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The Kona
Fishing Chronicles 8/9
is here for delivery and we are now taking orders. ![]() Volume 8/9 includes the best Kona fishing stories
and
fishing tips of 2008 and carries a 2009 copyright (in case you wondered about the 8/9 designation). This site is completely supported by the sale of books. If you like what you find here, you'll like the books. Buy some to help us keep posting these stories every week. |
| Email: Rizzuto@aloha.net for details on how to mail order. |
Posted 06/15/09 BIGGEST SAILFISH OF 2009? TAKE YOUR PICK.
The biggest sailfish caught off Kona so far in 2009 weighed either 45
pounds or 95 pounds. Take your pick but only after you’ve read
the stories. JAY HAWK WINS STATE SHOOTOUT.
In an odd twist of fate, Kona entrants boated the two biggest fish in
the statewide Black, Blue and Striped Marlin Shootout last Saturday,
but a Maui boat copped the state title.
The International Game Fish Association will be holding an auction on the evening of Saturday July 18, at King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel , says local IGFA representative Rick Gaffney of Pacific Boats and Yachts. “We have been able to put together some great auction items,” Rick said. “The list includes hotel stays (Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, etc., with rental cars), a Molokai fishing trip, a guided fly-fishing trip on Oahu, custom wrapped trolling rods and more.” The IGFA is a not-for-profit organization committed to the conservation of game fish and the promotion of responsible, ethical angling practices through science, education, rule making and record keeping. It was founded in 1939 and has members in over 125 countries. RUSTY UNGER R. I. P. The Sunday WHT contained a moving tribute to Captain Rusty Unger, who passed away on June 6. Services for the veteran Kona skipper will be conducted on Friday, June 26, according to Captain Rick Gaffney. “Boats depart for scattering of the ashes at 8:30 AM,” Rick said. “The Memorial service is to follow at 11 AM in the Canoe Paddling Club, adjacent to the boat Kai Lio on the north side of the harbor, makai of the launch ramps. For information call 329-1795.” MORE....... |
Posted 06/22/09 KONA IKI JOUSTING MATCH. With all of the formidable-looking armament bristling from the sides and gunnels of a typical big-game boat, it’s inevitable that some aggressive big fish will accept the challenge for a joust. In the Kona Iki Trollers Invitational Tournament, Miles Nakahara and Lance Furuuchi battled just such a combative giant. In a duel between the bill of a 745-pound blue marlin and the metal outrigger on their boat Puamana II, the outrigger lost. Miles and Lance prevailed and took home the tournament title. The fish hit at 9:00 am as the Puamana II pair trolled in from the deep where they had been trying for ahi and otadu. They were heading for C-buoy to catch a baitfish when the marlin interrupted their plans. The fish had ignored the big marlin poppers close to the boat and sucked in a small lure on the outrigger. Then it headed straight down into the depths. Small lure, deep dive – must be an ahi, the two veteran fishermen assumed. So they sat there “talking story” and casually bringing in the lines. After all, an ahi only dives down until the water gets too cold – say 200 yards or so below. So you just wait out the dive. The easy-going scene changed quickly when they realized the line was still running out and nearly half a mile of it had peeled off. Lance took over the fight, and the fish revealed its true blue colors. It raced to the surface and jumped in the distance. At first sight, Miles and Lance guessed it at 400 pounds – big, but a size they had managed easily before in many decades of fishing. “When we were younger, 400 pounds was nothing,” says Miles, 58. ![]() They got it to leader in about an hour and a half, but the fish felt very heavy as they tried to pull it up to gaff. That’s when the aggressive fish decided to “crash the outrigger,” Miles said. “It’s all crooked now and I have to figure out how to straighten it,” Miles said. When they finally got the marlin under control, they tried to pull it into the boat. After three tries with much-needed stops for rest, they quit trying. “We thought we were just getting old,” Miles said. Besides, he had just repainted the boat and got it “all cherried-out,” Miles said. No sense tearing up the new