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The Kona
Fishing Chronicles 8/9
is here for delivery and we are now taking orders.   Volume 8/9 includes the best Kona fishing stories
and
fishing tips of 2008 and carries a 2009 copyright (in case you wondered about the 8/9 designation). This site is completely supported by the sale of books. If you like what you find here, you'll like the books. Buy some to help us keep posting these stories every week. |
| Email: Rizzuto@aloha.net for details on how to mail order. |
VINTAGE HAWAII FISHING COLLECTION LOT 103. (SOLD. Bidding closed at noon Hawaii Time on Friday, March 5, 2010. Look for Lot 104 as soon as I can get it together.) Here’s another chance to immerse yourself in Hawaii-style fishing with lures sold at less than their retail value. The lures offered here come from the collection of a fisherman who was forcibly retired by cancer. We bought his lure collection to assist him with his expenses. Lot 103 (pictured) includes three lures, a new copy of the book Fishing Hawaii Offshore and one vintage Hawaii shirt of your choice -- all five items sold as a set. Though all of the lures we are selling were previously owned, the three in this lot are in excellent condition except for some scratches from billfish strikes. The top lure is a blueback Super Plunger, a lure that reportedly has caught more granders than any other kind. Skirted Super Plungers retail for $85 when new. The lure with the peach-colored head is a Lurex. Made hre in Kona, it features a head that screws off the tail section, which makes it very easy to re-skirt. The third lure is an original Doornob lure, but it is skirted "Kawaihae style," meaning the top skirt fills in the wasp-waist of the Doornob design. The change produces a different look and enticing action. These lures retail for $25 new and the one shown is in new condition. Fishing Hawaii Offshore, also included in the lot, retails for $20, so this collection has a new value well in excess of $150, not counting the shirt. You get to select one shirt from the nine shown to complete the collection. You can judge the size of the lures by comparing them to the book, which is 9-inches high by 6 inches wide.  The shirts are “vintage” clothing, meaning they have been “broken in” for you but are clean and in good repair. Wear a Hawaii shirt to get into the right frame of mind to fish in the Hawaii way.  Select the shirt by size and color when placing your offer. (Top row, XL; middle row, L; bottom row, M). ABW shirts (already been worn) from Hawaii sell on the internet for from $10 to $125 depending on age and maker. For comparision purposes, we are showing the price list from a recent estate sale, but we are making no claim to any specific value for the shirt.  The collection is sold together as one unit. Best offer over $85 gets this collection. Submit offers before 12:00 noon Hawaii time on Friday, March 5, 2010. Email Rizzuto@aloha.net with your offer. Posted 03/08/10 SMALL BOAT, BIG CATCH. Fishing from the smallest of the 27 boats entered in the March Queen K. Tesoro Dirty Dozen Fishing Tournament, Mike Oshiro and Fred Uchima caught a 476-pounder to take the $2,600 jackpot. Their catch also puts them in second place for the Queen K Tesoro Cup with a $10,000 prize. Mike and Fred caught their fish on a live bait towed behind Mike’s 17-foot, outboard-powered, Krista O. Live baits even the score for small boaters when they compete against big boats trolling lures for fish attracted to their big wakes. Despite the difficulty of catching bait on Saturday, the Krista O boys hooked their fish on a 10-pound ahi they caught in the ahi koa. They hooked their winning marlin at 1:30 pm. Fred fought it to the boat in about an hour and a half despite the fact that it nearly spooled their 130-class reel on the strike. The cash prize for largest marlin was to be split with the largest ahi, mahimahi, or ono, but no one caught a qualifier, according to Queen K Tesoro reporter Jessica Williams. Teams aboard Sundowner, Topshape, Tropical Sun, Blue Hawaii and Kona Pearl II caught mahimahi but none beat the 20-pound minimum qualifying weight, Jessica said. Krista O also entered the optional-entry billfish categories and won more money to bring their total winnings to $4,850. The day’s tournament catch also included four spearfish weighing 18-to 42-pounds – much too small to challenge the billfish winners. Tesoro Oil Company also donated $200 worth of fuel credit cards, which were distributed among eight participating boats. “We had the biggest entries yet and biggest winnings ever for Dirty Dozen,” Al Gustavson of Queen K Tesoro said. “The tourney is starting to really take off and we are very happy with it.” In the past, Mike’s Krista O has been a major competitor in most small boat tourneys, including the wide list of events sponsored by the Kona Iki Trollers. Mike has been off the water for a while and his winning 476-pounder was his first catch of 2010 in the first tournament he has entered this year. “We are back and we are competing with a vengence,” Mike said. And he has 4,850 billfish bills to back him up. BILLFISH FIREWORKS FIVE MONTHS EARLY. Like Independence Day fireworks, the spectacular fishing we celebrate in summer can be touched off any time of year. Like last week, for example. Monday, Bite Me IV caught a 170-pound tuna, two spearfish weighing 30 and 35 pounds and a 604-pound blue. They also “pulled hook” on a 350-pound blue behind the boat. Two days later, Bite Me IV skipper Brad Damasco and crew Andy Diehl caught a 514-pound blue. In between they caught mahimahi and other spearfish here and there. Just like summer. They got all of their bites – even the tuna -- on lures made by Eric Koyanagi, a local lure maker who lives in Holualoa, skipper Brad Damasco said. As often happens with ahi, they hooked their 170 on the first pass through the “porpoise school.” Then no more after that. The reason? Take your pick: (1) there is always just one gullible tuna in every school, (2) the tuna learn to stay away from lures on their own after they watch their schoolmate get hooked, (3) the wise old dolphins keep the tuna away from the lures as soon as they realize what is happening, or (4) tuna behavior makes no sense even to the tuna. The 514-pounder presented a special problem because