Innholdsfortegnelse for May 1995 i Hawaii Fishing News

■ Recently, while I was taking a morning walk around the Wailoa River area in Hilo, I came across a couple fishing from the sidewalk fringing the docks and the Suisan Fish Auction area. It was a brisk morning, the sky was clearing up, and we were in for a nice day. The couple, Stan and Nancy Okinishi, originally from Ka‘u, were spending the early morning hours dunking baits into the small harbor. I’d walked this area many a day and had yet to see anyone catch any fish there, although I knew there probably were fish cruising in the bay. Stan and Nancy were friendly, as most fishermen are, and it was easy to start up a conversation and start trading fishing stories. As we talked, I watched Stan…

■ After fishing for countless years with my old reliable Penn 113H and 113HLW reels, I finally decided to take the plunge and spend a few dollars on some badly needed upgrades. I knew all about the new anodized products from Tiburon and Accurate but never had a chance to actually try them. I finally converted two of my Penn 113HLW reels with Accurate side plates and used two different frames: an Accurate one-piece frame; and a Tiburon frame. Both frames were precision machined using high-quality 6061-T6 aircraft aluminum. These frames are built for maximum strength and minimum weight and are precision fitted into the side plates for a perfect fit. The Accurate side plates come in seven colors: black; red; gold; green; purple; silver; and ice blue. The finishes…

■ Fishermen in Hawai‘i are fortunate to have warm water and gentle trade winds for most of the year. On those days when it’s “kicking up,” as it was on several days last December, some of us choose to stay home. After all, fishing is supposed to be fun, not a “man against the sea” epic. For others, fishing is a livelihood; there are bills to pay, mouths to feed. They don’t enjoy the same freedom of choice. When it comes to safety, the ocean is a great equalizer of vessels, large and small. Recent sinkings in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and Baltic Sea point out that larger vessels are not always sanctuaries. A common thread in these recent losses and a well-publicized near loss of a fishing vessel…

■ The fishing vessel TE TAUTAI had just crossed the equator and was steaming along the western shorelines of the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati. The lovely atoll of Nonouti was visible on the port horizon as the ship made good her southerly course. The vessel had been on a research charter to the South Pacific Commission (SPC) for the past 17 months, and was conducting another tuna tagging cruise as part of a large-scale tuna assessment project designed to provide the countries of the SPC region with information to assist in the management of their tuna resources. The day was April 16, 1992, and promised to be a good one as several tuna schools had been sighted the day before. The water was greasy slick, as it often is on…

■ Well, here we are, down the home stretch of Hawai‘i’s 18th Legislative Session. For those who have just joined in, I have covered the first seven steps on how a bill becomes a law. In this issue, I will cover the final steps of the process, talk a little of where we are and provide a quick summary of the past month’s issues. We have covered the first seven steps, and now are at a point where all of the bills have been heard on both sides, House and Senate. I will elaborate more on this as we go along. A lot has happened since my last article, so let’s get into it. Step 8: Governor: Actions Bills that have passed both legislative houses are transmitted to the governor…

■ There was a lot of fun for the fishing public during the month. The water was not very rough, and the fish were showing up, though they were not very big. On the REENIE L, Scott and Reenie Lum had some great fishing near the LL-buoy. They caught eight small aku and ‘ahi. They later added a 15-lb ono to their catch and hooked an exciting 23-lb mahimahi that gave them a wonderful display of jumping. The day was great for them, and the fishing was just right for the two of them. John Hill on the E-SEA RIDER had some visitor friends on board for some of that mahimahi action, and they got a thrill. Chikako Inokura and Tatsuo Iwata, the host for a group of clothing manufacturers,…

For letters, with photos, received during the month of May we’ll send you a HFN Koolzie and Official HFN Cap…our way of saying thanks for sharing your catch! …Hana pa‘a, Chuck Send to: P.O. Box 25413, Honolulu, HI 96825 Dear Chuck, Here is a picture of me with a 16-lb kahala. I shot it right in front of the Rainbow Hawaiian Hilton. It was rushing right in between all the tourists banging schools of nehu. I shot it on Christmas day. Nice Christmas present! Mahalo, Kevin Bartels Honolulu, O‘ahu Dear Chuck, While whipping for papio on a reef in Kane‘ohe Bay, I noticed something attacking the small tilapia. I quickly took out my 9-foot pole with my Penn 650SS reel which was loaded with 30-lb test line. My leader was…

■ 1. Lunar Lunacy. A recent episode of my favorite TV drama “ER” was entitled “Full Moon, Saturday Night.” By the time the hour-long medical ordeal was over, you were convinced that the medical profession thinks the moon influences human behavior. Perhaps it’s all nonsense-just good material for stimulating the crazy minds of scriptwriters. If you are looking for material to drive you crazy, here is some more. We’ve been keeping a running tally of the largest fish of each big-game species caught off the Kona Coast. The list encompasses blue marlin, striped marlin, spearfish, ‘ahi, bigeye tuna, mahimahi and ono. Below is a partial list of the biggest catches made during the first quarter of 1995, a period lasting 120 days. • Pacific blue marlin, 860 lbs, Tatsuhiko Hayashi,…

