Innholdsfortegnelse for June 1987 i Hawaii Fishing News

Action at South Point ■ I recently went on a fishing trip with Joel Santo (the guy with the hot streak). When we arrived at South Point, we encountered a couple of O‘ahu boys, John Lopes and Chris Akamine. John and Chris were apparently on their first trip to South Point, and they planned to stay for five days, while Joel and I planned to stay for two. During the first night, we tried our luck in catching akule and did fairly well. According to John and Chris, it was fantastic, but by the standards of Big Island fishermen the action would be considered a bit slow. We eventually filled up five homemade bucket dombays of akule, until one of the bucket covers came off. Chris and Joel stayed up…

■ “Could you please tell me if you or anyone has a fishing forecast that covers the entire year?” asked Charles R. Lea of Walnut Creek, California. An HFN subscriber, Charles tells us he has been an “avid” Kona fisherman for three years and “would like to be able to look at an entire year or several years and determine when the peak time of year is many months in advance” so he can plan his vacations. “Something like a chart that would give high and low times for different species,” Charles said, in describing his needs. The same request has come to us often over the years. In the same batch of mail, we got a similar appeal from R. Wayne Stevens of Lake Oswego, Oregon, who is a…

’Paka All Year Round? In preparing the monthly fishing forecast for HAWAII FISHING NEWS, we always caution anglers that the number of fish caught depends on fishing effort. For example, commercial statistics from the Hawaiian Islands suggest that deep-water snapper—‘opakapaka and onaga—are most abundant during the winter months. That isn’t necessarily so. Those figures reflect an increased interest in fishing for snapper during the winter. That’s because prices are good, the holidays are near and other types of fishing have slowed down. Catch figures recently released by the National Marine Fisheries Service suggest the summer can be just as good. The numbers come from catches made in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where fish are far more abundant than around the main islands. The table below shows the monthly landings and…

■ The Eighth Annual Spring Wahine Fishing Tournament was held April 25, 1987, and was sponsored and organized by the Lahaina Yacht Club. During this one-day, jungle-rules tournament we saw some good action from the ladies. The winning marlin, 407 lbs, was angled by Stephanie Sheppard aboard the MANO KELA. It broke a four-year record set by Louise Rockett back in ’87. (Louise’s was a 384-pounder taken aboard the HALCYON.) Stephanie’s marlin was also the largest in the eight-year history of the tournament. The anglers on the MANO KELA were working the 100-fathom ledge just off Kaumalapau, Lana’i, when their fish came in for lunch on the short rigger. This fish was wild—first it came out of the water to the gill plates, shaking its head and making huge lunges…

■ Family ties were in evidence in all the winning teams for this year’s Senoritas Jackpot Fishing Tournament. At the awards banquet everyone was in high spirits (and not just because of the free margaritas!). Fishing was excellent this year,” the best I can remember for the past several years. Multiple catches of mahimahi and ono were weighed on both days, and most teams got lots of practice in reeling in fish. Having just returned from the mainland from my mother’s funeral, I was unable to fish this year but did take in all the events and found out this tournament is just as much fun even when you are not fishing. Elaine Lynn of the Hawaii Yacht Club deserves the credit for making this event a classy one. Almost…

■ Everyone is eagerly awaiting the first big ‘ahi bust of the season. Some of these hefty tunas were caught in the blind, but the majority landed so far were caught around porpoise schools. In the meantime, there is enough small game out there to keep most fishermen happy. The spring run of spearfish and striped marlin (natagi) has begun. These smaller versions of marlin (less than 100 lbs) are hard to hook-just ask any captain who had has triple strikes from these acrobatic billfish and has ended up with nothing in the box. Toward the end of March a number of large schools of aku and shibi-ko appeared off the Wai’anae Coast. The fish in these schools ranged from 3 lbs to 10 lbs and brought a lot of…

