This month, I’ll share some special insights into topwater whipping for ulua and papio.
Along with many other kinds of reef fish, ulua, papio and ‘o‘io regularly visit Honokohau Harbor to cruise around looking for good stuff to eat. They find it in the schools of iheihe, aholehole, tangs, hinalea and other bait fish, which they can ambush between the boats, the piers and the harbor walls.
When they swim by the charterboat NIGHT RUNNER, Capt. Shawn Rotella tosses them a few chunks of bait, or whatever other tasty bits are left over from the day’s offshore fishing. As the pieces drift down, the ulua and papio race to get there first and gulp them down. If, however, Shawn or his crew Jah Nogues sticks a hook in the bait…
