Hawaii 2009

[MuskieBait]

April 19, 2009 – Day 1: Early bird flight

Back in October 2008, I received an online promotion from United Airlines. Without much hesitation, tickets to Oahu were purchased since they were at 50% off. After a 6-month wait, the day has finally arrived! I woke up at 3am to catch the early morning TTC bus to Pearson Airport. My flight did not depart until 8:40am, but traveling on budget (ie bus instead of taxi) meant sacrifices…and I gave up 2 hours of sleep to save $40 :roll:

Everything went smooth and soon I was in Los Angeles for a 1.5 hour stopover between transfer. With another 5.5 hours flight, I finally touched down in Honolulu at 3:40pm. There is no word to describe the feeling being back in a place that I consider as my refuge and haven on Earth.

My uncle is a security personnel at the airport and he was just getting off work. We went to unload my luggage at my grandma’s and together we went to my uncle’s new apartment for dinner. Here’s my uncle, my cousin and my grandma.





After dinner, uncle drove grandma and I back to my grandma’s apartment where I quickly unpacked then went to bed. I have a 5am appointment with my friend and his 23-foot boat the next day

April 20, 2009 – Day 2: Small gear + strong fish = too much fun!

Every spring, large number of mahimahi (common dolphinfish aka dorado) invades the waters of Oahu. My friend Todd tells me stories of days when the mahimahi goes wide open on the Penguin Bank, an underwater extension of the island of Molokai. This area is best fished when the wind is blowing at 15 knots and waves are 5-6 feet high. This year, spring arrived 6 weeks late. The water was still too cold and the mahimahi has not arrived in force. Regardless, we were going to put in the effort to look for some action in the deep blue of Hawaii.

Early at 5am, Todd picked me up near my grandma’s apartment. It was a clear, calm morning when we launched at Ke’ehi Harbour. It took a while to launch since I needed a refresher on the boat preparation/launch sequence. But by 6am, we were motoring at 8-9 knots toward a Fish Aggregating Device called the HH buoy. With about 3 miles left to go, I took over the helm while Todd set out the spread. It was close to 7am now. We had two tuna rods with 150lb test on the Penn 14/0 reels on the corners rigged with 200lb mono leader and 5” rubber hoochies, and just for fun, my medium Shakespeare UglyStik Tiger with 30lb Berkley Big Game on a Penn Jigmaster 500L in the center rigged with the 200lb mono leader and another 4” rubber hoochie. The UglyStik/Jigmaster rig is rather light for trolling and a 20-30lb tuna can spool the reel…but we were hoping to catch some skipjack tuna on the light rig.

At the 1 mile mark, I spotted a bird pile to the west of the buoy. As we got closer, we dropped the speed to 7-8 knots so as not to spook the school of fish. We could see small schoolie tunas jumping clear out of the water chasing bait. Fish were busting all over in large schools in an area the size of 3-4 football fields.

When a bird/fish pile is found, you should NEVER troll right through the pile. Boat noise can easily scare the predators and scatter the bait ball. The proper way to fish such scenario is to troll the spread about 50 feet from the edge of the pile and circle the location. As soon as the lines came into proximity, the reel screamed on the port corner. Todd said let the fish run and continue trolling, since we may pick up a double or triple. About 20 seconds later, my Jigmaster went off! Todd put the boat into idle and he brought in a 5lb yellowfin tuna. My fish stopped screaming off and I pumped and reeled the fish to the boat. My light gear brought in a 5lb yellowfin tuna as well. Just look at the size of the Jigmaster compared to the other Penn 14/0’s in the boat :lol:





Once we’re back at trolling speed, we sent the lines out again. The Jigmaster went screaming again! We had to slow the boat to idle speed to bring the fish in on the light rig. It was soooo much fun using that light rig, especially on a 5lb skipjack tuna. Pound for pound, a skipjack tuna and pull a yellowfin tuna a$$ backwards. :lol:

And so the morning went. We iced 5 yellowfins and 3 skipjacks and now we had tow other boats following into line to circle the pile. After fighting the last fish on the light line, our boat has motored slightly away from the pile. We set the lines out again and trolled back toward the pile…when the surprise came. I was watching the rods and the lure when something came flying out to smash the lure on my rig. It looked a little blue and silver. Immediately, I yelled “ONO! It’s an ONO!” I was sure that we had a wahoo (ono in Hawaiian) on my line. At this point, my next though was that we are going to get cut off by the shark-like serrated teeth of the wahoo. But just as quickly, the port side corner rod went off as well with a screaming reel protesting angrily!!! “Double, DOUBLE!” I yelled over the boat noise. 8O

Todd slowed the boat down and I took the UglyStik out of the holder. I started to smell the grease and oil inside the Jigmaster as the drags heated up. All of a sudden, a fish jumped 5 feet into the air. “It’s a mahi!!!” Todd said as he watched his reel unloads more line with a fast running fish. While Todd fish stopped running, my mahimahi jumped 5 times before settling down to a bulldog fight. The fish ran to one side of the boat and back the other way, forcing us to go over and under a couple of times as the lines crossed. I lost track of time as my mind concentrated on bringing in this fish without jumping the hook or breaking the 30lb mono. Finally, I saw colour. “Ken, we’ll bring in your fish first. I think mine will take a little longer.” Todd grabbed the gaff and brought the fish into the boat on the first pass. I took a quick picture of the fish lying on the deck before taking the wheel. New fish species #1 on the trip for me...#83 on my list



My 15lb mahimahi looked to be a wahine (female) since it didn't have the large blunt head. Mahimahi travels in small school and sometimes in pairs. We suspected that Todd's fish was a large bull mahimahi.

