Spyda's Blog

The last time I fished in a tournament was back in the late 80’s on the Big Island. I thought at the time that it would be the last ever. Well, doing this blog and moderating on the forum has re-kindled the spark somewhat and I found myself spending the last weekend in August competing in the Ewa Beach Fenceline to Fenceline tournament that has been put on by Danny Chamizo the last three years.

The tournament is a grass-roots effort spearheaded by Danny to bring some notoriety to Ewa Beach, in particular Onelua Beach park which is more commonly known as Hau Bush. There’s been talk of closing the park which has long been a center of activity for those in the Ewa Beach community. Perhaps development money has put the pressure on some politicians. Locals understand some of the concerns like squatters (who have mostly been chased out) and cronics that tend to huddle up out there, but, wonder why the knee jerk reaction is to close the park instead of cleaning it up and making long overdue repairs and improvements. Makes more sense yea?

The Shoreline fishing tournament scene has evolved quite a bit over the years and has stepped out of the shadow of the off-shore boat fishing tournaments. There was a time when mention of a fishing tournament automatically meant trolling and boats. The shoreline tournaments can now hold their own within the local  fishing  community. A fact well evidenced by the support these tournaments are getting from the local businesses and the community in general. Another sign is the number of major tackle manufacturers who are now selling purpose built fishing rods for the local shore fishing angler. To be more specific, Ulua rods are now being sold by Daiwa, Shimano, Boone, Tica and Roddy Hunter! Add to that brands like Nitro and Hawaiian Angler that local tackle distributors are having made for this market overseas. No doubt the local shore fishing scene has exploded in the last ten to fifteen years.

Anyway, back to fishing. Bruddah Bill from ifishhawaii.com was kind enough to offer his back yard as a possible spot to fish the tournament. After Jeff picked up a couple nice Oio (which he released) on a scouting trip there, things looked good so we gladly accepted Bills generous offer.

Unfortunately for me I had just come off a two week vacation a week before the tournament week end, so, I would only be able to fish the early Saturday and Sunday morning tides after work.

I got to Bills sometime after midnight Saturday morning. Bill, Jeff and Norman had all their rods out and were just chillin. Nothing to report, quiet so far. Luckily some guys who weren’t in the tournament had vacated the area to right of Jeffs poles so there was room for me to get my rods out.

After working the poles the last 5 hours I was settling down to watch the sunrise when I noticed something in the water down past my last rod. As the sun rose and the light got brighter I could see two floaters about 30 yards apart, lay net…………………………………………

The net stays out there all weekend. Oh well.. All four of us end the tournament with no fish! We pack up and head to the weigh-in, to see what everyone else caught.

There are some pretty nice fish weighed in!  This is a relatively small tournament that is limited to 3.5 miles of shoreline so we’re all impressed! Danny put together a great event! He does it all! He puts himself on call the entire weekend for catch verification, puts up a lot of the prizes and does all the legwork for the rest.

Awesome event! I can only hope that the Ewa Beach community appreciates his efforts and answers the call when their voices need to be heard!

Mahalo to Danny, Bill, Jeff and Norman for a great weekend supporting a great cause!!

As typical beginners, we wanted to catch, but, we soon found just wanting wasn’t near enough to get it done! When we started to get serious about it there wasn’t much available media wise except Edward Hosaka’s “Shore Fishing In Hawaii” and the “Hawaii Fishing News”! The now classic books from Jim Rizzuto and Michael Sakamoto had not been published yet. No knock on Hosaka’s book, I still refer to it, but, it was published in 1944 so, fishing regulations and techniques had changed quite a bit by then. HFN has always been the source for the latest information and a hell of a lot of pure stoke for local fishermen! Still, our hunger for Ulua knowledge continued to grow and become  more and more obsessive.

We were still slinging spinners exclusively when we decided a trip to the B.I. was the answer to all the “bolohead” days and nights of fishing. Dean has family up there and told us some of his cousins were experienced Ulua Fishermen, so, off we went!

Deans cousin Larry was kind and more importantly, patient enough to put up with us greenhorns and all our questions! Walking into Larrys house, except for Dean of course, we didn’t know what to expect. Little did I know it would change my life dramatically! As Larry showed us around his house we walked into a room mostly barren except for some rod wrapping stands with a partially built menpachi rod balanced on them. I’m sure Larry will laugh if he reads this, but, it was like a “zen” moment for me! I recall thinking, “Man this guy’s a real fisherman!” Years later I would flash back to this moment  and laugh while sitting in my home in Kona admiring a rod I had just built as it sat on stands in my living room.

