After 5 kayak and 6 shore fishing bolo trips, painfully documented in this post, I can finally say it’s over! Thanks for the well wishes and suggestions on how to break the bad luck streak.
From shore I had been testing the 13 Fishing Concept Z bait casting reel I was given at the Fred Hall Show in March. Was stubbornly sticking to top water and sub-surface lures although the thought of dragging bait did cross my mind. The reel cast and swam light lures really well and had some near misses so I was hoping it was just a matter of fishing the right conditions.
The last two spots I wade fished were so murky and muddy that the fish couldn’t see the lure well. Changing things up, I tried a spot where I could walk out to the break on a very low tide. Hadn’t fished it in more than a year but the last time I did, the omilu were going nuts for the JDM sub-surface lure. Here’s how the action went down that day. This time, on the -0.1 ft tide, I almost made it to the break. Hedging my bets because of the clear water, I dropped down to 25lb fluoro leader instead of the 40lb I had been using to prevent kaku bite-offs.
My second cast into a small sandy pocket hooked something solid. I set the hook a few times to make sure it wasn’t gonna shake off like the previous fish on this bolo run, before turning on the hat mounted GoPro. The Concept Z reel is so light and small yet has a max drag of 22lbs. I had the drag set enough to over power the kaku so it came in green and flopped around like a trout avoiding a landing net.
Since I was so far from shore I tried tagging the kaku in the Promar ProFloat net. Keeping it captive wasn’t a problem but measuring the sharp toothed fish while keeping my reel out of the water was a challenge. I ended up grabbing the kaku through the net and doing a rough estimate. 19 inches, tagged with #A5651. And just like that, my bolo was over.
On my next cast, a kaku of about the same size followed by a pound half omilu investigated my lure and turned away 10 ft from me. That was it for the action in that little sand patch so I walked back to shore with a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders. Sorry for all the photos of a slimy kaku but I needed proof I finally landed a fish with the Z reel.
During the zero foot tide I gathered some pipihi and mussels for my Toby puffer. Interesting that the pipihi were a 1/3 the size of the ones I gathered earlier at another spot with a large lava rock shelf.
I whipped a sandy, protective cove and missed 2 more kaku. Fellow whippers I talked to when I was leaving said they saw a large omilu come in, swirl around and go out in the area I caught the bolo-breaking kaku. Fishing is a matter of inches. If that kaku had hit the lure an inch back from the front hook I’d still be lamenting the bolo.
Seems like the omilu are coming in looking for bait but not finding much yet. Still no reports of large oama schools inshore.
Auright! Glad you off the bolo!
Thanks Jeff, that was a long streak!
Way to shake it off! That’s a nice size kaku on light tackle, I gotta get me some of that this summer. Btw, I shook off my Memorial Day weekend fishing blues today as well. Let’s try to keep this going!
What did you get today Jason?
Picked up an oio down you-know-where. Just after the tide change. About the usual size, which is usually enough for me to get my fix 🙂
Oio on a fly is much harder than a kaku on a sub-surface lure. Great job Jason! Yep, let’s keep the fish catching streak going. 🙂
Congrats! Was about to suggest you check for hidden bananas, lol!
Haha!!
Are you still ok on the BI with all the earthquakes and vog Rich? Keep safe.
-scott
yeah, my side gets the trades, so pretty good…the fricking rain though…that’s another story.
A ‘o ia
Which means?
It roughly translates to “this dumb haolie can’t speak Hawaiian worth beans”.
I thought it meant “that’s it!” or “way to go!”
Anyway, way to go Scott!
I was wondering if that was something I needed to censor!! 🙂
Agh, BANANA! (mentioned above). Is this myth, theory, or fact?
My brother and I met at our spot while still dark last week. We carried all our gear down, set up the poles and got them out just as we could see the first light coming. Tide was on the way up that supposed to top out at 1.96 @ 8.12am. Time passed and not one bite or nibble on the live oama on each pole. High tide peak came and still nothing. Checked bait. Yup, oama still on.
I was hungry and brought out the nice big banana I had tucked with my keys and stuff. My brother’s eyes got big with disbelief as he laughed and said, “Banana? No wonder! You forget or what?” I searched my memory to back when we’d go out on my friend Rob’s boat every weekend. He had 2 rules. You come out, you stay out no matter how sick you got or how much you palu the water (I was a regular contributor that 1st year until I got my sea legs), and you bring bananas… you going overboard!
I took the banana back up to my car, and I kid you not, within 5 minutes we got strikes and fish. So, yeah. I’d say it’s true.
No need post. Just thought you’d get a laugh from that one.
Too funny Dave! So the Banana Jinx is true! Love your story telling style, perfect for the Holoholo Posts. 🙂
Just send me some pics to go along with your stories and I’ll post ’em. Thanks for the comments.
-scott