Redneck heading for Hawaii. HELP!

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well! After not fishing for a good year or so, I am long overdue for some time on the water. Next Saturday my buddy and I are flying out to Hawaii for the first time. Neither of us have ever been to Hawaii, but after a year like the one we had our wives got together and surprised us with a pair of tickets to Hawaii with the express purpose of fishing! We will be on the Big Island near Hilo (East side of the island?). A friend of ours has a house somewhere near Ahalanui County Beach Park. He will be loaning us a large 2 person jet-ski so we can do a little fishing. Unfortunately, he does not own any kayaks

Since neither of us have ever been to Hawaii before, we do not even know where to begin when it comes to packing gear. We have room to bring a total of 6 rods. But I was hoping some advice from the group to point us in the right direction. Here are a few things we could use some help with..

-First of all, what types of fish are available for us to target? From my research I see that there is everything from Mahi Mahi to bonefish to blue striper. Any recommendations on what we can target in the area we are in? We are open to bank fishing and off shore fishing suggestions. Ideally we’d like to catch stuff we can eat, but we’re just looking to have a good time.

-What type of gear should we bring? Like I said, we have room for 6 rods (3 each). We have rods for pretty much every occasion but we're not even sure where to begin. I was going to do a heavy set up (heavy 6’6 jigging rod with 50-80lb braid), medium setup (medium action 6’6 jigging rod with 40 lb braid), and a light rod (either a 9’6 or 10’6 steelhead rod with 8-10lb mono). Thoughts? Suggestions for higher or heavier gear?

-On to tackle. Should I bring spinners, spoons, kastmasters, bottom fishing gear such as plastic lures and jigging set ups? Advice for trolling bait? I plan on buying some stuff when I come down, but I feel like if I knew what I was targeting I might be able to bring some of my own stuff and save a little coin.

-General thoughts/advice on fishing in Hawaii?

I apologize for the million questions. I wish I had more time to prep but I figured some of you have spent time fishing in Hawaii and am hoping to glean from your experience. I registered for an account over at Aqua Hunters but from searching some of the threads on AQ from newbies with similar questions as mine, some of those threads are as quiet as a mouse fart. Thanks again for any help that you could provide. If anyone is interested in tagging along and fishing with us we would be more than happy to have you tag along.

Thanks again everyone!
Paul

Kayakfishinghawaii.com. Has some good intel on fish under 'Hawaiian Fish Species'. They offer guided kayak fishing trips too.  Doesn't hurt to hire a local to get a fast education on the fishing in a new area.


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I rented from plenty pupule in kona a couple years ago and will be renting from their Lihue shop next month.

several threads from people headed over there, might be of help.   Use "Hawaii" in the search bucket,  one thread from as recently as least year.   Good luck, enjoy it over there in the warm water.

Paul!!
Glad to hear you're getting on the water. I'd probably shoot Polepole a PM, I'd bet he can point you towards some good intel.

Welcome back Paul.  We were trying to figure out what happened to you a few weeks back. 
 I was in HI last year and pretty much only caught little reef fish, on squid and shrimp.  I had one large fish follow a silver cast master though. 
 I know, pretty useless info.  Have fun and good luck. 

Outside of the big trips, and with obvious caution to avoid becoming bait yourself, hand snorkel-fishing is fun.  All you need is a spool of line wrapped around a stick from the beach and a jig or attract-er on the other end.  Snorkel along, look for a target, unwind the line/jig, watch the hookup, pull while swimming.  I suggest making sure you have a snorkel that clears water at the bottom of the bend.  Not sophisticated, but something you can do on short notice without dragging stuff along, just pretty fun watching the hookup and doing the pull-up even with a small fish.  A paddle board helps. Watch for teeth on coral eating types.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I also received some really useful PMs from some of you that I plan on trying out. Since the fam is not going with us, we have nothing but time to try to figure out fishing in Hawaii. It should be fun.

Welcome back Paul.  We were trying to figure out what happened to you a few weeks back. 
 I was in HI last year and pretty much only caught little reef fish, on squid and shrimp.  I had one large fish follow a silver cast master though. 
 I know, pretty useless info.  Have fun and good luck.

Thanks Nate. I miss fishing with you guys. The lingcod/rockfish section of my freezer is bone dry. Shoot me a message next time you guys head out for the salt and I'll take a day off.

Update. Found the fish. Nitta rigs are awesome. A fellow NWKA member sent me some before my trip. I bet these would work like a charm back home in the salt for salmon.
Caught this bad boy a mile and a half offshore. It took a half hour to tire him out from the jet-ski. He stripped almost 400 yards of line before I could get a gaff in him. We grilled some and also made some fresh poki right there on the beach.

Awesome!  Tell me ate some right there on the beach!

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You're having FUN!!!  FUN with TUNA... That's not what any of us are doing today.

  Great to see you back on NWKA Paul.

  How did you like fishing off that jet ski ? L think it would all kinds of fun.

  Keep,the photo's coming from Hawaii. You know we like 'em.

  Hope to fish with you on the water this year.

How does jet ski fishing compare to kayak fishing?  Seems like there should be some similarities.

Thanks Mark!

Pete, there were a lot of similarities. Same basic challenges when fighting a fish. The benefit was that you are sitting up higher out of the water on the jet ski and if you need to flip around when the fish changes direction on you it's much easier when all it takes is a flick of the throttle. That said, I'd still take a kayak over a jet ski. I can sit side saddle on my Outback and fight any fish comfortably. On the jet ski the center of gravity was much higher that it felt like it wouldn't take much to lose your balance while fighting a fish and go in the drink. There are definitely pros and cons to both but as you said, lots of similarities.