Dear HFN, A few days ago, I sent a copy of the following letter to many of our elected officials in the state and federal System. Without fail, the responses I received were positive about this idea. The response (reprinted by permission) of Representative Mark J. Andrews is particularly informative. Note his comments about local support for any idea. If you approve of this idea or any other location for a new FAD, make sure your voice is heard at these soon to be posted meetings. Mahalo,Steve JenisonLahaina, Maui (The following is Steve’s letter to state and federal officials.) Aloha, The purpose of this note is to request an additional buoy, or string of buoys, to be established as part of the statewide fish aggregation system of buoy locations—the FADs.…

Four Flags Tournament ■ The regularly scheduled Hawaii Big Game tournaments throughout the year are supplemented by our year-long Four Flags Tournament which turns any fishing trip (outside of a regularly scheduled tournament weekend) into a tournament day. Chris Freed did just that recently on a fishing trip off Kane‘ohe’s Moku Manu on the “banana patch” sampan HO‘O MAMA while fishing with his father, ex-HBGFC President Mike Freed. The 11-year-old angler bested a 21½-lb female mahimahi on 30-lb test, had the fish officially weighed, submitted the requisite form and entered his worthy catch in the Four Flags Tournament. Unless a member catches a bigger mahi on 30-lb test before the tournament ends in October, just prior to our year-end banquet, Chris will win his category in the Four Flags Tournament.…

■ The genealogies of Polynesia share many stories of the Hawai‘i-Tahiti connection. The voyages of the double-hulled canoe HOKULE‘A to and from Tahiti provide continuous linkup with our southern Polynesian ancestors in this modern era. The following story is one of many that have been passed down to us through the native custom of oral history. In ancient times, there were two i‘a (fish) crossing the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean from Tahiti. (These “fish” were actually great canoes filled with men.) The intent of this trip was to visit some of the lands they heard about in the legends told by their fathers. The two fish, like the navigator of the HOKULE’A, knew that certain stars were always in certain places in the sky during a part of…

■ Lahaina Town had some excellent action during April; 12 blue marlin, nine striped marlin and seven spearfish were brought in. Four of the top five marlin for the year were also weighed in during the month. The top boat for the month with the largest marlin was the HALCYON. Anglers aboard that boat hooked a 493-pounder on the last day of the month. Capt. Dave Rockett and crewman Leo Vendiola fished about 3 miles off the “slides” area on the backside of Lana’i. They had just made a run through the K-buoy using strip bait. Having no luck, they set out the lures. The marlin came in on the long rigger, hooking onto an Ian Thomas chopped pearl. The marlin made one good run for angler Bill Cramer and…

■ Summer must be trout season on the mainland. My resident fisherman gets outdoor magazines from all parts of the country, many of which have cooking columns in them, and trout recipes seem to be prevalent. Judging from the creative recipes of two cooks in particular, Karen Green of Western Outdoors magazine, and Lue Park of California Angler, trout can be prepared in just about any fashion. This fact tempted me to substitute other fish and “Hawaiianize” some of these trout treats. Trout has begun appearing in our local supermarkets, so buy a couple and try them in one of these ways. Fish with Apricot-Brandy Butter 2 to 2½ pounds white meat or ‘ahi fillets ½ cup apricot nectar Juice of one lemon Coating mixture (below) COATING MIXTURE 2 tablespoons…

■ The disappearance of a Kona resident, last seen swimming to his moored ketch in Kailua Bay, led many people to assume that his untimely loss might well be attributed to a shark. Although it will never be known whether he was killed by a shark or simply consumed by one, shredded shorts found in the area by divers and identified as belonging to the victim led National Marine Fisheries Service shark expert John Naughton to the conclusion that a shark was probably involved. The need for evidence and the concern of relatives and friends led to a shark-fishing foray which included the charter of Capt. Rick Rose’s AERIAL IV for an ultimately successful night-fishing effort in Kailua Bay. A 710-lb tiger shark was caught, but the animal failed to…

