Yellow Spot Papio (Island Jack) and Weke Nono (Pfluger’s Goatfish) – how are they raw?

August 22, 2024 By Scott 2 Comments

Yellow spot papio, also called Island Jack, can be caught in waist deep water on the flats and thus may be more commonly caught than weke nono / weke ‘ula or Pfluger’s goatfish which is normally encountered in water deeper than 100ft.

Yellow spot papio are considered about the best eating of the papio we have in Hawaii, only possibly surpassed by kagami papio or African pompano. Yellow spot initially may look like omilu (bluefin trevally) in the water because they both have blue colored fins and opaque blueish sides, but on closer examination, yellow spot papio have the yellow spots they are known for, as well as thicker skin with tiny scales and a downturned mouth equipped to suck up crustaceans. Their diet of shrimp and crab are the reason for their light tasting, non-fishy, slightly fatty flesh.

Weke nono are a beautiful red goatfish with white stripes, when alive, that aren’t generally as well respected as kumu, munu and moana kali because weke nono have flesh that tends to get a little dry when cooked.

But weke nono make great sashimi, especially when over 2lb and prepared properly. Their diet is similar to yellow spot papio, feeding on shrimps and crabs. Since their flesh, like all goatfish, is on the soft side, icing the fish overnight and then dry aging the fillets for a day or so really help to tighten up the meat.

Yellow spot has a softer meat than most papio but are still firmer than weke nono because they have more muscle fiber/tendons. Both fish have a very “clean” taste.

Neither yellow spot nor weke nono sashimi got fishy after 3 days but the weke nono was beginning to soften further. Yellow spot sashimi “feels” more like you’d expect of raw fish, whereas weke nono have a softer less “connected” feel. Both are excellent in my very humble opinion!

Kayak fished the Westside for the first time!

July 31, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

It had been 8 weeks since my last decent catch and the wind on the South and Windward side of Oahu wasn’t letting up any time soon. I had been planning to meet up and fish with Terry, a contributor to the Hawaii kayak FB groups and a customer of the Store, and so he offered to show me his go-to Westside spot. The day was forecasted to be blowing over 12 mph everywhere else but only 8 to 12 on the lee side of the island.

I got to the spot a little after 7am, taking just 10 mins longer than it does to go to the Windward spot we had been planning to try. Terry was already setting up his Scupper Pro, which he skillfully outfitted with rod holders, fish finder, drag chute, insulated kill bag, bait tube, etc. I used to fish off a Scupper Pro and carried much less gear yet but looked more overloaded and disorganized than Terry’s setup.

The water was only slightly dimpled and the wind felt like 8 to 10mph but wasn’t impacting us at all. After a mile paddle we were at our first spot in 90ft of water. That’s a mile and a half less than the paddle to our Eastside deep spot! There were marks on the bottom that didn’t look like opelu but we dropped our damashi down to see what was around. A small moana came up for me and since Terry recently caught a 4lb uku on a moana in that general area, and I normally don’t do well with live moana, he put it on his live bait rig. I then hooked something that fought like a small papio but it shook off right before I could see what it was. Then I hooked a nice sized blue nabeta. Spoiler alert, that was the highlight of the day for me.

Terry began to get big bites on his homemade 20lb fluoro damashi rig. He had what felt like a good size papio break him off, then caught a beautiful 1.5lb weke nono.

He had been drifting around with his moana down for an hour and a half, and checked it to see if it was still intact. It was, and as he lowered it again the line took off! After an odd feeling fight he brought up a 3.5lb uku that was hooked in the mouth and in the side, thus inhibiting the way the uku could swim. We both were stoked with his action and I dropped a refrozen whole opelu down which immediately got mauled and yanked off the hooks. Felt like a small uku and I was expecting to connect with another soon.

Well, I just had my opelu baits chewed and pulled and Terry had two of his live moana steathily removed so he took me to the spot less than a mile away where he had caught his previous uku. We saw some bait marks that didn’t bite, I lost more baits including a live malu (sidespot goatfish), trolled around, jigged around, but couldn’t catch anything else.

I was super impressed with how Terry could cover the grounds without aid of pedals or motor, and fish over deep spots. He’s not exactly a spring chicken (neither am I), but showed no signs of tiring from the paddling. We both got a little stiff sitting on non-elevated kayaks seats though.

Our cars were intact with beach goers nearby and all was good. I did hit pau hana traffic on the way home and would need to leave by 2pm next time. My take of this area is that it does get fished often because the weather is favorable, but there still are reef fish inside. That’s a good sign that the fish population is healthy, but the fish weren’t big enough to swallow my hooks. That happens on the South side a lot too. Just gotta find the ledges that are holding the bigger fish.

Terry broiled the weke nono filets in a sake, vinegar, shoyu, ginger marinade. Was a bit dry but his wife said was ono. The next day they ate some of the uku as sashimi and steamed the rest Chinese style. Was winnahs! I saw my neighbor walking his dog as I was unloading my fishing gear and gave him my lonely nabeta. 🙂

Nearshore shallow water scouting expedition

April 16, 2017 By Scott 1 Comment

Captain Ron asked if I wanted to try the slow pitch jigging technique in relatively shallow water. We had talked about trying over the past couple of years but something had always come up, usually the wind. I jumped at the opportunity but warily watched the wind forecast. 2 days before our outing, the winds ended up being stronger than predicted, but the day before our trip was pretty calm. Capt Ron said the main purpose was to shake out his 18 ft Boston Whaler that he hadn’t run in a while, and we’d try to find suitable jigging grounds not too far off the beach.

One of the two Honda outboards was having some ignition and throttle issues but didn’t make it unsafe to run, so off we went. The winds were about 10 -12 mph with gusts to 15 mph, and was making us drift faster than I preferred. We started off with jigs lighter than an ounce but they took too long to make it down before we had drifted away so we went up to the 1 oz Live Deception. In 65 ft of water, I finally got a hit. Hage… but hopefully we found were the target fish were hiding. The drift was still a little fast and my line extended a ways from the boat so I pumped the jig back in. Hanapa’a! The fish was shaking its head but bending the soft tip of the Shimano Game Type F light weight rod, but didn’t feel like a papio.

At color we saw something orange. Weke nono, the deeper water weke ula. This was one of our target species and the fish was a couple pounds so I kept it for my parents to steam. Unfortunately the Live Deception’s treble hook got stuck in the net even though I had crimped the barbs down. Guess I didn’t do a good enough job. By they time we freed the lure we had drifted off the spot and had to start our drift again. A while later a lizard fish came up so we decided to go deeper. Small pockets of fish showed up on the sounder but we couldn’t drop the heavier jigs down quick enough before drifting past them. We ended the day fishing in 17 ft of water off the reef and saw predators attacking bait fish on the surface but couldn’t reach them with the 6 ft jig rods.

It was a slow day jigging but a good shake down for the boat. Capt Ron patiently put me on the likeliest of spots but the fish didn’t want to cooperate. It was a good safe, comfortable first outing with him. We’ll have to try some rockier areas on a very light wind day.