Here’s how good the shoreline whipping was in 2015. 14 inch white papio in 15 inches of water on a Waxwing. (video)

May 30, 2023 By Scott 5 Comments

I had discovered Shimano Waxwings (unique zigzagging swimming lure) in the Spring of 2015 and everything seemed to wanna crush them. I even hooked an oio from my surfboard in the white wash on one!

In July 2015, I was casting literally from the sand while my friend Kris’ Yozuri Crystal Minnow was snagging limu in the very shallow water. The upturned double hook of the Waxwing proved snag proof and the bite really turned on for both of us as the sun went down.

You can read about the action here.

I haven’t whipped from shore in years since I’ve been doing the kayak thing but during Tiger Shark season, maybe my feet should be on the sand.

How many of you guys still throw the Waxwing?

Holoholo: Whipping report, 2nd week in January

January 13, 2020 By Scott 5 Comments

Jeremy is a long time fisherman who loves whipping, but will be adding fly fishing to his game this year. He’s been posting catches on his private IG account @jeremy.poi while the rest of us have been getting skunked, so I asked him if he’d mind sharing his most recent catch report with us. There’s a lot we can take away from this!

Jeremy:

Everyone knows that during the winter the bite really slows down, but can’t catch fish if you don’t go fishing so I try to get out there as much as I can. This past weekend I braved the weather and was glad I did.

On Saturday morning, my friend and I decided to do a dawn patrol session. It was super windy and rainy, but we love fishing so we just threw on our jackets, grabbed our gear, and headed to the spot just as the sun was about to come up. The tide was really high and the water was a little dirty, so wasn’t the best conditions for wading, but we slowly worked our way out into the water. I continuously made casts as I walked the reef and about 15 minutes into our session, I got a nice hit. It’s a decent sized fish and I can feel the head shakes, so I know it’s a papio. I get it to hand and see a nice 14” white papio on the end of my line. I take a few quick pictures and release him safely. First white of the year for me, so I’m happy and the pressures off.

I continue to work the reef and cast into “fishy” areas. About 30 minutes later, I feel a strong tap on my lure…miss…then another miss. And then finally, on the third hit, I get a solid hookup. Hanapa’a! Line starts ripping off my reel and I know it’s a good sized one. It takes about 60 yards on the first run before I get it to turn. I’m only running 8# braid with 10# leader, so I need to be patient and not horse it in. I slowly gain line, but the fish is still strong and takes multiple smaller runs. I could feel the line rub slightly on the reef a few times, but after a back and forth battle of about 10 minutes, I was finally able to see the fish, grab my leader, and land this 5# o’io. Chee! Took some pics and thanked the fish for the awesome scrap before releasing it. And that’s when I notice my hook. The fish wasn’t hooked in the mouth, but on the side of his face on the gill plate, and my hook was opened up. Got lucky on landing this one.

Tip of the day: Set your drag only as strong as your weakest link. I run my drag on the light side since I’m running light line, but the wire of my hook is thin as well, so my weakest link in my setup was my hook. Thankfully my drag was just loose enough and I didn’t lose this fish.

Another fun session in the books. Always nice to be able to get out there and do what we love. And catching fish once in a while is nice too. So all the guys not fishing due to the junk weather, take a chance and make some casts. Fish still have to eat, so hopefully it’ll be your lure. Good luck and tight lines!

Hunting the schooling white papio

August 12, 2019 By Scott 3 Comments

Seasonally the white papio, some ulua-sized, school up in the bay for a month or so, and for the last couple of years Frank and I tried to crash their their feeding frenzy party on our paddle watercraft. Each year we couldn’t find them, or they just didn’t want to bite.

We have caught small ones (less than a pound) just as the sun was going down, but never got the bigger ones to bite in the morning. Our boating friend Erik located a big school a few weeks ago, and that was the intel we went on.

Frank and I were on our smaller watercraft since we weren’t going past the breakers. He was on his SUP converted into a sit down kayak style board and I was on my old Scupper Pro kayak. I still had use of my Garmin Echomap fish finder and could see scattered bait and what looked like larger fish spread out in as shallow as 8ft. I dragged sinking swimmers and lead headed jigs through the schools for nada. Frank trolled through them with frozen oama and stopped off a reef edge to throw a popper. As soon as the popper hit the water he was on! The aggressive white taped out at about 11.75 inches. Way to find the biting fish Frank! But the action shut down since it was getting close to 9am.