Larry led us into his living room where there was a framed picture of  Larry and two other adult males kneeling behind a giant Ulua! Note that I said “behind” it not around or next to it! When we asked how heavy it was he told us it was too big for their coolers so they had cut it up at the beach and never weighed it! His estimate was 120, conservative I think!

Larry told us he would take us down to a spot that had been a favorite of the family for many years. We were excited! We loaded our stuff into his Toyota Land Cruiser Wagon. None of us had ever been four-wheeling before so this alone was going to be a treat!

The spot was near the bottom of a river mouth, the last winter storms had brought large rocks over the usual trail to the spot. We climbed over rocks bigger than I ever thought possible! Fortunately the run from the paved road to the spot was a short one. This was not the typical Big Island spot, no high cliff, water not too deep and there was a huge popper right out in front of where we would be fishing! I was a little surprised, but, Larry was calm and confident.

Larry didn’t bring any bait with him, we had a little ika in our cooler, but, he had no intention of mooching any bait from us. We were about to get our first lesson in using bait the ocean provided us locally. First, he showed us how to catch gori, alaihi and aama crabs along the shoreline we were fishing. Then he taught us the best ways to put them on our hooks. Techniques that all became a permanent part of our fishing repertoire.

I don’t remember exactly what we caught on that trip, but, we returned many times to fish there. We caught papio, oio, moi, mu, kumu, nenue and all sorts of other fish there. It became one of our “magic” spots. White-washing was definately the exception out there.

I had some of my most memorable light tackle battles there with oio and papio on light spinners. My best catch was an 8lb oio on 6 lb test! I actually caught two about the same size on the same trip! One of the best battles with a fish I had there was with one that got away. Doesn’t it always seem to work out that way? To make matters worse, on that particular trip I was fishing alone, so no witnesses!

I had driven out there late one afternoon figuring I could wash away some of the “Bolohead Blues” I had been experiencing on my last few ulua trips with some light tackle action. I set up two rods, my big spinner (30lb test) and my favorite whipping rod a 6 foot one piece graphite rod with a Penn 722z which had 6lb test spooled on it.

The afternoon and early evening had been pretty quiet, not much action just one missed strike on the big pole. The wind was blowing pretty good and the water was rough. I jacked up both poles and recast. A big aama on the big pole and a small live gori on the 722. The tide was heavy on the rise and the water was rushing all the way around the big popper to the left like a stream.

I stripped down to my shorts and poured some water over me to wash off some of the salt before I changed into warm clothes. I got on my cot and crawled in my sleeping bag. Still shivering, I had brief moment of self doubt thinking “What am I doing out here alone?”

I was just starting to doze off when I heard the little brass bell on the 722 ting-a-ling, I held my breath and concentrated on the sound thinking it  probably was the wind or waves, but, it kept on ting-a-linging! I grabbed my headlamp and shined at my pole….it was in full arch!!

I ran out and picked up the rod, line was peeling out furiously! The fish tore out the channel between the two big poppers and was headed out to sea! I ran to the left to line up better with the channel and to go under my big spinner line which I had cast into the channel. Nothing to do but hang on! It’s not like I could horse it with 6lb test! Finally it stopped, then started to swing left, it was way out there! I didn’t have much line left on the reel. I felt it start to rub on the left side popper. I grabbed my landing net and walked over towards the popper, the normal hop over was now a 5 foot wide crossing in rushing water! Somehow I got across, but, not before losing both my slippers and the net! I hobbled along the edge barefooted pulling my line from under ha’uke’uke urchins which were abundant there. When I got near the outside tip of the popper waves were splashing and surging all around! Amazingly, when I pulled the line free from the last urchin it was clear and I could feel the fish again! It must have felt me because it took off on another run! I have no idea how much time had passed at this point, but, it sure seemed like forever! The fish was still strong and it fought me back and forth, fortunately staying clear. Finally I started to gain line and the side to side swings got shorter and shorter. Then it broke surface, wow, nice sized white papio!

