Biggest FAD

BIGGEST FAD - Fishing Island Buoy
From Western Outdoors Magazine December 1990
By: Jim Rizzuto

        The world’s largest fish aggregation device (FAD) has been on station off the Big Island of Hawaii for less than a year, but has already changed the face of Kona fishing. It has contributed to the explosion in spring billfish catches, gathered hordes of skipjack and yellowfin tuna, discovered fisheries for game fish that few knew existed, and created an inexpensive and comfortable fishing opportunity for a broad range of do-it-yourself anglers.
    Aptly named Fishing Island, the FAD is a 75-foot double-hulled, double-deck aluminum boat anchored three miles directly offshore of the mouth of Honokahau Harbor, home to Kona’s sportfishing fleet. It is moored in 1000 fathoms, and attached to a giant buoy made from the drum of a cement mixer truck.
    Sheer size makes it an incomparable fish attractor. At the peak of Kona’s spring run, baitfish schools gathered for a mile around it, and the surface looked like it was raining skipjack and yellowfin tuna. At one point, anglers aboard the Fishing Island could see 10 nearby boats fighting Pacific blue marlin of 300 pounds or more – while they, themselves, battled a 600-pounder that took a bait right next to their platform.
    “That one was hooked by Ginnie Mundus, wife of famous shark fisherman Capt. Frank Mundus,” said Capt. Ray Nibert, who operates Fishing Island. “We lost it right at gaff. We’ve yet to catch our first 500-pound marlin, but we’ve hooked several, and we’ve boated smaller billfish.”
    Most Fishing Island patrons aren’t looking for billfish. They pay their $49.50 per person round trip to the platform and four hours of casting for skipjacks, yellowfin, bigeye, mahimahi and assorted small fish. The more ambitious fishermen bait a live skipjack on heavy gear and try for bigger game.
     “During four months in the winter, we caught over 250 thresher sharks averaging 300 pounds, with 506 tops,” Nibert says. Most are caught at night, along with a variety of other sharks. The night we interviewed Nibert, one of his anglers boated a 744-pound tiger shark, and another had been spooled by a giant manta ray “with wings maybe 10 feet across,” Nibert said.
    Night fishing is popular with local anglers, who also get a crack at broadbill swordfish. “We haven’t boated a broadbill yet,” Nibert says, “but we have hooked big fish that took the bait and just went down until the line ran out.”
    The number of thresher sharks was a big surprise. Kona fishermen rarely saw them until the arrival of Fishing Island. But the biggest surprise? “Dogtooth tuna,” Nibert says. “When we caught our first one, we took it around to a whole bunch of fishermen and nobody knew what it was because no one had ever seen one. During February and March we caught a bunch of 10 to 15-pounders almost every night.” Standard reference books on Hawaii fish do not even list the dogtooth tuna.
     “Good-eating white meat; we look forward to catching them,” Nibert adds. “That’s what a lot of local anglers come out here for. They want to take fish home to eat. We let them keep everything they catch on 20 and 30-pound-test gear. When they use our heavy-duty 130-pound outfits, we keep the fish to help defray the costs of our operation.”
     During the day, most anglers cast popper plugs on spinning gear to catch skipjacks. At night they switch to diamond jigs, often on standup gear, to hook bigeye, yellowfin and other tuna.
    “The yellowfin are hard to get,” Nibert noted. “They tend to remain upcurrent of the buoy. The chum doesn’t bring them in because it’s heading the other way. The bigeye cooperate better.”
    At this point Fishing Island is a special bargain for fishermen because it is licensed to carry only six paying passengers at a time. With head, gallery, lounge and two spacious decks, anglers have a lot of elbow room. Nibert expects to upgrade his license soon to carry more passengers.
Nibert’s advice to potential anglers: “Call in advance, and bring extra lures and a lot of line.   And, expect some surprises.