Oahu 2009 [Day 1 to Day 4]
Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 7:08 pm
Hey everyone!
First off...just want to say thanks to everyone here on this board who have offered help over the internet and in person. I had wanted to fish with many of you, but time was tight and I didn't get to fish with many of you. I hope to stay even longer next time and meet more of you. Special thanks to Stan of course for taking me out fishing with my cousin.
Evan and Ji, I've thanked you already on the other board...but I can thank you again. 
Second...I didn't mean to disappear. After you read my full report...you'll understand why I had disappear for a week
Third...if you can't tolerate my rambling...just look at the pictures, scan for some valuable information and let me know I have a bad case of verbal diarrhea
Anyways...here it goes...
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
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
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.
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.” 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?
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
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
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 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.
First off...just want to say thanks to everyone here on this board who have offered help over the internet and in person. I had wanted to fish with many of you, but time was tight and I didn't get to fish with many of you. I hope to stay even longer next time and meet more of you. Special thanks to Stan of course for taking me out fishing with my cousin.
Evan and Ji, I've thanked you already on the other board...but I can thank you again.
Second...I didn't mean to disappear. After you read my full report...you'll understand why I had disappear for a week
Third...if you can't tolerate my rambling...just look at the pictures, scan for some valuable information and let me know I have a bad case of verbal diarrhea
Anyways...here it goes...
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
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
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.
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.”
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?
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
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
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
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.