Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2008 i Hawaii Fishing News

▪ For people in the real world, buying a boat and taking delivery is a pretty simple process. This is not the case in Fiji. It was time that Capt. John Llanes got his very own boat. The clock was ticking because John Sabel from Honolulu was arriving in a month. After scouring the planet, Capt. John was able to find a respectable boat in Fiji on the main island. He found a sturdy fiberglass center-console 21-footer with 200-hp Yamaha engines with a good casting platform in the bow and stern, complete with swimsteps for the blue-water hunters. Plan A is always the simple plan. It was to put the boat and trailer on a barge and bring both to Taveuni, allowing plenty of time for Capt. John to outfit…

Aloha HFN, I’m hoping you may have a place to put a few pies of this catch: say, on the cover! Some things happen for no reason at all, and I think this happened that way. It just did. I, Jude Schwarze, a.k.a. Capt. J., own and operate Deep Sea Fishing Kauai. This is a family business. We run a sweet little 31’ Bertram (the BIG TA DO) out of Port Allen Small Boat Harbor on the southwest side of Kaua‘i. On Thursday, February 21, my charter headed out at 6:30 a.m., the usual time in the winter. Things had been a little slow, but we were determined to get some shibiko and aku before making a run inside to do some bottom fishing. The sunrise was beautiful on the…

Over-fishing ▪ When I was attending college at Texas Christian University, I had an American Literature professor who was “particularly tough,” as the other students described her. Looking back, I now know that, at the tender age of 19, I really didn’t understand what “tough” meant. Life’s toughest tests were yet to come. Professor Adkins was a remarkably beautiful woman: a tall brunette with piercing blue eyes and a stare that could melt steel. I always tried my best in that class, admittedly, more so to impress my instructor than to learn anything. Strangely, I learned a lot. Professor Adkins always said that every word had an exact meaning. I didn’t think it too important at the time; nevertheless, I now find that she was right. The highly ambiguous and…

▪ Rob Soulsby, a fish and game warden from Australia, decided that the ultimate vacation would be to experience the extreme G.T. fishing of Fiji. He accidentally came upon Capt. John Llanes as he was preparing the boat to go back to Suva and persuaded him to take a final farewell charter on the TANGO. There was a time that barracuda were considered very exciting game fish, and for good reason, considering the speed and athleticism of the species. Rob was running his blue-and silver Helco popper through the water, and everyone was intently watching the action so they wouldn’t miss the freight train strike of the next ulua. They saw the silvery flash of a tail striking the popper with lightening speed, sending it skyrocketing 7 feet up in…

▪ Spring is usually a season of great weather, and lots of boaters take advantage with offshore fishing trips. The water has been flat lately, so many of the fishermen have been trying their hand at bottom fishing. Trailers are very conscious of the high fuel prices and are keeping closer to shore to conserve their resources. The FADS are all back on station at the time of this report and are holding some fish. Your success just depends on when you get there. Overall, trolling has been very slow. Just a few boats found good rubbish or caught big shibi at one of the FADs. Tom Dedona on the TOMMY D has had a couple of great trips. Tom and Ralph Scrivana, Roy Scontani and Dennis Ghiselli had a…

▪ I had my light spinning rod out, hanging directly astern of my 19’ Olympic boat named the YOKOMARU. My squid bait was down some 50 feet, within a foot of the sandy bottom of Hilo Bay. I had just turned to grab another small hook from my tackle box when Leo Moniz yelled as the drag on the tiny spinning reel began to scream. I turned to find my 9-foot rod fully bent, the flexible tip a foot beneath the water’s surface and the line leaving the spool at a startling speed. “Clear your line,” I hollered to Leo because I knew this could only be a papio or big ‘o‘io and if her line was still down our lines would soon be tangled. I took the rod in…

▪ Lately, the fishery at Ho‘omaluhia has been quite consistent in its yield. One gentleman fishing with bread flakes wound up with a small barred jeweled cichlid on his first try. It, in turn, was gobbled up by a smallmouth bass. Granted, it was not the biggest bass in the world, but a few moments later another bass hit his breaded hook. Perhaps the bass go nuts during a full moon. Anglerettes of the Month One rarely sees an anglerette that is as apt and dedicated to the sport as Lauren Johnson. It was a pleasure to finally register a magnificent smallmouth bass that pushed the scale toward almost 4 lbs. On one sultry day, tourists were exploring the surroundings of the dam in small groups. One couple was remarkable…

… Hana pa‘a, Chuck Send to: P.O. Box 25488, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96825 or e-mail: <fishnews@hawaii.rr.com> The first photo is of baby Kamalani Earley. She loves HFN. The second photo is of our ulua poles while we’re shorefishing on the North Shore of Maui. The third photo is of my boyfriend Lyden whipping off West Maui. I have many more photos and take more every time we go fishing. Let me know if you like them. Mahalo,Kelly GordonLahaina, Maui Aloha HFN, Your paper is the best. I read it every month. Attached is a picture of a 5-lb kagami papio I caught a few days ago just outside the reef along Kihei Maui from my kayak. The other picture is my wife Mickey with a 6-lb kagami papio she caught a…

▪ Ulua season is upon us. The serious ulua hunter goes armed with whatever is needed to hook, fight and land a “big boy” ulua. A sometimes overlooked item is the gaff. Many ulua grounds in Hawai‘i require fishing from rocky ledges and high cliffs where specialized fishing gaffs are needed. You may have heard the saying, “Lots of ulua are lost at gaff.” Get the right stuff, and improve your chances of landing that fish. Probably the simplest gaff is the pole gaff, often made of bamboo in lengths of 12 to 14 feet. Bamboo gaffs are usually homemade and can take a lot of scrapes from the rocks. Bamboo is my preference for handle material. Bamboo is harder to come by these days, but still available. Fishing tackle…

Kill MPA Bill—Senate Bill 3225 ▪ Here’s a fishy riddle. What looks like a fish bill but isn’t a billfish? It’s Senate Bill (S.B.) 3225. It’s the so called “Fish Replenishment Areas; Ornamental Fish Bill.” According to the state, “It requires DLNR to establish a network of fish replenishment areas on Maui and O‘ahu with the option of establishing them on additional islands as warranted in the future.” It’s not a fish bill at all. It’s about Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Fishermen need to tell politicians MPAs are kapu. Popular fishing personality Mike Sakamoto is fighting against it. Disguised as a bill to promote tropical fish conservation, S.B. 3225 actually is an MPA bonanza. Mike said, “In the bill are provisions to prohibit fishing in Kona waters, and provisions to…

▪ Weather-wise, this is a transitional month between our winter and summer. This means that the surface cold front of winter and the upper trough of summer can “meet” over the islands in April. The result is a few days of bad weather with heavy rain and gusty winds. Bad weather doesn’t occur every April over Hawai‘i waters, but it happens often enough, or the potential is there, to warrant being aware of its possibility. Trade wind days continue to increase—about 75 percent of the time we’ll have trades. Expect eight to 15 days of gusty trades. High northwest swell and surf action is tapering down. Expect only about two days of surf 10 to 15 feet high at Sunset Beach, O‘ahu. April 1 - Sunrise: 6:24 am, Sunset: 6:46…