they hooked their fish on 50-pound-class line and took an hour and a half to get it up. By then they had drifted into shark territory. They had hooked the marlin on the “Grounds” over 500 fathoms but were in with the sharks when they reached 200 fathoms off Makalawena. “There were sharks all over us,” Brad said. “We tossed buoys and got the sharks to play with hooked baits attached to the floats. The sharks ate the tuna sashimi and let us pull the marlin in untouched.” Even though the 27 boats entered in the Queen K. Tesoro Dirty Dozen tournament caught no marlin over 500 pounds, others in the fleet had one of the best “beast weeks” of the year. In addition to Bite Me IV’s 514- and 604-pounders, and Lightspeed’s 601-pounder, Stacy and Greg Ambrosio caught a 620 on Malialani and Bill Brownlee a 585 on Miss Mojo. Kona Concept tagged and released an estimated 500-pounder. ANOTHER FISH AND WHALE TALE. With more humpback whales here this year than we have seen in many years, we have been ruminating on their interactions. Fish may have more reasons to hang around whales than you might suspect. Rod maker Jeff Andrews told us about a recent scene he watched from an overlook off Naalehu. A whale had given birth to its calf and the water was filled with afterbirth. “Ahi up to four feet long were jumping out of the water,” Jeff said. “We saw other fish, much bigger, swimming around the whale with their fins sticking out of the water.” Sharks? “I’d guess that the whole family of fish were there somewhere,” Jeff said. “The whale and its calf were protected by the herd.” KEVIN’S ROYAL SLAM. In order to complete a billfish “royal slam,” Atlantic and Pacific anglers have to trade oceans. The black marlin, striped marlin, and shortbill spearfish are mostly restricted to the Pacific. The white marlin and longbill spearfish are primarily Atlantic species. The broadbill swordfish is found everywhere. The blue marlin and sailfish, too, but the Atlantic and Pacfic varieties are considered to be different. Kevin Nakamaru, skipper of the Northern Lights, needed only the Atlantic sailfish to have filled out his list of all billfish species and varieties, Florida skipper Jimmy David told me. Jimmy is in the story because last summer he fished here with Kevin, and the David family caught eight blue marlin and six ahi in a single day. “When Kevin told us he was coming to Florida for the Miami Boat Show we were very excited,” Jimmy said. “We knew the Atlantic sailfish was the only billfish Kevin needed to achieve the royal billfish slam and we wanted to be the ones to help him get it. My family and I caught live bait for hours, re-spooled all the rods with new line, made extra rigs, and left nothing to chance. “Kevin, my mate Wes Stevens, my son James,10, daughter Laurel, 7, wife Debbi and I left Key Biscayne early one Wednesday morning. After running down the coast we set up two fishing kites each baited with three live baits and another three lines fished below the surface. “Around 1 pm Laurel started yelling that a sail was after the left short kite bait. Kevin grabbed the rod, dropped back, and hooked the sail perfectly. At that instant another sail grabbed the left long kite bait. After waiting for hours to hook a sail we now had a double. After a fifteen-minute battle Kevin had his fish to the leader and after some excellent wiring by James we put the 75-pound Atlantic sailfish in the boat. We put the baits out once more and Kevin released another sail to cap off another excellent day. “As far as I can tell Kevin is the only one to complete a billfish royal slam with three different species of billfish weighing over 1,000-pounds." KILA KILA’S BIGEYE TUNA SURPRISE. Large bigeye tuna –over 200 pounds, say – are an uncommon sight here. When some lucky fisherman does catch one, it’s usually at night, down in the depths during the summer. So gorilla bigeyes were not on Capt Teddy Hoogs’ mind when he got a strike while trolling Kila Kila back from the Tsunami Buoy on Thursday. They were just four miles from the buoy with another 22 left to get home, and the seas were nasty. With no indicators of a tuna school showing – no bait, birds or big splashes – Teddy and crew Josh Bunch were startled when a reel started screaming. The line had been pulling a large black “lunger” lure, which made them think it might be a marlin. Then a second hole opened up under another lure. Teddy and Josh were now dealing with two large fish. When neither jumped and the fishfinder showed big marks below, it was time to start thinking “tuna.” John Katzenstein of Chicago, Illinois, pulled in the first fish after a tough struggle hampered by the rough water. The 153.5-pound bigeye was bigger than expected, but the best was yet to come. Christina Yu, John’s wife was having a lot more trouble with her fish. No wonder! Christina’s turned out to weigh 211.5-pounds. After a half-hour battle on sloppy seas, Christina now tops the Big-Fish List with a bigeye big enough to hold the title for a long time. Or, at least, until someone else stumbles blindly across a similar tuna school far offshore.  KAYAK KAWAKAWA WHOPPER. In the sibling rivalry between kayak-fishing brothers Steve and Andy Cho, Andy just scored 23.2 more points. Andy caught a 23.2-pound kawakawa to take the lead in our Big-Fish List. Andy hooked the big wavy-back bonito using a live opelu towed behind his kayak. He weighed the fish on a certified scale at the Kona Seafood market in Honaunau. He submitted a photo taken by phone, which is good enough to verify size and species, but we do prefer a high resolution image from a digital camera. In most cases, phone photos don’t have enough resolution to publish. Andy’s 23.5-pound catch sets a high mark. The largest weighed here last year was 20. Steve gains some points, too. He took the photos and submitted the information for his brother. Nice guy. HOLOHOLO TAKES LOVE2FISH TOURNAMENT. Theresa Oswald, President of the Paradise Fishing Club, captained the Oswald family boat Holo Holo to victory in the annual Love2Fish Tournament, a benefit for Hospice of Kona. (We awarded Teresa the honorary captaincy because the event celebrates St. Valentine’s Day. Husband Robert will undoubtedly agree for the sake of harmony at home and at sea.) Paradise club member Mike O’Toole completed the team and pulled in