Innholdsfortegnelse for May 1994 i Hawaii Fishing News

■ Great barracuda. The very name brings to mind images of a fast, dagger-toothed predator that keeps other lesser fish on the lookout. Great barracuda have been known to reach huge proportions; in the Florida Keys they have been known to reach weights in excess of 100 lbs. The IGFA all-tackle record is 85 lbs. A shorecaster can expect to have his hands full when one of these come around. Brian Katahira and Shuhei Iwamoto decided to pursue some big game one weekend. They loaded their heavy tackle into Brian’s four-by-four Chevy truck. Their destination was Ka’ena Point where Brian had experienced good luck in landing big ulua before; one catch had tipped the scales at over 100 lbs. He and Shu were looking for another big fish. They decided…

Ono Memories ■ Big ono, so rare the last few years, had already begun to show up by late March. Ono between 40 and 70 lbs were boated in the “ono lanes” around the Big Island by St. Patty’s Day. Normally you will find average-sized ono feeding on ‘opelu over ledges in 20 to 40 fathoms, but the bigger ones are not averse to cruising the aku schools farther offshore. Aboard the PAMELA, Capt. Peter Hoogs’ charters boated ono of 54 and 48 lbs “just out trolling for marlin, not even in the ono lanes.” These were “big fat ones” and not at all like the dinky 10-to 20-pounders so common in recent years. Talk of great catches from past years got Capt. Hoogs reminiscing about one of the greatest…

■ What do we know about the reproduction of yellowfin in Hawai‘i’s waters, and how does our seasonal spawning pattern relate to the reproduction of ‘ahi in other areas? Are fish caught around Hawai‘i likely to have come from locally spawned larvae, or have they been recruited from other areas? How many times a season does a 100-lb ‘ahi spawn in Hawaii‘s waters, and how many eggs on average are released during each spawning event? Do the large ‘ahi caught by trollers differ significantly from longline fish in terms of sexual maturity or sex ratio? These are just some of the questions being addressed by a study on yellowfin tuna that began this year and is being being funded by the Department of Commerce and administered by the University of…

■ First strong winds hammered the Windward Coast till trees fell, roofs tore off and Bimini tops shredded into ribbons; then the rain came and soaked everything or sank it to the bottom. In 12 years of being on the pier, I have not seen a worse sustained period of bad weather. Fishing as we know it came to a standstill when high pressure wind and rain systems remained stationary off the Hawaiian islands. A few boaters tried to go out and fish but turned back. Those who stayed did not find much fish if any. So, fish prices became high along with the wind and waves. It was safety first, and fishing second. When the weather did break, one of the first guys out was Harold Sexton on the…

For Holoholo letters, with photos, received during the month of May, your prize is a set of three “Mr.Wiffle” lurs featured in Fishing Hawali Style this month…our way of saying thanks for sharing your catch! … Hana pa‘a, chuck Send to: P.O. Box 25413, Honolulu, hawai‘i 96825 Dear Chuck, We picked up these two nice mahimahi while trolling off of Portlock in October. On the left is my friend Gerald Sablan who was visiting us from Hilo. He’s holding the 21-lb mahimahi he caught. This was the first big fish he ever caught. On the right is my friend Alan Kainuma with the 12-lb mahimahi he caught. On November 13th, Alan and I landed this 170-lb blue marlin off of Barber’s Point. We had been fishing all day without catching…

■ The 50-foot sportfishing catamaran TARA VANA has begun her long voyage home. In the next 10 months, she will cover 10,000 ocean miles from her birth place in Chile to her home in Bora Bora, French Polynesia, stopping in the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Mexico, California and Hawai‘i along the way. The voyage home is more than just a circuitous ocean delivery, it is an important trial for a new concept in sportfishing boats. The TARA VANA is more than a high-tech catamaran motor-sailer; she was designed from the waterline up as a specialized sportfishing machine. The voyage home will prove her mettle as a platform for serious sportfishing in some of the most well-known fishing grounds in the Pacific. It will also prove her ability to serve as…

■ When Keo Izuo went to work with his father in 1945, helping him in his wholesale fishing supply business, he wasn’t really interested in the work and figured he would work there for a year or two. At the end of this year, Keo will retire from Izuo Brothers, Hawai‘i’s largest fishing tackle wholesaler, after 50 years in the business. “My dad, Shurei Izuo, got started in 1937 as a commission agent for general merchandise,” Keo said at the Sixth Annual Izuo Brother’s Hawaii Fishing Tackle and Sporting Goods Expo. “He would wholesale different things and get a commission for it.” When World War II come along, several of Shurei’s product lines became difficult to get, but the shrewd businessman noticed there was still a demand for fishing equipment;…

■ Let me see if I understand this right. First, we get a new sanctuary in Hawai‘i’s waters to “protect the humpback whale,” and before the ink is even dry on that mandate, we learn of a serious request for the installation of underwater boom boxes off Kaua’i that require a permit “to take by incidental harassment the following species of marine mammals for purposes of scientific research: humpback whale, sperm whale, short-finned pilot whale, Cuvier’s beaked whale, etc.” First, we “protect” them, then we let some geophysicist blast low-frequency sound waves of 195 decibels across the Pacific from Kaua‘i every 20 minutes for more than a year when we have no idea how that might affect them. Unfortunately, this is not some cruel joke. Perhaps even more unfortunately, by…

Dear Chuck, I couldn’t have thought of a more appropriate time to write to you, especially after reading the “Mail Buoy” column on “Whatever Happened To Bamboo Ridge?” Unsightly garbage, as seen in April’s issue of HFN, has always been a topic of discussion among us in the North Shore Spearfishers. This past April 9, we had our first beach cleanup to kick off the 1994 season at Ka’ena Point. We met at what we call the end of the good road (the entrance to Ka’ena Point) and cleaned a couple of miles in toward Ka’ena and a mile or so back toward Mokuleia. There were about 25 of us, including city council member Gary Gill, his wife, Susan, and a few of Gary’s supporters. Also joining us were Lucky…

