Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2001 i Hawaii Fishing News

■ No matter how many times I go surface plug whipping, I always learn something and I always end up changing something. Whether I alter the leader system or the manner in which the surface plug is worked, it’s always a learning experience. On ‘my last trip to Moloka‘i, we were casting plugs on the shallow reef on the southwestern side of the island. The reefs there are extensive, and the long drift put us over some really productive-looking water. We were drifting out to sea, so we got some long drifts without the motors running. We’ve found that fish don’t bite as well when the motor is running in idle. Naturally, the fish can hear the engines from a long way off. Some fish steer clear of the engine…

■ He’s fished Hawai‘i for 20 years, and Kaua‘i’s Capt. Rick Prowse is not a happy camper. “Our fishery has collapsed. It is a shell of what it was. Our buoys are dead.... It’s ajoke. Z-buoy is biting for the first time in seven or eight years. My point is I’d like to see the statistics.” Are FADs aggregating fish or just aggravating fishermen like Capt. Prowse? Are FADs belly-up? Capt. Prowse, you asked for it. We'll take a two-part look at the top Hawai'i fishing destination: FADs. This month we'll cover FAD nuts and bolts. Capt. Prowse is right. Hawai'i fishing recently has been a joke. Last year, Hilo ‘ahi fishermen didn’t have a bad season.. They had no season. This was another dismal tuna year ina long string…

■ Over 6 million served! That’s the theme at Hooked On Fishing International (HOFI), organizer of the Kids All-American Fishing Derby program. From its beginning in 1987, more than 6 million kids and family members have participated in the fishing derby program. The individual derby venues will number more than 700 in 2001, in all 50 states. The year 2001 program will feature a nationwide Frito-Lay/Pepsi Kids Casting Contest. Each youngster is allowed two casts at a target, with local winners receiving the reel and rod combo as their prize. All youngsters participating in the event will have their name entered in a nationwide drawing, with a special prize being awarded to the grandprize winner. The Fujifilm Big Fish Contest The youngster catching the largest fish at each derby will…

■ Anyone who loves big-game fishing knows that the Kona Coast is world-renown for its fabulous fishing. With Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa acting as huge windbreaks, virtually all prevailing trade winds are smothered to a slow breeze along the Kona Coast. Flat conditions prevail from Miloli’i all the way up to Kawaihae on most occasions and make long trolling expeditions quite comfortable. In addition, these waters have extreme thermoclines on the two bookends of the coast, Hawi and South Point, creating a fish-rich environment. Steep underwater shelves and valleys send depths plummeting to over 1,000 feet right offshore along the coast, making it a long stretch of prime feeding grounds for marlin, ‘ahi and a host of other giant pelagics. I was lucky enough to fish for a day…

CATEGORIES 1. Penn Jigmaster (or equivalent-sized reel), 40-lb test monofilament (approved brand) 2. Conventional 4/0 (or equivalent-sized reel), 60-lb test monofilament (approved brand) 3. Conventional 6/0 (or equivalent-sized reel), 80-lb test monofilament (approved brand) AWARDS Olympic-style medals for first, second and third places in each category and other valuable prizes to be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. CASTING SYSTEM CONVENTIONAL TACKLE ROD: There shall be no restriction upon length or on the material used in its construction. REEL: To contain a revolving spool and be of standard manufacture, commonly available to the general public. A) Only alterations allowed will be manufacturer replacement kits available to the general public B) Bearings may be replaced, only with equal quality and size as the original. MAINLINE: All casters shall use only…

■ U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor issued an order (in the case of Young et. al. versus Johns et. al.) supporting the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ (DLNR) effort to ban, through newly amended administrative rules, commercial motorized boating in Hanalei bay, river and estuary on | Kaua’i. The ruling brings to an end a decades-long conflict over use of the bay and adjacent waters. The rules, which went into effect on November 30, 2000, banned all commercial motorized boating in the Hanalei area. The rules were challenged by four ocean tourism operators that had previously operated commercial motorized vessels in the Hanalei area on the grounds that the rules were promulgated in violation of their civil rights and without due process. In her order, Judge Gillmor disagreed. Judge…