We kept Todd’s fish at 45 degrees to the port side while Todd fought the fish to the boat side. Just as Todd got the gaff ready, the fish ran once more quickly to the starboard side, then under the boat. It was good that I had put the boat into neutral and now both Todd and I were trying to keep the line off the side of the boat. We managed to coax the fish to the side of the boat again as the fish ran back to the port side. I jumped back to the wheel and tried to get a video of the last few critical moments. Some how, the video didn’t turn out but we had the fish in the boat. It was a big bull mahimahi that was at least 40+lbs. Todd would weight it at home later and it registered at 46lbs.





After a good handshake, we put the fish on the ice. The lines went back out again, but I was super stoked that I finally got my first mahimahi. I spent 2 months in Hawaii in May/June of 2007 and never found a mahimahi. As they say “It’s better to be lucky than to be good.” :lol: We were once again disrupted by my screaming Jigmaster…and this time, it felt like a big skipjack tuna. It fought harder than the mahimahi minus the aerials, but it fought all the way to the boat. I landed my personal best skipjack with the fish going 8lb.





After that fish, the sun got a little higher, the little bit of wind died down, and it was flat calm 18 miles south of Oahu. We trolled for another 30mins without another hook up. At 9:30pm, we called it a day…can you believe it! It was such an action packed morning that we decided to troll back to port dragging marlin lures. We didn’t get any slams on the way in. We ended the day with 6 yellowfin tuna from 4-6lbs, 4 skipjack tuna from 4-8lbs and 2 mahimahi (15lb and 46lbs). We left port at 6am and returned to port by 12pm. What more could we ask for? :lol:

The rest of the day was spent resting at home and having dinner with my family.

April 21, 2009 – Day 3: Family gathering

Today was a family day. My uncles had their day off on different days during the week and it was not often that they meet for lunch or dinner. In addition, one of my uncle had a baby, so most of his time was spent caring for my 5 months old baby.





With my visit as a special occasion, it brought together our family for lunch and dinner on this day. It was great to see my little cousin Cianna for the first time. She’s such a cute little girl already. It was also comforting to see my uncles and aunts were doing well.

April 22, 2009 – Day 4: Flats day and night

In my jaunts through the internet forum, I found a Hawaiian kayak fishing forum, Aquahunters.com. There, I made a few friends and they offered to take me fishing. One of the members, Evan B, came from Kauai to take a course in Oahu. We have a mutual interest in fly fishing and flats fishing.

This morning, I took the bus to the college and met up with Evan after he got out of class. We have 3 hours to fish in between his classes. We made our way to Hawaii Kai. The timing we perfect since the tide had just bottomed out and it will be filling in as we fished. We were hoping the o’io (bonefish) would worked the flats as the tide rose. It was blowing a 10-15 knot wind, so Evan left his fly rod in the car while I decided to tough it out.

This area of southeast Oahu has extensive flats ranging in knee to waist height. You could wade out 500-700 feet before reaching the reef where the bottom dropped off. Before we can get out on the flats, we needed to wade through a deep channel where the water got to chest deep. It was an interesting wade for sure :lol:

In the first 5 minutes, Evan spotted a 2lb bonefish that we scared off. We worked the flats for a long time without sighting any more bonefish. Halfway out to the reef edge, Evan found some small trevally too small to take our lures/flies. We made our way toward a half submerged boulder where Evan said he always find some fish hanging around. He gave me the first casts. I stripped one cast right over the boulder without getting hit. The next cast, I targeted it to the left side. Within a couple of strips, my line zoomed off. A few short runs later, I landed a strange looking fish. It is a cornetfish! That’s another new species for me on Oahu...#84 on the fish list





We fished this rock a little bit more without any other bites. It was now 12:30pm and we needed to work our way back. Casting the fly rod was now much more difficult since the wind was now blowing into my face. I tried to cast to the side and fished for a while, but the wind was just too much. I mostly watched Evan worked his calf tail jigs across the flats. Just before we got back to the deep channel crossing, Evan saw an 8lb bonefish followed his jig, but it took off when it approached close to Evan. Oh so close!

We also worked the channel since there could be small barracuda or other bonefish feeding near the lip of the drop. We found one long silvery fish but couldn’t confirm on the identity of that fish. By the time we got back to car, it was 1:30pm. Evan was late for his lab, but we had an absolute blast working the flats. He didn’t mind being late :lol:

I took the bus back to my grandma’s apartment. After lunch and a quick nap, I had dinner at my uncle’s house. After dinner, I was off to fishing event #2.

I was excited to fish with my good friend Jason again after 2 years. We met tonight to work a stretch of shallow reefs for aholehole (Hawaiian Flagtail), aweoweo (Hawaiian Bigeye) and menpachi (Bigscale Soldierfish). Jason’s friend Edwin also joined us for the night. We worked a stretch of shores on the south side of Oahu. We rigged up 9’ rods with 6-8lb test, a sliding 3/4oz weight, a swivel, a 8-9’ long 6lb mono leader and a small #13 MZ hook with 1.5” glow twister tail. We would cast this rig as far as we could and slowly retrieve it back. This style of fishing is known as “whipping” to Hawaiians. I looked around our location and found an area with some exposed boulders about 50 feet from the sands. A light on the beach illuminated the area. I made a few casts in the area and hooked up! In the light, it was a silvery fish about 12” long. It zig-zagged around channels in the reefs. As it neared shore, I had to lift the fish over some rocks and the hook fell out. I did not get a good look at the fish, but I suspected a papio (small trevally) or an aholehole.

About 10min later, I hooked up again! This time, the fish didn’t get off, and it was a 12” aholehole. Aholehole at this large size showed slight yellow tinge in the belly, thus they are nicknamed “yellow-bellies”. Another 15min later, I hooked up again to a slightly smaller yellow-belly. My friend Jason was fishing 2lb test for fun, but his lines were badly tangled and he was having a good time just watching me hanapa’a (fish-on). Edwin was scratching his head why a malihini (newcomer) was outfishing the locals :lol: Before the night was over, I lost another aholehole. We ended the night at 11pm and went for some Taco Bell and caught up on life. It was a good night with a good friend.