Now I was really nervous! I had to try and time the waves to bring the fish up onto the popper where I was. I waited until the water was high up on the popper and a wave came in over it. I reeled and pulled it in with the wave, it came straight towards me, perfect……right through my legs and into a crack behind me, I heard the line snap just as the water enveloped it and swept it back out in to the sea!! It was gone……I think I woke babies on the other side of the island sceaming every french word in the book at the top of my lungs!! Never have I agonized over losing a fish as I did this one! I mean, it wasn’t a hundred pound ulua, but, it was a dam good fish for 6lb test! I have an estimate of it’s size in my mind, but, will not say it here, it’s all moot! No one else saw it, no one saw me fighting it, no one can even verifiy that I was fishing that night! I went home the next morning with the worst case of the “Bolohead Blues” I have ever had…..crap!

The last two years we stayed at a beach house that sat on the right edge of a large sand channel. The fishing was OK, not quite up to it’s expected potential, but, OK. Oama had showed up right out back the first year, but, didn’t the second. We eventually found them about quarter mile down the beach in a little cove.

This year, that house we rented wasn’t available so we had to search for another place. Judy eventually found one close by, in fact about quarter mile down the road. Hmmm, quarter mile? Which direction? Finally pictures confirmed what we hoped, it was right there at the cove that held the oama!

OK, OK, so it’s a beach house not really camping, but, hey we all paid our dues doing the hardcore camping out on the lava on the Big Island for many years, so, now that we’re old(er), we deserve some comfort. Besides, the women no like the hardcore stuff anymore and this the only way we can get to go fishing for one week!

Aug. 3, 2010 – 1700hrs. Finally there! The house is nice, decent kitchen, flat panel TV! We had come out a week ago to check out the grounds (ocean) so we knew what to expect there. We have some tako in the cooler to start with and plans to do a dive for more Wednesday or Thursday.

Aug. 4, 2010 – 0500hrs. Poles were quiet last night, only a few puhi. Looking forward to trying my new toy, a Daiwa XSHA50. Brought two rods to try it out with, my old Harrington home built and a Kimura Fenwick. They are two totally different rods so it should be interesting.

Aug. 4, 2010 – 0630hrs. Off down the road for a quick tako dive, tide is already on the rise so gotta get in the water quick. We pick up three pieces, I got two and Dean got one to add to the two he already had in the cooler. This is plenty, no sense taking more until we need them.

Aug. 4, 2010  – 1030hrs. Poles are quiet, bait fish eating our tako. Fugu action, dam it!! Swivel and lead coming back no hooks! Time to test cast the new reel. First up the Kimura with an eight ounce lead. OK, haven’t thrown a conventional much in the last 14 years (got married in 1996)so not expecting to see the lead disappear out into the horizon. Half cast to feel the combo, not bad feels OK. Three-quarter, oops little over-run, not too bad, wow the 8oz lead skipping in on the surface! Dam this thing is fast! OK, lets try crank’um! Frick! Backlash!! Boy do I need practice! My timing is totally off, gotta wait on it a little more. Couple of more casts and it’s getting better, but, dam I’m tired! Not in shape, the arms not used to this anymore, not to mention the age factor too! (Lets see what other kine excuses I get!) I never was an “out to the horizon” kinda guy, but, I was at least a decent caster, this is not good! Switch to the Harrington, heavier and slower action, not too promising….first cast not too bad, little overrun. Second cast, fricken backlash again! I feel old….After a rest I switch to a 6oz lead, first decent cast! Not that far but clean, straight no problems! OK nuff! Put one bait on toss’um out!

Aug. 5, 2010 – 0530hrs. Up for the dawn patrol!  Tide is low and the reef out to the right is partially exposed. Poles quiet again last night, only puhi and a bird that got tangled in Daniels line!

Aug. 5, 2010 – 0630hrs. Had coffee, sun is rising, going for a (careful) walk on the dry reef, maybe I’ll stumble over a tako!

Aug. 5, 2010 – 1030hrs. Tide is heavy on the rise, checking and recasting fresh baits in earnest. Quiet…frustrating, but, gotta keep working’um!

Aug. 6, 2010 – 0530hrs. Dawn patrol, no action again last night. Recast my rods, drinking coffee by myself, thinking, thinking, what to do, what to change……cannot give up. Jeff is supposed to come by today to check out the spot, these are his stomping grounds, hopefully he can break the ice!

Aug. 6, 2010 – 1030hrs. Jeff arrives, hand shakes all around. He’s surprised to hear our catch report (no catch report actually). He gets his line out, holy crap, 30+ beyond our lines! The conversation shifts to Jeffs high tech bait-casting rods. Beautiful, purpose built (by Jeff) custom rods! (Good thing the wife went to a doctors appointment, she’d be getting awful nervous about now!) He generously offers to let me mount my new reel on one of his rods to give it a try.  It takes a few casts to get into a rhythm, but, when I finally get a decent one, whoa, at least 20 (probably more) over my best cast with my rod! Amazing! Incredible power, the snap back was what I had to get used to, the first few casts it was leaving me way behind!

