Innholdsfortegnelse for November 1982 i Hawaii Fishing News

Hawaiian Waters Weather ■ Winter-type severe weather in Hawaiian waters begins this month. Some of the worst weather in the Islands have occurred in November. It is likely that there will be some bad weather days during the month. Mariners are cautioned that the change from good weather to bad weather can be fast. The following are the possible bad weather conditions that can occur: high northwest swell and surf, gusty trade winds, heavy rains, strong southwest Kona winds, squalls, thunderstorms and waterspouts. Southerly surf is down while high swell and surf activity from the northwest direction greatly increase. More than half of the days of the month will have higher than 5-foot surf at Sunset Beach, O‘ahu. There’s a chance of a very high surf, greater than 20 feet…

■ I’ve always said that fishermen are some of the most ingenious people when it comes to thinking and designing techniques that will help them catch more fish, or to just make it more fun. Some techniques are an incorporation of several ideas jelled into one very simplified method. Others are totally original, having taken much thought and effort to design. When it comes to ulua fishing, I have found that the people of Hawai‘i have shown much ingenuity and creativity. Whoever designed the original “slide-bait” technique had an extremely creative mind, or he stumbled on the idea after trying different possibilities until he hit onto an idea that suddenly seemed almost too simple to have required thought. This is not to say that the slide-bait technique has not developed…

■ As this is being written, only the Maui county tournaments (the Lana‘i Rendezvous, the Lahaina Wahine Jackpot and the Lahaina Championship Jackpot Fishing Tournament) have yet to be completed. It’s been one heck of a tournament year! To start with, remember all those big fish! Poka’i Bay started it all off with two “granders” — the first two ever taken in tournament competition in Hawaii And the last event held (read about it elsewhere in this issue), the 1982 Chuck Machado’s Luau Jackpot Fishing Tournament, saw one angler catching over 2,000 pounds of marlin including three of over 580 pounds. Also, all the top seven money-winning fish of that tournament weighed in at 598 pounds or better! Now those are some big fish! The Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament produced…

A diving-accident victim could be any person who has been breathing air underwater regardless of the depth. Gas embolism can occur in as little as 2 to 4 feet of water (70 mmHg) if one ascends holding his breath. Even a well-trained diver may encounter problems because of respiratory medical problems. Asthma, broncholithiasis, congenital or acquired cysts, emphysema, fibrosis, tuberculosis and infection (especially fungal) and obstructive lung diseases may result in air trapping during ascent. This expansion of trapped a may be sufficient to rupture air spaces. The escaping air may cause emphysema of the lungs, the mediastinum or the neck. Alternatively, it may cause pneumothorax. Finally, arterial air embolism may result. Decompression sickness (usually the least serious of the barotrauma illnesses) can occur in any individual who violates the…

■ Newcomers to Hawai‘i quickly find out that papio fishing has got to be the primo saltwater sport here. One can tell just by seeing how much has been written about it. I never cease to be amazed at how much ink, how many reams of paper, how many person-hours of time are wasted on the subject. For some reason, aura of mystery and glamour seems to surround this fish and its bigger brother, the ulua. Superfish, the scribes write. Faster than a slow turtle. More powerful than a dead mouse. Able to leap tall reefs in a single bound. With as full a bag of tricks as Wile E. Coyote’s. I don’t know what the excitement is all about. Fishing for paio, or ‘omilu, as we call the favorite…

■ Hawaii’s commercial fishermen are blessed with many opportunities for catching fish. Trollers check in with albacore, marlin, ahi, mahi and ono; longliners with ahi; and bottom fishermen show up with steady catches of bottom fish. Akule fishermen are hauling in catches year round’ with seasonal peaks; shrimpers are gaining momentum in their field; and Big Island handliners are connecting with the shibi. As these diversified catches are available to all our fishermen, the concept of multiple-use vessels, outfitted to take advantage of more than one fishery, has become popular. A mutiple-use vessel could be outfitted for, as an example, bottomfishing and ika-shibi handlining or bottomfishing and albacore trolling. This would enable fishermen to go after the particular species which is in abundance at the time, allowing the fishermen maximum…

■ If there ever was a good time for an eager fisherman to catch his first long-wished-for marlin, the months of September and October would have been that time. Every year during the early fall, Wai‘anae waters, in the lee of O‘ahu, abound with an influx of Pacific blues weighing between 100 and 350 pounds. Some fishermen have been coming home with three or four of these billfish in their boats. Usually these fiesty longnoses are full of explosive energy, roaring out of the ocean in gyrating leaps when hooked. Amidst these schooling billfish are those beefy females of 500 pounds or better, so one never knows just what might happen at the strike. Most fishermen coming back to port reported that the best lures for the run have had…

■ I am from the island of Maui but am presently employed by Holmes & Narver and working on Johnston Island. On August 29,1982, at about 1300 hours, I was fishing off the seawall at the east penisula of Johnston Island for papio and moana kali. There were lots of stickfish swimming close to the seawall. All of a sudden this big, black thing came up and started after the stickfish. It swam about 10 feet off the wall. It was a 185-pound yellowfin tuna. I took a good look at the fish and told myself, “no way am I going to tackle that monster with a light tackle.” So I watched the ahi until he disappeared before I continued with my fishing for papio. All of a sudden the…

