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
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.
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
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
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