Kayak Fishing on the Kona Coast
Perhaps there will come a time in all of our kayak fishing days that we will be confronted by the question: Should I cut the line? Is it worth it? I flashed quickly on how I might live forever with regret at having never had the chance to see just what this fish was, and decided to brace myself for the arriving flotilla as well as the possibility that this monster might surface at any moment.
Jon and the first Ulua.
If you’ve ever been to the Big Island you know that the boats don’t stop trolling until they get in the harbor, because everyone knows there is a chance they will hook a huge marlin right at the harbor’s entrance, so you can be sure they weren’t going to stop for me on the way in! They plowed past me with looks of anger and disbelief; the fact was that most of them weren’t flying any flags, indicating that they caught nothing, and here was this clown in a plastic kayak right next to shore on a huge fish!
As the last boat went by me, I found myself gaining ever so slightly on the fish. By now my arms were shaking and I was nearing my breaking point. I summoned all my remaining strength and went nuts on the reel, just grunting and grinding. You know how soldiers talk about how small they can make themselves during a bombardment? Well that’s what I did in that kayak. I tried to make myself as small as possible, so that if it was indeed a tiger, his jaws wouldn’t have anything to clamp down on….
Then, a flash of light, and a giant white belly… what could it be? It was something I’d never seen before- a shark? All of a sudden it was obvious- an ulua, or giant trevally, and a huge one at that! Uluas are one of the most formidable foes in the ocean, and I couldn’t believe that my first exotic Hawaiian game fish was now right beside me! With a huge sense of relief I quickly pulled him onto my lap and began the paddle back to the harbor.
As I neared the end of the harbor where the boats weigh their catch and fuel up, I again noticed something odd- few boats had any flags raised, and there were even fewer fish being weighed, which meant, as I had noticed before, that it had been a slow day of fishing for the tournament. Mind you, Kona is the crème de la crème of big game fishing, and this particular area where the boats return is ground zero for boats to cruise in with their catch, anglers chests’ puffed out- but it wasn’t happening today. Therefore the sight of little old me in my green plastic rental kayak paddling in with a big fat fish laying across my lap must have really raised a few eyebrows!
I paddled into an empty slip at the weigh station and the crowd that stood in waiting for the tournament results grew quiet with my approach. Since nobody was weighing any fish, a host of surprised volunteers offered to help me with my catch, easing it off my lap and onto the scales. The big ulua turned out to be 55 pounds on the certified scale, and I could hardly believe it!
When I got back to the hotel, the first thing I did was call up the cameraman in his room and say “You missed all the action! I caught a huge fish when you guys let me off! Get up here with your camera!” and you should have seen the look on his face when I pulled the fish out of the cooler. He couldn’t believe it either! To end the day, I gave the fish to a local Hawaiian woman who worked at the hotel; I had to get up early the next morning and fish, and she just happened to need some fish for a family party, so the arrangement worked out perfectly…
But the story doesn’t end just yet…. two days later, I launched out into the same area with a fellow kayaking friend. At this point I was content to just paddle and enjoy the sights- if I didn’t hook up, I was still overpaid.
We got out of the harbor and began trolling, when all of a sudden my pal’s rod goes bendo, and he’s on to something nice. By the time I paddle over to him, he’s got a nice 15 pound tuna doing a dance around his kayak, and he decides to skewer it with his spear. In fact, this fellow uses this same spear instead of a gaff for all of his fish, since it handily doubles as a shark deterrent. It was effective, but left a substantial blood trail, and remembering the shark warnings that had been posted for this exact area, I asked him, “Uh, Steve- what do we do if a tiger shark shows up?”
“Oh, don’t worry, Jon- we’ll just stick together and let him know that we’re not bait. Worse comes to worse I have my spear and you can smack him over the head with your paddle….”
Needless to say this was not exactly what I wanted to hear! Sure enough, on the way back, Steve’s bait gets hit again, but it’s a much bigger fish this time; he’s getting towed around in every direction like the outro to the Benny Hill show. I can’t keep pace with him so I yell into the VHF, “What are you on, man” and he responds “I have no idea, but whatever it is, it’s HUGE!”
Ten minutes rolls by and the fish starts to tire. He was even farther away now, and he yells into the VHF “OK Jon, I got color, I got color…. It’s a ...” and then there was about 15 seconds of breathtaking silence, punctuated by him screaming “TIGER SHARK!!!!!” with such force into the radio that the speaker almost blew up!
Jon and Steve
The first thing that came to mind was, I made a pact to back this guy up in case something strange happened, and now something, uh, strange has happened. The thought occurred to me that in fact I have a wife and three kids, and he only has a wife, so maybe it would be ok if I just wait a bit and see if the coast is clear before I paddle over there…but my sense of obligation took over and I began to paddle towards him.
Much to my relief, before I get to him he announces “It’s ok, it’s over- I cut the line”, and just when I get within speaking distance of him, one of my reels starts to scream! I had totally forgotten that I was even trailing any baits! Now it’s my turn to go for a sleigh ride, and his turn to try and catch up with me. My fish makes a beeline for the rocks at the jetty, and I decide to see if I can’t turn his head before he will breaks me off on my 30 pound line.
Fortunately, my trick works- he changes directions, heading out towards the open ocean, where I have a much better chance at tiring him out. And guess what surfaces 20 minutes later? Another ulua, except this one is way bigger than the ones from the two days’ before! He was exhausted, and I planned to revive and release him, but my friend wisely advised me not to. After all, reviving him as he quivers in my hands not 5 inches from my kayak would surely tempt the sharks that had proven to be there, so we decided to take him in again to the scales.
This one came out to be the biggest of all- 64.5 pounds! This really was beginning to seem like a fairy tale and I remember looking at my hands a lot- I had been told that that is one way to check if you are awake or just dreaming.
Suffice it to say that you should have seen the looks on the faces of the people at the weigh station this time- same silly guy on a kayak with three uluas in three consecutive days! And the look on the faces of my friends at the hotel was even crazier! Once again, I had brought back a monster ulua, and once again, I donated the fish to a worker at the hotel for a family feast.
You can read more exciting kayak fishing tales at Bluewater Jon’s website, http://www.bluewaterjon.com. You can also order his video "Bluewater Jon and the Giant Tuna."
| Posted on Wed Sep23, 2009, 4:10 AM by Michael Coonen |
| Hi Jon, Just read your fishing in Kona story...nuts. I have family in Kona and kayak fish here in the San Francisco Bay area. I was looking for information on fishing in Hawaii and came across this artical. I also have considered cutting the line due to the possability of having cought a shark but it turned out to be a 38" Halibut and tasty (glad I did not). I was hoping for some more mundane kayak fishing on the Big Island, your story made me a little nervous not really interusted in fishing around Tiger Sharks. Any recomendations as far as "safer" places near Kona or Hilo? Thanks for the read and the photos, Michael "Tsuri" NCKA member |
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