paint. Even when he is catching ahi, he does his best to keep the gaff points away from the glossy new finish. So they towed it back to port and got help pulling it up on the ramp. Laid out in front of them, they got their first sense of how big it was. Their fish was the biggest in the tournament by far. Miles has to repaint the scars and straighten out the rigger, but he took home about $2,500 in fishing tackle prizes to ease the pain. Team Duck Soup (Butch Chee and Bruce Berard) took second in the KIT Invitational with a 235-pound blue marlin. Team Rod Bender (Kerwin and Heather Masunaga) finished third with a 203-pound blue and first in the total weight marlin category. The Masunagas caught three blue marlin totalling 366.5 pounds. Team Pearly D (Firpo Debina and BJ Bagges) took fourth with a 187-pound blue and won the total weight ono division with 29.5 pounds Team Rosanna (Jimmy Hamora) won the total weight ahi division with 272 pounds. No team caught a qualifying mahimahi. The Kona Iki Trollers events are sponsored by Queen K Tesoro. The next KIT event is the Wahine Tournament, July 11. For more details and sign-up information, visit www.KonaIkiTrollers,com. TERMINATOR TOPS WEEK. In a week packed with blue marlin weighing 100 to 350 pounds, the crew of the Terminator stuck its head above the crowd with a marlin estimated at 650 pounds. Skipper Scott Kadooka, Gilbert Damasco and Nelson Domingues were on a holo holo trip to catch fish for a bunch of graduation parties. They were definitely on the right track when they reached the Top Corner of the Grounds and caught a mahimahi. Scott was filleting the tasty fish when the big marlin jumped on a Bomboy Scarface lure. As lowest man on the totem pole, Nelson had to fight it. He brought it to the boat in about a half hour. They pulled it aboard, measured the tail stump at 16-3/4 inches and estimated it at 650. That’ll have to do because they did not weigh it. But the day was only just beginning. They continued fishing from bird pile to bird pile as they worked their way to OTEC Buoy. At the FAD, they ignored the rough water and caught a spearfish and nine mahimahi up to 40 pounds. Happy graduation to all who got to share in the Terminator’s bounty – and to everyone who didn’t, too. BITE ME SLAM? In a good year of tuna fishing, the ahi arrive off Kauai for Mother’s Day and reach Kona in time to celebrate Father’s Day. Sometimes they get stuck off Oahu and don’t jump the channel to the Big Island. It’s too soon to tell, but the tuna bite was definitely on last week. The big run, however, is still to come. Most boats had to be content with one ahi. Bite Me 3 caught a pair on the way to scoring a four flagfish slam for the day. Capt. Dave Bensko and crew Jimmy Jeffries hosted the Struttman Family (Todd, Joe and Andy) for the morning half. The lucky Struttmans boated ahi weighing 192- and 165-pounds while also catching five ono and three mahimahi. With three flags already flying, Dave and Jimmy headed offshore for the second trip looking for a marlin to complete an ahi, mahi, ono, marlin “sweep.” Their share-charter party included Dominic Wallace, Mike Drum and Gary Scriven. The threesome did the deed by completing the cycle with a 200-pound blue marlin, which they tagged and released. If you want to share in the Bite Me catches, note that the company has now officially opened their fish market in Honokohau Harbor. ![]() The yellowfins in the present tuna run are scaling below the 200-pound mark. Bigger fish generally get here in July and August. Expect some of the biggest “yellows” to be caught at night while ika-shibi fishermen are trying for bigeye tuna, broadbill swordfish and albacore. All have already showed up in the night bite. The biggest of the bigeye tuna are among the biggest ever seen here. On Saturday, Alan Henriques and Brian Andrade weighed a bigeye that might have topped the state record before it was gilled and gutted. It weighed 207 dressed out for market, so it was probably 228 pounds or more whole. For records, we don’t go by guesses – only the actual weight of the fish at the scales. WHERE DO THE ONO GO? Ono strike trolled lures with abandon, then they abandon the game and shut down their feeding for hours on end. Where do they go? Perhaps they head down into the depths to fill up on the big schools of fish hanging out near the bottom. Okay. That sounds absurd. Or does it? On several occasions, while cleaning