Night Time Starts Early in KONA, HI

[tim R]

With all kinds of reports coming in from the night time guys of Swordy's (3-400 lb. range) Big Eye Tuna and Threshers, we decided to take a little 4 hour jaunt to check it out...AND....The Threshers are BACK and they’re BAD (as usual)…With the reports of Swordy’s at night we figured NOW would be a good time to get on the water. The way we set up we get a lot more bites and hooks ups with Swordy’s and Threshers than anything else…It’s unusual for us to hook Tunas despite using the same baits and light leader because we don’t sit on the chute which allows us to cover as much ground as possible (drifting) with our lines at 30 to 55 fathoms.

The Big Eye Threshers average well over 500lbs. in Hawaii and can exceed 1,100lbs. based on commercial reports. Hawaii probably has the best fishery for large Big Eye Threshers anywhere in the world and the deep water means they can take 900 yards of line off a reel at mach I with 40lbs of drag and there is not a damn thing you can do about it, except hang on hope all your splices, doubles and terminal tackle connections hold up. Truly a great tackle test.

I didn’t realize how much we missed that sweet screaming sound, but man it was great to hear it on the inaugural trip of 2008 with Newton Leslie, Mark Loera and myself on Newts 27 Force Kealaula…. Anyways last night quickly turned into tackle testing time with the Threshers inside F buoy at 1,300 fathoms!

We fished from 7:30PM to 11:40PM had two hookups and a couple of baits that got chopped up, the first Thresher took over 900 yards and was winding up for another run when the hook pulled (Palm Beach release)! We have 80W’s loaded with 900 yards of Spectra and 300 yard top shots of 130 Amilan (the toughest 130 on planet earth) with Owner Super Mutu Circle hooks AND Fluorocarbon leader! The Fluorocarbon leader has really helped with the Swordy bites AND surprisingly the Thresher bites! It’s expensive, but worth it because the leader lasts longer due to the harder casing. Both species are big eyed critters with great visual acuity and we have definitely noticed an increase number of shots per trip since we started using it and it definitely out fishes’ regular mono leader especially drifting dead baits.

The second Thresher didn’t take quite as much line as the first, but gave Mark Loera a great 48 minute battle on stand up and was an easy release boat side with the circle hook set perfectly in corner of the jaw, we just popped it out and the Thresher blasted off into the depths, we estimated the weight between 550-600 lbs. Mark released one last year well over 800 that would have been the IGFA all tackle record, but elected to release it. Despite the great marks under the boat we decided NOT to battle another one and headed in...We had to work in the AM…Managing tackle not testing it.

Which brings me to one of our shameless plugs (seeing as we’re talking tackle)… Melton Pro-staffer Weston Leslie spent 2 years trying to track down the “OLD” Blue Vinyl everyone was demanding and finally found it in St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada AND discovered a bunch of new colors including a killer black glitter so come and get it! I don’t know how he found it in Quebec, I’m the one from Canada, but it sure explains the French lessons he’s been taking recently

[Seaker]

Great Report Tim and thanks

We do serious shark research and only used circle hooks.

The circle directly to heavy fluoro works very well up to the boat if we handle them much (and we do) we needed to incorporate a short trace of wire (12 -16 inches) to prevent chafe on the teeth and a flying tailer

This systems has worked extremely well for us with no known mortality

[austin ensor]

would love to see a thesrer that big this season!!

[tim R]

Originally Posted by Seaker

Great Report Tim and thanks

We do serious shark research and only used circle hooks.

The circle directly to heavy fluoro works very well up to the boat if we handle them much (and we do) we needed to incorporate a short trace of wire (12 -16 inches) to prevent chafe on the teeth and a flying tailer

This systems has worked extremely well for us with no known mortality

Bang on that's what we use (wire trace), except we add a glow in the dark squid skirt to hide the wire and light sticks about 20 feet up...We also use a blue HydroGlow...Because we fish 6,000 feet of water, the light really seems to make a difference for Swordy's, Threshers and Mako's. I was so surprised to see the Mako's get hooked right in the corner consistantly as well.

