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Kona’s greatest fishing day ever?
West Hawaii Today - April 30, 1990
By Jim Rizzuto
Some are
calling it the greatest billfishing day in Kona history. If quality depends on
size as much as numbers, April 30, 1990 qualified for special consideration. A
total of 22 marlin were weighed in last Monday. Eighteen were more than 300
pounds, 14 more than 400, eight more than 500 and six more than 600. The
biggest fish of the day weighed 748.
And for every fish boated, there were three or four stories of broken
lines, pulled hooks and stripped reels.
Making the numbers even more impressive, relatively few boats were
out. The catch was made by a small, non-tournament fleet on a working day when
most of our local recreational fishermen were ashore.
“Can you imagine the staggering statistics if this mass of fish had
moved during one of our major-mid-summer tournaments with 100 to 200 boats
fishing?” asked David Grobecker of the Pacific Ocean Research Foundation.
“They’d have broken every tournament record for total catch weight. Altogether,
the 18 biggest fish weighed nearly 9,000 pounds. That’s an average weigh of
almost 500 pounds.”
By 8:55 a.m. the Sea Genie was already hooked up to it’s third
marlin. “Fish were hitting as fast as you could get a bait out,” Capt. Gene
Vander Hoek said. “They were there and hungry. I haven’t seen a day like this
in years.
“A big wave of fish came through, and they were all concentrated in
one area stretching from DD buoy upcurrent for about a mile,” Capt. Vander Hoek
said.
“Even fishermen on fishing island were hooking big marlin. I saw one
guy hook a 400 to 600 pounder – which eventually broke off. You had to work
your way through a maze of people fighting fish. At one point, we were fighting
one of ours and a skiff next to us hooked up. Their marlin jumped straight at us
before they got it under control.”
Though Vander Hoek got his three on bait, the Kona Lure and
other boats were just as successful with trolling lures.
Capt. Jim Wagner on the Kona Lure doubled with impressive fish
of 619 and 455 pounds. “And we had a couple of bites in between, too,” Wagner
said.
“We trolled out to Double D , saw boats fighting fish and
hooked the 465 right away. The day before, we caught a 406 and lost a couple of
bigger ones. So we decided to stick with lures and keep trolling the edges of
the area. We got all our bites within the same couple of square miles.”
Wagner’s charter, Dick Dial of New Mexico, said he had waited 50 years
to catch a marlin worth mounting and planned to hang the 619 pounder (if he can
find a wall big enough).
But live bait took the biggest double of the day on the Shadow.
Capt. Tom Salisbury’s charter caught marlin of 748 and 622 pounds while working
the same compact mass of schooling baitfish.
“Baitfish were everywhere – and there were lots of different kinds,”
Dr. Grobecker said. “We opened marlin bellies and found aku, yellowfin up to 35
pounds and an assortment of other stuff including squid. One belly contained a
huge squid beak. From its size, I’d guess it came from a four-or-five-foot red
squid.
“And all kinds of fish were feeding on them,” Grobecker added. “Boats
weighed in ahi over 100 pounds, spearfish of more than 40, some striped marlin,
mahimahi and ono. Jiggers were hooking bigeye around the buoys. And the aku were
ranging all the way up to the bigger otadu sizes.”
“I’ve never really seen that much bait before in one place,”
Capt. Wagner agreed. “Even through surface conditions didn’t seem unusual, the
fishfinder was showing thick schools down below throughout the whole area. We
caught a big aku, and in it’s belly we found five or six kinds of smaller bait.
Squid, crabs, nehu, filefish and even a perfect two-inch ocean sunfish.”
Some fishermen also found longlind hooks – relicts of escapes
from the commercial operations around the Hawaiian Islands.
“These bigger marlin are strong enough to tear up the
longline gear,” Dr. Grobecker said. “In fact, the uniformly large size of the
marlin in this bunch may mean there is some selection going on. A big school
like this could pass through an area being fished with longlines and lose all of
the smaller marlin. They get caught by the longliners while the big ones break
lose.”
“That might explain the seasonal shift in fishing paterns we’ve seen
over the past few years,” Capt. Vaner Hoek suggested. “Our spring and fall
fishing has been better than the summer, which used to be the best season. The
longliners increase their fishing effort in the summer when the tuna are around.
And they seep up the marlin with them.”
Just how unusual is it for the Kona fleet to boat 18 big fish in one day?
“We’ve gotten used to seeing maybe one or two big fish a day over the
past several years,” said Capt. Vander Hoek. “Whoever gets the big one that day
is King for the day.”
Was it the best big fish day ever?
“ I don’t know,” said Capt. Wagner. “But if it was, I’m glad I was out
there.”
It’s tuna time, and – surprise! – the yellowfins are actually here. For
the past several springs, ahi fishermen have been disappointed with runs that
were weak or, worse yet, non-existent. Friday, Kona boats worked an offshore
bird pile for multiple scores. Among the best catches: while trolling with lures
the Maka Iwa took nine ahi more than 100 pounds each.
Capt. Jim Wagner of the Kona Lure was also on the scene and said there
were several extensive flocks of birds with tuna breaking in active schools
spread over several square miles.
The first tuna to arrive are usually hungry and eager to feed. Often,
they’ll strike lures with abandon. Later, as the season develops, so does the
tuna’s wariness. The success of any tuna run is only partly the number of fish.
The final results will depend on how long they stay naďve.
©1990 Jim Rizzuto