Nalu Kea Sportfishing

A day on the water to celebrate life. Here we are in the middle of the ocean two boys living the dream!

Fun day on the water. We had a quad mahimahi bite missed 2 and played with some opelu and got 2 dinner sized uku on a half day of fun.

Out for a day on the water for Bill to take a deep breath and let the ocean soothe his soul. On board were Captain Rich Youngs angler extraordinaire Paulette Pama the Honorable Bill at the wheel and me. We were hoping to catch some opelu and drop them down for something between the surface and the bottom. As luck would have it the opelu were not all that hungry but we got one whole one. We had others bite but unfortunately they were in turn bitten on their way up. So we decided to stick the nose out a bit to the top of the grounds the water was near perfect with its lullaby roll. Birds were congregating here there and everywhere. Soon lots of splashes and boils of different sized aku. We put out a couple of aku lures and managed 2 decent ones. Soon after we headed in to a spot Rich knew would be good for a drop of some bottom fishing rigs. We also rigged an uku killer which on the mainland people call a hugging rig. It’s 300 feet of blood line attached to a 3 way swivel with a 10 oz lead and a 6 foot section of 100 # leader and a circle hook to which we attached our live opelu. While waiting for something to eat our offering we dropped our damashi and bounced the bottom. We didn’t get many bites but we did manage one good one! A 3.6 pound Nabetta! And as you know Nabetta mo bettah!! In the meantime our jigging rig got bit but we missed it. I rebooted with an opelu popsicle (frozen opelu) and went back to bouncing the bottom. Paulette noticed the flag to which the rig was attached was moving. After a few minutes we pulled up and chased the flag down. I grabbed it after Bill’s skillful maneuvering got us in reach of the flag. I felt a heavy steady pull on the other end. After what seemed like seconds we saw the lovely color of the man in the gray suit. Fortunately he/she cut through the mono before it had to be dealt with any closer to hand. After that we set out lines again and high speeded back towards the barn. Another wonderful day on the Queen of the harbor! Thank you Bill!!

Trolling for opihi south of okoe bay so far they sticking to the rocks I’m guessing we got to wait till tide change?

Winds 20-25 knots gusts to 50 through Sunday afternoon let’s go to south point!

This year's tide calendar is the real deal. Get a bunch for your friends, and this is going to be a fixture on your boat for sure!

"All men shall be sailors then, until the sea shall free them."

- Leonard Cohen

Eric "Buta" Hayashi was my friend of many, many years. So many times we talked about how we would soon find the day to take the sampan out and fish in the real old style. He was too busy being the best father and fire fighter that he could be. His finger prints can be found in the golden hearts of all of our reels. Now when they sing, they will sing for him. His laughter will ring on the water as he and Van Uemura team up to coach their old ha'ole friend to be better, to love more, and to rejoice in our beloved sport.

Nalu Kea is a Ha'ole sampan, and like all the other sampans she draws lots of fish by her design and her sound. We can post fish shots galore, like all the other boats, and some times we can't resist, but since we have so much exposure through my articles in Hawaii Fishing News, we thought maybe this FB page could be more interesting. Thus this photo of my pal and deckhand, Dauber (David) Higgins cutting an ono.

We made a special cutting table that secures to the transom and allows us to cut and bag our fish while we are still underway. This makes the clean up at the harbor much less stressful, and our guests don't have to wait around to fire up the AC in their car and take off for a shot shower!

Note that Dauber has a wide, stable stance and is wearing a butcher's stainless mesh glove. He not only knows how to properly cut a fish, but he does it safely, and we should all think about that.

Tight lines,

Bill

The August ahi are finally back in town, but there are so few charters now that we have to rely on community to go fishing.