I slurped the same popper Frank had luck with, over large fish marks but couldn’t get them to wake up. Finally I foul hooked a baby omilu with that popper, on the reef. Almost 2 hrs from Frank’s first fish, in the same general area, he got a surface explosion on his popper I could hear 40 yds away! This was a bigger fish, and went almost 14 inches.

That was all the action we got on poppers. Frank wisely dragged his frozen oama around and released a small omilu and got another white to match his first one. Good thing I have a fishing partner that can catch fish when the fishing gets tough. Without his whites I would have assumed those big blobs on the fish finder’s screen were turtles or something!

So we know the whites were there, it just was too late in the day to get them to frenzy. We’ll start earlier next time!

Hunting the white papio school via kayak and SUP

June 24, 2018 By Scott 2 Comments

After Capt Erik took me around the bay and showed me the possible places the schooling whites could be holding, Frank and I tried to find them via our paddle-powered watercraft. Unlike the recent boat trips, we launched in the afternoon on a big incoming tide to allow for enough time to get into position before the witching hour started. The wind decreased from 10 mph down to almost no wind so we were able to cover more ground than usual.

My Garmin 44 CV fish finder/chart plotter marked bigger blobs halfway down the water column in the wide sandy channels, and there were bait balls around but the fish didn’t want to eat for the first 2.5 hrs. Finally, at 5pm, Frank got got a hit on his frozen oama trolled near the papa’s edge and brought up a legal omilu (he didn’t measure his fish). He followed that up with a bigger and stronger omilu and it looked like the early eaters were beginning to bite.

I surveyed our favorite papa and marked a lot of bait and what looked like suspended larger fish. Frank got another hit on his trolled oama but the aha managed to skitter off. At about 6pm I had something ambush the Waxwing Jr I was retrieving on the reef edge but miss the double hook. Witching hour was beginning to start.

I tried to emulate Capt Erik’s popping style with a JDM popper that throws a lot of water with just a small tug, but was introducing slack on the spool and backlashing my Shimano Curado 300 EJ. To tighten the line I cast the floating popper and paddled 40 yds away, then carefully pinched the line and popped it back. I could get a good deep gurgle with a side sweep of the rod and didn’t have to worry about backlashing my cast. On my 3rd attempt at this I got boiled on and hooked a fish! It was a legitimate 14 inch white papio that I decided to take home so my parents could compare it the menpachi papio they just had. I wasn’t able to get a good shot on the water shot so this will have to do.

Frank’s fish with his foot in the background. Looks like he needs a larger fish bag so he doesn’t have to bend the fish to get them in!

Just as I was bagging the white, Frank radio’d that he caught a white on his JDM sub-surface lure! That was his first papio whipping with his Shimano Stradic 4000 XHFK and he was stoked! It was 6:30 at this point and the sun was getting closer to hiding behind the mountains. We kept at it, and I got another boil on the popper that skittered off the hook like an aha. I turned my kayak to drift in and was in 6ft of water when I had my last boil. Looked like a small white that couldn’t quite get the hooks in its mouth. The witching hour was on but we needed to be on land cleaning and racking our watercraft so we bid the biting fish adieu.

Sundown was about 7:15pm on this day and the whites didn’t really start getting active until after 6:30. So the witching hour probably starts 45 mins before sundown and continues until dark.

After eating the white papio, my dad said he prefers that to the menpachi papio, “although some people may like the darker meat menpachi papio”. I hadn’t kept a papio in months so maybe he was just appreciating both?

Find the bait, then find the elusive white papio school?

July 28, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

Frank and I have been chasing reports of schools of white papio marauding bait in the deep channels but we’ve always been a paddle or two behind. Bolo-ing on the last mid-morning search, we decided to try the evening bite. Conditions were challenging, with gusts over 20 mph and rain threatening.

Not much was showing on my portable fish finder’s screen so we pushed through the wind to get to the spot we were told held the whites. Fish appeared to be a few feet above the bottom on the protected side of the papa but nothing wanted to take our live oama offering. As we waited for the 5pm witching hour to wake the fish, the steady wind blew me closer to shore. There were pockets of fish hovering near the bottom that I assumed were white papio waiting for the evening frenzy.

