i've been here on kauai for the past 5 or 6 days. from my experience and talking with some locals the shore fishing is not very good this time of year (october - december).
lots of people are taking boats to head out and catch some ono, ahi, and mahi.
there are some smaller fish that keep close to the shore. i do not recall the names. i've seen local fisherman on almost every beach i've been on. they have not produced. the surf is incredibly rough now and the current will easily drag a 155 lb man right out to sea (speaking from experience

)
i've seen alot of conventional set ups with chunk bait.