Innholdsfortegnelse for April 1990 i Hawaii Fishing News

Articles about the HUSTLER’s capture of a 1,207-lb mako shark that appeared in Big Island newspapers drew a number of inquiries and comments. An early story said that Capt. Glen Hodson had heard that a big fish had been spotted around me Double D “Fishing Island” fish attractor and had gone out there hoping Io catch it. Not so. Capt. Hodson only heard about the sighting after he had already hooked the shark. The difference may seem small-only worth a shoulder shrug. But tales of the mindless pursuit of leviathans from “Moby Dick” to “Jaws” tend to stamp the pursuers as slightly downstream of sanity. Another reader wanted to complain about “the waste of a magnificent fish” and to “decry the basal instinct that sharks should be slaughtered to get…

■ A group of Wailevu villagers in Labasa helped hoist a monstrous vorodudu speared recently at the mouth of the Wailevu River. The giant fish was found struggling to escape from shallow waters where it was trapped at low tide. Two fishermen, Menusi Nasorowale and Setareki Mataunivosa, stumbled across it while on their way out to sea. It took the duo more than an hour to haul the fish into their 66-foot punt. More than 10 people had to carry the fish from the punt to shore. The fish weighed 671 lbs and fetched the two men $200 after it was sold to a Labasa restaurant. Menusi, 54, said it was the biggest fish he had ever seen in his life.…

Dear Mr. Gaffney: I read with some alarm, because of the inaccuracies, your February 1990 HAWAII FISHING NEWS article entitled “Geothermal and the Fisherman.” There appear to be many issues regarding potential environmental concerns relative to fishing and geothermal energy transmission that you have either been given misinformation or that you do not fully understand. For example, should geothermal energy development on the Big Island prove environmentally compatible, as will be determined by developing the resource for Big Island needs first and secondly for export to O’ahu and possibly Maui, that transmission would be by underwater direct current transmission cables. It is true that these types of cable have not been deployed to depths as great as those that we have in Hawai’i, but there are several similar types of…

■ 1. Adding bucktail or feathers to the tail hook of a casting lure is an old trick-—one we’ve written about several times before. But IGFA world-record holder Ralph Mikkelsen does it differently. For years we’ve worked to perfect the tying of a neat, streamlined “head” with the thread tapering to a point and the ends of the bucktail or feathers neatly tucked in so they don’t show. Not Ralph. By professional fly-tying standards, his bucktail-dressed hooks look like a mess. The hair sticks out all over the place, backward and forward in a muddle. (Perhaps that’s where trout fly tiers got the name “muddler minnow.” Indeed, the muddler has a head made fully out of bucktail hair sticking out all over like a crew cut.) When I first saw…

■ “Somebody up there likes you,” is what I told Tommy Pieper after he told me an incredible fishing tale. Recently, Tommy was fighting a 50-lb shibi-ko when a marlin took up residence under his boat. He put a dead bait in the water, and eventually hooked and boated the marlin, which was estimated to weigh over 600 lbs. Then a month later he had a similar experience with another shibi-ko and another marlin. Tommy had just hopped back over onto his own boat after helping Herman Oh land a 300-lb marlin on Herman’s boat, the KEOMAILANI. Tommy quickly caught an aku, bridled it up and put it out for bait. He made one pass around Sierra-buoy and noticed a dark shape darting back and forth under his boat. At…

■ The MC-buoy was the hot spot during the month. Six big marlin and a dozen 60-plus-lb ‘ahi were caught there. The PAILOLO brought in the seventh largest Pacific blue marlin of the year, a 418-pounder caught by George Huson. Capt. Rick Medenwald was at the helm, and his deckhand was Capt. Fuzzy. The boys were about 2 miles from the MC-buoy when they got their bite on a blue Rose Bullet Lure. At the strike, the marlin lunged out of the water and thrashed its head like a windshield wiper. Again it surfaced, and that time it was headed right for the PAILOLO. It made big fish jumps as it cleared the water. Rick punched the boat ahead, as George and Fuzzy continued to work on the fish by…

Fishing the Spinnerbait ■ Spring fishing is synonymous with excellent fishing. Shallow water patterns in grassy and woody Hats, coves, bays, and creeks prevail during this period. The aggressive, spawning bass are very cooperative and relatively easy to catch because they will hit almost any lure presented to them. But, by far, the ’numero uno” lure for spring bass is the spinnerbait. Have you ever wondered what the spinnerbait represents to the bass? When I saw a spinnerbait for the first time, I had to laugh. How dumb could a fish be to try and eat something like that weird contraption? To me, it didn’t look like any bass forage at all. Yet, serious spinnerbait anglers swear to its potency as a bass catching lure. Some believe that the pulsating…

■ During February, the ocean and weather conditions weren’t the best; but during whatever days of sunshine there were, Brad Perez and a few other fellows took to Hilo’s 24-mile breakwater. There the fishermen were getting tremendous action while using large Reef Rippers (black). In a week’s time, fishermen had caught a 35-, a 46-and a 52-lb ulua while fishing off the wall. One afternoon, Brad hooked into a monster and fought it for about an hour. His mainline got caught on the ocean’s bottom, and the ulua was belly-up on the surface about 60 yards away. Nearby a kayaker was paddling along, so Brad waved him down for help. But every time the kayaker tried to grab the fish, it would dive down. The kayaker then yelled, “It’s only…

