Makahiki Days 15 & 16

RobHall on his ScupperPro

Roman aka Romz1

Reed(sp?) aka DocHall

This past Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th were days 15 & 16 for me.  I wanted to change things up a bit and found a few guys that were going out somewhere other than the N.Shore.  After a few PM's on the forum and some text messages the time and place was set.  It had been a crazy week at work and damnit I needed to take it out on some fish. 

Saturday

At 7am I met up with DocHall, RobHall and Romz1 from the Aquahunters forum.  I had actually parked at the wrong launch but a quick phone call to Doc squared that away and was soon unloading my gear at the correct launch point.  Romz was already there and basically ready and waiting on everyone else.  

The morning looked promising with a clear glassy shine on the water and light trades from the ENE.  We all headed out into a small shorebreak, nothing too major. Timed the sets and off we went one by one.  

Rob was the first to hook up with a nice size Kawakawa hitting on his trusty Rapala. The morning was quiet after that and I wasn't getting any hits on my Yo-zuri minnow or trolled Ballyhoo. I had stopped to rig up a Rapala and let the 'hoo drift down in about 120' of water. After finishing up tying the Rapala I went to pull up the bait and felt some weight but no tugging.  "Aw Crap." Stuck. I started to boost it a bit and it gave, but still had some dead weight to it. Great, I'm pulling up a piece of coral or an old boot.  Once I had it about 20' under, I saw orange, still thinking it's a piece of coral. Then it spread itself out.  Woohooo! Tako!

I had been in this situation before and lost the last Tako because I didn't have a gaff or kage with me. This time I was ready and had a kage at hand. I brought it up slow to see if it had a good hook up. As soon as I saw that it was hooked in the thick of the hood, I knew it was mine. Reeled it up to the leader and gave it a shot with the Kage. It hit but didn't stick and just seemed to piss it off. It shot to the underside of my Revo and wrapped itself in my mirage fins. After some shifting around I finally got a good shot but it still didn't let go of the underside of the yak. One of the other guys, Doc, saw my fumbling around and came up to lend a hand. He took his gaff and was able to hook it but it then wrapped itself around the gaff and when Doc went to hand it to me the lil' bastard shot under Doc's kayak. Queue the "Benny Hill" theme music. 1 Gaff, 2 bent Kages, 2 grown men and 1 little 6 pound Kraken and 15min later I finally got it up and bit between the eyes to vanquish the monster.

That was the highlight of that day and I was happy to paddle in with something to put into the cooler. 

Romz was the day's big winner with an Uku that bit on a Halalu and an Aha (c&r) and also a few other keepers. Doc had caught a Nunu (see pic) at the tail end of the paddle, also c&r and I'm sure would've have been an Aquahunter's record fish. 

This was a long day, I hadn't realized the time and ended up being on the water longer than I had anticipated.

Hrs logged

0700 - 1530

Sunday Day 16

There were some miscommunication between a bunch of us and half of the crew ended up on the N. Shore at Haleiwa and me and RobHall were at the same launch as Saturday. The day was windier than the previous but we decided to get out there but stay within the bay. We found a spot sheltered by the surrounding topography and did some bottom fishing. I was lucky enough to find some great spots holding Moana Kali and Weke Ula and started bringing them up almost every drop and two to three at a time on the damashi. I had my livewell with me so I kept a few to use as bait. Once I had enough of that area I paddled out to about 100-150' and dropped a small live moano to target some Uku. I lost a few of the baits due to fumbling hands and the ones that I did drop down were chomped with some nice clean bites, yet no hookups.  

Rob had been trolling some Opelu and got bit hard a few times but also didn't hook up. Looks like we both were sporting rubber hooks fishing for the bigger prey.

We both came in around 1pm to some decent shorebreak. We timed it right and were able to come in without a huli or yard sale.  

Good times both days.

 Hrs logged:

0700 - 1300