Aug. 7, 2010 – 1130hrs. Tide on the rise, recasting my kimura with my new Daiwa on it, fresh tako leg. Decent cast, set the drag, bell on. I walk back towards the house when my bell rings, come on, not again! The puhi and fugu are getting on my nerves! Wait a minute, this is different…wha’da’ya know, a small omilu! I don’t believe it!

Well, wanted to tag this one, but, braddah Dean ready fo cry ’cause “I neva eat Omilu sashimi long time!”Alright, alright, but, next one gotta release! Nothing like a little action to juice up da boys! Everybody hustling now!

Aug. 8, 2010 – 0600hrs. Two tohei another bird believe it or not and one cat! Judy the animal lover insists we get the hook out of the cats mouth. To me, it should be who ever left a baited hook lying around helping her, but, nobody talking. So what do I get for helping get the hook out? A dam bite on my right index finger! On top of dat, I was the only one who got up when the bird got tangled in Deans line at 1 am so I had to untangle  it myself and got bit by the dam bird too!!

Aug. 8, 2010 – 1830hrs. I wade into waist deep water getting blasted by waves with a 10ft. extension pole and get one oama! That’s right ONE!! Ain’t nobody gonna tell me I never tried hard enough to get more fish in the cooler! So, I throw out the oama and what I get? Fugu strike!! One friken oama and one Fugu eat’um!! Drink beer tonight…

Aug. 9, 2010 – 0630hrs. Missed the dawn patrol for the first time this trip, too much beer last night!

Aug. 9, 2010 – 1100hrs. I decide to hump some of my gear down the beach to a sand channel Jeff was eyeing up when he dropped by Friday. Tide is rising, we’ll see!  Two and a half hours, checking bait every 20 minutes, nutin…..at least one nice young  lady when come sunbathe nearby so it helped past the time.

Aug. 10, 2010 – 0700hrs. Pack up day, gotta be out by 1100hrs. I look out at Dean and he’s working his rod like he get something on! “What? Get something Dean?” “I think so!” not too positive the answer!  I go out there and the line is off to side and pulling, might be a fish! Sliver!! Ooooo, one good size white papio!! Well, better late than never! Still two papio in one week? Not too good…..

My grandfather, my Dads Dad, an American citizen, was a real old school Japanese man. Taisho they call it, the boss of his domain, he called the shots and that’s how it went down. He was a fierce competitor in plantation camp sumo matches (his passion) and always had a small plate of sashimi every night with his “highball” (whiskey on the rocks with a splash of water). His favorite fish I’m told was Uku (grey snapper). Living in Grandpa’s household, you ate fish and you ate it often.

My Dad, although he never took up fishing as a serious hobby or pastime, growing up in that plantation camp it was something everyone did. So when I was old enough to hold a bamboo pole, Dad took my sisters and me fishing. We would drive out to Kihei or the Ma’alaea small boat harbor, target fish were Aholehole. Little did I know that catching that first little Aholehole would lead to a life long love and passion for fishing.

Dads passion was golf. He played at a pretty high level for many many years. Interestingly, although he played with a single digit handicap for 50+ years, he never had a hole in one! (= 100 + Ulua?) He had a double eagle (70-90lb?), many eagles (50-60lb) and of course lots of birdies (10-40lb). He shot his age twice, once when he was 72 and when he was 74 he shot 73, one under his age! Haven’t figured out what the fishing equivalent is for that!

Not much of a fishing story here, just wanted to share. My Dad passed on July 20th 2010. He was good man, I love him very much!

The boys had gone back to Honolulu following our annual camp/fishing trip, Dean and Judy were staying another couple of days, so I decided to take them down to a semi-secluded white sand beach that I knew Judy would like. We packed some lunch, the dive gear, a couple of spinners and Deans 9wt fly rod in my Cherokee and headed down to Makalawena.

We get there and there’s no one in sight, cool! Got the whole beach to ourselves!! Judy took a stroll down the empty beach while Dean and I messed around with the spinners. We didn’t have much for bait except some stinky pink ika, so we weren’t having much luck. We decided to switch gears and go for a quick dive for tako and maybe change our luck.