the winning blue marlin after a strike late in the day. Holo Holo has been a lucky boat this year. The Oswalds hold second place in the cumulative point total for the Queen K Tesoro Cup. Mike says the winning fish hit at around 2:45 pm as Holo Holo trolled north on the 1,000-fathom line. Mike saw the fish stalking an Islander lure baited with a ballyhoo and trolled from the long rigger. To tease the lure into striking, Robert speeded up and slowed down. The new action -- darting and dropping back – worked. The fish swallowed the lure and took off jumping, Mike said. The result was always in doubt because the lure was rigged with a small single hook on a relatively light (for marlin fishing) 200-lb test leader. That was just for openers. When they did get the fish to the boat, they had no flying gaff because the Oswalds always release their marlin. A stick gaff would have to do. And it did right in time because the leader broke when Mike gaffed. Robert and Teresa added more gaffs, then a bill and tail rope. The fish was too big to be pulled aboard, but would it be big enough to beat Gary and Momi Sheehan’s catch on Hei Mana? The Sheehans had boated a 358-pound blue and looked like they would be sure winners. Mike and the Oswalds had measured their fish, and the 95-inch “short length” suggested that the Holo Holo catch might not even break the 300-pound mark. Adding even one more complication, it looked like the Holo Holo catch might not make it back to the scales before they closed and would be disqualified anyway. As we said earlier, the Oswald’s have been tournament-lucky and their good fortune continued despite a day full of potential mishaps. Their 379-pound blue marlin took the $3,225 first prize. The Sheehans got lucky, too. They won the “couples” prize – a honeymoon trip to Las Vegas. (Technically, Mike, Robert and Teresa don’t qualify as a “couple.”) Hospice benefited greatly, too, though the actual amount wasn’t available at press time. This year’s tournament honored Capts. George and Phil Parker. Both legends of Kona fishing. FRIENDLY HUMPBACKS. Our humpback whale visitors seem to get friendlier year by year. Regardless of how much fishermen try to avoid them, the humpbacks get in the way all on their own. When Arnie Wolfe was fishing his favorite uku hole off Mahukona, a whale approached the drifting boat, blundered into one of his lines and hooked itself. “I finally cut the line after almost being spooled," Arnie said. Good thing he let it go. I don’t know the rod-and-reel record for catching humpback whales, but I think it involves jail time. INCREDIBLE SCENE ON GROUNDS. Big fish are not the only reason to head offshore these days. At times, the scene on the Keahole Grounds has been a wild combination of the circus, Ice Capades and American Idol auditions all in one. The characters range from the smallest – frigate mackerel less than a foot long – to humpback whales weighing tens of tons. Mark Barville was out there several days this week and reported back on the activity whirling around his boat. The frigate mackerel, oi oi, are thick, Mark said. “They start at NELHA and continue to the top of the Grounds,” Mark said. “They go from top to bottom from 80 to 150 fathoms, and they continue out to 300 fathoms (although they swim deeper in a continuous slope as you head out).” The oi oi move around in massive balls, Mark said. “That is fascinating to observe on my depth recorder,” Mark said. “There were a few times when, as though on cue, thousands of fish started jumping out of the water at the same time. It was like being in a heavy rain.” The next day “ was nuts out there,” Mark said. The stenos (a type of bait-stealing dolphin) were also out in force, terrorizing everyone, Mark said. For some unknown reason, great gams of whales moved onto the Grounds to enjoy whatever was attracting the baitfish. “All the whales suddenly chose to just hang out where all the fishing boats were, Mark said. “It was odd that they didn't dive or swim away. They just lay there like logs. Even with all the boats around they just didn't budge. “The porpoise were spending quite a bit of time right next to the whales,” Mark said. “Then they left and the whales started breaching. At first the breaches were here and there, Mark said. “But then they were jumping completely out of the water everywhere around us,” Mark said. “Spectacular.” Which gets us back to a question we’ve been asking every week during whale season. What effect do the whales have on the fishing? The oi oi bit with abandon. If you used them for bait, they got crunched by Galapagos sharks and stenos. If you could keep a bait alive long enough, you still had a crack at a marlin swimming with the whales, sharks and dolphins. That’s how angler Ed Grace on Northern Lights caught the biggest marlin weighed here last week – a 587-pound blue. WING-TIP, WHITE-TAIL MARLIN ON NO MERCY. Capt. Doug Lanterman and his wife, Admiral Linda Lanterman, recorded last week’s largest tagged blue marlin. Blue marlin change colors during the fight, signs that they are still strong, vital, and not always blue. On this fish, the tail turned chalk white, Doug said. “It also had a broken bill with what looked like a wing nut on the end.” No Mercy was over the 1,000-fathom line off the Grounds. Doug’s helper Ken Ferrier let out a large pearlhead lure with black and pink skirts on the short corner rod. “What should appear following the lure but a fin and tail!” Doug said. When the fish didn’t take the lure immediately, Doug slowed the boat down to give the lure a different look and the marlin pounced and raced off. “We put Michelle, Ken's wife, in the chair with the 130-rig and she quickly said she couldn’t hold it so we put Ken in the chair,” Doug said. “The next thing the fish was heading right back to the boat and we were at the leader.