Last week I fished a calm day on the Windward side that had chaotic lumpy cross swells and the fishing was extremely slow except for opelu biting all day. This week, the wind and the swells died down, and the water was so clear that divers on jet skis were racing out to check the spots normally undiveable.

I didn’t expect the bottom fish to bite well but they did. The big, desirable keepers were smart enough to stay away, though. Big opelu bit all day again. Here’s the quick recap.

I got out to my first spot and hooked a solo opelu. I lost the school after securing it, so I put it out on a weighted line and went deeper looking for bottom fish. The undesirables bit – big taape, nunu (trumpetfish), hagi, moana so I moved further out. I was able to catch more opelu but the opelu out on the weighted line only got its stomach removed.

On the way to the deep ulua / kahala jigging spot at 200ft I came across some good marks and dropped down. A juvenile uku came up on the damashi so I released it and dropped again, hoping for a much larger version. Something hit the damashi and pulled drag, and after maybe 30 seconds it broke off the 25lb hook line. It didn’t feel like an ulua or kahala so I was intrigued.

I put on a 30lb damashi rig, the heaviest I carry, and dropped again.

A juvenile uku and a juvenile weke nono came up. The right species, just not the right size.

Two large opelu, normally line shy, came up on the 30lb rig with large Completely Hooked Lures Sprats. On the next drop I felt the tail beats of opelu and then the line surged down. I fought what I believe was a shark for less than a minute and the hook line cut, but an opelu came up on the top hook.

I put the live opelu out again on the weighted rig but it didn’t get touched. The bite shut down and all I had in the fish bag were fairly large opelu. I checked my shallow bottom fish spots on the way in, and the small undesirables bit. Nothing good like keeper weke nono, yellow spot papio, moana kali.

At the shallow reef shelf on the way in, I dropped down the damashi as a 4th Quarter – Hail Mary attempt and hooked a malu (single spot goatfish). They don’t get too big, and they have very clean, flaky meat, so this one was added to the fish bag.

Summary: The big opelu bit again, predators weren’t balling them up, and the small bottom fish bit in the calm conditions but the smarter, larger bottom fish didn’t. I’m guessing, since the conditions were so calm, the food chain wasn’t activated. And am also guessing that the cross swells during the previous trip just scattered the bottom fish and didn’t set up feeding lanes.

This separate cooking post details how the opelu were smoked, and how the malu was lightly pan-fried. Both came out winnahs!