■ 1. Capt. Juan Waroquiers of the Kawaihae charter boat ILLUSION showed me an interesting and effective new use for popping plugs like the PILI. He pops them for mahimahi and bigeye tuna. Juan does it when he’s trolling a live aku i for marlin and ‘ahi and suspects the presence of smaller fish. FADs, logs and nets, for example, provide the perfect circumstances because you can see mahimahi and small tuna cruising nearby. Because he’s only moving at a knot or two, just enough to keep the aku alive, he needs a lure to which he can impart some extra action. The popper fills the bill. Juan lets the lure back 15 to 20 yards on a spinning rod and then jerks it repeatedly, letting it drop back between…

Dear Jim, Re: Sport Fishing, IGFA Rules et al. There really is no right answer for all circumstances on the question of applying IGFA rules to charier fishing versus sport fishing. Sport fishing implies that we are competing in a sport. The sport is really the competition between humans, who, as in any organized sport, compete under certain rules. There is the rare individual who may want to test himself against the fish only and he does this by putting hardships on himself. However, if he wants “bragging rights,” he has to catch a fish under a standard set of rules (IGFA, for lack of any other recognized body) in addition to the challenges he places on himself, such as light test line. The charter fleet caters to many different…

■ I flew to Sarasota, Florida, recently and I could hardly recognize the place. The fishing holes on Big Pass and off Siesta Key where snook used to pile up like cordwood are no longer there. Midnight Pass has been closed until another hurricane opens it up, and on Casey Key, where I once hauled in a 26-lb rabalo using live shrimp for bait, the road is slowly melting into the gulf. But the big difference from days gone by is the sheer number of people that now fill every nook and cranny of the sleepy gulf towns I knew as a young teacher—the teacher who would go fishing in the morning before school began. My old buddy, orthodontist Chuck Holmes, still catches “trout” (weakfish) on the inside flats off…

■ With the 1987 legislative session over, heads of many state agencies will now be able to spend more time in their own offices and concentrate on business there. William Paty, recently appointed chairman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, is one such person, and he already has plans to sit down with his people, division by division, and “find out what they think they are there for, what they think they should be doing, how they think they ought to do it.” Such an approach may seem incongruous to leadership, but Paty’s case is an exception. As former head honcho of Wailua Sugar Plantation, Paty is familiar with a leadership role, and this he displays in his ease of communicating within a large group and in the…

May 8, 1987 Mr. Henry Sakuda, Director Division of Aquatic Resources Department of Land and Natural Resources 1151 Punchbowl Street Honolulu, Hawai’i 96813 Re: Kapu System versus Fishing License/Bag Limits Dear Sir: I do not believe the kapu method of fisheries conservation is the best program for Hawai‘i. In Hawai’i, there is only a limited amount of shoreline available for fishing. Much of Hawai’i’s coastline is already used for living and industry because of our favorable and desirable weather conditions. A kapu system will decrease further the amount of shoreline left for fishing. However, while this decrease is occurring, the number of fishermen remain the same. This means that an increased number of sportsmen will be fishing an even smaller area. By nature a smaller area holds (supports) less fish.…

Hi Chuck, During the March spring break, my nephews and I went holoholo. After setting up came, we went out and set our nets. The next morning…well, as we said, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Cy IrvineKane’ohe, O‘ahuLeroy LuafalemanaJoseph IrvineWai’anae, O‘ahu Aloha Chuck, March was a good month for fishing for me. As you can see, this photo is my first day’s catch out of a week of fishing. If you all like what you see, just wait till you see my second day hana pa‘a. Till then, aloha,joeWai’anae. O’ahu Hi Chuck, Here’s Al and the HUSTLER hustling the ‘pakas at Shipwreck, Lana’i City. The fish ranged from 4 to 7 lbs and were hooked on ika bait and a Big John reel. The depth ranged from 80…