Dean was the first in, he stuck his face in the water and popped right back up! “Oama! Brah get Oamas!!” What? We had been so layed back coming there after some serious Ulua fishing that we didn’t even notice the Oama in the water! We stripped off the dive gear and rigged up our light spinner top halfs with light line and oama hooks. Try as we may, the stinky ika just wasn’t doing it! We chased and chased, but couldn’t hook any Oama. We went over to a finger of lava that went out into the water to look for anything that we could try to use for bait. I was just grabbing some pipipi off the rocks when Dean said “Eh, check dis out! Get Oama in this pool!!” Lo and behold a small tide pool in the rocks held about 20 Oama captive! Woohoo! A natural live bait well with the bait inside already! Hows dat!?!

I grabbed my 9 foot rod that had my trusty old 550SS on it and tied on a big floater. To that I tied a 6 foot leader of 40lb test with a # 18 hook and no lead. I hooked an Oama through the back and tossed it out. It didn’t take long maybe 5 minutes max, I was watching my floater when I saw a black streak rushing towards it! BAM!! Hanapaa!! This place is one of the rare shallow water spots in Kona so I kept my hands up high taking full advantage of the 9 foot rod. Fortunately, I had only tossed it about 20 yards so the height was effective and I landed the 12 pound Omilu a few minutes later.

Now Dean only had his small spinner and his fly rod, so after seeing the Omilu come up he was madly casting the biggest flies he had with him in hopes of getting something on the fly rod! Finally, I told him, “Eh, dis not one IGFA tournament! Hook one Oama on your fly line and tro’um out! Who cares if not textbook fly fishing?” He just kinda looked at me and said “Oh yea no? What da heck!” He tied an oio hook to his tippet, hooked on an Oama and tossed it out. Again, didn’t take long, BAM!! BIG strike!! Screama!! Woohoo!! “Hold um brah!!” This one was a lttle too big though, he couldn’t keep it up high and it eventually cut him off… too bad! I looked at Dean and he was in a daze, knees shakin! I just had to laugh! “Ho brah! How was dat!!” Finally he looked up at me and laughed shaking his head. “Dam! Dat was nuts! F#%K!!”

While Dean sat and sipped a cup of wine to calm down I tossed another one out on the floater. Blamo, again and again and again!! This would be the first time we ever released Ulua and big papio! There was one small one about 8lbs, but, the rest (lost count, maybe 5 or 6) were 10 to twelve all close to the same size as the first one that went in to cooler. To bad I didn’t have a tagging kit back then!

You know, sometimes it just happens that way. We had no expectations, just hoped to maybe get some Mamo for pupu that night, but, we ended up with pupus, dinner and one heck of a day of fishing!

Across the island chain there are many well known Ulua spots. Places where many great Ulua fishermen and casting clubs built their reputations. Some you might say are legendary.

The names of these spots are as varied as the terrain they sit on. Some are very specific to some feature of the location, others are only known by the name of the general area. You can’t really count them all because the truth is you can catch Ulua at any beach or stretch of shoreline in Hawaii! It just seems that some places produce more Ulua than others. The theory is that the most prolific spots sit in very close proximity to an “Ulua House”. Consider this a first installment, of a subject that could take a long time to cover completely, if that’s possible at all!!

Bamboo Ridge, Oahu  – The spot. Few are better known no doubt. People who don’t fish have heard of Bamboo Ridge. It wasn’t a coincidence when the creators of  the Hawaii Writers Quarterly, chose “Bamboo Ridge” as the name of their publication. They took inspiration from the fishing spot when they chose the name! Modern anglers have been fishing at Bamboo Ridge since somewhere in the early twenties. In those early days, most of the Ulua fishing poles were made of bamboo so when the casting clubs were out there in full force it literally looked like a grove of bamboo trees! It’s place in not just Ulua fishing history, but, local culture has long been cemented.

Moi Hole, Oahu - I’ve not been out there for many years, but, definately a place that is still special to me as I scored my first Ulua there. On the west side of Oahu a small cove with an underwater cave, classic moi grounds. The adjacent out-cropping has been a favorite of Ulua fishermen for decades and has produced many monsters. I had the good fortune and great honor of meeting and fishing with Andy Miyamoto out there. I consider him one of the best Ulua fishermen I have ever met. Ever the gentleman, Andy was well respected by all and considered “the boss” by regulars at Moi Hole. Andy could cast it a country mile, a big man, he could cast a 9/o with a 16 oz lead about as far as most of us can toss a 4/o! Legend? In my humble opinion, absolutely!!

