Hawai’i Fishing Fanatic

Archive for August, 2009

I’ll be heading home to Hawai’i and be busy for a week or so. I’ll post as soon as I get settled in again. In the meantime, please make sure to visit my other links and Hawaii Fishing News for any updates. Thanks for your patience.

A story from fellow FBI Bloggers at Hawaii 24/7 regarding an emergency call to Kalapana, Hawai’i made me wonder; How prepared are we in such situations? I know this kind of thing happens too often and it should be a warning to a lot of shoreline fishermen that there are still inherent dangers in fishing no matter on land or sea.

Just a simple safety briefing before heading out to the fishing site or having a meeting beforehand can avoid a disaster. My friends would always tease me of being paranoid when it came to safety. But they always knew that I had their back and we all knew what we had to do if something bad happened. I’m not saying we were always prepared but we were always aware that each of us had a designated duty for just-in-case times.

Thus, here is a recommendation to avoid situations as in the aforementioned story. There might be better ways to prepare but I use this simple step before we head out on an outing:

Designate a person to stay with vehicles/camp site and to call emergency personnel, if needed. Designate a second person to be the emergency lead. You want that person to communicate on-the-scene updates and instructions with a two-way Citizens Band or Family Radio Service radio (if it is a remote site with no cellphone signal). If you can get a ham radio license (since some island areas have little to no mobile signal) for times such as these, island ham operators can assist you. In addition, ham radios come in waterproof models and can reach further distances beyond 5 miles.

Contact your local emergency personnel, ham radio organizations or game wardens for more information.

Mahalo and Be Safe!

I’m just like every other fishing fanatic. If there’s water and enough light for fishing, I’m out on the reef, casting like a madman to catch a fish. However, I have since become more aware of the effects the tides have on fishing and the better opportunities you have instead of aimlessly fishing to nothing. Not too long ago, I learned that Hawaiian fishermen had different sayings for the tides. Revealing to me their acute awareness and attention to the nuances of their tidal environment:

Low Tide

Kai a malo’o or kai malo’o - Extreme low tide with reef exposed. Lit., dry sea
Kai ko’ele - Sea too shallow to float a canoe but good for seeking shellfish. Lit., thumping sea, because the canoe thumps on the coral
Kai make
Kai malolo

Mid-Tide/Slack Tide

Holulu
Kai ku
Kai maumau
Kai pu - Quiet sea
Kai wahine - Calm, gentle sea. Lit., feminine sea

Turn of the Tide

Au miki - Outgoing current
Kai emi - Ebbing sea. Lit., decreasing sea
Kai he’e - Receding sea or wave
Kai ho’i - Ebbing sea. Lit., returning sea
Kai miki - Receding sea, especially immediately before a tidal wave. Lit., shrinking sea
Kai moku - Middle tide, when the tide begins to recede
Kai nu’u aku
Nioke - Ebbing, receding, of the tide

High Tide

‘Ae - To rise, of the tide
Kai apo - Rising tide. Lit., encircling sea
Kai ea - Rising tide; sea washing higher on land than usual. Lit., rising sea
Kai hohonu - Deep sea; high tide
Kai ki - Tide beginning to flow in. Lit., shooting sea
Kai nui - Big tide
Kai nu’u mai - Incoming tide
Kai piha - High sea, high tide, full sea, spring tide
Kai pi’i - High or rising tide
Kai ulu - Sea at full tide, mounting sea

Sources:
Hawaiian-English Dictionary (Pukui and Elbert)
Mamaka Kaiao (Hale Kuamo’o)

Well, it didn’t take too long and believe me this is due to all the trials and errors I’ve encountered since starting this blog. LOL! But seriously, the RSS feed for ulua fishing equipment is online. Check out the right sidebar. It’ll show the most recent posts, so if you want to see more do the manual search in the last post. Aloha no!

Just saw this ad for some pretty good ulua (giant trevally) fishing poles and reels. If you’re near the ‘Ewa Beach (O’ahu) area, this might be a good deal. Seller gives you all kinds of options to mix and/or match.

NITRO POWER ULUA FISHING POLE
-2PIECE
-MED/HEAVY ACTION
-USED ONE TIME
- NEVER CRASHED

POLE AND PENN 4/0……………$250
OR
POLE AND TOURIUM 50 …………..$350

PENN JIGMASTER FISHING REEL …… $50EA
PENN 113H 4/0 ……………$80

SHIMANO TOURIUM 50 ……………$220

ALL REELS ARE IN WORKING CONDITION

…..CALL 5546935

Remember to research it first and hopefully the seller is legit. It was posted today. Check it out on Craigslist . In the meantime, I’m going to try to put a feed on the blog or the Facebook Fan page for those interested in finding ulua fishing equipment. There are a couple of items for sale today in the Hawai’i Craigslist. Search under “ulua” or “ulua fishing” in “For Sale” items. Happy fishing!

Sorry folks! If you see repeats or haven’t seen older posts you can check the tab on the RSS/Blog Tab on the HI Fishing Fanatic Facebook Fan Page . Unfortunately, Social RSS app, doesn’t update well. TwitterFeed seems to be updating now for the new domain since I moved over from my previous Blogger site. I’m attempting to find a better way to update the blog feeds.

Thanks for your patience again.

Aloha everyone! Visit my fishing examiner page at Examiner.com and my new article on Hawaiian Tuna. Examiner.com will give me an opportunity to broaden my audience and to promote this blog. So if you have friends and family, I need everyone to visit the page, leave your comments if you can and let me know what you think.

Lots of information will be put on this blog, Examiner.com, FBI Blog Network and my newest article on eHow in the future.

Mahalo!

Mahalo goes out to Damon Tucker (@damontucker) for the opportunity to be on the FBI (From Big Island) Blog network . Please check out the best blogs from Hawai’i Island to read about the ebb and flow of our island home. You may also click on the FBI button at the top of the sidebar at anytime during your visits to Hawaii Fishing Fanatic to get the latest on Big Island news and events.

I just received an email on a bunch of incredible ulua (giant trevally) “whipping” footage on YouTube by OceanBlueFishing in New Caledonia. The action is non-stop and they use an arsenal of rods and reels to capture ulua with really expensive equipment. A reel shown in the video, the Daiwa Saltiga Z6000GT, mated with 100 lb. TUF line, is estimated to cost between $680-760! That’s a far cry from most equipment used in the islands! Yikes! Hawaii fishermen depend upon Daiwa’s lower BG saltwater series especially the awesome BG-90 or Penn saltwater spinning reels for the big ones. Illex Ashuru Waiefu rods are also used to pressure the fish with incredible ease but they are pricey. Bruddahs and sistas here use Daiwa or Ugly Stick. ‘A’ole Pilikia (No Problem)!

Check it out!!

Blue Lagoon, New Caledonia GT Popping

Video Courtesy of YouTube

Photo courtesy of Hawaii Fishing News. 100-Plus Club.

The continuing debate on whether you have a better chance of catching fish on a barbless hook got a real boost from fishermen in the recent S. Tokunaga Ulua Challenge tournament in Hilo, Hawai’i. The Big Island Video News reports that a fisheries expert congratulated many of the participants in using barbless hooks.

Now if we can only figure out how to catch and release live fish in these tournaments, like the pro-am bass fishermen do. It might be possible one day. That’s an idea for the inventive ulua fishing community to contemplate. I’m all for it, if it can be done.

Click on the pics for more info on this great catch and debate!

The barbless circle hook used by Randall (left), compared to a new one (right). Photo courtesy of Randall Elarco Jr.