April 23, 2009 – Day 5: USCG Kittywake

This day of overcast skies, slight fog, 15kt wind and 5-6 foot seas had all the stars aligned for good fishing conditions on Penguin Bank. Todd picked me up at 5am again and we launched at Hawaii Kai. As I’ve seen the day before, Hawaii Kai marina was surrounded by shallow reefs. Motoring inside the deep cut channel in the dark required every bit of caution. We made it to deeper water and started climbing the southeast swells at 8-9kts. At times, we had to slow the boat or speed up and avoid being caught in the trough of the swells.

About 7 miles south of Hawaii Kai, Todd decided to send out the spread so we can troll our way to the Bank. I took over the wheel and had a hard time keeping the boat straight. The swells easily pushed the boat over to the starboard side. We finally got the lines out and Todd took the helm again. Within 5 minutes of trolling, Todd said “Let’s head back…this isn’t fun.” I agreed. It was getting rougher out there. So we turned the boat around and decided to troll back to port.

About 10 minutes later, the boat suddenly made a sharp turn. I thought Todd saw some signs of fish activity and he was headed to fish. However, the boat swung 270 degrees around and Todd said “We lost steering” 8O

Oh boy. I saw that the lines were about to run under the boat and into the prop, so I yelled “Put the boat in neutral! NEUTRAL!” Todd shut the engine in time to prevent spinning 120lb mono into the prop. Todd thought that the helm was low on steering fluid, so he took out a new bottle to top the helm up. However, the fluid overflowed immediately, so the helm was not dry.

Todd went to the back of the boat and had me turning the wheel to see if the motor turned in sync…which it didn’t. So there was a part broken connecting the inboard-outboard part of the motor. Todd checked the engine hatch and sure enough, there was a disconnect somewhere. Todd also saw a hole in the hull that was not there before, indicating a part had fallen out.

Todd called out for assistance to nearby boats. However, there were no boats within range on this Wednesday morning. We continued to call for help a few more times and received no answer. At that point, we saw a Coast Guard helicopter flew overhead so we called on the VHF for the Coast Guard helicopter. We heard their communication, but they did not hear our call for assistance. We tried hailing the Coast Guards a few times and we were only receiving, but not transmitting.
Todd and I both had cell phones full charged. We made a 911 call and got lucky that we were still within cell phone range. We got to the Coast Guard, described our predicament, and gave them our GPS coordinates. They collected our cell phone numbers so they could call us back after making a few broadcasts. We put on our life jackets and Todd instructed me on the use of the EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Relay Beacons). Basically, the EPIRB has two electrodes on the outside of the case. When the two electrodes on the EPIRB are exposed to sufficient saltwater, the beacon automatically begins transmission. We heard the Coast Guard made their broadcast for assistance every 10 minutes or so with our coordinates, but there were no response from any boats in the area. Maritime law states that it is illegal to refuse assistance. So I guess we were the only boat bobbing like a cork out there.

Finally, the Coast Guard called to inform that they are sending a cutter out to assist us. Todd and I prepared the ropes and the deck to facilitate boarding and towing. We waited for about 45min slowing drifting to Indonesia before I saw a white dot through the fog. The dot grew larger and larger and soon Todd and I breathed a sign of relief as the USCG Kittywake came to assist.

They deployed a Grizzly jet drive inflatable to board our boat. One of the CG checked the engine hatch for use and confirmed that we required a tow in. In addition, we also found out our engine hatch was half flooded. So not only were we drifting to Asia, we were also sinking from a slow leak. :roll: The Grizzly went back to the mothership to retrieve the towing rope. While we ran the bilge pump, the CG crew diligently attached the tow rope to our boat cleats and we were underway. Our 7 mile tow took about 1.5 hours. Since Hawaii Kai marina was too shallow for the Kittywake, the Grizzly was once again deployed to tow us the rest of the way. Close to dock, the Grizzly acted as a tug boat to position our boat for mooring. Every part of the rescue operation was top notch and I have utmost respect for the USCG. At the end, we were just glad to be back on solid ground…and I just had to kiss the ground once we got back. :lol:

After the ordeal, I decided to spend the day away from water as far as possible :lol: I spent the afternoon catching up on sleep.

I was woken up by my friend Jason at about 3pm.We had plans to fish early morning the next day, but Jason suggested we fish through the night into the early morning to get the most out of my stay, and to fish the incoming tides later that night. I’ve always wanted to fish all night and sleep on the beach…so it was an easy decision, and the ordeal a few hours ago did not deter me from fishing on a beach. :lol:

At 10pm, Jason picked me up and off we went. We stopped for some snacks and I picked up new batteries for my headlamp. We met Edwin at our access point and in no time, we were set up on the beach.

Our method of fishing is called “dunking”. Basically, long surf rods between 10 to 15 feet long and reels filled with 25 to 50lb lines are used to heave out 5-6oz weight. We used bottom fishing rigs with 3-way swivels, 40+lb leaders and circle hooks. Casts were usually 100 yards distance…but of course my casts were 50 yard at best :lol: The fish we were targeting included papio/ulua (trevally), o’io (bonefish) and other larger reef fish, plus puhi (moray eels) that we could use for bait.

With lines cast out, Jason and Edwin settled into their lawn chairs while I “whipped” around for small game for about 45min. Without any small game action, I put down the light rod and settled into my lawn chair as well. We saw distance lightning far offshore, but rain was not predicted.