■ In the community of Kailua-Kona, where sport fishing is a big business and fish catches are publicly displayed daily, we occasionally see letters to the editor stating or hear people grousing, “If they keep killing all those fish, there won’t be any left to catch!” While the simple logic of that assumption is hard to deny, it ignores the fact that sport fishermen only kill something on the order of less than a 10th of 1 percent of the pelagic game fish killed in the oceans of the world. Blaming sport fishermen for declining catches, even in places like Kona where most of the fish hooked are landed rather than tagged and released, is simply pointing a finger at the most visible culprit, and misplacing the blame. Local activists…

■ It started with a phone call I received from L-Ektra Anderson, HFN’s political correspondent at the State Capitol. “Chuck, did you see the bill introduced by House Representative Reb Bellinger? I know you had expressed concern in the past over the federal government’s plan to require a federal saltwater recreational license for all the coastal states, so I thought you’d be interested in this new bill, ‘HB 3295 Marine Recreational Fishing License,”’ L-Ektra said. She was right; I was very interested. The bill as introduced would have allowed the state to impose a $10 per angler annual fishing license fee for state residents between the ages of 16 and 65 years and a $10, 30-day license for visitors. The bill went on to say that no licensee “shall refuse…

■ The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Aquatic Resources, announced that it added between 1,000 and 1,200 concrefe/tire modules and 35 concrete “table” shelters to the Keawakapu Artificial Reef, off Keawakapu, Maui on February 24,1990. Each module consists of 8 toTO discarded automobile tire casings embedded in a concrete form measuring 72 inches long, 30 inches wide and 12 inches thick, weighing about 1,600 lbs. Each concrete ’‘table” shelter measures 96 inches long, 48 inches wide and 12 inches high, weighing about 3,000 lbs. Tug and barge services from Inter-Island Transport, Inc., were contracted to deploy the modules and shelters. These fish habitats will be placed in a cluster at a depth of 60 to 70 feet about 500 yards offshore within the Keawakapu Artificial Reef. The…

Dear Sirs: It is most inappropriate that the Legislature of the state of Hawai’i is to require recreational fishing licenses. We are owners of a 21 /-foot trailer boat, and we use the “facilities” at Mala Wharf. For all the regulations and inconveniences imposed on the smallcraft owners already we seem to be sharing these so-called facilities with many tour operators, who are at times totally unaware that this “facility” was originally designed for the private pleasure craft. Combining commercial and pleasure craft at this location is already a bad move on the state’s part. With all the gas boats in and out of this wharf there is not even an emergency phone to call for the fire department or the police in case of a mishap. When the state…

■ It’s bragging time again. No, it’s not time for me to brag about a fish I caught, but to brag about someone else’s accomplishment. In this case it happens to be my mom, Kay Oshiro. No I’m not going to say that she’s a great cook or that she’ll bend over backward for her kids or grandkids, but that she’s been a great fishing partner throughout my years of fishing. Moms, and wives, of fishing families know that it’s tough having the yard look like it should have been mowed three weeks ago or the dog smell a little more fragrant than they’d like or the house paint look a little duller than a fresh coat would; but they know that things won’t stay that way for long. The…

■ Making ‘opihi shell jewelry was one of my businesses. Being an industrial designer and a big-game fisherman, I had the idea of creating a new lure. It would sparkle in the ocean and attract the fish. I talked to many fishermen about my new idea. Some said it might work. Some said it would not work. So, my lure making started six years ago as a challenge as well as a hobby. I went to Kona for the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament and tried my lure on the first day of the tournament. I was fishing with three old-time fishermen, one from Japan, two from Hawai’i. We had three strikes on my ‘opihi lure, a straight runner. Two 200-lb marlin were boated, and the last was hooked in the…

■ The North Shore is being plagued by longline fishing boats fishing inside of the “agreed” 20-mile distance from shore. On February 11 the SEA DIAMOND was seen setting his longlines inside of the J-buoy late in the day, at about the time everyone was heading home. Seems like there ought to be a law as well as an agreement. Whales They’re back! It’s the annual migrating season for the humpback whales, a time when they come into the warmer waters of Hawai’i. Whales are a protected species, protected even from harassment, so please keep your distance. Fishing What can I say? The weather has been terrible: cold, rainy and windy with only a few days suitable for man to brave the elements. During those exceptional days, bottomfishing was about…

■ Sustained winter weather continued to pummel the Windward Coast with strong winds, big ocean swells, heavy rains and cool temperatures. On one Saturday the visibility was so bad that the Coast Guard was called in to assist four boaters who were disoriented and were having difficulty returning to port. Three of the boats were from the South Shore, and the fourth was from Hale’iwa; fortunately all boats returned to port safely. Vessels fishing out of He’eia Kea that day all had Loran-C units aboard, which can direct a boater back to port regardless of visibility. Some of the new units are equipped with a plotter system that creates a “road map” to follow in addition to the numbered compass course direction, which is given below the map. Those aids…

■ A federal permit has been issued to the U.S. Coast Guard for moorings which had been installed in three offshore locations, at Kure Island, at Lahaina (Maui) and at Kailua-Kona (Hawai’i). The moorings had been installed in 1984 at Kure Island and in 1988 at Lahaina and Kailua-Kona without permit authorization. Each mooring consists of a buoy chained to a sinker placed on the bottom. Buoys are white with a blue stripe and marked with the initials “CG.” The moorings provide overnight anchorage for Coast Guard district office granted after-the-fact approval for the moorings on February 22 after review by federal and local regulatory agencies.…