Innholdsfortegnelse for August 1996 i Hawaii Fishing News

■ It was the first day of July, and the long-awaited journey was about to begin. The alarm beside my bed signaled it was 3 a.m. Time to rise and shine. My first half-hour awake was spent packing the perishable food in a 150-quart Igloo cooler. The trip north was to last eight days, and with four hungry fishermen on board, planning the meals was no small chore. By 4 a. m., HFN Editor Brad Deffenbaugh and I had the truckloaded and we began the 45-minutedrive to Hale‘iwa Harbor on o‘ahu’s North Shore. The Pacific Ocean Producers ice truck arrived at dockside right on schedule, and by 6 a.m. we had loaded 5,000 lbs of ice in the large fish hold below deck on what was to be home for…

Huaka ‘i Po Ano‘ai me ke aloha. He ‘elua pi ha makahiki ko‘u, ua kakau i keia kolamu! Aue noho‘i e! No laila, mahalo hou a nui e heIuheIu i keia kolamu a me ko ‘oukou ha‘awinaa mau. Eiaho’1, lawa ko‘u ‘olelo. ‘O keia mahina, makemake au e kakau i ke kiko hou i loko. I loko o ke kiko, kau i na‘olelo hou epili ana i na lawai‘a. I loko ia, mana‘olana au ia ‘oukou a me ko‘u na‘auao e a‘o ana i ka ‘olelo lawai‘a mat ka maka o kanaka maoli. Ina loa‘a ka ‘olelo kokua, e ‘ike ‘oukou ia’u. Eia kekahi, ‘o ka mo‘olelo keia mahina e pili ana i ka huaka‘i po a i ‘ole i ka ‘oi’o. I ka lawai ‘a ana, ‘ike paha i…

90th Meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council ■ The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WESPAC) will meet from August 7 to 9, 1996, in the Hoaloha Room, Kaluakoi Hotel, Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i. The council will hear from representatives from American Samoa, Guam, Hawai‘i, the Northern Mariana Islands and federal agencies regarding matters related to the conservation and management of marine fisheries in and around the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the western, central and south Pacific. The council will also receive updates from the U.S. Coast Guard and other officials regarding violations, incidents involving search and rescue, and other actions to improve fishing vessel monitoring and enforcement. Among the issues that the council will address during its two-day meeting will be the status and trends of…

…and now one for the gipper. Dear Chuck, It’s not usual for me to write to magazines, but I felt very compelled to write to yours. My husband was so happy to see his two little girls in your “Holoholo Style”! It made his day, month, Father’s Day, etc., etc., etc. (Someone at work brought the article in and posted it on the bulletin board for him. He was so surprised. So proud!) I want to thank you and tell you how much we appreciate your note back (no one ever does that nowadays!) and the can cooler and cap. We have enjoyed your fishing news from day one and hope and pray and wish that you keep the spirit of fishing and family alive for us for many generations…

■ On July 5 and 6, Kaua‘i hosted its first “major-league” offshore fishing tournament. Thirty-three teams anted up a $500 entry fee to vie for the first-through fifth-place money for heaviest total weight for the tournament, plus bonus money each day for the largest fish in the marlin, mahimahi, ono and ‘ahi categories. It was a trollers-only tournament; no live-baiting was allowed. Anglers were allowed to fight their fish by using a fighting chair, battling standup style or handlining. Even though the lure of big money initially might have been on the entrants’ minds, the tournament’s feeling quickly changed to one of pure fun and camaraderie once everyone started to assemble prior to, and on the morning of the first day’s action. I was fortunate enough to have been invited…

■ “Inside Big Game Fishing” airs every Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on NBC Hawaii News 8. Here’s a preview of what host Norm Isaacs has in store for you. Saturday, August 3-PRE-EMPTED FOR THE OLYMPICS Saturday. August 10-THL KONA BLUES In this episode, you’ll see the capture of two ono and an hour-long fight with a marlin weighing over 650 lbs. Angler Scott Scovira, after warming up with a couple of toothy critters, gets a tough workout with the big blue. Saturday, August 17-BIG GAME FOR LADIES AND SHARK “Inside Big Game Fishing” Ladies Team member Kym Kiser angles a stubborn blue marlin in this episode. You’ll see lots of jumps and underwater footage. Co-capt. Darrin Isaacs catches mahimahi and a shark for two anglers from Illinois and Arizona. Again,…

■ With no tournaments running recently in the Mamala Bay area, it gives us a chance to get caught up on the action in the charterboat fleet running out of Kewalo Basin. As with the catch reports from all over the state, things have been a little on-again-off-again for the charterboat operators; but like the professionals they are, they have still brought in a few outstanding fish. Capt. “Pax” Paxman on his 55-foot “haole sampan” KUU-HUAPALA reported there have been four marlin weighed in at Kewalo that tipped the scales over 500 lbs this year. The first of those weighed in at 529 lbs and was caught aboard Pax’s boat in February. Capt. Karl Adams was skipper. That fish captured the jackpot for Kewalo Basin’s “First Over-500-lb” fish of the…