I soon fell asleep at about 12am. Suddenly, I was woken up to commotion. Jason and Edwin were bringing in their lines. I can hear rain drops falling and some lightning in the area. We quickly broke camp and called of the trip. Jason drove me home at 3am and we made alternate plans to try dunking again. I guess I just had a bad day of fishing. :roll:

April 24, 2009 – Local fishing stores

Friday was a family day. I had brunch with my grandma in the morning. In the afternoon, Jason got off work at 3pm. There wasn’t enough time to fish since he had an evening event, so we went to visit a couple of tackle shops, Roy’s and Hanapa’a. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I had no pictures to show. Roy’s shop had a smaller space, but very well equipped for all forms of Hawaiian fishing, from whipping to dunking, from trolling to slide baiting. I bought a pair of tabis (footware similar to dive booties), some curly tails and a tuna lure that I hope to use the next time in Todd’s boat. Hanapa’a had a larger space and there was a second floor catered to skin divers/spear fisherman. We focused on the ground floor filled with all sorts of rod, reels and lures. I bought a bell to use on my dunking rod.

April 25, 2009 – A poet and a fishing natural

My cousin Anita invited me to attend her award ceremony for the Dr. Martin Luther King International Peace Poem Contest. The reception was held at Ala Moana Park. Since it was on a Saturday, I suggested that we should go fishing after the ceremony. My cousin had a lot of fun fishing during my last visit, and she has only fished once during the two years in between my last visit.

The ceremony started at 11:30pm. We arrived early and walked the beach until the event started. The mayor of Honolulu was invited to give a motivational speech.





The Teacher of the Year was honoured, as well as the top three student poets on Oahu. After that, the top two student poets from the participating class in various Oahu elementary schools were awarded, and they were given the choice to rehearse the poem to the audience. My cousin placed second in her class. Before the ceremony, she was hesitant to read her poem in front of the audience. However, when her name was called, she read her beautiful poem with confidence.





I was not allowed to publish the poem here though :lol: The ceremony took 2.5 hours. After the ceremony, we had a quick lunch at Ala Moana Mall, and prepared for our afternoon of fishing.

At the Ala Moana park, there were several brackish ponds connected by very shallow canals. We saw tilapia and mullet in the canal and decided to see if we can hook any of them using bread. We chummed the school of fish toward us with bread, then threw out an baited hook with no bait to imitate a piece of floating bread. The fish must have been heavily pressured. They could bit the bread around the hook! :lol: But I got lucky with a black-throat tilapia and added a new species to the list



I tried to get my cousin to hook up on a tilapia, but she was slow on setting the hook. Eventually, the fish learned the drill and refused to bite any bread. They even left the chum alone. So, we packed it in and headed for the ocean side.

We arrived at a familiar spot at the Kewalo Basin. We’ve had great luck here in the past catching small reef fish on shrimp bait. We repeated the same drill today. I attached a light steelhead float to my cousin’s 8lb test, spliced 3 feet of 6lb fluorocarbon and attached a #16 scud hook to the end. With a couple of BB size split shots, the rig was read to fish. It was great to see my cousin remembered how to cast a spinning rod/reel. But the fish were not very cooperative. We were really scratching for a bite!

After 30mins, my cousin’s float finally went down hard. She fought the little reef fish expertly and brought up a saddled wrasse (male).



The tide was filling in and the fish activity increased. My cousin soon found a sweet spot where she was getting bit constantly. Fish were relating to this one coral head. Hooking them was another matter though :lol: I was watching the float and telling her when to set the hook since she was reacting much slower than I was (I just had more experience on light biting fish). I also rebaited her hooks as often as they were sent back into the water :lol: in our 2 hour session, we caught 4 saddled wrasse, 1 rainbow wrasse, 1 elegant coris and 1 Hawaiian gregory. My cousin had a 12” rainbow wrasse snapped her line as she was lifting the fish up the breakwall, but of course, it was the big one that got away. I was happy to see my cousin learning how to find fish (finding habitat) and she fought her biggest fish to date (the 12” rainbow wrasse). With my cousin’s help, I added 3 new species today

Elegant Coris (female)





Rainbow Wrasse (female)



Hawaiian Gregory





April 26, 2009 – Transplants and beach bums

My friend Evan and I had planned today for a bit of kayak fishing. However, the wind was not very cooperative and we were a little short on time, so we changed plans. There is a small pond on the campus of Univeristy of Hawaii that has a population of cichlid (In Troy McClure’s voice: a family of fish including such famous members like the oscars and the peacock bass). Among the various cichlids in the pond, the Jaguar Guapote has a particular allure. This South American cichlid is both aggressive and beautiful. It also goes by the name Rainbow Bass.



Evan and I met up at the university. Neither of us knew the exact location of this pond, but we had a rough idea thanks to GoogleMap. :lol: It actually wasn’t all that hard to find, and we were soon rigged up – Evan with his 8-wt fly rod, floating line and small nymph patterns, and myself with a medium/light spinning rod, 8lb mainline a small splitshot and a 1.5” twister tail. It took us a while to figure out the fish, but once we found the pattern, the red devils and banded jewel cichlids came easy.

Red Devil (7”)



Banded Jewel Cichlid (7”)



The only cichlid other common cichlid that we could see but could not get to bite was the convict cichlid. Evan finally figured them out. All we had to do was use bread. Catching them was very easy after :lol:

Convict Cichlid (9”)



We even caught small banded jewel cichild and fished them under the float for the jaguar guapote…but we didn’t get a hit.

Evan and I saw some 10-20lb koi in the pond and he tried for a while to get one to hit, but it was no go. We spent about 2 hours there going bendo regularly until it was time to leave. On our way back to Evan’s car, we spoke to a UH student who said he’s caught those koi before and they were a lot of fun (think 20lb carp :lol. He had also caught those jaguar guapote before using mosquito fish or guppies. I wanted another try at the pond, but alas, I’ll have to wait until my next Oahu visit. That’s okay, I added two new species on my list today

I went back to my grandma’s for lunch, and a brief rest later, Jason picked me up to do some dunking again. We headed to the Westside of Oahu to fish the incoming tide. I’ve fished here before and it was a very nice beach. We didn’t catch anything the last two times, but Jason’s friend pulled up a 11lb white ulua (giant trevally) from the spot a few days ago.