Circle hooks are the only way to fish dead bait, we let all of our Threshers go now AND get the hooks back out of them because these circle hooks bury right in the corner almost 95% of the time, it also workd great on Swordy's which we keep about half of and release the rest!

We had a 952 lb. Thresher come up in really bad shape last year so we took the fish...If we ever take another one, it will have to be much bigger than 952and be on IGFA tackle, even then we might not....Right now we could re-write the whole Thresher Page in the IGFA book, but what's the point, these fish are worth alot more to the sportfishing community swimming...I don't mind the tournament kills to much because the scientists get invovled and the real problem is the commercial industry...Except for a few idiots who kill Bull Sharks etc...For the photo op...

If anybody wants to come over and catch their lifetime Thresher...Three nights and you'll be worn out AND probably catch a 600 lb. fish with the average being around 500 lbs, but you'd better eat your wheaties!

[Capt Josh]

Awesome job Tim!!! stoked to hear you guys are getting out there...can't wait to see some photos and hear you are nailing the swordies!!! see you in miami amigo...

[Seaker]

Tim we remove all hooks prior to release and we also bring them aboard.
I wish I could say more but for the time being well I just can't but I will offer this up.

When removing the hook it's easy to reach inside with a pair of bolt cutters (your hands remain outside of the jaws) and just chop off the inside portion then take the outer section and pull with a pair of deck pliers..no blood no fuss.

The great thing about circles has been our expierence is always a corner of the mouth matters not mako, thresher, blue for us. We use non offset circles sized 20/0

Best wishes

[Jared D]

Seaker, I do alot of tag and release shark fishing here off of North East Florida, and we use regular old cheap 16/0 mustad circles, and have only had one miss in 40+ bites. We are primarily fishing for large Tiger sharks (10 foot plus) and hammerheads. Everyone but 1 has been hooked perfectly in the corner of the jaw... the one fluke was hooked in the pec fin.

Not critizing, just trying to save you a few $$$ on hooks and save you on terminal gear in the water. Never straightened a circle yet, using 100 pound mono w 44 pounds of drag.

[Seaker]

No Problemo Jared D

Perhaps I wasn't clear we are using Eagle Claw 20/0 circles and are extremely pleased. I think our miss ratio is close to or something like 1%

We have never straightened one out either for certain
THEY ARE THE TOOL FOR BAIT FISHING


Keep up the great work

[WAHOONBOX]

GREAT IN DEPTH WRITE UP HERE! ...LITERALLY IN DEPTH......

I WANT YOU TO CLARIFY ONE THING PLEASE : "OLD BLUE VINYL"??????

ARE WE SPEAKING OF BLUE HYDRO...OR?

THANKS ....

[tim R]

Originally Posted by WAHOONBOX

GREAT IN DEPTH WRITE UP HERE! ...LITERALLY IN DEPTH......

I WANT YOU TO CLARIFY ONE THING PLEASE : "OLD BLUE VINYL"??????

ARE WE SPEAKING OF BLUE HYDRO...OR?

THANKS ....

This is a lure rigging technique that seems to only have remained popular in Hawaii. Everywhere else has gone to Squid Skirts. The raw material has been known as Zodiac Vinyl, but it must be run a 1,000 yards at a time, which would produce around 19,000 skirts, therefore, is has not been run in a LONG TIME.

The problem with the latest generation of the product is the thread backing on the vinyl is too thick, (heavy) and doesn't run as well as the old style (or last as long). The OLD Vinyl had much finer thread on the back, was tougher, ran better and had a finish everyone preferred. All of these are very subtle differences only the true HARDCORE Hawaiian riggers would notice and turn their nose up at the new stuff like it was a cheap French Wine that had found it's way into the Bordeaux region....

All that being said we located some of the old inventory and bought it all...It was stored right next to some Original Saskatchewan Seal Skin Binding in a warehouse in Quebec, Canada...Don't even ask about the progressions it took to locate this stuff...Like I said it took two years and Weston is now fluent in French....What we won't do to catch fish!!!!