“ Doug grabbed the leader, took one look at the fish and said "Not yet." This time the fish turned tail and took off with lots of dancing and shaking, Doug said. A half hour later, they had the fish back running with them just under the boat. Doug sped up No Mercy to keep her out of the props but she kept her head down and there was no way they could bring her up to tag. “At 70 my strength isn't what it used to be,” Doug said. “Linda had the tagging pole at the ready and Ken, after a few tries with the leader, finally got her up close enough for a miss at tagging. The white tail was something I hadn't seen before. We finally got the tag in, recovered the lure, and cut the leader as she powered back to the depths.” WHALES A GOOD OMEN FOR MARLIN? Some anglers avoid whales because they think the big bruisers are dangerous, the gamefish avoid them, and the law says you have to stay away. The whales, themselves, are scofflaws. Sometimes you can do everything possible to stay away from them but they keep intruding on your fishing. That can be good or bad, as the Sea Wife II discovered last Friday afternoon. Skipper Chris Kam was on the Grounds working a pod of dolphins at the 500-fathom notch in hopes of catching ahi. Each time he tried to get in front of the dolphins, a pod of whales popped up and got in the way. Chris had heard that ahi feed under whales, too, but he did not want to take that chance. He trolled away from the humpbacks and immediately hooked the largest blue marlin tagged and released here last week. They got the fish to the boat in about 40 minutes and pondered why the marlin and tuna seem not to be bothered by the giant whales. For me, I think of it as the “goats and turkeys” effect. When you drive the upper road between Waimea and Kona, you regularly see many goats and turkeys feeding along the side of the road. They pay no attention at all to cars whizzing by at 55 mph just a few feet away. The whales are just another non-threatening part of the environment to be ignored. Dear Jim: A couple of weeks ago, I was watching one of the TV fishing shows (Hawaii Goes Fishing, I think). During the show they constantly referred to their catch as onos, ahis, uluas, mahis, etc. What's with the plural? Aren't fish species names singular/plural. Like you don't hunt deerS, do you? Anyway, I thought you might like to comment. To me, if you get a chance, or in your column for all the others that picked up on dat kine lolo talk! Aloha, Wally Camp Wally: I've given up on trying to teach proper terminology, though I do my best to use the terms correctly, myself. I don't watch the fishing shows because I get really irritated by the commentary (and because I don't have the time). One show asked me for a critique and got really pissed when I pointed out all the messed up terminology and the inaccurate fishing information. They sent me a brief thank you and made no changes at all. Most of the fish names are Hawaiian and you know the Hawaiians never put an "s" on a word to make it plural. Best to follow the Dr. Seuss rule: "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish." You can catch a hundred marlin (note, no "s") but there are four marlins in the world (blue, black, white, and striped). So, there is no "s" on a plural (two trout, three bass, five bonefish, six mahimahi) but there is an "s" if you are talking about different kinds of fishes. There are two mahimahis in Hawaii, the standard dolphinfish and the pompano dolphin. A title like "Fishes of the Pacific" is correct because they are talking about different species of fish. But when a local guy says "I wen' catch five mahis" you have to consider the source and know you are never going to change him and I am happy to ask him how he "wen catch dem dakine mahis" I have talked about this in my column in the past, but no one is paying attention. I also hate the term "fishers" which is now in vogue for fishermen (a "fisher" is a type of bird). I figure "fisherman" can be as gender nonspecific as much as "human." And if we want to keep from offending women by taking the man out of fisherman, maybe we ought to start by taking the man out of woman. I note that when I watch the women's basketball games, the lady commentators always refer to the defense as either "zone" or "man." So the women play "man" defense and are damn good at it. Jim MORE....... |
POSTED 3/2/2010 WHALES AND AHI IN SHALLOWS. Add another story to your file on the effect of whales on fishing. Capt Greg Kaufman skippers Reel Pleasure out of Kawaihae Harbor and trolls the South Kohala coastline for mahimahi and ono. Whales have been everywhere and much of the fishing day involves avoiding them. Whales don’t worry much about steering clear of boats, however. As Greg and crew Asa Sugitan trolled the opelu koa off Mahukona, the reel holding the stinger line started screaming. Just then, Greg saw several humpies pass under his lines and said “Oh no!” The “strike” took nearly 500 yards of line and Greg’s fears increased with every inch. The rule is, fight every strike as though it is a fish until you know otherwise. Thatr worked well for Reel Pleasure. The whales kept on going but miraculously the reel stopped running. By then, Greg and Asa had cleared the lines, gotten their charter into the fighting chair and started backing down on their unknown “catch” to recover line. Over the next 35 minutes, anglers Steven Howard and Steve and Jan Webb took turns battling whatever it was on the end of the line. The rod tip began throbbing as it telegraphed the beat of a fish’s tail, a happy message for the anglers. Definitely not a whale, but maybe a shark? After all, they were in less than 30 fathoms so a marlin or tuna had to be out of the question. Eventually, they got their catch within sight and were thrilled when they saw it roll. They had caught something much rarer than a shark or even a whale in the near-shore waters off Mahukona. Their catch, a 193.5-pound yellowfin tuna, had most likely wandered in close to shore to snack on opelu and was not the slightest intimidated by the giant mammals shoving their weight around nearby. It has been years since Greg has caught a big ahi anywhere along the South Kohala coastline so the details are worth noting. Reel Pleasure hooked the fish at 9:30 am on a “New York Minute” lure near the bottom tide when the moon was ending its first quarter. Do that off Mahukona every month for the next three years and maybe you’ll hook one, too. TNT TAKES TOP TUNA. Keith Loveless fishes alone on his skiff TNT. He occasionally hooks fish too big to handle without help. Tuesday, he left the harbor at 6:00 am to target big tuna and searched far and wide without finding one. “I went way up past OTEC and caught only a 31-pound spearfish for seven hours of effort,” Keith said. He eventually found