We got set up and chucked out our baits. It was a nice Oahu sunset and we were expecting a strike any moment. Once the rods were set up, Jason taught me to cast the 12’ rod and the Jigmaster on the beach. Birdnests were frequent since my thumb had yet to adjust to the new reel. In addition, the long rod generated much more torque with a 5oz weight, and the casts flew out with forces I’ve not experienced before.

After the casting session, I tossed out my bait too. Jason went to get some sushi rolls at about 7:30pm and he said “If any of bells ring, just go for it and bring in the fish.” I was really hoping he’s right about the bells going off. He came back, we had some sushi, and we waited until 8:30pm until it was time to pack up. The fishing was awesome with a great friend and a good fishing teacher. I just need to put in enough time to learn to cast far before any fish could be caught.

I love being a beach bum :lol:



April 27, 2009 – Day 9: Plan A, Plan B

Todd called me the day before and said the steering was all fix. A new Y-fork connector was installed and the boat was ready to go. So off we go at 5am to Keehi Harbour to fish HH buoy. We just got out the harbour when Todd noticed that the voltage was running rather high. “That’s not good”. He went to the engine hatch and sure enough, the alternator was not working…probably due to the saltwater flooding the engine hatch last time. We had a spare alternator and it took 30min to install. When we started the boat again, smoke started filling the engine hatch. Todd checked again to find the belt was smoking. Well, our spare was a dud since the spoke was somehow locked in place. Doh! Luckily, we were just 300 yards out of the harbour, so we motored back to port by battery power. It was still too early for any store to be opened…and to wait for one to open to purchase a new alternator meant waiting until 9am. By that time, the morning bite would be just about finish and there was little point heading out. So we called off the trip.

So…I was up at 7am ready to fish. I decided to go back to my grandma’s apartment to grab some gear, then took the bus to Kailua for a 4-hour kayak/fishing excursion.

I got there at 9:30am. After watching a 10min safety video, I got my rental kayak From the rental shop, it was a 100 yard distance to the beach. A relatively short “portage” really, especially since the kayak was placed on a cart. :lol: There were enough straps to strapped down my backpack, rod case, and most importantly, my dry bag and camera/underwater housing.

I was kayaking alone in a fairly popular and lifeguard beach. Even though it was a very calm day of 2kt wind, 1 foot swell and little current inside the protected reef, I didn’t want to get out too far…so I stayed within the reef. I paddled about 300 yards out and rigged up my rod with a bottom fishing rig, consisting of two hooks attached by dropper loops and a 3oz weight. Initially, I had shrimp on the bottom hook and a 1.5” twister tail on the top hook, but nothing was hitting the twister tail and the shrimp had all the action…so I fished shrimp on both hooks after a while. :lol: The current was blowing toward shore, so the drift carried me from deeper water to shallower water. Basically, I was fishing between from 12 feet of water to 8 feet of water.

I was getting lots of hits, but the smaller fish didn’t take the hook fully in. I was hoping to catch my first goatfish. On my second drift, I got a good hit and had a decent fish twisting and pulling. I pulled it up and it was a 10” saddled wrasse. I’ve never seen one this big before, so I took a picture.



I kept working the reef little by little, each drift slightly further east to cover a good 300 yards of shorelines. On my sixth drift, I caught a smaller saddled wrasse. Then on my seventh drift, I snagged bottom and lost my rig. I almost got carried back to shore during the 10 min that it took to re-rig. :lol:

It was about time for me to return the kayak. On my second last drift, I hooked into a 11” cigar wrasse! It was not a goatfish…but it was a new species!



On my last drift, I hooked into a 7” lizardfish. I’ve caught too many of them before, so I didn’t even bother taking a picture :lol:

Now, landing the kayak was a little interesting for a sea kayak noob :lol: I picked the right wave to surf in, which surprisingly carried me all the way in. The problem was that my kayak hit bottom, and another wave came in, hit my kayak, turned my kayak broadside to the wave and almost flipping it over. Everything in the kayak was swamped. Luckily (or because I was prepared), all my valuables were kept dry in the dry bag and the camera was in the housing. However, my reel was filled with sand, my backpack was wet with saltwater and I was drenched head to toe :lol: Lesson learned :roll:

Anyways, in the hot noon hour sun, everything actually dried pretty quickly. My face, arms and legs were left with a very nice layer of salt. I bet it is good for my skin :lol: I got back to the rental store and had freshwater to rinse out all my gear…but that sandy, saltwater soaking proved to be the undoing for my reel…more on that later :?

That afternoon, my cousin and I went snorkelling at Hanauma Bay. This is a Marine Reserve. The bay was formed when the ocean broke through the walls of a volcanic crater to form a shallow bay. I love snorkelling in this location due to the large number of fish species even in very shallow water. There was a protective reef about 150 yards from the beach. It was safe and calm enough for my cousin.

I took my camera as I snorkelled. However, the tide was filling in during our visit and the water was quite murky. I guess due to the cold water temperature (relatively for Hawaii), the quantity of fish, and the number of species of fish, was much reduced from what I had seen in May, June, or August. I did take some so-so pics of some of the fish that I saw. Something magical did happen. When I was searching around for the next photo subject, I saw a teenage green sea turtle. It was just an absolute thrill to share a few minutes with this magnificent creature. It did not appeared afraid of me as I trailed behind it. As it swam for deeper water, I had to bail and return to shallower waters. In the murky conditions, it is probably not wise swimming around a young turtle. They are prey items of big tiger sharks afterall :lol:













Bikini shot



Rooster on the beach



April 28, 2009 – Day 10: HH buoy reloaded

Todd called me up yesterday afternoon to say the new alternator was installed, he checked the boat over again and everything was running good. He asked me to join in for a shakedown run.

So off we went again at 6am toward HH buoy. It was a super calm day so the fishing might be very difficult.