Suddenly fish began to show up on the “sidefinder” view of the fish finder, indicating fish near the surface directly in front of my kayak. My Huminbird Fishin Buddy’s display is almost toy-like but I’ve come to learn that when fish are spotted near the surface like that, they are bait fish spread out on the surface over a sandy bottom. I paddled my kayak’s bow like a hammerhead shark surveying side to side until I could also mark fish below me. Suspended fish are either bait schools thick in the water colum or white papio stacked up under the bait fish.

When I took this photo, the surface bait fish weren’t showing up in the sidefinder view on the left of the screen, but the composite view of what I had passed over indicated bait fish thick under me. Despite all this bait, nothing took the live oama I was deep trolling behind me.

Remembering I had brought a jigging rod in hopes that we’d be sitting over a school of whites, I clipped on a 3/4 oz, 2 inch compact tungsten jig and dropped it down but wasn’t surprised when nothing took it. Out of boredom, I cast it out and jigged it back as I watched the fish finder’s screen. Something was pulling back! It felt like a fish but the Shimano Type J rod and Tranx 400 easily controlled it.

When I brought it in view I thought it was a 4 foot gray shark but it turned out to be a 12 inch white with 3 other whites following it. Guess I had been watching too much Shark Week.

Stoked that the compact little jig had worked on the school of whites, I tried to whistle Frank to get his attention but the wind blew the sound inland, not out to him.

Paddling into the headwind as efficiently as possible, the trolling rig went off! I was stunned to land a 12.75 inch omilu on the oama a few feet from where the white had bit. I left the bait out of the water this time and finally made it out to Frank. By the time we made it back in, the whites and the bait fish were gone! Nothing showed on the fish finder and nothing hit our bait. Ugh… I really had hoped Frank and I would finally experience a white papio frenzy.

We headed back to our launch spot and stopped at the spot Frank lost a screamer. The fish finder’s screen was blank so we spread out and slowly paddled in. I took a blind strike near the reef edge and had to put the rod in the holder 3 times and paddle back into the channel before landing a 14 inch white.

What was interesting about these 3 fish were their stomach contents. The 12 inch white was stuffed with small opae despite being around the bait school. The 12.75 inch omilu was full of inch and a half nehu, which looked very similar in length and profile to the tungsten jig. The 14 inch white had a small mantis shrimp and a flat, whitish piece of cartilage stretching its stomach. All were well fed and none appeared to have any oama in their bellies. No wonder our oama baits have been ignored.

Ever the team player, Frank was happy for the catches and new understanding gained but agreed we need to improve communication on the water. He suggested looking into 2-way radios like the offshore kayak guys use. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Big papio still around, just harder to find

December 14, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

The winds were down but picking up, the moon was almost full and one of my oama tubs was experiencing a die-off. I scooped about 10 of the remaining oama and headed out on the kayak. The tide was about 2 hrs from the small peak tide and nothing bothered the oama slow trolled at the papa’s edge. An hr and 45 mins into the trolling circuit the ratchet sounded and I tried to set the hook by taking a few more strokes. When I tightened the line I found it stuck in pile of submerged rocks. Hmm, did the bait get stuck in there or did a pesky roi hunker down after it got hooked? It sure sounded like something was running with the bait before it got stuck.

It had been raining off and on and I had been paddling against a 12 mph onshore wind. I rounded a papa and started paddling in. Again it seemed like something grabbed the bait and wedged itself in the rocks. Well I’ll teach that blasted roi! I set the drag really tight to the point it was hard to pull line and continued paddling with the papa’s edge on my left as I paddled straight towards shore. This time the rod got yanked and something kept trying to pull line. I loosened the drag a bit and the fish ran, then shook its head repeatedly. What an unexpected hit at the nearest papa to shore. I was hoping for an awa awa since we aren’t tagging those, but it turned out to be a hard fighting white papio, bigger than any I had caught at this particular spot. I looked at my watch and it was just past the top of the tide.

