Innholdsfortegnelse for March 1999 i Hawaii Fishing News

Immigrants From the Tropical Eastern Pacific ■ In 1922, a small jack was caught by hook and line off Koko Head and another was obtained from a Honolulu fish market; they were deposited in the Bishop Museum. A year later, Henry W. Fowler, a visiting ichthyologist from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, identified them as Caranx kuhlii. In 1934, he changed the identification to Caranx kalla, but he was wrong both times. In 1981, another ichthyologist from the academy in Philadelphia, Dr. William F. Smith-Vaniz, reidentified the two specimens as Caranx caballus, a common species of the Eastern Pacific that ranges from San Diego south to Peru; it’s known by the English common name “green jack.” No other specimens of the green jack were reported from Hawai’i until…

Kaho‘olawe Stand-Off ■ Maui’s Terry Woodall contacted HFN about the increasingly tense confrontation with fishermen and the Kaho’olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC). An incident in August 1998 occurred where Capt. Hogan, fishing on his 31-foot Bertram, RASCAL, was boarded by KIRC Enforcement Officer Mark Hodges and another person. Kaho’olawe was designated as an exclusive Hawaiian fishing area by Maui Rep. Joe Souki’s HB 2015 and enacted into law with HRS 340. Fishing is not allowed within 2 miles of the island. Two times a month, fishing can occur to the 20-fathom mark. The RASCAL incident occurred during an authorized fishing day, and Capt. Hogan claimed that he was fishing at 25 fathoms when he was boarded. Mark Hodges was in an unmarked boat at the time. In a separate encounter…

■ The saying Eddie Would Go is usually reserved for surfers, but for the first time the term that usually signifies a huge wave day was used by a group of spear fishermen and women who voluntarily entered the water. Harry Kim warned us days in advance, but when you gotta go, you gotta go! Especially when there are cash prizes and a custom wet suit up for grabs. You see, this was tournament day. Blue Water Hunter in Kona hosted this first annual free-dive tournament off the Big Island. The competition was fierce, and the stakes were high. January 2 was the day of one of Hawai’i island’s largest northwest swells all season. And yes, Eddie and 18 of his friends decided they had what it took to conquer…

■ Rod selection has just gotten better–or more confusing, depending on your point of view. This time of year, tackle and fishing manufacturers roll out their new products to the buying public, and rods are no exception. Choosing one to fit your fishing style can be easier if you carefully look at how you are fishing and what you are fishing for. The rods available today are much more customized to specific tackle, techniques and even species as anglers become more informed about their quarry. This trend shows no sign of abating, judging from tackle available from major rod makers. You can now purchase rods designed for bass, walleye, salmon and crappie. There are rods for flipping or pitching, and rods made specifically to handle crankbaits. Whatever you fish for…

■ What are we catching? In last month’s “Boating News,” we listed three websites for legislative information. The best is www.capitol.hawaii.gov. Then point and click your way to legislative nirvana. After reading this article, if any of these bills give you heartburn, look them up on our legislative web page (www.members.aol.com/legislat99/index.html). There you can then click over to read the entire bill or our testimony. If you are a dues-paying member of BOATS/Hawaii, you can E-mail comments legislat99@aol.com). If you are not a member of BOATS/Hawaii, but would like to be in order to have an impact on this legislative session, you can mail your $25 dues to BOATS/Hawaii, P.O. Box 2520, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96804. If the impact rating on our web page is positive, then chances are that BOATS/Hawaii…

OFFSHORE TOURNAMENTS 1 ST ANNUAL FIVE FLAGS TOURNAMENT March 20, 1999 Kay Kolt-Kona (808) 325-6432 P.O. Box 2958, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745 APRIL FOOLS DAY TOURNAMENT April 3 & 4, 1999 Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club-Kona (808) 325-7362 P.O. Box 3106, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745 SENORITA’S TOURNAMENT April 17 & 18, 1999 Hawaii Yacht Club-Oahu (808) 949-4622 1739-C Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu, HI 96815 MEMORIAL DAY TOURNAMENT May 29, 30 & 31, 1999 Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club-Kona (808) 325-7362 P.O. Box 3106, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745 AHI FEVER IN WAIANAE June 12 & 13,1999 Waianae Boat Fishing Club-Oahu (808) 696-3399 P.O. Box 821, Waianae, HI 96792 http://www.stkhi.com/AHI_FEVER BIG ISLAND INVITATIONAL MARLIN TOURNAMENT June 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20, 1999 Tropidilla-Kona (808) 325-7300 P.O. Box 2158, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745 FIRECRACKER OPEN July…