■ Sue Stolzman of Kailua-Kona, winner of the 1994 World Cup Blue Marlin Championship0, spoke for a lot of captains/crews/anglers when she FAXed a message to World Cup headquarters in Miami, Florida, “Go Kona!” Three times the winning catch in the worldwide blue marlin competition has come within view of Mauna Loa. There very well could have been a winning catch this July 4 because only days before the tournament, a marlin in excess of 700 lbs was brought in. But it wasn’t to be. Stewart Campbell of Houston, a cast on his injured left hand from being pulled overboard by a marlin three weeks earlier, won the 1996 World Cup Blue Marlin Championship with a 673-pounder landed from his boat CHUNDA at Madeira, Portugal. “It was not a dramatic…

SAC Representation ■ The Sanctuary Advisory Committee (SAC) includes “representatives” selected from each of the Hawaiian islands who agreed as part of the selection process to represent the interests and concerns of all of the people of their respective islands in the monthly deliberations of the SAC. At the first SAC meeting, on April 17, 1996, Capt. Jim Housh of Maui, who was not selected as a member of the SAC, stood up during the public comment period of the daylong meeting in Honolulu and reminded SAC members of their responsibility to meet with their respective constituencies on their home islands before the next meeting. Two months later, it was learned that several of the SAC members had not bothered to contact any of the ocean-oriented organization leaders on their…

The Boogar Pole ■ Inside my workshop, hanging on one of the walls, is a fishing pole called the Boogar Pole. She is a Lamiglas pole I wrapped for my wife in the mid-’80s. I named the pole Boogar Pole after her. She’s Boogar. All the guys at the piers in Texas call her by this nickname that I tagged her with when we met in 1976. We met on Shorty’s Longest Pier in High Island, Texas. I knew she would be a keeper when I saw her. After all, she did come fishing alone and I figured that if you married someone like that you would be better off when it came to fishing time. The way I figured it, if you had a wife who liked to fish,…

■ For years, sport fishermen have fought and won battles with commercial longline fishermen to keep or to move them out of top sportfishing areas, all over the world. It was not so long ago that the fishermen of Hawai‘i had to battle a fleet of longliners, which arrived from the increasingly depleted waters of the Gulf of Mexico in search of more fertile fishing grounds. Allowed to set their own standards, the newcomers set their lines off our FADs, within sight of land off Wai‘anae, and wherever else they wanted to, impacting and even interfering with local fishermen who had fished our waters for many generations and even those few longliners who had worked Hawaii’s waters for years with almost no conflict. A battle ensued, and eventually a compromise…

■ The month offered up some great fishing for the anglers who braved strong trade winds while venturing out for big game. Plenty of marlin and ‘ahi were showing up, but finding them wasn’t particularly easy because most of the fish were hitting “on the blind.” The aku and ono bite remained strong, but the mahimahi bite tapered off, as is expected this time of year. Early in the month, Capt. Bob Kutkowski was cruising off ‘Anini on Kaua‘i’s northeast shore when his 33-foot Force, the SEA BREEZE IV, ran into some nice-sized aku. Out went the light aku poles with Penn 4/0 reels loaded with 60-lb test line. Sure enough, the small aku lures started to produce and the charter guests busied themselves hooking and fighting the frisky little…

■ The midsummer billfish bite was about average. Twenty-one blue marlin, 10 striped marlin and 10 spearfish were boated during the month. Another two striped marlin and one spearfish were tagged and released. Everyone waited anxiously for the annual tuna run, but only one large ‘ahi was weighed. There was an inside “Factory” bite between Lana‘i’s Kamaiki Point and Olowalu, Maui, but no particular spot was that hot. REEL HOOKER Does It Again The REEL HOOKER added another fish, a 614-pounder, to the top blue marlin list of the year. In the yearly charterboat standings, the REEL HOOKER has landed Lahaina’s first, second and fourth largest marlin to date. Capt. Fuzzy Alboro and Co-capt. Steve Lambert were headed out off the south-southwest corner of Lana‘i on the day of the…

■ Aku continued to be the fish of the month on this side of o‘ahu. Judging from the catches, they were very large and very hungry. The ‘ahi continued to play hide-and-seek with the fishermen. A few were caught, but there were no really good piles. The large aku should bring some large marlin into the area, and we look forward to some “big girls” chasing after those otaru schools. Shayne Castenera on the PROWLER was fishing the U-buoy area and was looking for anything. He settled for some small aku and then decided to head out to find something else. At about 8:30 a.m., he saw a boat stopped in the water. “Rubbish,” he thought. As Shayne and crew got closer, Shayne saw the sole person on the boat…

■ Charter captain Denny Putnam, 46, of Kihei, Maui, has been named the winner of the Hawaiian International Billfish Association’s (HIBA) annual Richard Boone Award. It is the first time a charter captain from an island other than the Big Island has received the award. Named after the actor Richard Boone, an avid angler, the award is given to the charterboat captain who each year turns in the overall outstanding perfor-mance in the annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT). The score is based on a “rating and ranking” formula devised by the HIBA, organizers of the tournament. Second was 1994 Boone award winner Marlin Parker (MARLIN MAGIC), and third was Momi Bean (REEL CLASS). Both Capt. Parker and Capt. Bean are from Kailua-Kona. “I’m thrilled at winning it. It’s a…