Our friends the coast guard…not the Kittywake but a bigger boat



Fishing is much easier when the conditions are rough. When it is dead calm, boat noise easily spook the schooling tuna. Just as we thought, trolling for tuna was extremely difficult today. We spotted schools of busting tuna, in schools that were much smaller than the size we saw on our first trip. Not only was the quantity of fish reduced, the fish were also more aware of boats. We got lucky with 1 yellowfin tuna on the second pass, but that was it for the day. We tried running and gunning different school, but before we could even approach the school with our spread, the fish would stop feeding and they went deep. After a few hours without any action, and other boats in the area were equally empty-handed, Todd and I returned to port at 10am.

A whole lot of nothing…



In the afternoon, my uncle and aunts invited me on a cruise trip. The public transportation on Oahu, aptly named TheBus, also operated a daily ferry service aptly named TheBoat. This ferry shuttled people from Honolulu Harbour to Kapolei. For the whooping price of $2, the 1 hour boat ride allows you to see Honolulu and the southwestern corner of Oahu from sea. I’d say that’s a great deal! Before we board the boat, we took some pictures of Honolulu Harbour near the Aloha Tower.











That evening though, our family got together for dinner again. We had deep fried oysters, fresh stir fried abalone, spicy stir fried clams, sweet vinegar pork chop and a few other dishes. It was a feast!





April 29, 2009 – Day 11: Bamboo Ridge and a local celeb!!!

Jason wanted to take me to a fishing spot with a lot of history. We had wanted to visit this spot 2 years ago, but the conditions were always too rough. This time, I got lucky with calm conditions and we had the chance to go. It’s a spot called Bamboo Ridge on the eastside of Oahu.

This location is famous for catches of ulua (giant trevally) from 30-100lbs. Aside from the big game, the cliff side spot offers good catches of small game such as surgeonfish, Hawaiian chub, wrasse and snappers. Generations of fisherman had helped to build this spot into what it is today. There is now a concrete platform where a canvass shelter was erected, completed with beach chairs. Holes were bored into the ground where rods were mounted on the lava rocks for fishing and for rigging up lines. A couple of long gaffs were secured on one wall. I asked Jason “Does anything ever get stolen here?” (Since theft and car break-ins are prevalent in some areas of Oahu) “No, no one dares to steal anything from here because everyone knows what the stuff looks like. If they find out who stole from here, people will take matters into their own hands and will be justice.” The amount of work involved in building this place showed the dedication and camaraderie of the Hawaiian anglers. Everyone was welcomed to use the place as long as it was used with respect. I don’t know where the picture of the shelter went…so I only have this for you. You can barely see the top of the shelter in this shot.



Jason and I rigged up a rod each to dunk. While Jason casted at least 100 yards from the cliff and avoided a ledge, my cast ended shorted and caught the ledge :roll: I couldn’t break off the 40lb leader…so I had to ask Jason for help. After breaking off, he re-rigged for me and cast the rod for me. I need practice!

Then we rigged up the spinning rods. Basically, we were fishing a weightless float rig. On our mainline, we attached a float. We spliced 6lb fluorocarbon to the mainline with about 8 feet of leader. To the leader, we attached a #13 MZ hook. Jason showed me how to fold a quarter slice of bread onto the hook, leaving some of it spaded out and fluffy. Basically, we wanted the bread to look as natural and to sink as slowly as possible.

Hooked up the bread was easy. Hooking the fish that bites the bread was hard. These fish were highly pressured and they can bite around the hook. You really had to hope that a piece of the bread stayed on and wait for a fish to make a mistake. After 2 hours of feeding fish, I got lucky. My float went down hard and the hookset was solid. A bull fight began. The fish desperately dug for bottom trying to find the refuge of rocks. On the other hand, I kept my drag tight to prevent the fish from reaching the rock. If I let the fish run, my line would certainly cut on the bottom. All I could do was use the rod to cushion the surge of the powerful fish. Eventually, the fish was tired after a few long minutes. I swing the fish up the 10 foot cliff and ended with another new species. It was a 13” sleek unicornfish…just shy of the 14” legal limit.



My friend fishing for small game.



After I released the fish, I continued fishing the bread. Soon, I found some small giant needlefish hitting my bread. Their bony snort had no soft tissue where the hook can penetrate. I tried to fish curly tail for them but again, the hooks were not sticking in. When I went back to bread, I had a 3lb barracuda inspect my fluorescent orange float :lol: I caught one more small rainbow wrasse. My rod did ring for a quick moment. When I retrieved the line, the bait was still present though with no bite marks. It could have been a crab or a lobster.

I was grateful that Jason took me to this unique piece of Hawaii.

In the afternoon, I fished with another good friend of mine. Stan Wright was a co-host of the fishing show Hawaii Goes Fishing and a guest of Let’s Go Fishing. Needless to say, I was fishing with a great local guide. I invited my cousin along since she has a short day at school. I also want to give her the chance of catching some larger fish.

At Lake Wilson (Wahiawa Reservior), our main target today was the large red devil cichlids that had been on the chew. There were also other species in the lake including largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, peacock bass, bluegill sunfish, channel catfish, oscars, snakeheads and Chinese catfish…just to name a few.

Stan offered me his 4-wt fly rod. Stan tried to teach my cousin to use the fly rod and she was able to flip a few short cast. However, she switched to the spinning rod after one nasty tangle. She also managed to catch Stan a couple of times :lol: On the fly rod, we were fishing a small fly similar to a beadhead woolly bugger without the hackle. My cousin was fishing a 2” white senko weedless. Stan and I hooked into many red devils…too many to even count. We were getting hits since we were able to cast more precisely in and around areas tight to shore, emerging grass or downed trees. My cousin didn’t get hit, but she did play a few fish on the fly rod. I think I was more excited than she was :lol:

In any case, here are some pictures of our 3-hour session.

