InTheBite

Mid-Atlantic Triple Play

By

by Ric Burnley

It’s Monday. The weather is hot and calm. We’re trolling 50 miles off Virginia Beach when a marlin appears in the spread. “Right long rigger!” the captain yells from the bridge.

It’s Tuesday. The weather is hot and calm. We’re slow trolling live bait along the edge of Norfolk Canyon. A hole opens in the ocean and one of the baits disappears in a violent strike. “Right long rigger!” the captain hollers.

It’s Wednesday. The weather is hot and calm. We’re pulling teasers and dredges east of the 100-fathom drop. A single angler stands in the cockpit holding a long, thin fly rod. “Right teaser!” the captain screams.

Mid-Atlantic marlin fishing is so hot that anglers are catching fish every way possible. And it only takes a simple spread for small-boaters to get in the game. From trolling plugs to pitching flies, if you like marlin fishing, just head to Maryland, Virginia or North Carolina this summer.

 

Plugging Away

Marlin show up off North Carolina’s Outer Banks as early as April. Big blue marlin are the first sentries to pull into the warm Gulf Stream water rushing along the 100-fathom curve off Hatteras. Anglers leaving Hatteras Inlet can hit the hot spots like the Rock Pile, Big Rock and peaks and canyons along the 100 fathom drop. May and June are the best times to score big blues.

A hungry blue marlin cannot turn down a blue and white Ilander skirt and horse ballyhoo but tournament rules prohibiting J-hooks in natural baits have had anglers experimenting with large plugs and circle-hook rigged pitch baits. A typical plug spread would include small plugs on the long riggers with larger models on the short riggers, flat line and shotgun positions. Teasers draw blue ones into the spread. Most crews run a squid chain with an Ilander trailer on one side of the boat and a huge plug on the other. Keep a circle-hook rigged Spanish mackerel ready to pitch at a window-shopping blue marlin.

One advantage of using plugs is they allow the crew to troll faster than they can with a spread of natural baits. The skipper can cover a lot of water at nine knots looking for a hungry blue one. All it takes is four to six 50- and 80-pound rod and reel combos and a couple teasers, perfect for small boats and enthusiastic anglers. As the season progresses, white marlin and sailfish join blue marlin off Hatteras by late May. These fish will fall for plugs, but most crews switch over to a spread dominated by small ballyhoo on a circle hook, along with squid teasers and dredges.

 

Troll Pro

By early summer, white marlin and blues will mix with dolphin and tuna patrolling the edge of Continental Shelf from Oregon Inlet, North Carolina up to Ocean City, Maryland. Captains look for marlin wherever warmer water crosses structure carrying bait and billfish. By late summer and early fall, gangs of white marlin follow schools of bait south on eddies swirling along the Shelf. This is when the fun begins.

Trolling small ballyhoo on circle hooks in between teasers and dredges is the go-to tactic for white marlin. Tournament pros have honed the spread and the tactics down to its most effective and efficient form, which is an easy fit for a small crew in a small boat. While the big-boys push million-dollar rigs packed with every advancement in bait and tackle, their tournament spread still consists of four small ballyhoo, two teasers and two dredges.

The philosophy revolves around a circle hook. Circle hooks save lives. Scientific research has proven that marlin caught with a J-hook have a greater chance of dying after release so anglers have switched over to circle hooks in an effort to help prevent the death of billfish that are intended to be released at the end of the fight. But the switch to circle hooks also requires the angler to be on his A-game. As soon as a marlin shows up, the angler must respond by dropping the bait back to the marlin. To keep things simple, skippers only run four rods. When the bite is firing and competition is hot, the anglers will hold the rods in hand, reels already in freespool, and wait for a shot.

There are several ways to rig a ballyhoo with a circle hook. Scientists who study circle hook marlin fishing have determined that using floss to lash the hook to the ballyhoo’s head provides the best hook-up ratio. But most of the pros use a small swivel and light wire to attach the hook to the bait. They argue that the swivel gives the bait better action. However the baits are rigged, a prepared crew will have plenty onboard. Pro mates will rig 100 ballyhoo and tie an equal number of rigs before leaving the dock.

 

Rig ‘Em Up

The rig is simple. Start with a 30-pound class two-speed reel spooled with 30-pound mono and matching rod. Use a Bimini and no-name knot to attach a 24-foot piece of 80-pound clear mono leader punctuated with a 100-pound ball bearing snap swivel. Add a five-foot leader of 60-pound fluorocarbon with a surgeon’s loop on one end and a 6/0 to 7/0 circle hook on the other. Keep a couple rods rigged and ready as pitch baits and always have a heavier 80-pound class combo ready with a whole Spanish mackerel to throw at a big blue one.