■ Spring is approaching according to the calendar, but in Hawaii waters winter-type weather can still appear in March. But there will be more good weather days than bad weather days. There is always the possibility of the occurrence of any of the following severe weather events: cold front with strong Kona winds, upper trough with heavy rain, gusty trade winds and high northwest wave and surf. Trade winds should be present on more than half the days in March with the possibility of about eight to 14 days of gusty trades. Northwest swell activity should be noticeably less. There may be about five days of high surf greater than 10 feet along the north shores. There’s still a chance of surf greater than 25 feet high at Sunset Beach,…

■ On January 19, 1999, at Pier 36, Honolulu Harbor, I stumbled on a sight that was both impressive and depressive. Before me were bails and bails of shark fins spread over the pier. Some of the bails were being loaded into a tractor trailer, and others were being off-loaded from a boat called the TWO STAR. As I took out my camera and started taking pictures, one of the men loading the fins came over to me and told me to stop. Now, the average person knows that Pier 36 is a public pier, so something seemed wrong. I decided to go down to the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ (DLNR) office, which is located nearby, and let them know what was happening. Branch Chief Michael Laupalio and…

■ Nope, that’s not a trick question. You can’t dodge it by saying fish are colorblind. They aren’t. The color vision of reef fish and other near-shore fish has never been in question. They live in a world saturated by color and spend much of their time in well-lighted zones where color can readily be seen. Offshore fish, however, are a different matter. Studies done in the 1960s by Japanese scientists concluded that marlin could only see shades of blue. Tuna could distinguish a broader range, the research said, including green and perhaps yellow. They got it wrong. A team of Australian scientists who studied the eyes of billfish caught during the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament said billfish see a wide spectrum of colors. In a paper presented to the…

■ Here’s a preview of what host Mike Sakamoto has in store for you. March 2 to 7-Fishing Lana’i Waters on the KUAKOA Mike flies to Lana’i to fish on board the 31-foot Tiara named KUAKOA with Capt. Steve Schultz, Tournas Phelps and Paul Miyahara of Hilo. They head south of Lana’i and tangle with some mahimahi. When the sun goes down, they have dinner and do some bottom jigging for menpachi. The next day it’s back to trolling to land some heftysized ‘ahi. It’s a show with tons of action. March 9 to 14-Deep-Water Fishing With Eiec-Tra-Mates Al Yamamoto of Kailua-Kona invites Mike to fish with him on his customized Larson 18. They launch out of Kawaihae Boat Harbor, and Al shows Mike how he jigs in 450 feet…

Real Tips for Artificial Fishing ■ Fortunately, everywhere we go in this world there is water. More fortunately, there are fish in the waters. Granted, some of the waters are inland waters made up of mainly fresh water. I am lucky enough to be able to fish quite a lot in fresh water on the mainland. I fish for bass, pike, trout and walleye, as well as sunfish. Being a fisherman, it has become very easy for me to get into all aspects of fishing. Because of my love of fishing, I have learned many techniques to take many different species of fish. Most recently, I have taken up fly fishing and have been enjoying it for the past five years or so. I have spent many enjoyable hours wading…

Eat Trout or Tilapia? ■ Trout or tilapia? That’s a silly question, right? However, it seems that last year, and the year before, they sold more tilapia retail in the United States than trout. Unfortunately, I have been unable to dig up statistics for the state of Hawai’i, but perhaps they do not sell tilapia in the stores? Wrong again. Sam’s Club has tilapia. So does Safeway, and my last check in Holiday Mart Daiei established that they import their tilapia from Taiwan. The newest item to hit the markets on the mainland is smoked tilapia. In fact, you can find tilapia and recipes in the gourmet sections. So, if other people seem to like tilapia, why is the fish not a favorite with island fishermen? A bit more research…

