Thread: Kawahai on lightweight setups

Originally Posted by Black Rabbit

Till now, I still can `t figure out what is the best way to cook it. But Kawahai is really good for sport fishing, and I find the lure fishing is the best. Last year I tried to use ultra light gear in CHCH at the river mouth. My rod is only 1.55m long, ML action, 0.4 braid line with 10lbs lead line. I am sure my setup will hold and the feeling could be like fighting with a king fish. The picture is in Auckland, everybody knows where is. I used 2.4m ML rod, 2.0 braid line with heave leader say 50lbs. Yeah, I did caught lots of Kahawai, just this fish has no taste at all....

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try it Samoan style fillet and cut of any red meat cube it and marinate for 12 hours in lemon juice - drain that of and add one tin coconut cream - a little chopped onion - I like a little parsley or coriander - salt black pepper - try that really good -

Originally Posted by Hahn

Very underrated fish here. I used to feed them to the cat... Now sometimes I smoke or curry, but the best way is age for 5-7 days and sashimi with soya and wasabi. Like these guys do: https://www.fishing.net.nz/fishing-a...ading-the-way/

My cats loves all the fishes that I caught, except Kahawai. I tried every methods I know how....dry age, wet age with different ingredients from western cuisine, Indians and Chinese....maybe I am too picky about foods

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

try it Samoan style fillet and cut of any red meat cube it and marinate for 12 hours in lemon juice - drain that of and add one tin coconut cream - a little chopped onion - I like a little parsley or coriander - salt black pepper - try that really good -

Yeah, I did once and this maybe is so far the only way to get rid of the particular smell of kahawai.

Tomorrow, it looks like I'll be trying out my newly created kahawai set-ups but later today I'll by putting my newly acquired fish&game license to use and hopefully catch me a trout, fingers crossed.

Originally Posted by Black Rabbit

Yeah, I did once and this maybe is so far the only way to get rid of the particular smell of kahawai.

It does have a distinctive smell. Not everyone can smell it. I can tell when a kahawai has been in my chilly bin after the event. I made a beautiful plate of kahawai sushi for my family once. They couldn't get enough of it and I was gagging after my first bite. That said, I have come around to eating cooked kahawai, but it must be killed quickly, bled, gutted and iced properly.

Originally Posted by MB

It does have a distinctive smell. Not everyone can smell it. I can tell when a kahawai has been in my chilly bin after the event. I made a beautiful plate of kahawai sushi for my family once. They couldn't get enough of it and I was gagging after my first bite. That said, I have come around to eating cooked kahawai, but it must be killed quickly, bled, gutted and iced properly.

persist with it people its a very underrated fish - I like it egg and bread crumbed pan fried fresh and yes its gill bleed - but then I can tolerate fish that is not ya bland crappy blue cod - now go up the east coast and you will be served Kahawai boiled in a big pot - and the way it is eaten is butter a piece of bread take some kahawai and onion close it into a sandwhich and munch - its damn good trust me -

Originally Posted by Black Rabbit

My cats loves all the fishes that I caught, except Kahawai. I tried every methods I know how....dry age, wet age with different ingredients from western cuisine, Indians and Chinese....maybe I am too picky about foods

Bleed them straight away. Cool them down immediately. No fresh water on them ever. Brilliant in fish cakes.

dont tell locals on the East Coast ya dont like kahawai ya wont come back -- staple diet up there -- rate blue cod along with herrings

Man I love kahawai, but then again i eat a lot of fish plenty of others tell me are shit fish, like spiky dog (winter only), kelpies and other wrasse, Jock Stewart's, hell even a barracouta that's clean of worms will make some of the tastiest smoked fish you'll ever have.


Key things I've found for any fish are to iki it, gut it and straight into an icy salt water slurry.
People I know wind up with a couple feeds worth after a trip, man I'm eating for a week by looking beyond my 2 cod and couple of snapper

Especially the 5 piece kahawai
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wiCv-6...VjZSBrYWhhd2Fp

I did it! It wasn't that hard really. Learning points... you have to try to succeed and secure your braided loops.

Caught about 15 before work the other morning after stumbling across a boil-up, on a very lightweight rod from Temu: using 12-pound braid and 6-pound leader with a small shinny wobbler also from temu.

Cut the gills and let them bleed out in the tinney before knocking the heads off and guts out taking just the split frames home. Smoked them up and they were yum. Gave most to friends, family and neighbors with many becoming pies or part of a spread. Delish.





I have ever really understood the hate the humble kahawai gets and catching them on light gear is some of the most fun I have had fishing. Thinking about keeping the fly rod in the tinney for a cheeky flick next time.

I took a mate out this weekend who hadn't really done any lure fishing, and he had a blast on the lightweight temu rods, haha. There were lots of bends and screaming reels.
Harvested another 22, put out a lively on a thicker rod to hopefully get a king but no cigar. BBQ was working overtime, smoking them up this weekend.0
Forgot to load the fly rod in