a pod of dolphins at 1:00 pm, trolled through, and hooked a 102.5-pound ahi that was feeding with their mammalian cohorts. He got the fish in, set out the lines and started chasing the tuna-dolphin gang to try for another. The porpoise were heading south along the 1,000-fathom line. Keith caught up, and had to run over the tuna school twice before a yellowfin obliged by grabbing a purple Softhead ™ lure. When Keith got it to the boat and tried to haul it aboard, he realized it was just too heavy for him to get over the side. “There I was dangling the big tuna off the side of my boat waiting for the white tips to show up,” Keith said ruefully. But the charterboat Lehuanani appeared on the horizon heading his way. When skipper Kenny Llanes saw his predicament, he ferried his crew, Ruben Rubio, over to TNT to help. Ruben and Keith combined to lift the fish up over the side and get it safely aboard. Keith arrived at the Honokohau scales with the biggest tuna of 2010. He now leads the list with a very-unusual-for-February 205-pounder. Last year, for example, the largest tuna weighed by the end of February was a 187-pounder, which Keith might have been able to drag aboard unaided. Now that he has caught the biggest tuna of his fishing career (previous best 163 pounds), Keith is rigging for even bigger game. “I’m going to go buy a block and tackle,” he said. BLACK MARLIN ON A FEATHER. Seventy-years ago, the cabin of a typical fishing boat looked like a chicken coop. Back then the standard trolling lure was a lead-head jig dressed with feathers of all colors. Feather jigs worked way back then and they still work now. On Friday, the charterboat Hooked Up stuck out a blue and white feather lure and clucked up the first black marlin weighed here this year. Angler Lou Groebner brought the little six-inch lure aboard for a week of charters with Capt. Chuck Wigzell and crew Rocky Gauron. Lou is a regular customer so Chuck didn’t hesitate to run two of Lou’s feathers on the stinger and the long rigger. When I spoke with Chuck, the modified shuttlecock had clocked in with a spearfish, 100-pound tuna, and the 132-pound black. Chuck found the black at around noon on the “lower grounds” while running south along the 700- or 800-fathom line. Lou fought the fish on 80 and had it to the boat in about 15 minutes. BIG BLUE MARLIN NO ILLUSION. Al Sullivan, jovial owner of the boat Illusions, always sports a devilish grin when he tells me about one of his special catches. This time, the satanic smile was particularly appropriate. Illusions had just boated a 666-pound blue marlin to take the Big-Fish-List lead for 2010. Caught by Al’s long-time business partner John Duncan, the fish officially weighed 665.5 pounds but certainly weighed more when wet and before John’s one-hour battle with it. John might have gotten the fish in half the time, but when you are fishing with the devil, you have to expect to get burned. The first time John got the marlin within reach, it raced ahead of the boat and took out half the line again. John looked at the diminished spool and thought, “This isn’t right.” “They decided I wasn’t sweating enough and kept pushing the drag up on me,” John said. The fish hit a lure made by John Lau of Papua New Guinea and loaned to skipper Steve Sahines by Capt. Bill Ingram. Steve set it out on the second wave, a position where the Illusions gang usually runs a hookless teaser instead. “I figure why put out something a marlin wants to eat but you don’t have a hook on it,” Al said. His vision turned to reality when he looked down from the bridge and saw four-feet of tail behind the lure. John’s fish will catch attention until it is replaced by a bigger one, but John’s wife Sue caught a fish that will live forever. Sue caught a 325-pound blue with a camera crew from Let’s Go Fishing aboard. She’s got it all on tape to show any time Al and John want to brag about their not-quite-a 666. UFC FIGHTER PINS BLUE MARLIN. Matt Hamill a star performer in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, demonstrated a new move he might find useful in his next fight. While fishing on Five-Star with Carlton Taniyama and Matt Losasso, the UFC battler hooked a 559-pound marlin by the rear-end. A tail-hooked marlin can’t be led around by the nose, so this one was free to race away unimpeded and dive. That meant dragging its dead-weight up from the depths by brute force. Usually, the angler raises the fish with help from the boat. He’s a really big guy, so he did most of it by grinding the fish up on his own, Carlton said. That worked out just fine for the camera crew following Matt around to make a documentary of his life in and out of the ring. Matt is a three-time national collegiate wrestling champ and seems to be unhampered by the fact that he is deaf. Knowing Carlton and Matt Losasso, deafness might actually have been an advantage. 20-POUND OMILU OWNS BLUEFIN TREVALLY LEAD. While slide-baiting from shore, Paul Petrill caught a 20-pound bluefin trevally to grab the omilu lead. Paul was fishing with his girlfriend Juliana Kelekolio, both of Ocean View Estates, at a spot near South Point when the neon blue jack ate a live bait at around 6:00 pm. Paul fought it to share in about 15 minutes but it was already too late to take it all the way up the coastline to the scales at Honokohau Harbor. He weighed it at the Fuel Dock the next day and got an official weight and picture to meet the Big-Fish List requirements. CATCH BIG AKU ‘NOWHERE” The key to catching big skipjack tuna seems to be to fish “out in the nowhere,” according to both Robert Hudson and Randy Llanes. On Tuesday morning, Capt. Randy found a 22-pound skipjack for Joe Ermigiotti. The big aku gave Randy’s boat Sundowner the skipjack lead for a few hours. Later that day on Camelot, Capt. Robert and his son Mark Schubert hooked a 24-pound skipjack for Greg Sillake. “I talked with Randy and he asked me where I got mine,” Robert said. “I told him we were out in the middle of nowhere. He told me he got his in the middle of nowhere, too.” Greg’s list-leader hit a small lure running from the stinger and the Calgary, Canada resident pulled it in about 10 minutes later. By then, it was very late in the day and the Charter Desk was about to close up the scales for the day. Weighmaster Heather Goto agreed to hang on until