Marlin pros reason that running four lines allows the crew to focus on fewer baits while the fish are drawn to the boat by teasers and dredges. Most boats run squid chain teasers with nine-inch squid in a chain punctuated with a large ballyhoo behind a Ilander skirt.

Things get crazy when pros build a dredge. Tournament anglers with deep pockets and high ambitions rig dozens of large mullet on multi-level teasers peppered with rubber squids, artificial ballyhoo or mudflaps—rubber fish silhouettes. Serious crews fishing for fun will replace the mullet with natural ballyhoo behind a Mylar skirt. For anglers with limited time and resources, a dredge of rubber squid or ballyhoo is simple to use and easy to store.

Regardless of the dredge and teaser components, pros carry a variety of sizes and colors to match the bait and weather conditions. On a sunny day, go with lighter colors. On dark days use a darker mix. When the fish are focused on squid, use squid. When the marlin are corralling sardines, swimbaits or ballyhoo usually work best. Teaser squids should also be switched to tempt finicky marlin. Green and pink are most common colors, but blue, white and natural teaser squids are also popular.

The system revolves around marlin coming to the dredge or teaser and the anglers reacting quickly to put a hook-bait in front of the fish. When the marlin hits, put the reel in freespool, point the rod tip at the water, wait for the fish to run off with the bait and swallow it. When the line starts to scream off the reel, slowly push the drag lever up and come tight on the line. Done correctly, a white marlin will explode out of the water.

With one fish hooked, put the boat in a turn towards the fleeing fish, bring the inside baits up and make a circle in hopes of tempting a second or third bite. There is nothing in sportfishing as exciting as catching white marlin on circle hooks. This is a perfect game and the sport of kings.

 

Get Live
Marlin love live bait. That’s no secret. Anglers all over the world (including the mid-Atlantic) target these fish on live baits. While the tactic is forbidden in most tournaments, slow-trolling live baits can produce incredible numbers of fish.

The tactic is even more simple that trolling. The best action is centered on the southwest corner of Norfolk Canyon. That’s where anglers mark huge schools of tinker mackerel on the bottom. Drop a five-hook mackerel rig (long-shank hooks with surgical tubing) to the bottom and bring up several tinkers at once (tinkers will stay alive in a large, circular livewell but small tuna tubes work best to
keep the baits lively). Be sure to have rigged baits in the water while catching more bait; marlin will often follow the tinkers to the surface looking for an easy meal.

The mackerel is bridled to a circle hook and dangled from the flat lines and long-riggers. Slow-troll the baits just fast enough to keep them on the surface. Pull two squid chain teasers without trailers so the teaser floats on the surface.

Circle the bait marks and keep an eye on the lines. A marlin will often take a live bait like a trout rising to a dry fly. When the fish bites, take the reel out of gear to allow the marlin to swallow the large live fish. Many times the marlin will come out of the water with its mouth open trying not to choke on its mistaken meal. Marlin hunt in packs, so expect multiple bites and bring a lot of marlin flags. Anglers fishing live baits often return with 10, 20, even 50 flags flying.

 

Fly Time

One of the most difficult and most thrilling ways to catch a marlin is on fly rod. The boat pulls teasers and dredges to attract the marlin. When a bill shows up, the captain takes the boat out of gear and the angler uses a heavy fly outfit with shooting line and a large, gaudy popper fly to entice the marlin.

The slow reel and whippy rod make it impossible to chase the fish down, so the angler fights from a mostly dead boat. Connected to five feet of electric fish fighting and jumping and running, the

angler feels every aspect of a white marlin’s spastic and noble personality. It takes a lot of skill and even more luck to fool a finicky marlin with just hair and feathers. But when the two come together, the payoff is as thrilling as any experience on the water.
Whether using plugs, ballyhoo, live bait or fly rods, marlin fishing requires simple tackle and easy tactics; perfect for newbies and seasoned pros alike. But don’t be fooled, even if the gear and tactics are basic, whites, sails and blue marlin offer the ultimate challenge. However a crew chooses to chase white marlin, there is no better place in America to encounter epic action than along the mid-Atlantic region in late summer.

 

Sidebar 1

 

Marlin Masters

Get in touch with these captains to get down with mid-Atlantic marlin fishing.

