Tsubasa
09-08-2006, 11:03 PM
Sunday , Sept 3, 2006
We left the harbor at 0700 hrs, East Winds 15kt, Wind Wave 3-4 ft. That day we had no paid charter, it was just me, my brother and Bob, a guy that helps us on Sundays. Our destination was for the P Buoy, and to travel along the Penguin Banks. When we crossed the channel, we could see rain showers from Molokai heading our way. For some reason I had a feeling we would get a hit in the middle of the rain. Just then one of our rods went screaming. We immediately began to clear the center and inside lines that we had set up for trolling. The fish was taking a lot of line very quickly, we did not know what kind it was, but it was smart. It suddenly turned on our starboard side, crossing our starboard outrigger line that we had not had a chance to take in….the lines tangled. As we struggled to get fish closer with the tangled line, we could see it. It was a huge Mahi Mahi, all green and nice. We could see the leader line, when it suddenly jumped into the air and landed with a big splash…and got away. It unhooked. Then it started to pour. It was a bummer.
Once at the banks we went along the ledge. We hooked up again with a Aku (skipjack), it was a few pounds. We saw plenty of birds but no great bird stacks. Later we hooked up again and landed a 15lb Ahi (yellowfin tuna). It put up a nice little fight. As the clouds cleared, we headed for the FAD P. Which was out in deep waters. About a mile from the buoy we sighted a large bird stack.
We found a huge Aku school, so we quickly switched to our aku lures on our inside lines. It was good action. We hooked up 2 to 3 fish at a time on each run. There were times when my brother maneuvered the Tsubasa right along the school. You could see them right there in the water following along side us. We made several more runs and in total we brought in 19 aku. Most were about 3 to 8 lbs. They put up a good fight on light tackle. The only down side is that the bird lead us way out to sea…we ended up going 14 miles beyond P, and 43 miles from port. It was a long trip.
Thursday, Sept 6, 2006
We left the harbor around 0630 hrs, with a ¾ day charter. East Winds 15-20 kts, Wind Wave 6 ft, South Swell 3 ft. Our customers wanted to go after some Aku, and Mahi Mahi, so we decided to go to the Penguin Banks again after informing him and his wife that the channel crossing was going to be rough, they said to go for it. Once we got to the Banks we sighted birds but no stacks.
In less than a half hour we got a strike. The line went screaming again, the customer help me clear the lines. Once all was clear, he took his seat in the fighting chair and the battle was on. What ever it was it pulled a lot of line, but became manageable as the customer reeled the fish in, then it suddenly made some quick runs again. I thought we had hooked up an Ahi, but it turned out to be a Ono (Wahoo). The Ono was putting up an unusually great fight, that it tired the customer out, and I had to begin reeling it in as the customer got back his wind. It had pulled out nearly three quarters of the line at the start, I got it back to one quarter when the customer returned to the seat. It was then at that instance the fish started ripping out more line like crazy, then there was a great pull, then slack. “Oh no, we lost it” But no it was still on the line, then it surfaced and skipped on the water. From that distance it looked liked a big aku turned backwards, but it was the mouth of the Ono wide open and the remains of it body. A shark took the rest. After all that we had thought it was trying to get away from the boat but in reality it was trying to get away from the shark.
We landed what was left of it. 13lbs head and a quarter of it body.
http://static.flickr.com/93/238120540_3a775eac98.jpg:eek:
After that we headed back home. The customer was happy and had a good story to tell back home.
We left the harbor at 0700 hrs, East Winds 15kt, Wind Wave 3-4 ft. That day we had no paid charter, it was just me, my brother and Bob, a guy that helps us on Sundays. Our destination was for the P Buoy, and to travel along the Penguin Banks. When we crossed the channel, we could see rain showers from Molokai heading our way. For some reason I had a feeling we would get a hit in the middle of the rain. Just then one of our rods went screaming. We immediately began to clear the center and inside lines that we had set up for trolling. The fish was taking a lot of line very quickly, we did not know what kind it was, but it was smart. It suddenly turned on our starboard side, crossing our starboard outrigger line that we had not had a chance to take in….the lines tangled. As we struggled to get fish closer with the tangled line, we could see it. It was a huge Mahi Mahi, all green and nice. We could see the leader line, when it suddenly jumped into the air and landed with a big splash…and got away. It unhooked. Then it started to pour. It was a bummer.
Once at the banks we went along the ledge. We hooked up again with a Aku (skipjack), it was a few pounds. We saw plenty of birds but no great bird stacks. Later we hooked up again and landed a 15lb Ahi (yellowfin tuna). It put up a nice little fight. As the clouds cleared, we headed for the FAD P. Which was out in deep waters. About a mile from the buoy we sighted a large bird stack.
We found a huge Aku school, so we quickly switched to our aku lures on our inside lines. It was good action. We hooked up 2 to 3 fish at a time on each run. There were times when my brother maneuvered the Tsubasa right along the school. You could see them right there in the water following along side us. We made several more runs and in total we brought in 19 aku. Most were about 3 to 8 lbs. They put up a good fight on light tackle. The only down side is that the bird lead us way out to sea…we ended up going 14 miles beyond P, and 43 miles from port. It was a long trip.
Thursday, Sept 6, 2006
We left the harbor around 0630 hrs, with a ¾ day charter. East Winds 15-20 kts, Wind Wave 6 ft, South Swell 3 ft. Our customers wanted to go after some Aku, and Mahi Mahi, so we decided to go to the Penguin Banks again after informing him and his wife that the channel crossing was going to be rough, they said to go for it. Once we got to the Banks we sighted birds but no stacks.
In less than a half hour we got a strike. The line went screaming again, the customer help me clear the lines. Once all was clear, he took his seat in the fighting chair and the battle was on. What ever it was it pulled a lot of line, but became manageable as the customer reeled the fish in, then it suddenly made some quick runs again. I thought we had hooked up an Ahi, but it turned out to be a Ono (Wahoo). The Ono was putting up an unusually great fight, that it tired the customer out, and I had to begin reeling it in as the customer got back his wind. It had pulled out nearly three quarters of the line at the start, I got it back to one quarter when the customer returned to the seat. It was then at that instance the fish started ripping out more line like crazy, then there was a great pull, then slack. “Oh no, we lost it” But no it was still on the line, then it surfaced and skipped on the water. From that distance it looked liked a big aku turned backwards, but it was the mouth of the Ono wide open and the remains of it body. A shark took the rest. After all that we had thought it was trying to get away from the boat but in reality it was trying to get away from the shark.
We landed what was left of it. 13lbs head and a quarter of it body.
http://static.flickr.com/93/238120540_3a775eac98.jpg:eek:
After that we headed back home. The customer was happy and had a good story to tell back home.