ono I have found yellow tangs in their bellies. I wrote about this once and heard from a marine biologist who disputed the idea that ono were catching live tangs by feeding along the bottom. He suggested that the tangs might have been the discards from an aquarium fish collector. But not so fast. Last week, kayaker Devin Hallingstad caught a 25-pound ono. When he opened its belly, he found a foot-long parrotfish, neatly sliced into three pieces. Parrotfish are coral grazers, which is about as close to the bottom as any bottomfish can feed. The parrotfish was fresh, meaning the ono had just recently chopped it up and swallowed it. Devin caught the ono at noon on a live opelu he was fishing at the surface. Obviously, the ono was happy to feed all up and down the water column depending on whim and opportunity. Devin runs a trailing hook along the side of his live bait to thwart the ono’s inclination to chop the back half off the fish and escape. FIVE STAR WINS ROCK ‘N REEL 2009. Team Five Star tagged and released six blue marlin and boated a 119-pound yellowfin tuna to win the Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club’s 2009 Rock ‘N Reel Hawaiian Open tournament. Captain Carlton Taniyama’s galaxy of veteran tournament fishermen amassed 1,345 points to earn $19,215. Five Star angler Mike Shimamoto caught the 119-pound ahi and won a Penn 50 reel and custom rod for boating the heaviest ahi of the event. Team Five Star also won a Penn 80 reel and custom rod for tagging the most fish. Team Kila Kila, with Capt. Teddy Hoogs, tagged four blues to take second place and $7,960. Team Billfisher II boated the largest blue marlin of the tournament, 561.5 pounds, added more points for a tagged blue, and placed third. With the bonus money for catching the tourney’s top fish, Captain Howard Whitcomb’s gang garnered $13,535. ![]() In addition to the prize money, Billfisher II angler Zach Hasse also won a Penn 130 reel and Custom rod. Capt. Terry Adams steered Team Visions into fourth with three blue marlin (all tagged) and a 104-pound ahi. Visions scored $3,165. The event features a wide-range of entry levels including daily options. Team JR’s Hooker with skipper Kevin Hibbard won $5,035 with two tagged blues on the second day to win that day’s $300 and $600 options. Angler Eric Clark fished on Team Anxious with Capt. Neal Isaacs and boated the event’s biggest ono. His 32.5 pounder earned him a Penn 30 reel and custom rod. The field of 26 boats (four fewer than last year) started off strongly on the first day with 18 blues, two of which were boated while the other 16 were tagged and released. In addition to the Billfisher II’s 561.5-pounder, Team Renegade with Capt. Lloyd Potter boated a 324-pound blue. Good action continued on the second day as the fleet tagged 20 more blues. The two-day catch list also included four tagged spearfish, one tagged striped marlin, one ono, and a non-qualifying 274-pound blue below the 300-pound minimum weight. The fish was foul-hooked and came up dead. “The tournament went well,” said tournament chairman Neal Isaacs. “It always helps to have the fish cooperating. Catching 39 blue marlin in two days is why Kona is the blue marlin capital of the Pacific. MONKEY BIZ II TAKES KONA’S FIRST GRANDER OF 2009. A father/son trip on Monkey Biz II was the ticket to Kona’s first grander of 2009. Ryan O’Halloran crews for Capt. Chip Van Mols on the classy 38-foot Bertram. Ryan’s dad, Tim, of Santa Cruz, Calif, is visiting Kona and came along to handle angling duties last Friday. The luck of the Irish seemed to have stayed ashore as the O’Hallorans pulled lures all day with no action. At quitting time, Chip turned Monkey Biz II toward shore after trolling the 1,000-fathom line. By 3:45, Monkey Biz II had reached the 800 when they got a ‘mercy’ strike, Chip said. The big fish ignored all of the magnum marlin lures in the wake and sucked in a 9-inch blue bullet lure trailing at the back of the wake on the “stinger” line. When Chip saw the fish jump, he knew it would top 800 pounds, but by how much? Tim, an experienced blue water fisherman, went right to work and got the fish close in about 15 minutes. The fish was still “green,” which posed a dilemma. If they tried to gaff it right then, they could count on a tough battle behind the boat. On the other hand, if they didn’t chance it, the marlin might dive into the depths, die and leave them with a prolonged