Innholdsfortegnelse for August 1977 i Hawaii Fishing News

HIATT PRODUCES THREE NEW PENDING WORLD RECORDS ■ The Fourth Annual Hawaiian Invitational Allison Tuna Tournament started off with a blast, Monday, July 11, when 64 big ahi and 3 marlin were caught and brought to the scales from among 62 statewide, foreign and mainland teams. As the weighing went on far into the late hours of the night, judges and weighmasters wilted and lost their voices, despite broad smiles indicating that this looked like the start of the greatest ahi tournament ever. Fishermen and boats stayed in line for up to an hour and a half waiting for their turn to scale their fish. Tuesday was more of the same with 56 ahi and 3 marlin weighed in. At the end of five days of heavy fishing, First Place…

If you haven’t learned how to “put one down,” you are putting yourself down as a marlin fisherman. “Putting one down” is local parlance for trolling with a live bait, and it designates an extremely effective way of catching billfish. ■ A live bait is not a dead bait rigged to look as though it might still have a little flavor left. It is an honest-to-goodness gill-pumping, tail-wagging, skin-shimmering baitfish ready to tantalize the pallete of any predatory gamefish across whose rapacious gaze it happens to quiver. Baiting billfish is a method with a lot of plusses and only two minuses. The live bait is an almost irresistible target, meaning a sure strike once it is spotted by a fish on the prowl. Nearly every strike is a hook-up since…

■ July started off as a tournament month with the Maalaea Boat and Fish Club Independence Day Fishing Tournament. The tourney attracted a smaller number of entrants than usual as a result of the many other activities available on Maui on the long weekend. All told there were 70 entrants who ventured out of the various Maui ports in 28 different boats. When the weekend was over, a total of 110 fish had been weighed in at the club scales. Big winner of the three day event was Henry Lai Hipp who boated the largest fish of the tournament, a 49½-lb ulua. That fish also netted him a prize for largest ulua of the event. The marlin category went unclaimed as did the mahimahi category. I am sad to report…

The 1977 Billfish Tournament in Kona is going to be bigger and better than ever with some new first-time ever foreign entries and two of America’s brightest TV stars. Among the foreign nations enrolled in the competition for the 19th Annual Billfish Tournament are the Royal Suva Yacht Club Game Fishing Association anglers of Fiji. Brazil has entered a team led by the famed international angler Oscar B. Bezerra. Mexico has an exciting team from the Club De Yates De Guyamas skippered by Mexico’s great champion big game angler, Ernesto Zaragoza. Coming all the way from the British West Indies will be the Bermuda Anglers Club led by Captain Keith R. Winter. And speaking of the British, they will have a new group of top anglers entered from the exotic…

RAINBOW TROUT FISHING SEASON OPENS ON KAUAI The Division of Fish and Game, Department of Land and Natural Resources, announced today the opening of the annual rainbow trout fishing season in the Kokee Public Fishing Area on Kauai beginning Saturday, August 6, 1977 and continuing through Sunday, September 25,1977. Anglers may fish daily for a period of 16 consecutive days from August 6 through August 21, thereafter, for the remainder of August and throughout the month of September, trout fishing is permitted only on Saturdays, Sundays and State holidays. Prospective fishermen must have valid 1977-78 Freshwater Fishing Licenses before fishing in the Kokee PFA. Good fishing can usually be expected from all of the fishing areas during the opening weekend of the season, particularly in the Kawaikoi Stream, Waiakoali Stream,…

SEWING A CRAB NET 1. To start your crab net, string up a piece of foundation cord (#24) and tie your start of your netting cord to this foundation cord with a clove hitch. Sewing is done by a shuttle. A 24” diameter crab net usually takes 30 meshes of 3” eye (legal size is 2”). 2. Using a 3” (1-½” width) meshing gauge stick, work from left to right until you secure 30 meshes on your foundation cord. You should have completed your first row. 3. Now work from right to left on your second row using sheet bends at the bottom of the first row of meshes. 4. Repeat this process, working your way down left to right, right to left, and so on until you have completed…

■ As a result of the continued disregard for the needs and desires of Hawaii‘s fishermen by local, State and Federal governments, there is a new organization growing slowly amongst the recreational and commercial fishermen of Hawaii. The organization is being called the Hawaii Federation of Fishermen, and so far it includes a number of prominent Maui County fishing clubs who now seek to broaden their base by appealing to fishermen and fishing clubs throughout the state of Hawaii. Late last year the Congress of the United States held investigations into the state of the nation’s fishery. Fishermen from all over the country attended and the two who represented Hawaii learned many things. First, they learned just how small the Hawaiian fishery is compared to the fishery of the rest…

■ Here are two stories about fish that didn’t get away. The fish in these anecdotes are marlin—caught in unusual, somewhat comical ways. While the action at the time had little to laugh about, looking back after it is all over and the pressure off, it is possible to reflect on the humor of the situation and to marvel at how lucky we were to come out so well. The first of these stories took place in the Alenuihaha Channel while returning to Honolulu from one of my annual visits to Kona. I had with me Vic Sukamoto, my regular fishing partner, now gone to his reward, and Dana Grey. The weather was rough—not small craft advisories, but “caution is advised due to marginal wind conditions in the major channels.”…

I was just up at the HIATT tournament headquarters on Tuesday the 12th and there was already plenty of action. After having brought home nearly 12,000 pounds of ahi on day one, the contestants’ catch was already twice Monday’s rate by Tuesday’s ten o’clock radio roundup. It was next to impossible to avoid getting caught up in the excitement. I’d like to draw your attention to the role radio plays in the tournaments. Most of us can’t go out there with our own boats to run among the tournament teams and see these talented sports fishermen in action. Without the radio roundups you could only wait for a verbal report at the end of each day. With the radio, however, you can follow a lot of the action as it…