Fishing O'ahu?

[coastal_dan]

We are planning on taking a trip to O'ahu to visit some family and celebrate my wifes B-Day for about 10-12 days in February/March.  I've done quite a bit of reading about the various types of fishing possible in Hawaii...my thoughts are to take my Okuma travel medium rod with me and my Okuma Cedros with 20 lb braid on it to do some surf/jetty fishing.  I'd also like to do a shared charter or kayak fishing trip...anyone here have recommendations/comments/tips for an East Coaster heading to the mother of all fishing places?  Beyond excited...

[maxpowers]

Wrong information.  YOu should check with the charter to see if you are allowed to keep the fish you catch.  One charter that specifically said you can is "start me up sportfishing".  I meant to say I had the wrong information regarding fishing in Hawaii.  3 different Mainlanders fished Hawaii and told me they were not allowed to keep fish they caught because only native Hawaiians were allowed to harvest the fish.

[coastal_dan]

Sorry but are you saying I have the wrong information?  Still doing my research .  One charter I've looked at said anything over 100 lbs stayed with the boat, anything under got divided up 50% for the boat 50% split between the customers.  It is surprising how many billfish are kept there, whereas on the east coast billfish are majority catch and release.

[alantani]

many boats keep part or most of the fish and sell it to offset the costs of their trips.  it actually makes sense because most tourists would not know what to do with 100 pounds of fish, anyway!  if you get to the north end of the island, check out chupu charters.  http://www.chupu.com/  jessee lovett used to own the boat, but i just checked the website and i did not see his name. he might still own the boat but just not run the trips anymore. 

[coastal_dan]

Makes sense Alan.  I visited the Chupu.com website, doesn't look like they do shared trips.  I am in touch with a kayak fishing guide as well as a shared trip boat.   So we shall see; weather may make it difficult this time of year.  Looking forward to catching some Papio and snapper surf/jetty fishing too.  We are going Feb. 26th to March 9th.  Nice long vacation.

[Bryan Young]

Aloha Dan,

If you will be shore fishing, I highly recommend visiting Brian's Fishing Supply if you are staying in town.  If you are staying at Ko'olina, then I would recommend Ewa Beach Buy and Sell.  Both stores can easily be found searching the internet.  You would be able to pick up the fishing regulations as well.  At this time, there are no license but there are regulations to help the sustainability of the fisheries (finally!!!).

As for boats, I don't go on charters in Hawaii, so I would recommend fishing charter searches with one of the following areas:  Honolulu, Hawaii Kai, Ala Moana, Kewalo Basin, Waianae, Haleiwa, Wailua, and Kaneohe.  If you would like to keep some of the fish that you catch, you need to negotiate that up front with the charter.

These are the main boat harbors on Oahu.

Good luck and have a blast.

BTW, Hawaii is having a awesome Papio and O'io run this year.  The fish are plentiful, but there are size limits.  Those are my two favorite shore fishing targets...strong fighters, awesome runs, and just plain fun to catch, release, and eat.

Aloha,
Bryan

[coastal_dan]

Thanks Bryan!  I've got some researching to do!

[smnaguwa]

See if you can get a copy of Hawaii Fishing News. There is info on current/past month fishing activity. They also have a calendar with target species for different locales, off shore, inshore, etc. Good luck! Hanapa'a.

[coastal_dan]

I'm finding that I love some of the words/phrases in Hawaii, in all my research I've had to Google search a few words and there are some solid words that are just down right cool.  For example Smnaguwa just said Hanapa'a, so of course I had to look it up... "...it is frequently used as a slang to mean "hook up" or "fish on". Thus, throughout Hawaii, whenever a fisherman has a strike, he yells, "HANA PA'A!!!"  

And Aloha can double as a greeting and a farewell while being a word full of good vibes toward fellow man - "Aloha in the Hawaiian language means affection, peace, compassion and mercy. Since the middle of the 19th century, it also has come to be used as an English greeting to say goodbye and hello."

Yet another cool part of fishing someplace new is learning about the culture.  Ok, back to research!

[Bryan Young]

Other important words to know are:

Mahalo - thank you
Kokua - Help out
Kane - Man - especially important when selecting the proper restroom.
Wahine - Woman
Keiki - Child

[Tightlines667]

If you are thinki g if fishimg the north shore check out the Foxy Lady

http://www.hawaiifishingnews.com/charter_d.cfm?ID=24&OrderBy=BoatName&Island=Oahu&RecordPos=3

Or the Live Bait out of Wainae.  Hawaii Fishimg News has alot of great information.

[coastal_dan]

I've been checking Hawaii Fishing News, great site.  Only issue I'm finding is that some of their information might be a little out of date, but that's the way of the interwebs.  I called two different charter companies that numbers are out of service as well as a few of the websites for the charters no longer being hosted, no biggie though quite a few companies out there to use.  Thanks all for the great input, bought our tickets yesterday for the flights and got the vacation request approved; guess the hard work is all done! Haha.

[BMITCH]

I love that you bought the tickets first THAN got the vaca. Approval. Now that's commitment!!!

[coastal_dan]

I learned to do that a long time ago, haha.  "Well, I bought the tickets so it is what it is...."

[Desert Guy]

I fished with these guy's a few years ago. The others in my party got sick so we came in early but we landed a Marlin, about 400 pounds and a Yellowfin, about 135 pounds over about 4 hours.

http://www.live-bait.com/