I kept the fish in the water near the kayak and readied my tagging kit. I lifted the papio onto the area right in front of where I was seated and measured it. 14 inches, head to fork in tail. That was the easy part. Tagging a fish while seated on a kayak is very different from tagging a fish laying on shore. My perspective was off because it was almost on my lap and I was pressing straight down on the white’s 2nd dorsal fin area with the tagging applicator. I pushed too hard and the tag’s barb went through the other side of the fish! Oops, sorry fish. Papio are tough so I knew it could survive that superficial wound that didn’t draw any blood. I tried again and this time my angle of entry was too shallow and I didn’t penetrate the dorsal fin ray bones. I had to pull the tag’s barb back out and left a larger second hole. Poor guy. No blood this time either though. 3rd time was a charm and I properly inserted the tag just after the start of the 2nd dorsal fin and stopped after penetrating the fin ray bones. I thought the fish would be limp after being poked 3 times but it took off as soon as I placed it in the water, not wanting to be stabbed anymore.

I had a lot more oama and 1 more tag so I made the turn around the papa, counter clockwise, and just started heading away from land when I got a bigger strike. This fish was stronger and kept resisting being pulled in as if it were foul hooked. Turns out it was a larger fish that measured 16 inches (FL) and about 4lbs. Whites are thicker than omilu for their fork length. I had learned from my previous tagging mistakes and tagged the second fish with just one try.

I was out of tags and the next fish could be brought home. Problem was I didn’t get a bite within 10 mins. The wind picked up so I let it blow me back to shore.

Take a look at the way those two fish were hooked. Both hooked in the right corner of the mouth. That means they turned left after hitting the bait. Left would have driven them onto the papa if they hit the oama from behind so they must’ve hit it from the front they way papio are supposed to, and turned left towards deeper water. I gotta take note of how other fish were hooked in relation to the reef now.

Not bad action for mid-December. It did take live oama and 2 hrs of kayak trolling but those 2 whites were larger than any other combined kayak catch this year. I guess they’re still out there if you look hard enough.

The New Moon Curse?

June 6, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

Kelly and I SUP’d / kayaked fished the day before the New Moon. My fish finder marked fish and we caught a few legal omilu and whites on frozen oama, with Kelly getting cut off on coral by a larger fish. Nothing hit my micro jig. All the papio were released intentionally or unintentionally, in preparation of the start of Papio Tagging this summer. The bite was the best around the top of the tide so we went back the following day to dial things in.

The wind and swell were down a bit from the day before, and nothing seemed to be stirring in the depths. The same places that showed fish on the fish finder the day before were barren. Even the turtles were absent. I scouted the deep areas and the reef edges, and Kelly crossed over the flats into deep water and back. Halfway through our outing Kelly got a strong hit that took a third of his line. He had paddled over the reef edge, into the deep side, and was perfectly positioned to fight the fish in obstacle-free water. But it came unbuttoned.

That fish gave us hope but all we got was a series of short bites on our frozen oama and I landed a 9″ white. Kelly paddled back to the launch point and I dawdled behind, hoping an evening bite would magically materialize. In the 20ft to 15 ft sandy/muddy gap in the reef, the fish finder began to show some mid-sized fish. Another 9″ white was hooked and released, and the next oama got hit as I let out line. The frenzy was on but Kelly was already out of the water.

He texted “goodbye” and I was free to try out the small but heavy jigs. I paddled out to deeper, clearer water to give the jigs their best chance. The fish finder transducer was suction cupped to the side of the kayak at an angle so the depths read deeper than they actually were. I’m guessing it was 30 – 40 ft even though the fish finder said 56ft. The fish were marking from the bottom to halfway up and really thick.

Exploded view of Live Deception jig and assist hooks before being slid onto Power Clip

I cast a 1oz Live Deception jig that had a rear treble hook, with added assist hooks connected via a Tactical Angler Power Clip. I had snagged my trolling line and as the lure sank it hooked up! Another 9″ white came up but the Live Deception lure was gone! Meanwhile the oama didn’t get touched so I reeled that in and stowed the rod.

Exploded view of micro jig and assist hooks before being slid onto Power Clip

I kept the assist hooks and slid on a 30 gm micro jig. It got hit halfway down the sink also! And same thing, 9″ white caught on assist hook but the micro jig was gone. What the heck? This happened when I had caught a kahala deep jigging an 80 gm Shimano Flat Fall. I had thought a fish hit the Flat Fall hook and another hit the independent assist hook, and the Flat Fall-hooked fish pried itself off the clip. Now I began to realize that the kahala and small whites were flipping the heavy jigs off the clip with their head shakes.

this white threw off the Live Deception jig

this white threw off the 1st micro jig

this guy threw off the 2nd and last micro jig

this one threw off the 2nd and last micro jig

I had one 30 gm micro jig left and slid it down the power clip next to the assist hooks. Cast out, let it sink, hookup, repeat. Couldn’t be any easier. Reel in a 9″ white and no jig left on the clip. I guess the clip wasn’t intended to have heavy lures and separate assist hooks. 3 casts, 3 whites, 3 jigs lost. I was out of jigs so I got a chance to see how surface lures would work on these sub-surface whites.