■ Mark Payton joined the Maui Casting Club in February of 1994, and on his first meeting as a member he shared the following story. On February 19, 1994, Mark and some friends went fishing at a spot called Bell Rock near Kahakuloa, located on the northwest side of Maui. Mark was using tohei (white eel) for bait, and their poles were constantly ringing because of eel bites. At 10:15 p.m., Mark got a huge strike. As he fought the fish, it got stuck on every rock in the area. The battle lasted about two hours, until he finally got the fish to gaff. While checking out the fish, Mark found something strange. There was a large puhi-paka sticking out of the ulua’s mouth. Upon inspection, Mark discovered that the…

I’d Rather Be Lucky! ■ There’s an old saying that I’ve heard many times in the past. It’s a rather clever phrase that has always elicited a smile on my face, not necessarily because it’s funny, but because it seems to reflect so accurately those times in one’s life that things just seem to fall into place all by themselves without an exorbitant amount of effort. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, as well: “I’d rather be lucky than good.” During the night of March 25, 1994, while fishing at my favorite spot along the Ka’u Coastline of the island of Hawai‘i, I found myself to be just that, lucky rather than good. The chain of fortunate events that led up to my “catch of a lifetime” was improbable at…

■ The 1994 Hawaii Fishing Tackle and Sporting Goods Expo, sponsored by Izuo Brothers, has come a long way since the first show in 1989. “We had about 12 lines of products represented in the first show,” said Randy Izuo, who now heads Izuo Brothers. “This year we had about 65 different product lines.” The Izuo Brothers Show, which is open only to fishing and sporting goods manufacturers, their sales representatives and owners/managers of fishing and sporting goods stores in Hawaii, was held in Honolulu on March 15. The sixth annual show, the only one of its kind in Hawaii, also marked the retirement of Keo Izuo, Randy’s father, who will be leaving Izuo after 50 years of service (see side bar). “We started the show because we felt that…

■ “Fishing Tales®” airs every Saturday at 5 p.m. on KHON-TV-2. Here’s a preview of what host Mike Sakamoto has in store for you. Saturday, May 7 Marshall Isles IV: ‘Ahi and Scuba Once again Mike and Big Islander Randy Vitousek join Capt. Imata Kabua on board his 30 Force Marine. This time the fishermen head out to do some scuba diving. Then they head out again and hook up to some monster ‘ahi. All will enjoy this action-packed episode. Saturday, May 14 Kamanu and Marlin on NAUTI-GAL Mike Johnson of Burger King goes deep-sea fishing with Mike off Kona aboard the NAUTI-GAL with Capt. Leonard Jose. First they find a floating log and capture some nice-sized tuna. Then the fishermen head out and find a hungry kamanu (rainbow runner).…

■ Bob Nicoll lives above Velzeyland, on the North Shore. He has a nice view of the ocean, and he’s usually wondering who’s catching what and where they’re catching it. At least he was a while back when his phone rang one evening. It was his friend Don Cook, calling to say, “Hey, Toshia is here from Japan. Let’s go fishing tomorrow.” The weather was fine, and that phone call was all it took. “Let’s go,” Bob said. “I’ll pick you guys up at 5:30.” This was Don and Toshia’s first deep-sea fishing trip, so their anticipations were high. That next morning, Bob got ice out of his freezer and put it into the fishbox on his 22-foot Grady White, the FIN ATTIC, a nice looking, well-maintained vessel with a…

■ There are two places and two ways to hunt trophy axis deer. One way is to go to Kerrville, Texas. There you’ll ride around in an air-conditioned vehicle inside a fenced pasture. Your guide will point out your trophy. A record-book buck will cost you $2,000. The other place to have a trophy hunt is on Lana‘i. When my fishing buddy, Bruce Naffiziger, and I were on Lana’i for the second weekend of the state deer hunt, we stopped by and talked with Gary Onuma, the head of Lanai Company Game Management. Gary is better known to HAWAII FISHING NEWS readers as a top open-water diver and spear fisherman. It is Gary’s job to deal with wildlife management and other natural resource issues for the Dole Company, the company…

■ I missed last month’s issue. I apologize. I was on the disabled list, but now I’m tanned, rested and ready to write. I have a few interesting stories I hope you’ll enjoy, but, first, here’s a general overview of the North Shore’s fishing activities. Before the recent streak of bad weather, trolling was looking up. The North Shore buoys were starting to attract larger numbers of larger fish like aku, shibi and mahimahi. The akule and ‘opelu fleet was doing well, and things were just ducky. Dave Borgman and deckhand Terry Leach on the SANAE-O found a cargo net the size of Dave’s pickup truck and brought home 1,000 lbs of mahimahi and a dozen 20-to 30-lb shibi. Some big marlin were lost, found, hooked, fought and even caught…

Honolulu Harbor Ulua ■ When I was about 8 years old, I would wake up early every Sunday morning to go fishing with my dad. He loved to fish for ‘omaka (Japanese herring, or yellow-tailed scad) from the sugar pier in Honolulu Harbor. I recall one sunny morning when the ‘omaka were working a huge, rippling school of nehu in front of the pier. I hooked a salted nehu through the eyes and lowered it into the deep, blue water. A few seconds later, I felt a slight tug. Excitedly, I yanked my bamboo pole upward to see a shiny ‘omaka surfacing. Suddenly, without warning, a big bluegreen shadow raced out from under the pier and engulfed my ‘omaka. My bamboo pole jerked down, and my 4-lb test Mason line…