Stan’s friend Clay



Anita’s fish



Release



Stan caught a red devil cichlid with natural pattern (90% of wild red devils look like this…but 90% of the red devil in the lake are red, orange, white, or something in between with black markings :lol

The natural



Different coloration of the same species of fish









One of the many double-headers



I managed to land my personal best bluegill (10”).



April 30, 2009 – Day 12: Kaku madness!

A friend I met on the kayaking board had been landlocked since he had back surgery. He was hoping that during my visit we could fish his backyard for ‘Awa’awa (Hawaiian tenpounder…aka ladyfish), kaku (great barracuda) and ‘Awa (milkfish). His backyard was a brackish pond. Most of the time, a sandbar closed the entrance to the sea. As the rain (freshwater) collected the salinity of the pond changed. Recently, a heavy rain washed this sandbar away and the pond was now affected by the flush of seawater during high tides.

Our strategy was to troll small flies, lures or live mollies for ‘awa’awa and kaku, then hit the flats where giant milkfish were found grazing on the limu (seaweed). Since my friend Ji had a bummed back, I carried most of the heavy items to the dock and helped load the outrigger canoe. Ji’s wife saw that we didn’t have much luck trapping live mollies, so she grabbed a small net and caught a bunch by hand. :lol:

Ji rigged up a light trolling rig with a live molly while I rigged up one of the flies that Ji bought online. We trolled to the flats without getting hit, which Ji found unusual. Ji thought it might have something to do with the salinity change in the lake. About 200 yards from the flats, we saw the water frothing with activities. Ji said that sometimes, the barracuda are rushing schools of small tilapia or anchovies. He had seen 4-foot barracuda totally airborne diving at bait schools. As we got closer, we discovered that the commotion was made by schools of large milkfish. These fish were easily over 10lbs. There were also some in there that I would guess were over 15-20lbs.

Since milkfish are vegetarian, they feed on seaweed. Ji and I had tied up some limu flies to imitate clumps of seaweed. We fished these for about a hour, sight casting to grazing and tailing ‘awa. However, the flies were ignored. I was desperate enough to wrap fresh limu onto my fly hook in an attempt to hook one. Ji even bought out a large treble hook and tried snagging one just so he could find out post mortem what these fish were feeding on :lol: Alas, our blasphemous efforts proved futile.

Having enough of this frustration, I put on a Zara Puppy topwater lure in black/silver finish. I thought it would imitate a frantic tilapia quite well. Maybe I could find a barracuda or two. On my first cast, I was caught totally unprepared for the destructive hit and smoking run of a barracuda. The fish hooked up but it ran under the canoe on a light drag, wrapped around the outrigger and got off. My Zara Puppy had some impressive paint loss from that first hit :lol:

Seeing my success, Ji put on a pearl/red Zara Puppy from my box. Here we are, anchored on the flats, casting blindly and getting hits, follows or violent hits on almost every cast. It was soooo much fun it was almost a crime! :lol: The barracuda average 18-25” long. Do not ever underestimate these little “babies”. They are designed like a missile, hit like a missile, fly out of the water like a missile, and have serious set of fangs. Ji was fishing braid and broke off two of my Zara Puppy’s. The line broke above the wire leader though. At the end of the evening 4 hours session, my Zara Puppy was a mangled puppy…with holes punctured into the plastic body, the back hook pulled out completely and paint missing everywhere. :lol: I think we ended the session with 4 barracuda each. Even though most of the barracuda missed the lure, it was just fun seeing the fish v-waked up to the lure from 10 feet away. Several times, a fish would miss the lure on one side, smoked it from the other side and missed, and smoke it again and again. It was some wild action for sure! Ji even tried breaking off the lip of a shallow running lure when he lost both of my Zara Puppy's...and it worked too :lol:

Here are some pics.

Feeling good.



The first topwater cuda



Other lures worked too!



My big one of the day



After fishing, Ji, the great local host with aloha loa nui, treated me with a great Korean plate dinner and a cold beer. I had dinner with his family. Even though I have just met him, I found a lifelong fishing friend already.

May 1, 2009 – Day with family

My uncle invited me to a Japanese buffet brunch…nuff said :lol: Food was amazing and then my aunt took me shopping for an aloha shirt (they are call aloha shirts in Hawaii…NOT Hawaiian shirts!). Every time I visit, they bought me an aloha shirt :lol: I took it easy in the afternoon and spent some time with my grandma, Anita and my uncle.

May 2, 2009 – Day 14: I just can’t get enough

Fishing for topwater kaku (barracuda) was so much fun that I had to go back for seconds. Ji had most of the gear loaded up this time because his sons were out fishing the day before. I just hopped into the boat and off we went.

When we were on the flats, Ji tried to toss in some bread to see if we could chum up the ‘awa (milkfish). While Ji tried to snag one of the milkfish again, I tied on my last brand new Zara Puppy. Fish were not as active as the last trip. In fact, it took about 15 mins before I hooked up. 8O Yeah, we were spoiled on the last trip :lol: My first fish of the day was actually my big fish of the day.



Ji gave up on snagging the milkfish and joined me on the action. He had a box of topwater lures and he gave each one a try. Some produced better, others were ignored.

At one point, a barracuda missed my lure, so Ji followed up with his lure on the next cast and hooked up! Here’s the fish he “stole” from me. :lol:



So for the rest of the afternoon, whenever one of us had a blow up where the fish missed the lure, the other person would follow up with another cast. We actually got a few fish partnering up. It reminded me of musky fishing actually :lol:

Of course, we were having so much fun we’re throwing shakas around.



And one for the road for me.



We ended the 3 hour session with 5 barracuda each. It was so much fun fishing with Ji. The constant action certainly helped, but Ji also has this infectious personality. I’ve definitely made a new fishing buddy and I said to him “You better call me up when you visit Toronto!” I certainly hope that I get the chance in the future to show him around.