The normally effective Waxwing Baby couldn’t raise them and neither could the Yozuri Hydro Popper, which slayed the 1lb – 3lb whites off the boat the previous week. I had been disappointed that the Waxwing and micro jigs did not work at all when the Poppers raised all those fish from the depths and was beginning to think poppers were all we needed. But on this weird evening following very little activity during the day, when the small whites were swarming halfway down the water column, the only thing they wanted were sinking jigs. I guess every lure has its day.

Friends who fished further out on their boat, and others who fly fished the flats said this day was unusually slow, yet the next day had more action. I had heard that the New Moon, like the Full Moon, was a slow day to fish. One theory, my wise fishing kupuna told me, is that fish travel on those two moon phases so they’re less interested in eating. It’s like the predators and prey have a truce so they can complete their migration. How productive has the New Moon been for you?

Live oama comes through on a slow evening

February 19, 2016 By Scott 1 Comment

Took the kayak out with two rods, one to troll live captive oama and the other to fish the Shimano Flat Fall jig. The tide was falling to a minus tide at around dark, and sure enough the fish and bait activity was almost non-existent. Something hit the live oama but wasn’t strong enough to take drag. It unbuttoned before I could see it.

I slow trolled the reef dropoffs hoping for a strike on the oama, and for a bait ball to show up on the fish finder. No strikes. When I found suspended fish I dropped down the 2.8oz flat fall jig and quickly realized my 6.5ft fiberglass/graphite blend bass rod was too soft for the heavy weight of the jig, and potentially strong fish that might eat the jig. 40 feet of water might be too shallow to fish that sized jig. It fell pretty fast and didn’t stay in the strike zone long enough, on the retrieve. I think I need a heavier action rod, and need to fish it in deeper water.

The evening witching hour arrived when the fish normally feed before dark but I couldn’t find the bait school. The falling low tide must’ve changed the fish behavior. I worked my way in, and out of desperation, paddled across a large channel to the opposite side of where the bait normally congregates. I began to see fish suspended two deep off the bottom and finally got a hookup. The fish was vigorously shaking its head all the way through the fight so I suspected it was a trumpetfish or needlefish (aha). I was thrilled to see a thrashing white papio that was trying to shake off the hook barely attached to its lip. It later taped out at about 14″ head to fork.

The bait school was holding near the bottom, and larger fish were suspended above it. I dropped the flat fall jig again and didn’t get a hit. When I stowed the flat fall rod away, I couldn’t find the bait school again and it was getting dark so I headed in. Oh well, I learned a new spot the bait school may use.

White papio caught whipping dead oama

October 8, 2015 By Scott 6 Comments

The wind was much lighter than yesterday so I tried the spot I waded out and whipped last week. The waves were small enough where I could sit just inside of the white wash, or in a small channel and cast into the surf. It took a bit of paddling around to find the biters, but once I found them, there were others nearby.

The first papio was a skinny, just legal omilu which I released. The next was a white papio of about the same length but thicker and more muscular. Unlike the omilu, it kept fighting even when I had it board side. The next papio was about 10.5″, head to fork and I considered keeping it but as I readied my fish bag it came off the hook. Oh well, I was just thinking of taking it since the fish seemed to all be the same size.

I cast out a rock hard, frozen oama and the fourth papio took it head first. It was just legal but hooked deep and I didn’t risk killing it by yanking out the hook with pliers so I cut the line off in front of the hook. Hopefully the hook rusts out or falls out soon.

With so many barely legal fish, I paddled around looking for a deeper spot to safely fish. I dug around for a larger oama that still had its colors, and tossed it out. Bam, a much stronger fish hit. The white papio kept fighting even when I had it next to the board. Omilu seem to pull faster and whites pull more doggedly. I happily bagged it.