■ The Hawaii Tuna Tagging Project has enjoyed a good start in 1998, and we are optimistic that release numbers will only improve as we learn more and better ways to put tagged fish in the water, given the everpresent budgetary constraints. From March 1998 to the end of the year, we tagged 9,385 tuna at close to a 1-to-l ratio of bigeye to yellowfin. We had proposed to tag 6,000 during the first year (12 months), so we are well ahead of the game and going strong. The previous University of Hawaii (UH)-funded tagging project (the Hawaii Seamount Tagging Project) centered on the Cross Seamount fishery achieved 4,859 releases in over two years. This brings the total number of yellowfin and bigeye tagged by the UH to 14,244. Recapture…

Corrosion-Let’s Try To Stop It ■ Another one of the most frequently asked questions at The Prop Shop Hawaii has to do with corrosion and electrolysis and the destruction it does to propellers, outdrives and the underwater gear on your boat. Although it has been nearly two decades since I’ve attended the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where I earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering, I remember quite a bit about corrosion and the chemical reactions involved, and I’d like to share some information with you. To start, electrolysis is a chemical and/or electromechanical change in-a solution due to the passage of an electrical current. Some boaters use this term incorrectly to mean galvanic corrosion or stray current corrosion. There is nothing mysterious about corrosion. I am sure that we’ve all…

■ After another great night’s sleep aboard the SILVER EAGLE II, we retrieved the crab pots and headed to Hoonah Harbor. In our pots, there were a couple of small, spiderlike crabs, but no dungeness or kings. Hoonah is a little logging/fishing town on the north end of Chichagof Island, just inside a long finger bay. It is flanked on the north by Cross Sound, which opens to the outside waters of the Pacific Ocean, a short distance away. There is a little pine-covered island next to the entrance of the harbor that the Tlingit Indians use for a burial grounds, complete with a totem pole. The totem pole gave the place quite an exotic touch. We checked out the fish packing shop, and found out that Dave Bowen who…

■ 1999 was rung in with the annual Charter Desk New Year’s Day Fishing Tournament. Special prizes were awarded to the first flag fish of the year caught. Taking the mahimahi category was Capt. Kent Mongreig on the TEN J’S with a 27-pounder angled by 10-year-old Stacey Lucason. The first blue marlin was captured on the HUSTLER with Capt. Dave Adams. The 156-lb blue also happened to take third and was angled by Joerg Umstaetter. In second place sat Capt. Marlin Parker on the MARLIN MAGIC with a 308-lb blue angled by Bruce Kneely. The first-place fish weighed in at 340 lbs. The crew of the KEALOHAPAU‘OLE, Kenneth Kam Jr. and angler Darin Kam took home a total of $3,510. The month of January turned out to be very productive…

Shark Finning Grows in Hawai‘i’s Waters ■ In January, a Hawai‘i-based fishing business was busted for selling a huge quantity of shark fins without a commercial fishing license. The fine: $50. The value of the fins was nearly $200,000, and the fisherman was allowed to market the fins and profit from their sale, despite breaking the Hawai‘i state law that prohibits the sale of fish without a commercial fishing license. As disheartening as that incident may be, the facts regarding the shark fin industry in Hawai‘i have a far graver portent. Demand for shark fins is apparently up, meaning more sharks are being finned in the waters surrounding Hawai’i than at any previous time in history. According to a recent Associated Press report, from 1991 to 1996, “the shark catch…

Maptech ■ There’s a computer revolution in the field. A New Hampshire company has now linked the GPS to the computer to be able to pull up a topographical map called “Terrain Navigator.” You can mark your intended trail on the map and get a print-out of your route. With a compass and a pack, you are ready to go hiking or hunting. I’ve seen the program demonstrated. It has some limitations, like not all areas are covered, but it is the future. Mainland game managers want to use this high-tech mapping system to track animal patterns. Satellite tracking systems have been in place for marlin migration studies for years. Wildlife scientists are now developing systems to place inside deer antlers, to act as an “electronic eye.” This will be…