May 3, 2009 – Day 15: Digging deep for a last new species

Time was ticking down. Today was the second last day on Oahu for me. Before I left, Todd saved a last trip to the Penguin Bank. It was calm with light wind today. Todd brought some bait so we could do a little bit of bottom fishing. Since our target location was 30 miles offshore, we left at 4:30am.

Once we were on the bank, Todd set out the spread and we trolled all the way to our bottom fishing spot. We were hoping to find a mahimahi in the blind…but it never came. Actually, finding our bottom fishing spot was a bit of a challenge. The GPS/sonar in the boat was having poor reception and couldn’t establish links to 3 satellites. So for a while we were navigating with a hand held GPS without the depth charts. About 2 miles left to go, we finally locked in on all 3 satellites. Strangely, when the GPS is not locked in, we couldn’t operate the sonar. Don’t ask me why or how…it was just a design flaw in that unit.

Since it was a weekend, there were other boats around. There was one boat close to us with the same idea so we had to watch them as we drifted side by side. Todd rigged up the bottom fishing rig with a 3lb sinker on dropper loops with two hooks about 2 feet and 3 feet above the sinker. We dropped the rig using the tuna sticks and slowly bounced the bottom with chunks of yellowfin tuna. There are lots of bait stealing fish on bottom such as filefish, surgeonfish and triggerfish. Our hooks came up empty too quickly, so we switched bait to squid strips.

We repositioned the boat once in a while when we have drifted off the ledge. The top of the bank was about 27 fathoms and we were fishing a step-like ledge. On the third drift, my rod started shaking. I cranked the line tight and “Hanapa’a!”

We had the drag set pretty tight since the mainline was 120lb and the leader was 80lb. But even on the heavy gear, we had several occasions of stalemates where the fish couldn’t take line, yet I couldn’t crank in any line as the fish tried to dig deep. After about 3 minutes, the fish came up from 170 feet of water. I was surprised that the air bladder did not protruded out of the mouth. But I guess 3 minutes gave the fish enough time to burp out the air as the pressure changed. At first, I thought it was a kahala (greater amberjack) when we saw deep colour, but once the fish came up to the surface, it was clear that I caught my first uku (green jobfish aka grey snapper)! Another new species This fish was about 8lbs. There was light iridescent blue on the fins and the chin areas, but the camera couldn’t capture that beautiful blue. It didn't help that my shadow was cast on top of the fish...but there was no where on the boat where the shadows could be avoided. :?





We made 3 other drifts hoping to add another uku or maybe pull up a kahala to add one more to my list…but that single uku was all the action we got. So we sent out the trolling rig again and trolled toward home.

I took over the wheels and Todd placed cushions out on the deck to enjoy a nap. While Todd was sleeping, I saw a humpback whale tail slap about 500 yards from our boat. A little further, there was another humpback whale about 2 miles away breaching. At first, all I could see was white water exploding. When we got about 1.5 miles away, I was able to see the white flippers of the whale. I wished we could get closer to the whale to take a few pictures. However, the whale appeared to be on a steady course moving away from our direction. Still it was good to see a whale breach 8 times within 5 minutes.

We made it back to port without any rods going off. I guess my marlin or wahoo will have to wait for another trip, another time. As always, I helped to take down everything, rinse the boat and trailer and scrubbed the deck. I actually enjoy doing it and I’m sure I’ll miss fishing with Todd on his boat. It was a sad moment when Todd dropped me off and we sad goodbye, but I’m sure I’ll be back someday…hopefully sooner than later.

May 4, 2009 – Day 16: A hui hou

A hui hou - ‘Til we meet again. I spent most of the day with my family as much as possible. In the morning, I had a dim sum brunch with one set of aunt and uncles and my grandma. After brunch, we went to my other uncle’s apartment and got some pictures of Cianna so I can take them to my aunt in LA and for my mom back home. Before my 9pm flight, I had dinner one last time with my cousin, uncle and grandma. I was always an emotional moment saying goodbye to my grandma, since she babysat me for 6 years before she immigrated to Hawaii. I was always close to her. She’s 78 now. I hope she remains healthy and I can visit her in another 2 years. Take care grandma.

And thus, my Hawaii trip was concluded. I had a lot of plans for my trip, but some of them didn't pan out. The water was a little too cold and I scrapped my surfing lesson. I only got out on the kayak once for 4 hours when I was hoping to spend a whole day kayaking...for a couple of days. I also wanted to spend more time fishing the flats, but there were always other fishing plans that sounded more interesting :lol: I bought my 10-wt fly rod hoping to get a bonefish on the fly, but I'll have to wait until next time.

I was glad that I came to find a mahimahi, and I lucked out. I wanted to spend some time with my family and we had a great time. I got my cousin fishing a couple of times and I hope her dad will take her fishing while I'm in Canada. I was hoping to spend some time bottom fishing and we got one chance to do it and caught a nice uku. I even got lucky and had the chance to swim with a green sea turtle! Overall, this trip was a great success in all aspects.

I had a 5 hours night time flight to Los Angeles. I would arrive at 5am in the morning. From Los Angeles, I would take a Greyhound bus to San Diego and spend a few days there before return to Los Angeles on the weekend. Stay tuned for my San Diego and Los Angeles report

[jkman]

Nice going Ken! Hawaii is in my bucket list.

[MuskieBait]

Hawaii is a darn nice place to fish...but sometimes catching can be difficult.

Many locations in Hawaii are confounded by one of two challenges...or even both...

1) High lava rock cliffs that are over wave swept and dangerous to fish, not to mention the eroded lava rocks that can crumble into the sea

2) Shallow sandy bays with reefs that are difficult to present bait into deep water without a decent cast (50 yards+), and the constant snagging on the reefy/rocky bottom.

But there is a good variety of fish to be caught...if you can get your bait pass the Saddled Wrasse (hinalea) or Green Damselfish (mamo).

Still...I would fly there and fish there in a heart beat...