Camelot got back. Robert says he “fished nowhere” every day and hooked a fish every time. His success is very encouraging. There is a lot of “nowhere” out there. UPWELLINGS SESSION UPCOMING. The Paradise Fishing club will host Dr. Pierre Flament for a discussion of upwellings, bait and fishing. Dr Flament’s presentation is scheduled for 5:30 pm, Wednesday, March 3rd at the Kona Vista Rec Center off Lako Street, according to club spokesperson Teresa Oswald. Dr. Flament will discuss how upwellings bring nutrients to the surface to attract small fish, which ultimately attract big game,” Teresa said. The session is free to members and $5.00 for non-members. The club actively encourages participants so be assured that you (and your $5 bill) will be welcome. TROPICAL SUN TSUNAMI. Capt. Dennis Cintas stirred up a tsunami of his own with a seismic wave of big blue marlin. Here's Capt. D's account of his morning billfish action. On Thursday February 25th we hosted 4-Seasons guests James Hutton and his fiancee Celina Notterstein for a full day of fishing. These folks have fished Kona before and many other places around the globe and are quite experienced anglers. The last time James was here with his daughter they managed two striped marlin and a shortnose spearfish. I knew these folks had to be lucky so Ryan and I were excited about getting out and hopefully finding fish. We left the harbor at 7:00 am and looked for an ono or mahi-mahi up the coast before taking the hunt out to the deep. Around 8:45 am we got a bite from a nice 30-pound shortnose spearfish which Celina angled in about 5 minutes. We placed a NMFS tag in the shoulder of this beautiful specimen and made a nice release. About an hour later in 1300 fathom outside Keahole Lt. an estimated 550-lb blue marlin inhaled a Joe Yee super plunger on the short bait and James took the chair. After numerous jumps and a hard fight 20 minute fight James was able to get leader to Ryan Lutes and we got a good tag in this magnificent fish as she swam away healthy. Photos were taken and the James and Celina were elated although ready to call it quits! They told me that this was as much exercise as they could take on this vacation morning and asked if we didn't mind taking them back to the harbor earlier than planned. I told them this was absolutely okay and that we would accommodate them. On the way back to the harbor at about 11:30 am and just crossing the 1,000 fathom line, we were slammed by another nice Pacific blue marlin on the 80 in the stinger position. James once again got into the chair and fought the feisty 200-lb blue marlin to the boat in about 15 minutes. Once again Ryan grabbed leader and I placed a NMFS tag in the shoulder of the fish and she was released in good shape. Two Blues and a spearfish in less than 5 hours fishing Kona. Wow, it just doesn't get much better when you are in the Zone!! "Tight Lines"! Capt. Dennis Cintas Tropical Sun Rainbow runner are quirky. You don’t have to know their secrets to catch them. In fact, sometimes it helps to be oblivious. Bill Casey and Fran O’Brien, captain and crew on Pacific Blue, can tell you what that is like. One day last week they came upon a big floater. The fishfinder showed marks of fish gathered deep. Time to break out the jigging gear and send some metal down to greet them. Fran dropped a six-inch jig down about 30 fathoms and hooked an 8- to 10-pound rainbow runner. He gave the rod to one of the guests aboard the Pacific Blue, who brought it up, boated it, and handed the rod back to Fran for another drop. Down went the jig back to the same level as far (as Fran could determine with no mark on the line to guide him). Two or three jerks and he was hooked to another rainbow runner. Then again, and again. Fran hooked 12 rainbow runner out of 13 drops. Across the cockpit just a few steps away, Bill was also jigging but he was not hooking fish on every drop. When he did bring up a fish, it was always a small yellowfin or bigeye tuna. Fishing the same way from the same cockpit, Fran caught only rainbow runner and Bill caught only shibi. Fran can’t explain the difference, except perhaps that Bill’s jig was slightly larger. Or, maybe it was a slightly different jigging action. The true explanation doesn’t really matter because it probably won’t ever happen again. You seldom catch rainbow runner around floaters anyway. Your best shot to add a rainbow runner to your catch list is to bait with a live opelu and fish it near the bottom under an opelu school. Opelu hang out in water that is about 25 to 30 fathoms deep, which is usually just a half-mile or so from shore. That’s no unbreakable rule, of course. I’ve already said they are quirky. Last Monday afternoon, Captain Bill Murtagh and his son Nainoa, 11, headed out of Keauhou -- homeport of Bill’s charterboat Nainoa --with some live opelu in their bait tank. They had mahimahi, ono and ahi in mind – certainly not rainbow runner. They soon lost their livies when striking fish missed the hook and tore off the back end. So they switched to some dead ballyhoo icing in their cooler. As they skipped their rigged ballyhoo on the surface, two rainbow runner took their ballyhoo. Nainoa fought the bigger one to the boat on light tackle and reported in at the Charter Desk scales with a 16.5-pounder. Nainoa’s quirky catch took the lead on our Big-Fish List, filling a vacant spot. That’s where it will stay until someone catches a bigger one – almost certainly by some entirely different and surprising method. INSHORE FISH COMPETE TO EAT. Five different types of fish – ulua, omilu, oio, kaku and moi – vie to be the shorefisherman’s favorite catch. Sometimes they compete by eating each other. Christmas Island fishermen bait big ulua with bonefish. Early Hawaiians decoyed ulua, omilu and other species with a live omilu. Moi stalk white water coves to pounce on fingerlings of any species confused by the commotion. Kaku, barracuda, bite anything they can grab – including your hand. Even so, Joe Cabuag told me about a first. When Joe caught a one-pound moi on a small scrounger lure, he decided to try using it to bait ulua. He hooked the moi to a slider rig and sent it down into ulua territory on his slide-bait pole. An 85-pound ulua saw the flash of the moi’s silvery sides and gulped it right down. Joe fought the big