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.

Red hot bottom bite on the kayaks!

March 18, 2019 By Scott 1 Comment

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!

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.