struggle to raise its half-ton bulk to the surface. They went for it and paid the price. Two days later, Ryan and Chip were still store from their tug-of-war with the gaff ropes. “I wasn’t really thinking ‘grander’ until we hauled it aboard and saw its girth,” Chip said. “We were so close to the harbor that I didn’t bother measuring it and went right in.” As the gang watched the big fish lifted out of the boat, Chip realized it might be a grander and whispered to Ryan “Watch this, dude. I think we have a very good chance here.” The Charter Desk scale flashed 1,064 pounds, making it the largest weighed here since March 25, 2008 when the Integrity weighed a 1, 251-pounder. The blue was Chip’s second grander. He worked his first in 1994 when he crewed for Capt. Jerome Judd on Jun Ken Po. All in all, it was a good week for big fish. “It’s that time of year. The day we caught the 1,064, the Ihu Nui missed a huge one that came in on the stinger right about where we caught ours,” Chip said. “Like a submarine, it was up periscope -- here I come. But it didn’t stick.” Wes and Kemp Murakami had started the week with an 827.5-pound blue with an enormous amount of stamina. The Murakamis hooked their fish at 8:15 am and fought it for five and a half hours, according to Debbie Murakami. The big marlin eventually outfought the duo on their 18-foot skiff Shyla. “Towards the end, they were assisted by Capt. Kevin Nakamaru on the charter boat Northern Lights,” Debbie said. For your how-to notes, the Murakamis hooked their fish six miles off Red Hill on “the cutest little six-inch jet lure,” Debbie said. NAINOA, 10, BOATS OMILU, 21.5 What the grander is to the blue marlin fisherman, the 21-pounder is to the youngster who whips for bluefin trevally. Nainoa Murtagh, 10, caught a 21.5-pound bluefin in Keauhou Bay to takeover the omilu slot on our Big-Fish List. Nainoa is the son of Capt. Bill Murtagh, skipper of the charterboat Nainoa. Like most of the bays, inlets and harbors around the islands, Keauhou is visited daily by a big school of akule. These big-eyed scads seek shelter in the harbors during the day and go offshore at night to feed under the cover of darkness. Last Sunday morning while the youngster was aboard the boat, he saw a school of akule swimming together in a tightly packed ball. He brought out one of his ready rod-and-reel outfits setup for akule, cast to the school and began hooking the baitfish. But he had difficulty bringing them in because a school of hungry omilu grabbed the hooked fish almost as soon as he dragged one from the relative safety of the bait ball. When Nainoa finally managed to snake a bait past the predators, he switched to a bigger setup up that he also had ready for action. He transferred the bait to a circle hook, cast it back toward the school and held the line in his fingers so he could feel a strike. The big omilu hit immediately, snatched the line from his fingers, swallowed the bait and put up a ten-minute fight. “I could see it fighting on its side about two feet above the bottom,” Nainoa said. “It was bright blue and silver.” When he got it aboard, and they realized how big it was, the Murtaghs took it to the Charter Desk for an official weight. Nainoa gave “Uncle Jim” some tackle notes for your how-to file. “I caught the akule on a green minnow strip rigged with red and green beads,” Nainoa said. “I used a long 4-pound test leader so the akule couldn’t see it. For the omilu, I used a size 24 circle hook and 55-pound test Power Pro braided line on a 950 Penn spinning reel.” As you can see, the kid is already a pro. WHY MAHIMAHI LIKE “FLOATERS” No one really knows why mahimahi like to gather around buoys, flotsam and jetsam. But skipper Jeff Heintz knows how to get them to gather around his boat Linda Sue III. Early in the week, Jeff came across a floating section of discarded net surrounded by hundreds of mahimahi. The big school was perfect for John Hoxmeir and his sons Charlie, 24, Alex, 22 and Joe, 18. The family is from Fort Collins, Colorado, and wanted lots of action rather than spending the day trying for the chance at a big marlin. The three boys were celebrating their recent graduations from college, junior college and highs school, respectively, Jeff said. A mahimahi may not have been as good as a diploma most days, but on this trip the only thing better than one mahimahi was two, then three, then four and finally almost more than you can