jack to shore in about 45 minutes, and his brother Paul Cabuag helped gaff it and bring it up onto the rocks. Joe hooked the fish at 1:00 pm on a rising tide due to peak at 3:00 pm. He used a 13-foot Nitro rod with a Penn 6/0 reel filled with 80-pound test mainline. Joe attached the mainline to his slider stop with a double line knot and was very glad to have the two-line connection. “I got lucky because one side busted off,” Joe said. According to first accounts, Joe caught the fish at Kainaliu. If that calls to mind the quaint town up mauka, you might wonder how he could make the long cast to the beach. No problem. Kainaliu designates an beach spot, too. Joe’s “85-pound” ulua is his largest in 10 years of trying and may be the largest reported to us so far this year, but it doesn’t qualify for the Big-Fish List. Joe weighed it on an uncertified spring scale and is making a careful guess at the weight. To compete for the top spot on our list, you need to weigh your catch on a certified scale like the types used in markets and at the Fuel Dock. BIG BLUE WRAP-UP. The secret to catching big blue marlin lately has been “fish early, fish late, and fish in the middle, too.” Garrett Isaacs of Rancho Mirage, California, joined Capt. Brian Wargo and crew Andrew Thorpy for his first fishing trip ever on his first trip to Hawaii. Five minutes after they put the lines out, they hooked a 560-pound blue marlin as they crossed the 500-fathom line. The marlin jumped only twice during the hour-long fight, which made it a tough battle for the teenager. Non-jumpers slug it out down and dirty, never wasting their energy in futile flight. “We just saw a big hole in the water,” Brian said. “Then it took out a bunch of line.” Garrett’s fish was the largest blue weighed here last week. It took a “Bite Me” lure, custom-made for the Bite Me fishing fleet by Randy Llanes. “First day in the water for the lures and we got slammed right away,” Brian said. The largest blue marlin released here last week was a last-minute “mercy bite” on Sea Wife II. Capt. Chris Kam and crew Travis Ota hosted a large 11-member family group that day. Sea Wife II is one of the only Kona boats licensed to carry such a large number of passengers – most are limited to six paying clients. So the challenge was to catch kid-size fish for the kid-size people and maybe something more interesting for the adults. After Chris satisfied the youngsters with aku and shibi, he headed offshore a ways to spy on pods of porpoises and watch some whales. As they headed back home to port, a 500-pound blue intercepted a lure and took on most of the adults aboard. “A couple of people tried out the fighting chair,” Chris. “We credited the catch to Peter Grimsrud because he fought it for the longest time.” Capt. Dale Leverone filled in the mid-day part of the rule with a 542-pound blue on an 11:00 am bite. Dale and friend Bob St. Mane crossed paths with the fish in “no man’s land” out in the deep beyond the Grounds. It was a “classic short-corner bite,” Dale said. They saw the fish coming but it wouldn’t take the lure immediately. They teased it into striking by releasing the drag so the lure dropped back under its chin and then darted forward. When a predator sees a baitfish try to get away, its reflex response is immediate. And that is true any time of day. MAHIMAHI WONDERS. Seven weeks into the year, the Big-Fish List mahimahi leader weighed only 32 pounds. That’s hard to believe even though the lead just changed hands, courtesy of a 35-pounder on the charterboat Anxious. Capt. Neal Isaacs said their 35-pound bull was one of a pair that hit as they were trolling back to Honokohau. Its mate, a cow of the same size, jumped off when they got it close to the boat, but angler Darlene Oliva held onto hers to take the lead. Neal said the mahimahi hit a steel jet lure with a blue/silver skirt over a pink underskirt. That’s a classic malolo pattern intended to copy a flying fish, the mahimahi’s favorite food. Mahimahi will eat anything, even each other when particularly hungry and the relative is bite-sized. Neal carries a two-man crew (Jeff Metzler and Brian Schumaker) because he is getting old, he says. The double crew is especially useful when you are handling a monster fish. “It’s nice to be ready with somebody at the controls and two more guys in the cockpit,” says Neal. So far this year, the monster fish have not been ready to face Neal, Jeff, Brian or anyone else. RELEASES NOT ON THE RECORD. Decades ago, billfish releases were so rare that each made news just because fishermen usually kept all of their catches for market. Now releases are common and many fishermen don’t bother to report them. Take two recent “releases” on Mike O’Toole’s boat True Lies, for example. Mike had Jeromy Reiter and Bob Starry with him and the trio found a current line with bait and birds off the harbor in 1,300 fathoms. “One of the birds kept diving on our lures until it finally got a wing tangled in our stinger line,” Mike told his Paradise Fishing Club pals. Bob reeled in the bird, measured the short length, decided it was a non-qualifier and released it none the worse for wear, Mike said. Later, they came upon a floating piece of net – current lines being especially good places to look for floaters – and hoped some mahimahi had found it, too. Sure enough, several mahimahi raced in behind one of their lures, but wouldn’t take it. “I started to bring the boat back up to trolling speed to try to trigger a strike, but before the mahi could bite, a 225-pound blue marlin piled onto the short corner and sped off,” Mike said. “Jeromy got it to the boat in 15 or 20 minutes but when Bob grabbed the leader it exploded away,” Mike said. “Bob let it go just in time. Jeromy had the drag backed way off and the fish stayed on. Jeromy got it back to leader in another five or ten minutes and we were able to release it this time.” You won’t find either of these two releases in the dock report, though releasing a bird without getting badly bitten is always an accomplishment worth noting. As for the marlin, add it to your notes on the issue of lures versus live bait. With a school of very tasty mahimahi in sight, the marlin chose to snack on a purple Softhead lure. MARLIN ROCK. If you aren’t catching marlin these days, you may be fishing too far offshore. Surfers