With a nice white in the bag I went exploring and fished some unproductive water. Then I discovered an area next to the impact zone where the swell rolled through without breaking. I situated myself near the edge of the impact zone and cast another frozen oamasickle. Hookup, and the fish pulled me towards the waves. Yikes! I put the rod in the rod holder and paddled towards calm water hoping the fish wouldn’t rock me. When I reached calm water, I sat up and started cranking. The white, which was initially taking drag, wasn’t nearly as large as I thought. Man these whites can pull hard.

Pretty good action for a spot I’ve never board fished before. I headed in to keep the papios in good condition. Didn’t lose any rigs this time unlike the snaggapalooza yesterday.

Interesting that, although the larger fish below is just an inch longer than the smaller one, its body is deeper and more angular to make room for its sex organs. It fought considerably harder also.

Red hot 2 hr fishing window

September 23, 2015 By Scott 17 Comments

new best day ever!

Today was supposed to be the light wind day of the week so I took 6 live oama and 4 fresh dead ones out for a surfboard troll. I planned to fish a different stretch of the beach by paddling into the wind and letting the wind bring me back to the launch point.

I started with a recently deceased, medium-sized captive oama so I wouldn’t waste a livey on the way out to the surfline. Nothing bit it after reaching the break and trolling parallel to it for 10 mins, so I was about to put on a livey on instead. All of a sudden my ratchet screamed and the rod bent over. I hadn’t heard my ratchet scream all year so I was initially spooked! It was actually hard to pull the rod out of the holder; man I missed those screamers. The fish pulled drag in a straight line, then let itself be worked in halfway, then took off again. While I was loving the fight, I strongly suspected it was an oio that decided it needed to add oama to its diet, and I really wanted a nice sized papio instead. The fish started shaking its head, which gave me hope, then pulled line straight out again. After a hard fight against a tight drag, the largest omilu I caught in 2 yrs flashed on its side. It was hooked on the front hook and somehow had broken off the hook that was in the oama’s tail. I was stoked and I had only been fishing 20 minutes. I contemplated heading back in but I didn’t want to waste the live oama.

I put a live one on and something pulled it off without sounding the ratchet. I wonder what could have done that? I put on another livey and this one got eaten by a 10 inch C&R omilu. The next livey hooked a 15 inch (head to tail) omilu that pulled drag nicely and was added to the catch bag. 2 good sized omilu make a decent catch so again I contemplated paddling in but I still had 3 live oama and 3 dead ones.

The next 3 live oama were mangled and crushed but I couldn’t hook the culprit despite the two hook setup. I put a dead oama on and saw the floater go under. When I retrieved the line all I got back was the oama’s head. I put the second to the last dead oama on and let the wind blow me back to the launch site. The ratchet went off but the fight felt a little weird. There was a lot of resistance but the fish wasn’t pulling a lot of line. When it got close, I realized why. Somehow a 14″ omilu was hooked on the front hook and a 10″ omilu was hooked on the rear hook! And another omilu was swimming with them, trying to join the party. Crazy. I shook the 10″ omilu off and kept the 14″ (head to tail) omilu. That was more than enough fish for one day, so I dumped the last dead oama and went in.

Darin’s oio

Darin, whom I had met before, was dunking ika from the beach. He said a lot of undersized papio had been hitting his baits in the last hr, with one legal omilu in the mix. I wished him luck and ran into a guy who had been hooking legal white papio on his Crystal Minnow from shore. His C&R lure action was in the last 30 minutes. While we were taking he noticed that Darin was on a nice fish. What the heck was going on? Were all the planets in alignment or something? We went over to watch Darin’s fish make numerous strong runs before being subdued. The oio went 21″ and 4lbs and Darin packed up his gear to get the fish home in good shape for fish cake.

There wasn’t a particularly good solunar activity period today but something made the fish feed aggressively at the break and at the shoreline. I suspect the fish are trying to make up for all that lost time spent hunkering down during the stormy, humid weather. The trade winds have cooled the water nicely and it looks like the papio season isn’t over yet.

The larger omilu I caught went about 19″ (head to tail) and made 3 lbs on my not too accurate hand scale. Not that big as omilus go but bigger than any omilu I’ve caught last year and this year. With so many papio competing for not much bait this season, I suspect larger than normal papio are coming onto the reef to find food.