Entertaining nightly — 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. — at the Princess Kaiulani. ■ I had spent a few weeks working on my story on net making when I met Harry Kuakahi, a master in Hawaiian net making. He was on the way to his class at Kamehameha Schools to teach net making while I was about to lecture my class on Hawaiian compositions. Although there are still many who can make nets today, from my point of view of what I saw of Uncle Harry’s works, I have concluded that he is truly a master craftsman. Uncle Harry is now 62 and the father of nine children. He grew up in Waipi’o Valley on the island of Hawai‘i, but for the past 30 years he has lived on the…

■ The 4th annual Chuck Machado’s Luau Jackpot Fishing Tournament got off to an explosive start. The first marlin was hooked at 8:30 a.m. the first day and weighed 610½ pounds — a indication of the big fish to come as the four-day tournament got underway in Kailua-Kona on Sept. 17. Not only was angler Judd MacNamara’s 610½-pound fish an indication of big fish to come, it was also the start of a five-fish spree for the heart specialist from Honolulu. By the tournament’s end, I MacNamara and his team aboard the TUIA boated over a ton of marlin, scored fifth and sixth places overall in the tournament, and took third and fourth in the special “Monday jackpot.” The 8:30 a.m. hookup that first day also alerted the fleet that…

Occasionally, when I pack for a trip, I can’t help but sit back and admire the ingenious inventions that have gone into my gear bag. Although some items have lost their new look over the years, I have a certain affection for each. But there is one item I just can’t seem to warm up to — my weightbelt. It does what it’s supposed to do, but it can’t be packed into my bag, and it has to be carried separately so it won’t crush my more delicate equipment. And wearing it, I have to be extra careful so as not to harm the boat, my boatmates or their gear. However, there is an alternative — Subapro’s mesh Weightbelt. It’s a fabric belt, 5 to 7½ inches wide and filled…

Author Modern Hawaiian Gamefishing Board of Governors Hawaiian international Billfish Association Topic one: outriggers. Are you sure they are good for your fishing? Many small boat fishermen and a few big boat anglers think that outriggers are counterproductive. They can cause you to miss fish and they waste time precisely at those moments when you need every second. Lost fish? No matter how you set up your outrigger gear. whether with rubber bands and stinger lines or special outrigger clips, you can’t match the hook-setting qualities of a line run straight back from the rod tip. The release from the outrigger, no matter how it is worked, is still flabbier than a flat-line strike. Moreover, when you do get a strike on any line and need to clear all of…

Seafood consumption and exports of locally-caught fresh fish are apparently rising, reports Richard S. Shomura, Director of the Honolulu Laboratory, Southwest Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Honolulu Laboratory has just completed a intensive survey of 105 wholesale fish dealers in Hawaii which showed that: Total fish sales are $77 million (30.6 million pounds) at the wholesale level. Forty-five percent is locally produced, whereas 30 percent is imported from the mainland and 25 percent from other areas. Imports amount to $28.7 million, of which $2.4 million is fresh fish and $21.2 million is frozen seafood (lobster, shrimp, mahimahi, etc.). The rest comes in cans, bottles and other processed forms. Exports of local fish, excluding canned tuna, amount to $5.8 million; and 12 firms…

■ The four-day tournament began with plenty of large fish caught the first day, Friday, Sept. 17. Kona, the Marlin Capital of the World, was true to its name and many 500+-pound and 600+-pound marlin were weighed at the Kailua-Kona pier during the exciting contest. There were 102 teams in this tournament. Team 21, aboard the AERIAL IV, caught the largest marlin, weighing 764½ pounds. It was nabbed on the last day, Monday, Sept. 20, by angler Wes Vanatta. Capt. Rick Rose was the skipper, and Mark Hansen the crew. On the first day of competition, the AERIAL IV landed a 444½-pound marlin, and that marlin stayed on the money-scoreboard until the fourth and last day. After the noon roundup on Monday, Sept. 20, Capt. Rick Rose announced at 12:15…

■ September proved once again that all the marlin action doesn’t happen in Kona. Although our fish were generally under 600 pounds, they were abundant and really put on a show for our charter groups — which consisted of mostly first-time anglers. Visitors from New Zealand, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Japan and Australia as well as the mainland got trophy catches. The big story is that Capt. Ed Sampson and Darol Britton landed four marlin in one day on the BLUE NUN. They were headed for Makapu’u and boated two 25-pound mahi before a minor mechanical problem forced them back to the harbor. This inconvenience proved to be a blessing as the action was in the opposite direction, as they found out when they turned toward Barbers Point after quick…

Recompression Chamber Facility Plans are moving ahead for the selection of one of the three chambers available for upgrading to a ready status and eventual installation at the U of H Laboratory at Kewalo. One contract between government agencies has been signed and more are to follow. Interviews for volunteer inside- and outside-tenders have been held. Anyone still interested in volunteering to assist will be interviewed at a future date (contact Frank Farm at 7321756). The lesson plans for training the tenders are being written, and this aspect of the program is moving right along. Ropoma Committee The Council is fortunate in having Jack Omen (Na Mea Lu’u Kai Dive Club) and Bill Walsh (U of H, Dept, of Zoology) volunteer to be co-chairmen of the Ropoma Committee. Their work…

■ I was shocked! I had just turned the first page of the local newspaper, and there staring at me in living black and white was a photo of Wayne Jacintho standing next to a beautiful actress, Rachel Ward. Wayne was appearing as an extra in a TV mini-series being filmed on Kaua‘i, “The Thornbirds.” The fact that Wayne was standing next to a beautiful woman didn’t shock me (maybe it did his wife), nor did the fact that he was going to appear on television (he shook up Stan Wright a few months ago). No, what shocked me was that this was the first time I had ever seen him wear something other than a tank-top and a pair of shorts. What was he wearing? A 1930s-style suit and…