count. After Jeff found the floater, he began chumming with sardines and cut up pieces of aku. The mahimahi liked the chum so much they fell in love with the Linda Sue III. “They left the floater and followed us for almost four miles, with a lot of screaming from the Hoxmeirs and my crew,” Jeff said. When it was time to head back to port with their catch packed in ice, they raced away and left the big mahimahi school behind to find another floating feeding station. KONA IKI TROLLERS TOURNEY RESULTS. The Kona Iki Trollers fishing club kicked off its 2009 season with the two-day Manuahi Tournament on May 16 and 17. Though it was a slow two days of fishing, the few lucky boats with qualifying fish all won jackpot prizes. Herb and Henry Naito and took home first place with a 125-pound marlin. Captain Cody Maeda and Angler Brad Ariel took home second place with a 45-pound ono. Captain Kerwin Masunaga and angler Heather Masunaga took home third place with a 44-pound striped marlin. “The Kona Iki Trollers is a family-oriented organization and the goal of our fishing club is to promote fellowship,” says club spokesperson Lisa Nahoopii. The club is sponsored by a generous donation from Captain Al Gustavson (Goose’s Edge, Queen K Tesoro, Honalo Shell and Waimea Shell). For more information, club rules and entry forms please visit our website at www.konaikitrollers.com.” BONEFISH ON THE FLY. No one has yet caught an oio to fill the bonefish spot on our Big-Fish List, which makes me even more envious of the recent luck Capt. Clay Ching has been having lately on Molokai. Clay guides reef-fishing parties and is in the process of locating good schools for his fly-fishing clients. Last week, Clay took advantage of perfect fly-fishing weather (no wind) and a minus tide to go scouting for good grounds and an opportunity to try out some new flies. Clay said he searched an area he had not fished before and found it “infested with bonefish.” “Everything was ‘green’ from the get-go with fish everywhere as soon as I stopped the boat and lifted up the engine,” Clay said. “I hooked and lost one after a short fight and then hooked and landed three bonefish in the six-pound size. On an 8-weight rod and reel it was an exhilarating experience to say the least. I thought I was in heaven. “I also saw some huge bonefish and some ulua there too,” Clay said. “For me the most priceless thing was finding the area. The fish were a bonus. Can't wait to get some clients on this place, they would love it.” If you want to get in on the Molokai bonefish action, call Clay at (808) 336-1870 or check out his website: http://www.hallelujahhoufishing.com. But don’t bring one of those big oio back here and try to slip it in on our Big-Fish List. Only fish caught in West Hawaii waters qualify. Does the fact that bonefish are swarming in the shallows on Molokai mean this is your best chance to catch one here now? Go check your favorite spot and find out. ULUA ON TOP. You may think of ulua as bottomfish that prowl the reef at night scavenging for eels and octopi. They are usually hiding from the never-ending whizzing noise of boats trolling overhead. But in remote areas of the ulua’s domain, these giant trevally are known to chase baitfish on the surface. On Molokai, for example, you can cast for them from a drifting boat at the edge of the reef (turn off the engine) and watch them slam surface poppers. Which takes us to South Point and the bridge of Hooked Up. Skipper Chuck Wigzell and crew David Crawford were down there with a charter party on a two-day overnighter. The plan was to troll for ono until dark, anchor in the lee and start trolling again the next day. They turned the corner and worked the 40 and 50 fathom lines and caught more ono. Off Green Sands Beach, they spotted a flock of birds work over feeding fish about a quarter mile inside of them. They couldn’t be tuna – too shallow. Maybe a school of ono, but ono don’t usually feed in a coordinated school like that. Let’s go find out!! In they went, dragging their ono lures. A fish blasted one line and took it down into the depths. As Chuck slowed Hooked Up, the long corner lure sank deeper and then took off in the jaws of a second fish. Chucks anglers were now in pitched battles with two very stubborn fish. ![]() No real surprise here. Both were ulua. One looked like it would go 45 or 50 and the other 75 or 80. Chuck suspected that the 75 or 80 pounder was the