By Terry Wilkison
Well another fruitful day of fishing thanks to my S4! went out at 2am and fished one of the wrecks off the west side of the island and scored some nice aweo aweo and menapachi. Once the sun came up I headed 3 miles south to hunt for live bait and was able to find a small school scoring 4 nice opelu. I caught the bonita about 5 minutes after sending the first bait out. after him I had a larger tuna on but he kept switching directions in a way they don’t normally and the hook must have opened up the hole and it pulled about 15 minutes into the fight. After that something cut me off through 100lb fluorocarbon (most likely a wahoo). I made my way to to the spot I’ve grown fond of and sent out another opelu, 20 minutes later I caught the yellowfin. I got a scale the other day from amazon so I can add legitimacy to my fish stories, the Bonita was 12lb (average) and the shibi was 25lb, nice eating size. I ended up trading the bonita for some ribeye steaks (steak brings a premium here) and will divide up the shibi with friends. The red fish are a treat for the wife. The pole holder in the saddle hole works good, I’m only running 12 lb drag so I’m not to concerned about it. I’m down to fine tuning my setup now. Still playing around with ideas for a truck ramp but not sure if it will really be better than my dolly setup…. I can launch straight from the bed now I just have to walk the boat up the ramp when I get back, my main problem is the extra weight of the fish! A problem I’m happy to have!
Thank you very much Terry,
These fish look extremely good! 🙂
Paddling 3 miles in the ocean to get bait fish is not an option, and even with an electric motor it would take too much time. But your story proves that when you have a seaworthy S4 kayak that works as well as a motorboat, you gain an extra dimension of flexibility and mobility, and such a side trip becomes possible.
PS – Loved the ribeye steaks story! 😀
Yoav