■ The weather has been lousy-realiy windy-but there hasn’t been much rain, which we need. Check all your safety gear before you launch your boat. If you can get out fishing safely, the shibi still can be found. The early morning bite seems to be the best chance to get one or two. The shibi seem to be hanging around the FADs, and there: are some mahimahi schools coming in to feed on ocean nehu. Aku are still very uncommon, but we hope this will end soon when the summer months get here. Steve Hudgins, Mary Summers and Greg Mescan fish as often as they are able to aboard the ANNIE B, and they always try to get something for the table. One day the three of them landed two…

■ The large school of striped marlin and spearfish that found Maui County waters during January remained in the area in full force during February. The school was located inside the 200-fathom ledge off the southwest corner of Lana'i down the south coast toward Manele. Bay. By the end of the month, four blue marlin, 46 striped marlin and 46 spearfish were weighed;; and another 40 striped marlin and 17 spearfish were tagged and released. This brought the monthly total to 153 billfish. Two ‘ahi over 100 lbs were also weighed; First 300-Plus Marlin for the Year The JUDY ANN II hoisted Lahaina’s first blue marlin over 300 lbs for the year, a fish weighing in at 410 lbs. Capt. Scott Wilson and crewman Speed were working an area inside…

“Fishing Tales®” airs five nights a week (Wednesday through Sunday) at 7 p.m. on Channel 16 on O‘ahu and on the neighbor-island cable systems. Here’s a preview of what host Mike Sakamoto has in store for you. April 2 to 18-Inshore Trolling on the YOKOMARU Ross Murakami and Ken Takahashi meet Mike at the Wailoa Boat Ramp, and they head out to do some inshore trolling for papio. They use light spinning tackle and slow troll in Hilo Bay and along the Hamakua Coast. There they hook into papio and a mixed bag of fish and have a great time doing it. These fun guys have a good day on the water. April 9 to 15-Spear Fishing on the HENRY J Carl Jellings and his boys invite Mike to do…

■ Q: I just bought my first boat. Are there any boating courses available through the U.S. Coast Guard? A: Congratulations on your purchase. The Coast Guard Auxiliary offers a free boating safety education course that covers navigation, rules of the road, safety equipment and preparing for emergencies. To register on O'ahu, call (808) 541-2084and pick Option 2. From the neighbor islands, call 1-800-818-8724. If you have a question about the U.S. Coast Guard, please E-mail it to me, Eric Hedaa, at <Ehedaa@d 14. uscg.mil>. Coast Guard Rescues 26 from EHIME MARU Coast Guard Small Boat Station Honolulu personnel rescued 26 crewmen from the EHIME MARU 10 miles south of Honolulu, Hawai'i. A U.S. Coast Guard 41-foot rescue boat and a 24-foot rescue boat pulled 26 survivors from life rafts…

■ We all keep hoping that the action will start to take off soon here on the Garden Island. There was a small flurry around the end of January and into February when there were rumors about the night bite producing some good-sized bigeye tuna. The charterboats reported quite a few striped marlin and shortbill spearfish, also. These marlin ran a little small but they put on quite a show for the angler fortunate enough to hook up to one. There were also a few large Pacific blue marlin caught around the island, which is a bit unusual for this time of year. Jim Delaney, a retired physician, and his son-in-law Dale Seier, both of Colorado, went out on a fishing charter with the HAPPY HUNTER. It was a really…

■ The run of winter billfish continued with striped marlin and spearfish of various weights recorded at The Fish Dock. Eight shortbill spearfish weighed in at over 50 lbs. Capt. Tom Siebler’s MAKA IWA captured the largest of these spearfish. The hefty 59-pounder was angled by Susan Gordon on the 11th. Capt. Kenny Llanes captured three during the month. On the third, he boated a 50-pounder for angler George Kohn while fishing from the 40' Jersey LEI ALOHA. Three days later, the same boat and crew landed a 52-pounder for angler Carl Hoglund. Then on the 10th, fishing on the AT LAST, angler Harley Baker was able to capture a SOVz-lb spearfish. This was a good month for catching striped marlin. A total of 149 were recorded, and nearly 60…

■ An avid fisherman on the mainland, Gary Shurtleff moved to Hana, Maui, over a decade ago and soon: began his search for the monster ulua. This came about because on only his second week of shoreline fishing on the Hana Coast, he hooked up to an ulua ©. and had his hook pulled straight by “the one that got away.” From that day forward, Gary vowed to be prepared for the fight in both mindset and equipment. On Saturday, February 24, 2001, his dreams came true. On Thursday evening, Gary and Sunnie Boy Woessner decided to load up their gear for a Friday night fishing trip close to home in Hana. Having arrived at the campsite rather late in the afternoon, they scrambled to get the ulua poles cast…