“Fishing Tales®” would love to hear from HAWAII FISHING NEWS readers to find out what kind of programming you’d like to see. So, drop a postcard or note to Mike Sakamoto, 331 Lu Hau Place, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720. ■ “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 6 BIG EDDY Night Diving Mike, Ron Luizzi and his friend John don their scuba gear and jump off of Capt. Rick Rose’s boat, the BIG EDDY, in the middle of the night. They search for lobster and big blue uhu during this great night diving adventure. Saturday, May 13 Kualoa Ranch Catfishing Mike and several of the Kualoa Ranch employees first go horseback riding to…

Wearin’ the Grin for St. Patty ■ When all was said and done at the annual St. Patty’s Day Tournament, it was Esther Quam who was wearin’ the grin and countin’ the green. Esther was fishing aboard the TROPICAL SUN with her husband, Capt. Gary Quam, and son Nathan when she hooked the $2,000, first-place winner, a 364-lb blue marlin. Gary and Nathan are the regular captain and crew for the charterboat. Esther came along for luck. The fish hit about 4 miles outside the C-buoy site. On an 80-lb class outfit, the marlin worked Esther over for an hour and 45 minutes. “It was a really stubborn fish,” said Capt. Quam. “Near the end, it came out of the water and right at the boat. It got tail-wrapped in…

■ It seems that we spend a lot of time trying to outthink something that doesn’t think. Given what scientists tell us about the capacity of a marlin’s brain, there isn’t much room in there for a lot of thought about anything except eating and making little marlin, and there’s fairly little contemplation about the latter. The reproductive process is totally instinctive. The female sprays eggs out into the open ocean, and the male sprays sperm. Somewhere out there the two get together, and the results are baby marlin. I might have oversimplified the process a little, but, at best, it’s a pretty loose operation and not something a marlin spends a lot of time thinking about. Rather than trying to appeal to a marlin’s sex drive, fishermen have found…

“Last time Henny-Penny and I checked here at the NMFS farmyard, the sky hadn’t fallen yet, and that is exactly what we are trying to prevent.” ■ Last month’s issue of HFN had a couple of articles related to the bottomfish issue currently facing the state-organized task force. Certain points raised in these articles prompted this article to emphasize, clarify and correct some key concerns. We agree wholeheartedly with Rick Gaffney’s article on the importance of filling out the state’s C-3 commercial catch reports accurately and completely. Many fishermen are probably not aware that this information gets used for many purposes, one of the most critical of which is the assessment of bottomfish stocks when used in conjunction with fish size information from auction monitoring. William Aila’s article went into…

■ Too often, the news on the conservation front is bad news. Some animal is threatened; some ecosystem is being destroyed; some fishery has been overharvested; some toxic substance is leaking into the ocean. It seems that the realm of conservation and the environment elicits far more negative stories than positive ones. Unfortunately, much of that is in the nature of the beast. Good news is not good for fund raising or the marshaling of public sentiment. Who would attend a rally to save the California sea otter after news reports that they have recovered to the point where they are considered pests and threats to the environment? Who would contribute to the Cousteau Society if they thought the oceans of the world were not threatened? The reality is that…

■ Tropidilla Productions will be taking steps toward doing something positive for the future of Hawai‘i’s fishermen and fish eaters during the upcoming tournament season. Hopefully, these steps will lead toward fishery management that will ensure future generations plenty of fish. Early Hawaiians followed a system that kept their people in fish for almost 1,700 years. Many of us feel that we can learn how to plan for the future of Hawai‘i’s ocean resources by looking closely at the past. Let’s take an amateur historian’s look. History World history shows us that when men departed various civilization centers in search of food, adventure and riches, just about every natural resource of “value” was plundered until extinct and protected when on its last leg. Before and while this movement marched across…

■ My 40-foot sampan, the LA ‘IANA, died on December 9, 1994, at Kawaihae Harbor at 4:30 p.m. High winds, gusting over 60 mph, caused a huge Matson container barge to part its lines and, before it could be restrained by the tug, be swept into the yacht anchorage area. It severely damaged a trimaran and several single-hulled sailing crafts, and sank my LA ‘IANA. The picture shows her before she sank to cabin top. The high winds at the harbor continued and made salvage operations impossible for five days. She was finally raised, dragged to the loading ramp, hoisted to dry land by crane and blocked. Marine surveyors called her a total loss. A recent survey had judged her replacement cost at $150,000. The vessel was built by Murakami…

■ At 7 o’clock on a beautiful Sunday morning, February 19, 1995, in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, the winds were variable and the offshore sea conditions were almost flat. While making plans the night before, my fishing partner Clifford Shimabukuro and I had decided to launch from the smallest ramp at the Ke‘ehi Boat Ramp facilities. That ramp was located in an almost secluded area off to the side and would to spare us the embarrassment, if any, of being seen doing what we were going to do-marlin fishing from a couple of personal water crafts (jet skis): Clifford’s a stock 1994 Sea Doo GTX, and mine a souped-up, modified 1994 Polaris SLT. We launched and fired up our engines. It was music to my ears when the Polaris came to life…