 

Maryland

Capt. Anthony Matarese, Reel Chaos, www.mmhunting.com, 609-685-0704

Capt. Jon Duffie, Billfisher, www.ocsunsetmarina.com, 240-372-8117

 

Virginia Beach

Capt. Randy Butler, Rebel, www.rebelsportfishing.com, 757-932-0036

Capt. Pat Foster, Waverunner, www.vbsportfishing.com, 757-377-5018

 

Oregon Inlet

Capt. Jason Snead, Dream Girl, www.dreamgirlcharters.com, 252-255-8037

Capt. Brian Leonard, Swordfish, www.swordfishobx.com, 757-236-5000

 

Hatteras

Capt. Rom Whitaker, Release, www.hatterasrelease.com, 252-986-1031

Capt. Dan Rooks, Tuna Duck, www.tunaduck.com, 252-216-6160

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finding Birds: Is The Latest Radar Technology Right For You?

By

High resolution March issue article here

By Steve Katz

Recently I visited a 68’ sportfish. The vessel had received many helm upgrades. The control station was a beautiful helm with four large flush-mounted glass style monitors. Upon powering on the system, I witnessed a modern GPS chart plotter in high definition. In contrast, I also found a blurry radar image from a system introduced over 10-years ago that had been adapted (not well) to work with the new screens.

Since it appeared that cost was not an issue, I asked how this happened. The captain explained that the previous captain was familiar with the old radar and knew how to use it. He therefore demanded it remain during the electronics upgrade. It seems the prior captain didn’t want to learn a new radar system! There are many captains and owners who prefer to keep using the hardware they know. That said, the advantages to using modern electronics are worth the effort to take the time to learn!

Radar Basics: Applications

Let’s review why we use marine radar:

  • Collision avoidance is the number one feature of marine radar. An educated radar user can use the displayed radar image to avoid a collision with land, other fixed objects and other vessels at sea. This use of radar is not just for nighttime use, it can be used anytime and can help locate and identify targets.
  • Regulatory compliance. The international COLREGS and the USCG Navigation rules (small white book) both require the use of “all available means” –including radar if equipped– to determine if a risk of collision exists.  
  • Radar can be used for passenger safety to help identify threats or uninvited vessels approaching or traveling nearby.
  • Radar can be used to locate distant storms and help provide the captain with information necessary to safely navigate through or around a storm.
  • Radar can help measure distances to other objects such as land masses, aids to navigation, other ships, and storms. Radar can also confirm the ship’s location against a chart plotter display.
  • Ship’s radar can signal a radar beacon (racon). When triggered, a racon transmits information back to the ship’s radar display about the racon feature. Often this information can be used as a navigation aid to identify a landmark or buoy.
  • Radar can activate SART (Search And Rescue Transponder). SART devices are used to locate a survival craft or distressed vessel by displaying a series of dots on a rescuing ship’s radar display.
  • Most importantly for ITB readers, RADAR CAN FIND BIRDS!! (We are looking for birds since birds may congregate near the same baitfish that are part of the gamefish diet.)

A Radar Overview

Before we get into the fun stuff on finding birds with radar, let’s review ARPA and MARPA, echo trails, VRM and EBL, magnetrons and solid state radar.

 

ARPA–automatic radar plotting aid– is a feature of commercial radar systems where the radar system automatically acquires and tracks targets (other boats) near the vessel to aid in collision avoidance. The ARPA system reports the other vessel’s range, bearing, target speed, target direction (course), CPA (closest point of approach), and TCPA (time of closest point of approach), safe or dangerous indication, and often includes a proximity alarm. Larger boats and commercial ships are required by IMO (International Maritime Organization) and other standards to have and use the ARPA feature on their radar. While the ARPA feature is found on commercial radars, Furuno offers it on many of its recreational radar packages as well.

 

MARPA— Mini Automatic Radar Plotting Aid—is very similar to ARPA but includes fewer features. MARPA is currently found on most of the recreational radars. The major difference is that with MARPA, targets need to be manually selected and often a smaller number of targets can be tracked simultaneously. Note, for MARPA (or ARPA) to function accurately, a heading sensor is required. On a pleasure boat, often the heading sensor from an existing autopilot may be integrated. If not, a stand-alone heading sensor may be required.

 

The ARPA/MARPA feature is often underused by pleasure boaters. It is a great feature to use to enhance your situational awareness, especially when traveling or operating in any kind of restricted visibility. If not familiar with this feature, try it out on a clear day when you have time to experiment at the helm. Learn how to set your system up to acquire targets and see how the system alarms you when a target gets too close.

 

Echo trails

Echo trails are a safety feature which provide colored historical “trails” behind a target vessel. These trails are shown on the screen in a different color to help you quickly and easily identify moving targets and potential collision threats. The trails provide a visual depiction of the vessel’s course.

 

VRM and EBL

Variable range markers (VRM) and electronic bearing lines (EBL) allow you to move the radar display cursor over a vessel or point of interest to view the instantaneous measurement of distance and bearing to vessels or land.