■ In the filming/fishing business, you always need a backup plan because no matter how well-planned a fishing trip is, something always happens. You just can’t count on the fish to cooperate; they normally don’t. Sometimes I think they have it in for me and don’t bite just to spite me. I recently traveled to Lana’i to do some shoreline whipping from a 24-foot ProLine boat provided by Shin’s Marine and Alan Yuen. Also along was David Itano of the University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Tuna Tagging Project (HTTP) David had already tagged and released some 12,000 tuna in the Pacific Basin-an amazing number of fish landed and released. We finished our tuna tagging and headed inshore. Then we started pounding the waters around Lana’i with black PILI lures and a…

■ Hawai’i offers a unique range of flyfishing opportunities that can exhilarate the beginner as well as test the patience and skill of even the best anglers. I have been fly fishing the shorelines and reservoirs of the islands for five years now. I am convinced that any fish that must eat at some point can be caught with a fly rod and a properly presented fly. Granted, some fish are more difficult to fool than others, but none are immune to the cloaked hook. The Hawai’i fly fisher faces many unique situations not experienced in other parts of the flyfishing world. Through correspondence with advice-seeking beginners and fly fishers visiting the islands, I have developed a collection of advice, preferences, techniques and experiences. Hopefully, this article will help the…

The World’s Largest Tuna Fishery ■ Hawai’i, for the first time, hosted 300 delegates from 10 large metropolitan countries on the Pacific Rim and 17 Pacific island nations to create a permanent commission and system to manage highly migratory fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific. Balancing the interests of large, distant-water fishing nations, coastal countries and small island states in the Central and Western Pacific was one of the key issues facing the international fisheries meeting held February 10 through February 19 at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu. On the one hand are the existing rights of island nations under the United Nations (U.N.) Convention on the Law of the Sea to control fisheries resources in their 200mile exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Under this arrangement, the island nations…

■ This year’s legislative session is shaping up to be very productive and efficient when it comes to Hawaii’s marine resources, but as the old saying goes, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” There is a great deal of enthusiasm this year and many new faces’testifying on behalf of our natural resources, and the legislators seem to be listening. The following is a brief account of some of the bills that might interest you and what has happened to date. Remember, your participation and opinions keep the wheels of democracy turning. It is often as simple as a phone call or a FAX giving the legislators of your district or of the various committees an insight as to what you think. Don’t rely on the other guy, because opinions vary.…

Kaho‘olawe in the News Again! ■ It has been a while since this reporter has written anything about Kaho‘olawe, but if you haven’t already heard, then here is why I am writing about this controversial piece of land, which is part of Hawai‘i and more specifically a member of Maui County. Just recently, I received a call from Terry Woodall, who serves on the board of directors of the Maalaea Boat and Fishing Club. He told me that Senator Jan Yage Buen had introduced Senate Bill #1188 in the 1999 Senate, which, if passed, would open some fishing rights in the waters around Kaho‘olawe. To refresh your memory, the last Ocean Management Plan issued in July 1997 by the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission (K1RC) specified some very restrictive limits on…

■ Green is the right color to run in March if you are Irish. How could you go wrong with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner? March additionally signals the start of spring, and that usually means that the ‘ahi are out there. It’s a good time to work the porpoise piles, and there are always a few. ‘ahi caught in the blind. These tuna tend to be right around the 100-lb range. Spring usually brings mahimahi to our waters, too. Occasionally, some very big bulls weighing 60 lbs or more are caught. Weather this month is usually in transition. Winter is winding down; however, large northwest swells continue to roll in. Boaters should continue to use caution while exiting or entering the harbor. Last month’s weather was characterized…

For letters, with photos, received during the month of March we’ll send you an HFN Holoholo Style Koolzie, HFN Cap and two Official HFN RV or Boat Window Stickers…our way of saying thanks for sharing your catch! …Hana pa‘a, Chuck Send to: P.O. Box 25040, Honolulu, HI 96825 Chuck, We are not the greatest fishermen in the world, but we are getting the hang of it. First picture is of my son Zack and his best catch. It is a 3-lb papio we caught together in Kane’ohe Bay. Take a look at the boat we used. It is an 8-foot sailing dinghy adapted for trolling. My friends think I am nuts. I want to patent this idea and be richer than Bill Gates. The last picture is of me and…