By Robert Richards

We originally had planned on a “fast” kayaking session of 3-4 hours, starting at about 5am and coming in around 9am. However, the trip turned into a super early launch at 3am to try for Akule (Goggle Eye, Bigeye Scad). Conditions were favorable with light winds and slight rolling waves. Fishing in the dark with rolling waves does not mix too well. Unfortunately, one of my friends, Jay, got seasick and had to go in. I almost got seasick too, but luckily my other friend, Shaun, found the Akule! Nothing cures seasickness better than staring at the land or catching fish!

Catching Akule off the kayak at night is so much fun because we can target them similar to Opelu (Mackerel Scad) but they tend to fight a lot harder. After catching about a dozen, the sun came up and the hunt for Opelu began. I managed to catch 4 and started my trolling around with mixed live bait of Opelu and Akule.

I went far before stopping to rest for a few minutes and to gauge the time I had left and how much further away from the launch point I wanted to go. Then a quick, short “ZZZZZ” happened on my Opelu rod. I thought it was an aha for a minute, but I decided to let loosen the drag and see what happens. Suddenly line starts to peel off the reel, so counted to 3 and tightened the drag. FISH ON! The sweet sound of ratchet lasted for about 3 seconds before the fish started to run straight towards me. For a second, I thought it was either a Kawakawa (False Albacore) or a Shibi (Yellow Fin Tuna under 100lbs). I caught up with the fish and the fight became vertical. Had head shakes and pinwheel runs, so I still thought it was in the Tuna family. Though after another minute, I saw a long striped silvery fish and instantly my heart started racing and I called out “Ono!”. 3 more pinwheels and the classic “PPZZZZ” sound of the kage (straight gaff) finding it’s mark, I landed the fish. Surprisingly, the fight only lasted 2-3 minutes max and I didn’t even get a chance to turn on my GoPro!

This was my second Ono (Wahoo) from my kayak. The first was a much larger 30lber and this one wound up being 12lbs. Though this one was much smaller, I was happy because it was the perfect size to fit in the cooler I had and big enough to share with friends. That ended the pressure to catch fish and I headed in with not much more action. After the sun came up, the conditions became more epic, with glassy water and a light breeze.