Laie Point, Oahu - There are several islets just outside this spot that lends it’s self to the belief that there is an Ulua house nearby. The tally of big Ulua captured there seems to support this theory also. Our gangs first Ulua was brought up here, so, it will always be a special place to us.

Dan No Uchi, BI - Probably lesser known to those who don’t live on the Big Island, but, worthy of mention. Also known as Dan Uchi or Donuchi, the name roughly translated from Japanese means “steps to the inside”. The Japanese name leads me to believe it was a spot popular with early Japanese immigrants to Hawaii and may have been named in a tribute or reference to a place in Japan known as “Dan No Ura” where a major sea battle took place back in 1185. Located south of Kealakekua Bay, Dan No Uchi sits in the middle of a long stretch of coastline on the West coast of the Big Island that has produced an unbelievable number of huge Ulua.

Smoking Rock, BI - In an area generally referred to as Manuka, there is a gravel road that bolts straight down to the coastline from the Mamalahoa highway that locals dubbed “Road To The Sea”. A bridge made of re-bar gets you out onto “Smoking Rock”. Ultra deep, right off the edge it drops away quickly into blue. Not for the weak or lazy, a serious Ulua spot.

Keahole Point, BI – Another spot reputed to be near an Ulua house. A friend who scuba dived in the area told me there is a huge sea mound just outside the point where he would always see huge Uluas roaming. There are many stories of hooked Uluas supposedly diving into a cave foiling fishermens efforts to land them. I unfortunately was one of those guys. Twice!! A friend of mine and very talented angler Dean Hayashi defeated a 127 pounder there!

Kaawaloa, BI – On the north side of Kealakekua bay just outside the sanctuary boundry, access is through private land.  This is another of the insanely deep spots in South Kona. Fishermen use a wooden plank to bridge the gap to the last little popper that you cast and set your rods on. It’s so deep there that even when there is a swell the waves don’t break on it. The water just rises and receeds with each swell. This was the site of an Ulua blitz that was documented in the Hawaii Fishing News back in the 1980’s. Another friend of mine and Hundred Plus Club member Mel Hamada and his crew caught something like 12(?) Ulua on that trip!!

Lone Kiawe, Maui – On the “backside” of Haleakala, this spot really defines the “different” style that is common on Maui. Unbelieveable catches have been made here with smaller reels (3/o & 4/o) and 50 to 60lb line including one where angler Earl Matsui “tripled” his line by catching a 150lb Ulua using a 3/o with 50lb test!

Plenty Kiawe, Maui – Just down the road from Lone Kiawe I’m sure you can guess how these spots got their names. A wide beach spot, Plenty Kiawe has also had it’s share of 100 pounders!

I can’t even begin to consider this very short list  the slightest scratch on the surface of the list of popular Ulua spots, the real list is too long and may not be known by any one person! My apologies to Kauai, Molokai and Lanai, who I know have their own list of “Big Boy” spots. I have fished on Kauai and Molokai, but, not with Ulua equipment. Lanai, it’s on my bucket list!!

Getting there is half the problem sometimes, a capable and reliable vehicle is an essential part of your fishing gear. Sometimes it’s your friends rig or maybe your dads truck, the main thing is that it can get you and all your gear to and safely back from fishing.

As the balance of our time spent slowly transitioned from surfing to shore-casting, we found that except for those spots that required hardcore four wheeling the vehicles we had did the job just fine. Surf-racks were great for carrying our fishing and tent poles, even becoming part of the framework of our makeshift tents. As my passion for fishing got more serious, so did the vehicles that carried me there.

My surf-mobile, an Audi Fox four door with the afore mentioned surf racks had seen better days. It’s brakes and shocks were shot along with bunch of other little maladies that made it a little more funky than foxy. Time for an upgrade!

I spotted an International Scout II at a used car lot on the way to work one day so stopped by one afternoon later that week. I purposely ignored the Scout and the greasy salesman’s offer of a hundred dollars trade-in for my Audi for the first hour I was there while I feigned interest in a Datsun pickup. Long story short, I ultimately got $1500 for the Audi and got $1000 more knocked off the original asking price for the Scout! Woohoo! V8, four wheel drive, granny low 4 speed and Dana 44’s front and rear!!