Pono Kaaihue and his cousin John Allan Funk Jr were getting ready to hit the water at their favorite Kona surfing spot when they saw a big splash. Thinking it might be a shark, they figured they had better find out for sure before jumping in with their surfboards. John Allan worked his way out to a point closest to where they saw the splash and spotted a marlin swimming on its side over the reef nearby. He called for his girlfriend, Becka Fernandez, to bring him a stick to use as a spear. Instead, she brought him a rock, which proved to be much better for the job. John Allan stoned the marlin, then jumped in, stuck his hand in the marlin’s mouth and wrestled with it, Pono said. Though our marlin-grabbing hero is a muscular 180-pounder, the fish took every bit of strength he had to drag it ashore, Pono said. They took the fish to Yama’s Fishing supply, where Cal Lum suggested they take it to the Fuel Dock to have it weighed. The Charter Desk staff posed Alan for pictures with his 140-pound marlin and the stone that slew the Goliath. Odd fact: Before the experience, John Allan told Pono about a premonition in which he found a $100-bill on the ground. Instead, he found a 140-pound billfish aground on the reef. PUTTING THE HURT ON HAPALAKA. On the charterboat Hapalaka, Capt. Alan Borowski recorded last week’s largest blue marlin release, a fish estimated at 700 pounds or more. Alan hosted Sean and Sandra Rippel of Seattle, Wash, for a trip that challenged their strength and stamina. After catching small ahi at OT Buoy, Alan trolled his 28-footer back down the coastline. The big fish sucked in a trolling lure and took off so fast it nearly stripped all of the130-pound test braided line from the 50 reel. They hung onto the last 50 yards or so and started gaining line as Alan closed the distance with the power of effective steering. From there on it was a three-hour slugfest, Sean said. Hapalaka is equipped with a standup fighting station rather than a fighting chair and that worked well for Rippel. “If I had to fight that fish from the chair, I’d be in a wheel chair now,” Sean said. Sean says that Sandra helped with the reeling when he felt like his hand would fall off. Sean is in the tree-trimming business back home and is used to physical activity, but his long battle with the big fish left him sore for days. After he got it close enough to the boat, the marlin dug in and said “no further.” Alan and the Rippels had already decided to release the fish anyway, so Alan cut the leader as soon as he could. No sense fighting for the last 20 feet of leader and hurting the fish beyond its ability to recover. As for Sean’s recovery, he has until he returns here to his time-share next year and goes after a bigger one with Alan. UKU VERSUS UKU. Two uku catches vied for position on the Big-Fish List, and the smaller snapper won. While fishing at Mahukona on his boat Kiana Kai, perennial contender Arnie Wolfe boated an 18.5-pound uku by fishing a live-opelu for bait. “I always keep one bait out on one of my corner rods when I am fishing for opelu or throwing floater lines,” Arnie said. “I’ve had great success doing this. Matt Bumanglag also fished out of Kawaihae and caught a 21-pound uku while drifting with a live opelu for bait. Matt fished on his 17-foot skiff Reely Nauty and hooked his uku at around 2:00 pm. At the risk of being nit-picking, we aren’t counting Matt’s catch for the Big-Fish List. He weighed it on a hand scale and we require an accurate weight from a certified scale. (Arnie weighed his on a fish-market scale.) When accepting catches, we also need a picture to get a positive identification. And we need to know the location of the catch so we can verify that it was caught in the waters off the coast of West Hawaii. FISH AMONG THE WHALES. A week or so ago we pondered the issue of whether pods of whales repel or attract gamefish. Andy Klug has an answer, which he verified by sending me photographic proof. Andy said that his wife took, Aziza inadvertently took the photo of an ono among a gam of whales that had swum up within 10 or 20 yards of them. “They were being very docile and just hanging at the surface so we took some underwater shots and video of the monsters,” Andy said. “When going over the film I was able to pull out the shot of the ono. The fish was right in with the whales and not more than 15 feet from our boat. Next time I'll leave a line in the water. |
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Hawaii FAD Finder Ocean Watch Tides at Kawaihae. Tides at Kailua-Kona. Tides at Hilo. Tides at other Hawaii locations. You can check sea current and temperature patterns by visiting the Navy's Oceanographic Research site. For currents, go to https://www.navo.navy.mil/cgi-bin/animate.pl/metoc/74/84/0-0-17/0. |
Jim Rizzuto is the author of Fishing Hawaii Offshore, the Fishing Hawaii Style Series and The Kona Fishing Chronicles yearbooks. Look for his books at bookstores and tackle shops or visit www.konafishingchronicles.com. |
Courtesy of Heather Goto, Amber Hundall, and Jessica Williamson. |
BIG-FISH
LIST * Black marlin, 132, Lou Groebner, Capt. Chuck Wigzell, Hooked Up. Feb 26. * Ahi, 205, Keith Loveless, TNT. Feb. 23. * Bigeye tuna, 211.5, Christina Yu, Capt. Teddy Hoogs, Kila Kila. Feb. 10. * Striped marlin, 138.5, Rich Rybolt, Capt. Jeff Watson, Bite Me II. Jan 17. * Spearfish, 50, Tom Loomis, Capt. Tracey Epstein, Northern Lights. Jan. 12. * Sailfish, vacant * Mahimahi, 35, Darlene Oliva, Capt. Neal Isaacs, Anxious. Feb. 19 * Ono, 58, Les Brase and Paul Merhib, Good Life. Jan 17. * Kaku (barracuda), 6, Gary Taylor, Sugar Hook. Jan. 1. * Kahala (amberjack), 68, Devin Hallingstad, kayak. Jan 3 * Ulua (giant trevally), 78.5, Mitch Izuno, Shoreline. Jan 30. * Omilu (bluefin trevally), 20, Paul Petrill, from shore. Feb. 23. * Aku (skipjack tuna), 24, Greg Sillake, Capt. Robert Hudson, Camelot. Feb. 23. * Broadbill swordfish, vacant. * Ahipalaha (albacore), vacant. * Kawakawa, 23.5. Andy Cho, kayak. * Kamanu (rainbow runner), 16.5, Nainoa Murtagh, Capt. Bill Murtagh, Nainoa. Feb 15. * Opakapaka (pink snapper), vacant. * Onaga (ulaula ko`aie), vacant. * Uku (gray snapper), 18.5, Arnie Wolfe, Kiana Kai. Feb. 11. *`O`io (bonefish), 8, Tyler-Jay Richardson, from shore, Jan. 31.
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