as live bait. I was hoping for big papio and maybe even the uku that has eluded me on Oahu. Nothing hit that lively moana on the next few drifts and the boys continued to catch yellow spot papio, nabeta and taape.

Too lazy to rig up with damashi, I dropped the 1 oz Live Deception down again and felt it get picked up right off the bottom. Felt like a couple lb omilu so I asked if Braiden wanted to play with the bait caster. He took the small reel in his large hands and worked the fish up to the boat. UKU!!!! My first uku I ever hooked, and on a jig at that. And I handed it off!!! Aww shucks.

With that it was time to pack it up and head for the barn. What a boat trip of a lifetime. My equipment held up, the 1 oz and 2 oz Live Deceptions were on fire, and I was bathed in Big Island hospitality by Capt Wes, Braiden and Neil. I brought back the Kagami ulua, uku and a few nabeta to Oahu for my family and friends to try. Will write more later… this has gotten too long as it is!

Almost forgot. This is how small the reel was. Too bad I didn’t take a picture of it next to the 30lb ulua. It wasn’t even fully loaded with line. Lucky-luck indeed.

Note: I purchase my Live Deception jigs at POP and Charley’s. POP has the most variety, both in sizes and in colors. Charley’s has the best prices in general, and besides the Live Deceptions, they’ve brought in a new assortment of very small micro jigs from Japan. Charley’s is also running a jigging combo special: the Curado 300EJ I used on the Big Island paired with the Shimano Trevala S jig rod which would’ve had more sensitivity and backbone than the travel rod I used. That combo at the price Charley’s is running now, will be the perfect setup to start shallow water jigging.