I didn’t know at the time I bought Ben we’d end up on the Big Island together, but, boy did he turn out to be a great investment! A good fishing vehicle over there requires a balance of short wheelbase/ground clearance and carrying capacity. At most spots a quick run to the store is not an option so, you need to take everything with you.  A typical load for 3 day trip would include a 170 quart cooler packed with ice, a 120 with food and drinks, a 48 full of bait, camp kitchen box, a box of dry food, tent, cot, 15 gallons of water, of course all your fishing tackle and a small (50lbs.) tool box.

I liked bragging about Ben, telling anyone who’d listen how tough he was, built like a tank I’d say. There was one time though, I nearly had to eat my words. We were an hour down the trail, just reached the level ground before the shoreline. I had just finished telling the guys for the umpteenth time how Ben was built like a tank when the engine stumbled and died! Crank, crank, crank, no fire! Shoot, can’t keep crankin gotta find out what’s up, no triple A down here! A couple of hours prior while we were loading up Dean had questioned my bringing the 50 lb tool box, he wasn’t complaining now! Anyway we had to unload the whole truck to get to the area where the fuel line had gotten pinched. I ended up using a big screwdriver as a cold chisel to rip a hole in the bed to get to it.  An hour later we were all packed up again and headed down the trail to fish!

Ben wasn’t pretty, but, he was plenty tough.

We were getting there, we could cast our conventionals decently and without backlashes only the occasional over-run. Dean and I decided we were good enough to give one of the “known” spots a try.
Portlock Point, high cliff, deep water, biggest problem was humping all our gear down to the point. We had midweek days off so good chance to avoid the club crowd.
When we got there mid-afternoon, no one there! Yes!! We got all our stuff down and set up. Dean had Penn 4/o on a Fenwick and I had my Daiwa 600H on a Sabre 540 and a Penn Surfmaster on a Fenwick. We had frozen tako and some fresh Akule for bait.
It had been a quiet afternoon and no other fishermen and come so it looked like we had the point to ourselves! After the sun went down we had some dinner and sat back to enjoy the view and talk story.
A few hours later the tide had turned and was on it’s way back up. We decided to jack up the poles and recast. After recasting the Daiwa and sliding a couple tako legs down I recast the Surfmaster. I hooked a fresh Akule through the mouth and out the top of it’s head with a 36 BKN and slid it down my line. I had locked down the drag when I jacked it up so I backed it off and tested the drag pressure, pulling, reeling up and adjusting a few times before I was satisfied with the drag setting. I stood up and was about to grab the bell when the reel started screaming! I clicked off the ratchet and waited till it stopped. I couldn’t believe how fast the line was peeling out and started to question myself about the drag setting. Finally it stopped and I was able to pull the rod from the holder. I resisted the temptation to tighten the drag telling myself I had just checked and rechecked the setting a few seconds ago and I wasn’t in panic mode like I was right now! It made another run still going straight out, I just hung on, but, the little Surfmaster didn’t hold that much line in the first place so it was getting down there! Finally, it stopped and swung right, I leaned back on it and started to pump back some line. It felt kinda big, I started to worry about my line, only 30lb Ande with a 3 foot steel leader and another 8 inches of steel leader on the slide. I slowly started gaining more line as the fish swung back wide out to the left then swung back right again.

I flicked on my headlamp and followed the line down to the water, holy sh#*!! A big silver log with jaw full of big teeth! Kaku! I pumped and worked it in closer, it was just outside the shelf below the ladder. Dean had the slide gaff in hand so I backed up to bring the line in closer to him. He got the gaff on the line and slid it down. First try, miss…now the surge swept the fish up on to the shelf, I wound up the line furiously to keep it taught. Then when the water receded I had to do the opposite and feed line. When it was back in the water Dean tried to set the gaff again, miss, dam it!! The anxiety was soaring in both of us. Dean pulled the gaff up the line and said “I goin down get’um!” He took the gaff off the line and coiled the rope up and started down the ladder. Meanwhile, the fish was being swept up the shelf and off again and again! Finally after what seemed like forever I heard Dean yelling “Whoo hoo! I got’um I got’um!!” Now, my concern shifted to Dean, climbing up that chain ladder with one hand carrying the Kaku on the gaff in the other! I guess it was adrenaline ‘cause it didn’t take him all that long! When he reached the top he handed the gaff to me and I laid it on the ground. All we could do was stare! We both started laughing, compared to anything else we had caught this thing was ridiculous big!! That’s when we realized all we had was one of those dinky playmate coolers!