Waxwing shines again

July 24, 2015 By Scott 6 Comments

I went back to a shallow, rocky area with a sandy pond to look for oama. A few weeks ago the oama weren’t in and I had some follows on my Waxwing Boy in the Chrome pattern, but no hookups. Today there were mid-sized mullet and micro aholehole in the protection of the rocky shoreline, and the kaku and small white papio were nailing the Waxwing just 15 feet from shore.

caught on the Waxwing Boy size

I missed a couple larger kaku and landed a kaku and 3 small whites. There were even some very small oama running back and forth in the pond

The bite shut down an hr before sundown, right before Kris arrived. Just before dark Kris hooked a small moi on the sandy beach. Such a drastic change from the slow action I experienced the last time I visited. The summer action is definitely heating up.

All the fish were released unharmed.

Red hot Waxwing action

July 23, 2015 By Scott 1 Comment

Went to check my favorite oama spot yet again, and there were none to be found. Kris was throwing a small plastic curly tail and caught some small omilus and chunky white papio. I started throwing the Baby Waxwing on the Curado 300EJ with fluorocarbon and soon enough was picking out backlashes just like I had been with braid. I was backlashing with all the centrifugal brakes turned on! How is that possible?

(Click here to see why I switched from braid to castable fluorocarbon. )

Out of desperation I set the spool tensioner so tight the lure couldn’t fall in free spool. I cast and the spool spun under control with no backlash. The spool shouldn’t have had to be tensioned so tightly, something must be wrong with the spool tension bearing.

Don’t I look stunned?

The sun was going down, it was time to leave and I didn’t even get a bump. As we walked back on the sand, Kris threw a Crystal Minnow but the water was so shallow he kept snagging limu. I carefully lobbed the Waxwing which swims a few inches below the surface and hooked and lost a kaku in 15 inches of water. My drag was set too light because I was backlashing so much!

My next cast was boiled on so Kris started videoing with his iPhone. Next cast, no backlash and another boil. Usually the fish only follow or hit twice and then wise up. During this pre-dark witching hour it seemed like a pack of hungry predators were looking for Waxwings to swim by. On my next cast, something hit halfway in and ripped drag. Turned out to be a 14 inch white papio (head to tail).

Here’s the video, sorry for the jumpiness.

It was a very impromptu shoot and I edited out the landmarks which shortened the length of the video. When we pau fishing I checked my drag and I had locked it down after missing the first kaku. No wonder the papio didn’t get too far.

very respectable kaku a few feet from shore

Kris captured the cast, strike and fight on video and I wanted him to get in on the red hot action. He took off his Crystal Minnow, put on the same Black/Chrome Baby Waxwing and hooked an angry kaku on the next cast! After releasing it, he got an even bigger boil that didn’t stay hooked. The boils lasted until the sun began to set, then completely shut off.

The Waxwing really performs in shallow water conditions. The red hot action with the large shallow water predators almost made me forget the backlash frustrations I’ve been having and I didn’t backlash once in the dark. I guess the spool tensioner was finally set tight enough.

Update 9/25/15: Charley’s Fishing Supply in Kakaako has the Waxwing Baby in Black/Chrome, Blue Sardine and Ghost Blue Shad.

A little late to the Waxwing party

May 15, 2015 By Scott 5 Comments

(top to bottom) Salt Pro Minno, Crystal Minnow and Megabait

(top to bottom) Salt Pro Minnow, Crystal Minnow and Megabait

I left the bait at home and went back to the spot with the baby white papios to test my lures again. Since the target fish were small and I’d be casting from the beach, the lures would have to be on the small side and shallow running. I tried a Diawa Salt Pro Minnow, Yozuri Crystal Minnow and a Megabait swimming plug (see photo).

The Salt Pro Minnow cast pretty well but dove a little too deep for the shallow water I was fishing. The Crystal Minnow tumbled in the wind and dove a little too deep also but had a good tight wobble. Both were too large for the target test fish. The Megabait had this spastic wobble that scared everything within 2 miles.