■ The nibble came gently, and then came a sudden lunge. It caught Martin Corcino unprepared, but he instinctively slashed the rod upward, setting the hook. The resistance instantly increased with a shocking pull downward. The weight was amazing. His composure restored, Martin anticipated the sudden run and allowed the rod tip to be lowered till it was almost pointing to the blue water on the starboard side of the HANAMANA. The Penn Power Graph 4000 reel screamed as 15 yards of line vanished from the spool in a run that seemed to go on forever. The run ended, but the weight of the fish was almost frightening. Martin looked at the spool to ensure that he still had line. I laughed as the 37-foot HANAMANA seemed to lean to…

■ Lance Higa carefully climbed down the crumbly rock trail that snaked along the cliffside of the rugged stretch of black-sand beach. The water was deep right off the shore break with an even deeper, more turbulent section 60 yards downshore. Ulua roamed this rough, murky, foam-covered area with reckless abandon. As the ulua patrolled the black-sand bottom, they blended into its dark shadowy environment. Unwary prey didn’t have a chance when the ulua were on the prowl. Lance found a safe flat perch to cast from, then launched a 2-oz resin Polaris popper into the wind. He easily made long smooth casts with his Team Daiwa SS Surf rod and Shimano 10000 Stella combination. After several casts, Lance turned his attention to the rough patchy discolored area that had…

■ The Hawai’i longline fishery is now faced"with the additional sanctions imposed by Judge Ezra back in November. Although the longline fishermen knew these further restrictions were on the horizon, today we are faced with great uncertainty. On March 15 at midnight, the entire Hawai'i longline fleet pulled and stowed their gear and headed toward Honolulu. Over the following week, the last of the lohgline-caught fish aboard these boats was offloaded and sold and the fleet became idle. The actual period of time that the fleet will remain dockside will depend on the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). A recap might be helpful to remind readers how this whole problem came about. In mid-2000, a lawsuit was filed by two mainland environmental organizations against the NMFS related to two issues.…

■ Recently in our Yahoo Cooking Club site on the Internet, the subject of poke came up. One of our club members used to travel to Hawai‘i often due to his job and through the years acquired a taste for poke. His job changed and now he is no longer able to visit the islands, so he was requesting poke recipes. We did a whole series on it, and here are a few of the recipes that were posted. Sam Choy’s Poke Marinade This basic marinade recipe can be used with any of tuna appropriate for poke. 1\4 cup shoyu1\2 cup ogo, chopped (a type of Gracilariaseaweed)1\4 cup green onions, chopped11 tablespoon Oriental sesame oil PREPARATION Mix all ingredients, and use as marinade for raw fish ‘Ahi Poke Hawaiian-Style Josh…

HI The University of Hawaii’s Joint Institute for Ma-I rine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR) is about to begin a new project that may be of interest to HAWAII FISHING NEWS readers. 7 he objective of this study, called the Recreational Pelagic Fishing Meta-Data Project, is to document and compile all sources of recreational and sport fishing information from Hawai'i. In the past, pelagic fisheries management decisions have affected Hawaii’s recreational fishers; however, very little information is available on recreational and sport fishing. There is even less information to assess the impacts of these decisions on the recreational fishing community. This project will produce a data base that contains documents (previous reports and surveys) and other information such as fishing effort, catch I and catch composition from various sources (e.g. fishing…

■ Solid fishing continued along the South Shore of O‘ahu. Charter skippers and weekend warriors alike were happy with the bite. Everything from spearfish to striped marlin, mahimahi and even a few big ‘ahi were brought to shore. So for those of you looking to decide whether or not to fish, just go. It’s been good. Kewalo Report Though the fishing has been solid, no great stories emerged from the harbor until Kewalo got its first 500-plus-lb blue marlin for the year courtesy of Capt. Chris Hall and deckhand Bill Hall on the KAMOME. On February 22, the KAMOME took three Japanese visitors and two from the United States on a “share” trip. For those of you not familiar with a share trip, several people chip in (about $150 a…