■ The black 1-inch scrounger darted around the reef ledge and quickly came into view. I bounced the tip of my HMG graphite pole with short jerks in an attempt to make the scrounger dance and dart in an erratic pattern. Right behind the scrounger were several small moana. Each one raced the other in an attempt to reach the scrounger first. They changed color from rosy red to pale brown in a split second. As soon as the moana reached the scrounger, they turned tail and disappeared under a small ledge. They apparently had lost interest in the bait and knew it was a phony. Now they were educated, and I knew I just had to outsmart them. There are loads of different moana around the reefs. Some are…

■ Aloha. My focus this month is the role of the U.S. Coast Guard in responding to distress calls in Hawai‘i via marine radio. Have you often wondered what the U.S. Coast Guard does during search-and-rescue (SAR) missions in Hawai‘i? As a radio monitor and soon to be ham radio operator, I have monitored the U.S. Coast Guard on the air waves time and time again. I’d like to pass on the information for listening purposes only and some exciting monitoring on the U.S. Coast Guard SAR channels. You can follow the main frequencies on an appropriately equipped scanner or marine radio available from your local radio shop or Radio Shack (no affiliation). This past month, I was able to monitor the helicopter that went down near Kahala, o‘ahu, Hawai‘i.…

■ In last month’s HFN, Rick Gaffney wrote of the problems caused by the Johnny-come-latelies of the fishing community who show up a day late and a dollar short. For the most part, these people and or groups offer constructive input to the issues at hand; however, as we at the Hawaii Fishermen’s Foundation (HFF) have experienced, there are those who merely like to hear themselves talk, attempt to steal a little thunder and line their own pockets with whatever funds they can generate by their so-called constructive participation in the controversies of the moment. When the HFF first got involved with fisheries-related issues about 10 years ago, we were very naive as to what fisheries management involved, how we could best be of help and how to make the…

Dear Chuck, I was pleased to read the opening paragraph of Jody Bright’s letter on behalf of the members of his Hawaii Conservation Association, because, as you know, I have long shared their interest in assisting “programs of ocean resource oriented public awareness and children’s education.” Our shared interests led me to make several attempts to keep Jody and his organization informed about the process that ultimately led to the formation of the West Hawaii Reef Fish Working Group. Unfortunately, Jody never returned my numerous phone calls. Nor did the several directors of his organization I spoke with (because he was unreachable) take me up on my offer to attend an HCA meeting to bring the membership up-to-date on the process, to explain why their demand for an immediate moratorium…

■ It was a beautiful Sunday morning as 29 teams partici-pated in the Hilo Trollers June Tournament. The ono were running off the Puna Coast, and the ‘ahi were also coming to this side of the Big Island. With blood pressure running high, 29 teams headed in all directions in the hopes of catching the big one. As the day went by, the boats reported hookups and some lost their fish. By the end of the day, a total of 12 teams brought to the scale one marlin, two ‘ahi, 24 ono and two mahimahi. One of the highlights of the tournament occurred when Capt. Brian Catriz of the LAURIE MARIE III and angler Radford Catriz boated a 148-lb ‘ahi. Another good catch was taken aboard the CINDY K with…

■ Summer is here, and so are the visitors. More people fishing means more fish caught. Over 170 blue marlin with weights up to over 900 lbs were boated during the month. An additional 25 blue marlin were tagged and released. The striped marlin have slowly left the waters; the number of catches fell to about 30 for the month. The shortbill spearfish were still abundant, and catches amounted to almost 70. It was very nice to see the rise in the yellowfin catches; over 50 weighing more than 100 lbs. The largest blue marlin taken out of Kona’s waters during the month was landed by a visiting Maui boat, the PIPER. Capt. John Baldwin and first mate Denny Putnam, while visiting Kona for a few days, put angler Debbie…

■ Recently, boaters using the Kahului and Maliko Small Boat harbors were having a really bad time launching and retrieving their boats. The reasons for this were a build-up of sand and silt next to the loading dock and a sandbar just outside of the launching area. One boat owner, not realizing it was there, hit the bar and was nearly catapulted over his windshield. Commodore Bal knew something needed to be done to correct the problem, and, as a consequence, scheduled a meeting between Charles Penque, district manager, Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), and some of the club’s members. This meeting resulted in an agreement between the Maui Trailer Boat Club (MTBC) and the DLNR whereby the club would furnish the labor and the DLNR would furnish…

■ Summertime: when your daddy’s rich and your mama’s good-looking. When the cotton’s high and the living is easy, unless you’re a fisherman. This summer is just plain weird. This is “X Files” material. The aku are thick out of Hale‘iwa most of the time, but they just won’t bite. One day the place is choked with birds; the next day there’s not a feather in sight. The mahimahi are all but extinct, the ‘ahi are few and far between, and the weather is just plain “junk.” Ono seem to be the only game in town, and that’s only part-time. The only real exception 1 can recall this summer was during the North Shore Hanapa‘a Fishing Tournament, when quite a load of fish was landed, especially by one particular boat,…