Targeting nabeta from the kayak

It’s been a month since I stumbled upon the stray nabeta and opelu in stormy weather. Here’s how that scouting trip went. This time around, it didn’t rain on us but the winds were a steady 10 mph onshore, with wind swell that bumped up the water.

Our plan was to head directly to the nabeta/opelu spot, and if we caught opelu, we’d troll ’em deeper. Well, the opelu weren’t around so Frank trolled deeper with a frozen opelu. I had started damashi-ing with a CHL Blue Dust Minnow on the bottom hook, and a CHL Obake Purple Minnow on the top hook. Two nabeta hit the Blue Dust Minnow within the first 20 mins so I put a Blue Dust Minnow on the top hook and it immediately got bit, but what came up were deep water lizardfish. The wind kept blowing me off the spot and I eventually let it take me shallower.

At 130 ft I hooked something over some good fish marks on the sounder, and there was more resistance than a lizardfish or nabeta could muster. Then drag pulled for a few seconds and abruptly stopped. I was hoping for a papio or uku but what came up was a dead trumpetfish with his throat ripped out and wounds near his tail. Predators in the area! I put on a small frozen opelu but that was ignored. So were tako legs and halalu. The bite went dead and we gave up.

Still, it was a successful trip, learning more about what I consider to be the best eating fish in our waters. The nabeta were only at a certain depth on this day, 5 feet deeper was barren, 5 feet shallower was full of lizardfish. And at this spot they love the CHL Blue Dust Minnow. Moving up to a 5 oz lead helped call the sand dwellers with each sand cloud lifting thump.

I gave the two nabeta to a friend who gives me fresh tako. He hasn’t tasted the delicious fish for 19 years. Seems like a lot of fishermen heard about nabeta but haven’t seen it for a long time. Still got if you know where to go. 🙂