Waxwing and Kastmaster. Note the power handle on the Calcutta TE

Saving the best two for last I tried a 3/8 oz gold Kastmaster with a trailer. The small whites chased it into the murky shore break like they did the last time. I got a few bumps and hooked a couple and switched the Kastmaster out for the Waxwing. The Waxwing comes with a lot of hype and a $15 price tag for the smallest size (1/2 oz). Fishers claim they’ve caught sea birds on it, and supposedly everything with scales and fins chase it.

big hook for small white

I was using a 2.68 inch, 1/2 oz Waxwing Baby in the blue sardine pattern. Its wings did cause it to veer when I cast into a side wind but it still went further than other plugs its size. The zig zag swimming pattern followed by a more pronounced zag every so often brought the small whites in to investigate. They started bumping it and got hooked once in a while. The small schooling mullet played follow the leader with it, and a 7 inch white weke sniffed it with its whiskers as I left on the surface a few feet from me!

the hook missed the eye, fish was released healthy

I didn’t catch any birds on the Waxwing but did hook quite a bit more whites than I did on the Kastmaster. The double hook has been reviewed by others as suspect, and besides not hooking well, quite a few of the larger whites came off the hook when I was bringing them in.

With a better double hook or single siwash hook, the Waxwing will be an awesome plug to throw from my longboard. It swims a foot or two below the surface and really does have a swimming action that causes fish to take notice. The Salt Pro Minnow and Crystal Minnow are worth another try when I’m in deeper water. The Megabait will go back in storage.

Tackle test in less than ideal conditions

May 7, 2015 By Scott 4 Comments

The wind and surf were up and the solunar activity was down. Not the best time to wade out and fish the reef.

baby omilu under the float

To avoid having to re-tie rigs I tried drifting cut bait on an adjustable float. I didn’t snag anything but found it hard to cast such a light float in the windy conditions. I caught a few small omilu but didn’t like the slack line required to drift the float in the current.

When the waves started hitting me at the neckline I gave up and headed for shore. I switched to a rainbow trout pattern 3/8 oz Kastmaster just to throw something that would go further than a few yards.

The power handle I added to my bait caster did its job and I could retrieve fast enough to burn the lure in. Small papio were chasing the Kastmaster a few feet from the beach so I varied my retrieve and hooked up. Finally, after two outings with no bites on lures, I caught something. The papios turned out to be 6 inch white papio, and they were following the lure in from the deeper, cleaner water and ambushing it in the muddy water near shore. It was great to get back into the rhythm of casting, retrieving in a crank-crank-crank-pause tempo and feeling the occasional hits. The single, siwash hook I had on the kastmaster is sized for larger fish so I missed a lot of the bites. But the baby white papio I caught helped bring some lure casting mojo back.

Here’s how I customize my Kastmaster hooks to reduce snags.

Good day to whip the Windward side

January 23, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

not bad for a Kona wind, big WNW swell day

safe from the big WNW swell and Kona winds/rain

Today’s South Shore forecast called for a head high WNW swell wrapping around, combined with Kona (South) winds and a constant drizzle. Sounded like the perfect day to try the Windward side. Sure enough, once I got past Kaneohe most of the rain cleared and the sun poked out a bit. The waves were small and the Kona winds were light. I was hoping for a spot with a patchy reef near shore, with parking safely off the busy Kamehameha Hwy.

It took half an hour of driving back and forth before I settled on a spot after Kahana Bay and before Hau’ula. The tide was about 0.25 feet and rising which made it too deep to wade out. The sandy shoreline with a few small reef spots looked good but only yielded the occasional 5 inch omilu, something I could get back on the South Shore. It takes a lot of luck to stumble upon a spot and actually catch decent fish the first time out. After 1.5 hrs and a bag of cut bait, I realized that I lucked out with the weather but not with the fish.

I got the last bag of cut bait out of the car. I was too lazy to wash off and drive to another spot so I walked the shore line in the opposite direction I had previously fished. This stretch had more wave action and the sand was more muddy and gravelly. Turns out a stream dumped into the ocean there, so it was like fishing a river mouth. In the muddiest section I got a strike that felt like a bigger omilu, and was surprised to land a 4 inch white papio. I almost never catch white papio whipping so I thought this was a fluke but for the next 10 casts or so, I hooked or missed a white papio. On the 11th cast I caught a small toau in the muddy, churny water.

scrappy white papio

The whites are thicker than omilus for their length and put up a more stubborn battle. I kept hoping that a larger white was in with the small ones, but the biggest I landed was about 6 inches. I was soon out of bait but had learned something new. If you find a stretch of beach where the waves reach higher up the shore, exposing coarser sand and receding into muddy water, fish may be hunting prey in the churn.

All in all, a pretty fun catch and release day considering how unfishable the South Shore was.