■ The month of May always sticks out in my mind as a great month to go spinning for saltwater game fish. The weather starts to get a little hotter, warming up the water and the action. During the next few months, the north and west sides of O‘ahu provide some good reef areas for spinning with topwater lures, swimming plugs, scroungers and strips of plastic or cut baits. The surf is smaller than it has been, and it seems everything comes inshore to feed-from the well-known voracious ‘omilu, to the flashy lai, the acrobatic awaawa and line-cutting barracuda. Even bottom-feeding moana-ukali will attack a well-presented lure, providing an angler with a catch that’s sure to be a pleasure on the dinner table as well as on the end of…

■ An impressive array of fishing and outdoor sports equipment was on display at the Waikiki Prince Hotel on March 15, 1995. The Izuo Bros. Ltd. Trade Show attracted dozens of manufacturer representatives from around the country who displayed their product lines for local equipment dealers. Manufacturers such as American Camper, Ande, Coleman, Daiwa, Du Pont, Eagle Claw, Elec-Tra-Mate, Eveready, Fenwick, Future Bait, Gerber, Gudebrod, Lamiglas, Mason, Maxima, Mirro Lure, Motorola, Mustad, Penn, PILI, Piano, Rapala, Ripoffs, Shakespeare, Shimano, Spiderwire, Stren and Voit were represented and filled row after row of display booths with nearly every type of fishing and camping gear imaginable. Equally impressive were the manufacturers’ representatives who possessed intimate knowledge of their product lines, as well as an excellent understanding of their products’ application in Hawai‘i’s outdoor…

■ The University of Hawaii began directed research on offshore (pelagic) fishery resources in 1992, with the establishment of the Pelagic Fisheries Research Program (PFRP) within the Joint Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, which is a large section of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The PFRP sponsors research fostering the sustainable use of the tuna and billfish resources of Hawai‘i, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and other U.S.-affiliated areas of the South Pacific. Due to the highly migratory nature of these pelagic resources, research encompassing the waters adjacent to these areas is also supported by the program. The PFRP is currently funding 19 projects on tuna and billfish in the fields of biology, oceanography, fisheries…

■ Last month, I discussed the basis on which WESPAC requested that the state Legislature take appropriate action to address the “appearance of overfishing of onaga and ‘ehu.” I also covered the status of the current data and how good or how bad it is, depending on your particular perspective of it. The Legislature has acknowledged that the Department of Land and Natural Resources, through its task force, is currently reviewing and will be addressing some of WESPAC’s concerns and, in light of the new attitude at DLNR regarding the status of bottomfish stocks, has decided not to enact any legislation this year with regard to seasonal closures. The bottomfish task force is currently continuing to gather information from fishermen and to scrutinize the existing data base. In May, the…

■ The most important aspect of public process required of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is about to begin. The release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Management Plan (DEIS/MP) will be announced soon. Once the DEIS/MP has been released to the public, a series of public hearings will take place on all of the main Hawaiian islands, because the “preferred option” of the DEIS/MP is to expand the sanctuary to include all the waters of the state of Hawai‘i, with a few exceptions. It is interesting to note that the U.S. Navy has secured an exemption from the sanctuary boundaries for half of the waters surrounding Kaua‘i and half of the waters surrounding O‘ahu, despite the fact that the areas exempted are well-known humpback whale habitats. Commercial…

■ Through the years, several physical comparisons have been made between marlin and man. But marlin still don’t, have the accessories-such as pagers and “cell” phones. Instead, next July they’ll be outfitted with far more sophisticated devices-satellite telemetry that tracks their movements via satellite. All this is due to research and development created by scientists affiliated with the nonprofit Pacific Ocean Research Foundation (PORF) who have successfully used the acoustic devices to follow blue marlin and yellowfin tuna along the information highway. The PORF’s laboratory and offices are located at Honokohau Harbor in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, According to Dr. Barbara A. Block, chair of the scientific advisory committee of the PORF, the data collected so far by acoustic telemetry has provided a view of how these fish move…

Ulua ■ Aloha no ‘oukou e lawai‘a e Hawai‘ii nei. Pehea ‘oukou? E hele ‘ana i ke kau wela me ka ‘awiwi. Ina e laki ‘oe e hana ‘ole, he pomaika‘i no ‘oe mai ke Akua. Aka no ka po‘e hana waiwai, ‘o keia mo‘olelo pokole e pili ana i ka ulua no ka heluhelu ‘ana. Ina e hoihoi i ka lawai‘a ulua a me na papio. Eia ho‘i, he lawai‘a i pae i ke one, heluhelu i keia mo‘olelo no na mea ulua Hawai‘ii. Greetings to you, the fishermen of Hawai‘ii. How are you folks? Summer will soon be around the corner. If you are one of the lucky few who don’t work, you are indeed blessed by the Lord. But for those of us who work, this short…