I hiked out to the car drove to Foodland and brought back a couple of bags of ice. I had to sacrifice my sleeping bag, I soaked it in salt water put the fish in it and packed it in ice. Next morning we tied all our poles together and hung the “fish bag” from it and humped it and all our other gear out one trip!
It weighed in on a certified scale at 35 pounds! The fish wasn’t the only one with a big toothy grin…

Night marchers, the White Lady, get all kine spooky stories in Hawaii. Everybody like hear da stories, some hard fo believe, but, some, ho, da bugga get unda your skin! Make da hair on da back of your neck stan-up!

We had heard a lot of spooky stories about this area, but, we had also heard about big ulua coming up. The lure of the big ulua won out and there we were driving down to Kapoho late one afternoon. Didn’t really know where to fish, we were winging it. On the eastern shoreline below the slopes of Mauna Loa you lose the sun light early so we had find a spot soon. I turned the car down an opening in the trees and carefully maneuvered the car toward the ocean. It was starting to get grey, this would have to be it.
At the edge of the tree line a flat shelf of lava made up the shoreline. The cliff at the edge was about 30 feet high. I don’t know what we were thinking, we didn’t have a gaff!! Young and dumb, that didn’t stop us!

We went against our normal routine and got right to the poles instead of setting up camp first. After getting some stinky old tako down our lines we started a fire to cook dinner.

It was dark and all you heard was the ocean and the wind. All you could see was the area around the fire and any place you aimed your headlamp at, dats it….den….we heard um……we wen try ack brave, “Ah…das ony da win in da trees!” Den we heard um again! Jus like one groan, came from da trees, but, da trees was down wind from us and wen sound like was aim at us!! Even now as I writing dis tinking about um, the hair on da back of my neck stanning up!! I kep telling myself “Azz nutin, azz nutin….”, but, I wen feel funny kine…

Little while later, we was both sitting in da car wit the doors locked!
Nutin fo do but talk story and drink whiskey till we both wen pass out.

Next morning, sowah head, I go check my pole. Ho, my reel no mo line!?! Da line way out to da right, stuck! Wen I was looking at um, I heard somebody laughing, I wen turn around fo look at my friend, but, he was still in da car sleeping!! Ho, I wen catch one mean rush, I was just standing there, but, I almost wen fall down……I no like fish hea any more! I mean, nutin when really happen to us, but, something neva like us fish dea…..

There are a lot of high-tech rods on the market these days. High-tech = high dollar. Not all of us can afford that stuff, so, we make do with what we can. My favorite big spinner rod broke two summers ago in the middle of our annual one week get away out country. So I had no choice but to drive back in to Kaneohe to look for an affordable replacement at Nankos. I ended up spending about 35 or 40 on a 12 foot Penn Pursuit. Nothing fancy, but, it has served me well the last year and a half. I’m finally getting around to making some modifications to the rod I’ve been thinking about for a while. First on the list, add some weight and few extra inches to the butt of the rod.

First step is pry the stock rubber butt cap off. It’s glued on, but, not too well so this was easy to do.

Carefully push a small flathead screwdriver in between the butt and the blank, gently prying the rubber away from the blank. Just do a little at a time and work your way around slowly. Avoid digging into the blank and damaging it.

Step two, remove the bottom section of hypalon grip. This is to make room for the stainless steel butt that I’m putting on. I’m not planning to reuse the grip so I just use an X-Acto knife to cut it off. On the top edge there is a little resin build up that needs to be cut away.

Cut a slit down the length of the grip. Carefully cut it away from the blank, again avoid gouging the blank.

Here we see the three components that will go back on the rod. Top, the stainless steel butt, middle the wooden dowel and bottom a piece of electrical conduit.

The dowel adds strength to the bottom of the blank and creates the extra length I want. The piece of conduit will slide over the dowel to match up to the size of the blank and it will add a little weight. The added weight of the three components will balance out the rod for throwing big baits. The blue tape shows me how far to push the dowel into the blank. Then epoxy the conduit on and finally the stainless steel butt cap is epoxied in place.

One final step, seal the top edge of the butt and at the same time replace the build up of resin where the decorative wrap meets the butt. For anyone interested the conduit is one inch OD with approx 9/10 ID and the wood dowel is probably sold as one inch, but, is actually about 9/10. I got lucky and had the dowel and conduit in my garage. I didn’t measure the length of the dowel, but, I cut it about a half inch longer than the stainless butt. My thought was to spread the stress point a little, if it was even with the butt the stress is on the top edge of the butt, with the dowel sticking into the blank a little it moves some of the stress to the softer edge of the dowel.