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.
Nice catch and report! So when you said you got the lai and nunu on the teaser- are you running just one damashi above the metal jig? If so, then if you hook something decent on the jig, I assume you’ll have to play it lighter given that you have knots above the jig knot….And looks like you could run some “lizardfish-looking” grubs at the bottom of the damashi and see if it makes a difference….Mahalo for the post!
Always good to hear from you Shinchan. I am running just 1 damashi above the metal jig. The leader connected to the metal jig is 40lb fluoro and the damashi hook is on 25lb fluoro I think. I used a uni-to-uni connection to make that 25lb branch. I’ve found that 25lb is pretty strong with the right drag. 40lb is close to unbreakable unless the fish chews thru the leader.
And yes, I didn’t realize how often preds eat lizardfish when they can, so I now am gonna use Completely Hooked Lures “sprats” in colors mimicing a lizardfish.
Putting the underwater camera down to see the behavior of the fish has been very helpful. It seems like if fish are around, they will inspect the damashi or jig. The camera does spook them a little but they still come in close enough to be captured on video.
Have you been fishing lately?
thanks,
scott
Thanks for the reply, Scott. No, I haven’t been fishing lately, I’ve been benched with a knee injury, hope to be back out soon. It’s interesting that you use the damashi above the jig, as I’m sure it would work anywhere above or below it- in Japan, they use a technique called “ebing” エビング where the jig is used like the lead in spreader fishing for shibi. The jig attracts the fish who then finds the grub. Its used mostly for tuna, but I’m sure it would work here, scaled to size.
http://anglers-secrets.com/a-little-plastic-lure-for-a-big-tuna-game/
https://goodkarmasportfishing.com/how-to-catch-blackfin-tuna/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6NmyZ4LcuF/
I think Mike Sakamoto had a similar rig- the “zip” rig, if I remember correctly, that he used to target the weke nono, papio, kawalea, etc. Worth a shot, especially if nothing is biting, as the flashy jig should get all kinds of attention.
Anyhoo, thanks again for the post, keep fishing, and don’t let the tax man take more than his share.
Shinchan
Hi Shinchan,
That’s interesting, I didn’t think about putting the damashi teaser below the jig. I was influenced by Haru, who wrote on the Japanese Jigging tips on the website, and put the teaser above the jig to make it look like something larger was chasing a small bait. It’s also easier to deal with on the deck of my kayak that way, rather than having the trailing teaser snagging something as I land a larger fish on the jig.
The jig with teaser definitely attracts larger fish than just the damashi rig alone, and I barely notice the teaser when I’m jigging.
What type of fishing do you do, when you’re healthy?
-scott