Wanted New Year’s fish, Westside shallow bottom provided again!

January 6, 2026 By Scott 3 Comments

I was hoping to catch fish to give for New Year’s. Was too windy anywhere else, and school was still out, making the drive manageable, so Westside was the only viable option. Westside surprisingly provided tasty goats on the previous trip so I was cautiously optimistic.

Friends told me to go deeper forlarger weke nono, and further south for jig action so that was the plan but I stopped at a pretty reliable 170ft spot on the way out and a yellow spot papio, less than 2lb, came up on the damashi rig with Completely Hooked Lures (CHL) soft plastics.

On the next drop I hooked an even stronger papio but this one had brighter blue fins so I released it. I left biting fish to keep going south and deep.

A few spots later, a 1.5lb weke nono hit the CHL Arrow. Then things really slowed for the next hour as I checked the 240ft depth, then kept going south.

I finally stumbled on some nabeta. The first was small, but the small ones are the best eating because their meat is soft, and they deep fry nicely without requiring a lot of oil. The 2nd was a fairly thick one.

Only caught and released another omilu on the south end of this trip, and made my way back. Another 1.5 weke nono was caught, and as I was getting close to the launch I checked that first 170ft spot as the rain and wind picked up. Something that felt like an omilu slammed the damashi rig but I was stoked to see a good sized yellow spot come up.

Though the fish were on the small side, Westside provided again, for 3 different families. What’s interesting is that there aren’t the small, pesky fish that slow me down on the Windward side. Maybe I need to use larger soft plastics on the Windward side to deter those moana, taape, small puffers, lizardfish, etc? And I still need to find the larger weke nono that reside in Westside deeper water.

Windward side kayak: Lots of juvie fish released, jig taken, weke ula and kagami mauled by big fish!

August 13, 2025 By Scott Leave a Comment

Hadn’t fished the Windward side since April, and Tropical Storm Henriette was blocking the trade winds for a couple of days this week. I had to wait out the high swell it generated, so I launched late – 10:30am. It took an hour to reach the opelu spot, paddling through the moderate chop. Couldn’t find any opelu and the began fishing the bottom with damashi/sabiki for anything big enough and good enough to eat.

8 inch opakapaka and 10 inch weke nono (weke ula) were released. Then I fought something that steadily pulled drag and stopped. Turned out a weke nono was picked up sideways, mauled and dropped after about a 10 second run. The tooth pattern isn’t of aha (needlefish), barracuda or shark, which would have torn the soft fish. I thought of putting a live bait down but I wanted to keep looking for better fish with the damashi.

At 2:30pm, after 3 hrs of sifting through miscellaneous small fish, I made the decision to paddle a mile south since the wind was still calm. Bigger fish showed up on the fish finder and kawalea (Heller’s barracuda) were coming up on the damashi. I dropped down the Duo Metal Force 120g jig on 40lb fluoro with a teaser and caught a little hawkfish on the jig. 🙂 A kawalea then bit the teaser, and on the next drop the jig and teaser were bitten off instantly! Guess that’s the downside of using a bite-sized heavy jig. It can fit in big fish’s mouth.

Went back to the 20lb damashi rig with Completely Hooked Lures “Sprats” and hooked two 10 inch uku on successive drops. Every drop of the damashi was getting bit but still nothing large enough to keep.

Then I hooked something on the damashi rig that pulled line. Finally a bigger fish hopefully worth keeping. After a 3 minute battle from 100ft down, a shiny papio glimmered below the surface of the water. Could that be the rare kagami papio (African Pompano)? It was!! No wonder it fought so hard, using its flat side as resistance.

They are very thin bodied fish so I don’t consider keeping them until they’re over 7lb and losing their long streamers, but something attacked the fish on the way up and left deep gashes near the anal fin. I decided to keep this delicious fish and kage’d (spear gaff) it to secure it.

What a wild spot, with predators attacking such a large fish! I tried catching more fish but couldn’t find the hot spot again and it was 4:30pm, well past the time I normally paddle in. Sadly, I had to leave the best action I had all day. Even with the wind at my back, it took an 75 minutes to get in.

On land, I examined the kagami papio more closely and it appears that a fish grabbed it near its anal fin and ripped thru the thin skin. The wound was pretty deep and I felt justified in keeping the 4lb kagami.

I got more than a pound and a half of clean, firm fillets off it that will be incredible raw after dry aging for more than 4 days.

It was great to finally find larger, hungry fish and I’ll need another calm day to reach that wild spot again.

Westside damashi: Bite is improving? Broke off some good fish and got another Hail Mary weke nono to save the day.

August 6, 2025 By Scott 4 Comments

Fished the New Moon day, a week before the Russian Tsunami threatened Hawaii, and reached the 100ft spot at about 9am at the bottom of the tide. The Solunar bite was supposed to pick up at noon so I didn’t expect much but it was wide open for small yellow spot papio. Released one, kept the next one when bigger fish busted off the rest of the damashi rig.

Dropped down the compact 120g Duo Metal Force jig with a Completely Hooked Lures (CHL) Sprat teaser on 40lb test. The marauders didn’t hit the jig but other fish like lai (leatherskin queenfish) and nunu (trumpetfish) hit the teaser.

By the time I went back to the 20lb damashi rig, the yellow spot school was gone. This was the best morning bite I’ve experienced in the last 3 trips so my expectations rose but the bite slowed down. The wind flipped to a 10 – 17mph NW direction as it often does by 11am and I pushed out a little deeper to a normally productive spot. Besides hooking and breaking off something good on the 20lb rig, nothing else but moana and taape came up. I moved up to the 25lb damashi rig with only the lone yellow spot papio in my fish bag. The solunar bite time came and went.

At 2pm, things were looking bleak so I stopped off at the 100ft spot on the way in and kind of drifted with the damashi rig on the bottom. I was shocked when something strong pulled line and I kept whispering “please stay on, please stay on“. The hard fighting fish turned out to be a much appreciated weke nono / weke ula that saved the day. The same exact thing had happened the last time I fished this spot. Thank you Jesus! I tried for more but at this point the King Tide was over 2ft and the fish weren’t liking the surge.

The stomach contents of the weke nono revealed why it hit the 2.25 inch CHL Sprat lure. It had just eaten two baby lizardfish.

I put down a freshly painted damashi lead to see if that would attract more fish but instead the lead ended up with slices in it. (I forgot to take a photo of the slices before I painted over them.) Maybe a fish broke its teeth trying to bite it?

That makes me think that the fish are hitting the jigs but are too small to swallow the assist hooks.

Looks like I have to go deeper to find larger fish.

The yellow spot papio weighed 1lb and the weke nono was 2lb 10oz and 16 inches, which may be my PB. It made very clean sashimi for the family.

With visible plankton in the water and 80 degree temps, I’m hopeful that the fishing will continue to get better through December.

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.