OH WAHOO...

[lawaia]

OH WAHOO! No, that’s not a fish call; I wish they would come when I yowled. Neither is it a summons for MR. BOX, although this post is the result of a promise made to the estimable WAHOONBOX to post something/anything from out here.

So, OH WAHOO in this case is the common pronunciation of the name of the island I live on, part of the 50th state of the good ol’ USA, the island of Oahu (properly pronounced oh-ah-hoo) in the state of Hawaii. Yes, the good members of SFC are smart enough to know all that statehood stuff so consider it a reminder to all those internet businesses who advertise free shipping within the USA but in the fine print or behind the asterisk admit that the offer excludes Hawaii and Alaska (another state, no?). But hey, this ain’t a rant about shipping charges so let’s get back on topic.

First off, let me say how great I think this site is. It’s one of the most friendly that I visit. The membership seems more willing to share knowledge and more accepting of the different customs in various areas and Lordy, we do have some different customs here in Hawaii, fishing and otherwise. Like, we EAT most of our fish and some of it we eat RAW. Many do release marlin, for example, and there is an active fish tagging program ongoing but almost all pelagic fish caught get EATEN, including many marlin (the marlin PC police are not well established in Hawaii).

IMHO, that’s a result of a combination of longstanding culture – we LIKE to eat fish – and the tough fishing conditions out here. What tough fishing conditions you ask? Yes, we have it easy in that deep water is just offshore – no 80 mile runs out to the canyons for us – and large fish are present in our waters and they're fishable year round – no winterizing for us. BUT we are in the middle of the Pacific and the trade winds blow consistently and sometimes strongly and over the long reaches of open ocean they do kick up some rough water. While our deep waters allow big fish to get in close those same deep waters also lack significant bottom structure hence those big fish cannot consistently be found in any given specific area (off Oahu, Kona has a few areas). We also don’t have coverage by satellite imaging services for SST and chlorophyll and such to help pinpoint where in the open ocean the fish might be. So we have to hunt for our fish, covering large areas fast, thus the overwhelming predominance of trolling lures instead of bait or drifting and chunking (a few do chunk at night over secret spots where YFT are known to sometimes frequent). Add to the mix the high cost of living here and the limited amount of good wet berthing available and the result is that you have a fleet of 20-something foot trailer boats searching wide expanses of rough water for moving target fish . As you can imagine, on the infrequent occasions when one of these small boats manages to find and catch a large fish, that fish is going to be dinner.

You all didn’t know how good you had it, being able to run out in a 35-footer in calm water to a fixed canyon dropoff where the fish were waiting or to a lat/long picked off a satellite photo where the temperature/chlorophyll break showed fish to be waiting, huh ? Wish we could have that and our great climate but, like with boat design, there’s got to be trade-offs.

I’ve been fishing out here for a while and caught my fair share of fish but I’ve been humbled by the SKUNK often enough too . So I’m here to learn what I can from WAHOONBOX and Capt. Fred Archer and all you other good fishermen. I’ll try what makes sense to do out here and report back when warranted, hopefully next time with fish involved ! I’ll also keep an eye peeled for Rio and the Jag in case she visits here .

Meantime, here’s a few photos of the water the SKUNK threw at us last time out. We did have an ono (wahoo) take down our port outrigger without hooking up. Maybe the lure was moving too violently in the rough water for the ono to hit it squarely?

This first photo is a shot toward the bow from the helm. Sorry it’s out of focus but that’s an indication of how rough it was – the camera didn’t stay still long enough for the autofocus to work. Notice also the height of the whitecapped wave ahead and the angle of the bow railing to the horizon, not to mention the water blowing across (not down) the windshield.



These two are from the helm looking off to stbd at the backs of the waves (the fronts were a lot steeper) and notice the whitecaps. Oh, and the camera was held as level as possible, so the horizon reflects the degree of rockin’ and rollin’ we were doing.





Aloha, tight lines and screaming reels. ROCK ON!
lawaia

[O-SEA-D]

Welcome to the site

[pitch bait]

You have alot of valid points and it is a fair trade off. Im fishing mostly in the nothr east region of the east coast. Remember the 80+ mile runs at 70 gallons an hour, and those days where the weather man isnt exactly on his game and it 5 hours to get home. As a mate Im usually at the boat around 3 to leave at 4. To travel these long distances requires alittle more boat so when we return it is 40 foot of tower then fifty foot of fiberglass that has to be cleaned. I usualy get in the shower after fishing around 10pm. I totaly agree with you that there are pros and cons to fishing where ever you go. Im not sure where I would rather fish close to the beach in rough water that is hard to find fish or 80 miles off in calmer water over structure. Im not sure we have it so good

[gottaflylee]

lawaia, first welcome to the site and great post. Looking forward to more reports from Oahu...love the pictures and not trying to hijack your thread here but don't think we have smooth rides out and calm fishing weather... Here is one you should like...