biggest of the year to date, but he wanted to save his cold storage for more ono. After posing for pictures and being pricked with tags, the two ulua went back home to puzzle over the strange phenomenon that interrupted their daily surface-feeding foray. Good thing they saved the cold storage. They ended the trip with 21 ono ranging up to 43 pounds spread out between Green Sands and Kauna Point. SUNDOWNER CATCHES GRANDER? The old saying “You are what you eat,” goes when you weigh fish, too. Pay attention, or you may lose a lot of weight when you don’t want to. Last Thursday, Capt. Randy Llanes and his nephew Keoni Llanes pulled the charterboat Sundowner up to the Charter Desk scales with what might have been Kona’s first grander of 2009. Its measurements said it might “go.” With a “short length” (tip of lower jaw to fork of tail) of 143 inches, it was much longer than, say, the 131 – inch, 1,045-pound-blue Capt. Randy Parker caught here in 2001. On the other hand, the girth of its tail stump was 19.5-inches, which says it could have been as little as 950 pounds. As the crane attached to the scales raised the fish up for an official weight, Randy saw the scales flicker with a reading of “1,005.” And in that instant, he realized that no one had thought to tie the fish’s mouth shut. That’s when the bottom fell out on his “grander.” Gravity everted the marlin’s stomach and dumped 15 pounds or more of its contents onto the deck. A five-pound aku, the remains of a half-dozen opelu, the partially digested leftovers of a shoal of squid and maybe a gallon of stomach acid – all would have legitimately been part of the original weight if they were still part of the fish. But now the scale read just 990 pounds without them. Oh well. The Sundowner catch is still the biggest of the year to date and Randy’s biggest as a captain. What’s more, the fish was far bigger than their aspirations for the day. Randy and Keoni had gone out hoping to catch fish for a party. A 100-pounder, Randy said, would have been just enough. They trolled down the coastline to TT-buoy with no action and hoped to change their luck on the way back. The big marlin dialed in at 4:11 pm as they trolled in 450 fathoms off Red Hill (a landmark just south of Keauhou Bay). “It took the long corner lure,” Randy said. “I saw it come in, and explode on the lure. Then it took off on a 700-yard run.” ![]() Keoni battled it toe-to-toe for the next two hours. Randy says the battle took them 2-1/2 miles away from their starting point according to the track left on his GPS. At times, Keoni pushed the drag to as much as 68 pounds on the two-speed Shimano 130 reel, thereby preventing the battle from going far into the night. Amazingly, the 400-pound test Momoi leader held. The standard for marlin fishing here is a 530-pound test leader. The catch is a fitting start to what Randy calls a new chapter in his life. That includes a new son for Randy and his wife Rachel, the renewal of his charter fishing license, and a new boat. John and Debbie Hughes of Lake Havasu, Ariz, bought the Sundowner in January and installed Randy as captain. “They caught a lot of fish with me in the past and trusted me to run their boat,” Randy said. “I feel like I am starting fresh.” Randy’s 990-pound blue gives him bragging rights over his dad, retired fishing captain John Llanes, Sr. “Too bad my fish didn’t dump another five pounds,” Randy said magnanimously. “Then I would have tied my dad’s 985-pounder. His was also a grander. He didn’t lock the lower jaw either and a mahimahi and a big otadu dropped out.” Randy caught the fish on a “straight runner” lure he makes himself. He sells his lures exclusively through Pacific Rim Fishing Supplies in Honokohau Harbor. Stop by and ask Dave or Jill to show you what the winner looks like. |
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Hawaii FAD Finder Ocean Watch Tides at Kawaihae. Tides at Kailua-Kona. Tides at Hilo. Tides at other Hawaii locations. You can check sea current and temperature patterns by visiting the Navy's Oceanographic Research site. For currents, go to https://www.navo.navy.mil/cgi-bin/animate.pl/metoc/74/84/0-0-17/0. |
Jim Rizzuto is the author of Fishing Hawaii Offshore, the Fishing Hawaii Style Series and The Kona Fishing Chronicles yearbooks. Look for his books at bookstores and tackle shops or visit www.konafishingchronicles.com. |
Courtesy of Lona Knight, Amber Hundall,and Wendy Marks. |