After the Titanic-themed morning on Thursday, our original Captain Jeremy felt bad about putting us on a sinking ship and took us out for an evening of bait-fishing. Each evening before a charter, the captain of the boat speeds out in the dark to fish for scad mackerel or ‘opelu as the Hawaiians call it. This 6-10 inch fish serves as the perfect bait for mahi, ono, ahi, and just about any other big fish cruising around the fishing buoys. Fishing for the ‘opelu was interesting and once you got the technique down it was pretty easy. We put out into the main channel and jigged for the mackerel with miniature glowing hooks. Since ‘opelu have such soft mouths, setting the hook has to be done gently and playing the fish to the boat is important so that you do not rip a hook right out of their jaws. Between six of us, the live tank was filled with 30 fish in under an hour with a good time had by all.
On Saturday morning, we stood red-eyed and ready on the deck of the floating Kai Akua and rumbled out of the harbor for a two hour ride to our fishing spot. The sky was getting light as we pulled up to our intended destination and lines were immediately put into the water. The first reel started to sing and I had a fish on. Adrenaline coursed through my whole body as a worked the fish closer to the boat until finally the ahi was gaffed and pulled into the boat.
The boat saw two other bites and two other “small ‘kine” yellowfin pulled in but nothing else. We cruised through one section of water that appeared promising that was teaming with dolphins, a good sign of other fish, but had no other bites for the day. We headed back in to the harbor where we took some pictures and then filleted our catch of the day and realized we were the only boat to catch anything that day. For the next day until we left I enjoyed fresh delicious ahi which was the perfect meal to end our stay on Maui. Overall we had a wonderful time and would highly recommend this trip to anyone who would be on that side of Maui for any length of time. Captain Jeremy Webb of the Kai Akua is a standup gentleman who runs a great ship.
