Fish Stories
Fish Stories
BY ISAAC KAULILI
On Saturday morning, September 15, 2012 at about 6:45 a.m, I went out diving in Kaneohe Bay. It was a beautiful and sunny day - Hawaiians call this Malia. A friend and I decided to comb a ledge right off shore. After spearing a palani, a couple weke’s, and an uhu, I decided to make my way to another part of the ledge. My buddy decided to make his way to shore and left me out there by myself. At about 9:45 am I ran across a group of uhu’s. As I sat on top of the ledge stalking them, two of them made their way half way up towards the surface. I had made a drop and started to line up the bigger of the two with my Picasso 100. I pulled the trigger and got a shot on it as it wiggled at the end of my shaft. I started making my way towards the uhu and out of the corner of my eye I could see a huge tako. I watched as it swept in and swallowed up my uhu. I then grabbed the end of my shaft and tried pulling and tugging on it, but the tako instantly started to grab a hold of me, grabbing my snorkel, mask and left hand glove. I managed to pull myself and the shaft free and make my way towards the surface. I then reloaded my gun and dropped back down, lining this tako up for a shot. Amazed by its size, I stopped for a second and watched him stare me down, as if he was saying “This uhu’s mine.” Trying to grab him wasn’t going to happen - he was too big. So I put a shot on the right side of his head and tried to
I surfaced and started pulling my floater towards me to grab my 3 prong off of it . After breathing up, I made a drop back down, got right on top of him and got a shot between his eyes with my 3 prong as he was clinging to
JESSE CUARESMA
pry him from the rocks. He wouldn’t budge.
the side of the ledge. I then started to pry him from the rocks, but he wasn’t making it easy at all. It took me two more dives to get him to the surface. Then I started making the swim back to shore. The whole ordeal must have taken me about half an hour. After getting the tako to shore, I noticed he was missing a leg and guessed that something must have bit it off. It was surreal to see how big he was. A day later I took him in to get weighed, and he came in at 15 pounds 2 oz . The night before my buddy had cut off another piece of his leg for bait (ugh!). With his missing leg and the piece that my buddy used for bait, he could have easily been 16 pounds. But still I’m forever grateful and blessed to come across such a magnificent creature. I wanted to share my experience and joy with my fellow Hawaii divers and remind everyone to always be safe! P.S. Oh yeah, I lost the uhu!
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LAWAI‘A MAGAZINE
Go Pro Bigeye? Bigeye at dawn? Early morning bigeye? On a recent fishing trip, Kona’s Geoff Walker set in for a night of ika-shibi style fishing. He caught a couple 50# albacore early in the night. Despite the school being around, the fish wouldn’t bite. Nothing too eventful after that, except for two big hookups they suspect were a big 300 lb thresher shark that cut the line. The crew started cleaning up at 6 am as dawn was approaching. Geoff saw a small mark on the recorder at about 20 fathoms and sent down an anchovy on a # 28 hook and 200# leader. A few minutes later the line went off and the fight was on. The result was this nice 223 lb bigeye ahi. Luckily, Geoff said, he was using the Lindgren Pitman electric reel as if it was on a handline, he never would have landed it with the 200# leader and #28 hook!
ISSUE ELEVEN 2013
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