2100

enjoy...

[gradywhite273]

lawai, welcome to the site glad to have you aboard, thanks for the pics, quite a large swell there. again welcome aboard.

Capt Lee, i love that video. you guys are nuts. turn the wipers up.

[flatbottom]

welcome to sportfishermen.com
look forward to your reports !


Captain Lee I luv that vid The rip was kicken some azz and ya still piled up the meat. Great work guys !!!!

[WAHOONBOX]

I AM SO THRILLED WITH THIS THREAD FROM THE 50TH STATE...

AGAIN WELCOME TO MY WORLD FOR IT IS YOUR WORLD AS WELL.

LOVE THE PICTURES....I KNOW IT IS ROUGH THERE...OUR OWN CAPT_JOHN DID A STINT OUT THERE AND HE HAS SHARED THE ROUGH DAYS WITH ME!

I SAY EAT WHAT YOU CATCH DUDE! IT IS A TRADITION OUT THERE JUST AS IT IS TRADITION FOR ESKIMOS TO EAT SEAL, WALRUS AND WHALE...

YOU SHOULD IN NO WAY BE FORCED TO ACCEPT EAST COAST-WEST COAST CULTURE OF THROWING IT BACK! SCREW EM....

I HAVE EATEN MARLIN BEFORE AND HAVE HEARD THAT THE STRIPEYS ARE DELICIOUS AS WELL!

SPEARFISH ....I BET IT IS TENDER AS WELL.

I ALSO UNDERSTAND THE SHIPPING COST CRAP YOU GO THOUGH.....

SO ....IN THE ONGOING SAGA TO STICK MISTER ONO....WHAT DO YOU NEED? PLANERS? LEADER?....WIRE LEADER? PINEAPPLES? I MEAN WHAT WILL HELP YOU OR WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN!? SHIPPING & PRODUCT WILL BE ON ME............

[Patudo]

Spearfish is flat out awesome. It's like a cross between dorado and wahoo. Seriously good stuff!

Lawaia, glad to see you here. I really enjoy the perspective your posts offer into Hawaiian small boat local-style offshore fishing. It is very different from the Kona marlin style charter fishing.

[Tower Todd]

Howzit?

For Hawaiian sea surface temps go to Coastwatch:
http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/coas.../CWBrowser.jsp

There is a steep learning curve to figure it all out, but it is free and pretty accurate.

TT

[lawaia]

Thanks for the welcome and help.

Capt. Lee - If I owned a video camera, stuff I might shoot on a normal day would look kinda like in your video (the water that is - not the fish, you're slaying 'em )! Yup, your video looks real familiar, except our boat is only about half as wide, there'd be only two of us aboard, and we'd be wearing shorts and t-shirts, not that yellow heavy duty cold weather stuff . (I totally understand the temperature difference.) Thanks for that nifty video!

pitch bait - I didn't mean to disparage anyone, just funning y'all a little and highlighting the normal differences. Of course y'all have rough water days, just like we do have calm water days, just not as often as we'd like. And even though we've only got half as much boat to wash down I know what you mean. We normally are up at 0200 to load the boat, the crew comes at 0300, we hitch up and hit the road by 0330, are in the water by 0445, often don't return to port until 1830, finish washing the crusted salt off the outrigger tips about 1930, get home at 2030, stow the boat by 2100, then if we're lucky(?) get to cut fish up for another hour or two before showering and hitting the sack.

Patudo - Glad to see you here as well. The other site we visit is getting a little too contentious; I like it here. You're absolutely right about the spearfish (called hebi out here); I just wish they were as common around Oahu as they are off Kona. And the BOX is right about the natagi (stripeys) too; their slightly salmon colored meat is valued by many.

Tower Todd - Howzit and Aloha! Thanks for the link. Before making my somewhat bold statement in my original post about the lack of satellite image interpretation services, I did google for stuff and found that site and its link to the Central Pacific region. Without any commercial interpretation like is available on the East and West coasts, you're absolutely correct - I've got a steep learning curve ahead of me. Mahalo for the help.

WAHOONBOX - Thanks for allowing me into your world. It's here I felt most comfortable posting and where I'll continue to do so. Thank you for your very kind offer to send me whatever I need to put da wahoo in da box. I believe I've got all the gear I need, at least based on putting a fair number of them in da box in the past. We're past the end of our normal inshore 40F ono season here so that one we missed was a stray. But strays do show more offshore where we were and that's why I want to again thank you for your Old Salty advice. I'm still near the bottom of that learning curve but as I work the kinks out I'm hoping to discover that the ono don't go away, they just go deeper .

I'll close with a photo of Waikiki taken while returning from offshore on a rare calm day this past March.



Aloha, tight lines and screaming reels,
lawaia