 

Magnetrons

We all hear about the magnetron inside the traditional marine radar but what does it do and why worry about transmits hours? A magnetron generates the radio pulses (radar energy) that are sent out from the marine radar antenna. After thousands of hours, the magnetron’s performance can be diminished. It is usually a slow degradation, starting with symptoms of reduced ability to acquire distant targets.  If this happens, the radar’s magnetron can be replaced to restore the radar’s original performance. The design and technology behind the magnetron radar dates back to the 1940s military use. It wasn’t until the 1980s that radar became affordable for pleasure boats.

 

The Latest in Radar Technology

Recently, a new radar design has been made available to pleasure boats. Known as Solid State, Doppler, CHIRP or FMCW radar these new radars do not operate with magnetrons.  Each of the major manufactures has their own name for the solid state technology radar—names include the Furuno NXT, Garmin Fathom, Navico Halo and Navico broadband 3G/4G and Raymarine Quantum. Most manufacturers offer this technology in both open array and dome styles.

The new solid state radar systems offer some advantages. These include:

  • From a maintenance and service issue – there is no magnetron to replace and no performance decrease as the radar operational hour’s increase.
  • Great short range performance – some of these systems can show fine details such as finger piers inside a busy marina while 20 feet away.
  • The radar is instant on, no warm up time before transmission.
  • Low RF (radio frequency) emissions, safer for humans in the transmission beam.
  • Solid state radar systems can indicate whether a target is moving toward or away your vessel using Doppler with programs such as Furuno’s “Target Analyzer” and Garmin’s “MotionScope.”

There are also a number of drawbacks to the new system. These include:

  • Long range performance may not be as good as with a magnetron.
  • Solid State systems are not as good at finding and tracking birds as magnetron style radar.

The continuous development of solid state hardware and software should eventually allow these modern radars to exceed all performance aspects of magnetron radars for pleasure boat use.

Finally… How to Find the Birds

Using your radar to find birds is very useful when fishing. Long time captains can tell you they can easily manually tune their radars to find birds. Some newer radar users rely on the automated settings, often called “bird mode” by the manufacturers.  Whichever method you choose, finding birds requires the ability to increase the gain and reduce the clutter of the controls.

For manual users, set your range to medium or long. Next, increase the gain until you flood the screen with blanket of small specs, then back off the gain just a bit. Leave the AC rain and AC sea clutter off. Flocks of birds will look like dense reoccurring noise and not a solid target.  It is best to practice this when you can visually see the birds and compare what you see to what the radar shows. It can take some practice adjusting your range, gain and clutters to get a picture that defines the birds. Your radar power, antenna style, mounting location, screen resolution and other factors can influence the settings and ability of a specific set-up to effectively see birds at a useful range.

If your radar has an automatic “bird mode” setting, it’s worth a try. This option is an easy way to get the settings quickly adjusted. According to the manufacturers, there is more to this feature than just a gain pre-set. There is also a software algorithm that works in the background to adjust the radar settings to best identify birds.

The best type of radar to find distant birds is a large high power open array– a 25kW with a 6’ array is the most typical radar found on tournament sportfish boats. Certainly less power and size will work, just not as good or as far. The narrow beam width of the open array and high transmission power is what allows the radar to pick up small fast-moving, distant targets such as birds.

Some captains have been able to easily tune and use modern solid state radar to target birds, even using the new dome style radar on smaller boats. The radar height off of the water and the bird’s height off the water are limiting factors to the distance birds (or any object) can be marked.

Conclusion

Whether using your radar in the darkness of night to find your way or to locate birds on the horizon during a tournament, your boat’s radar is one of the most important pieces of equipment on the bridge. Everyone uses marine radar in different ways. Just as there are a variety of uses for radar, there are many different skill levels of radar users. What is universal, however, is that there are some important safety and fishing features of radar that all captains should know about. Take the time to learn your system and keep it in operating performance.

 

 

Two Small Hooks are Better than One Big Hook

By

By Capt. Peter B. Wright

Several years ago I did a boat trial on a new Hatteras for Motor Boating and Sailing Magazine. I knew the captain, Pete Grosbeck, had a great reputation in California, but I had not yet gotten to know him personally. What he taught me that day in Mexico, has helped me catch hundreds of billfish and win copious amounts of money in tournaments all over the world.

I deliberately did not write about it, until now! Over the decades I have passed on this knowledge to many of my anglers and deck hands; I really don’t consider it to be a secret anymore (sorry Pete). When I share this information with new customers, or crew members, who have not yet used the tactics that Grosbeck taught me, they are usually skeptical. Once they see the success that comes along with the unusual set-up, they always put the rig into their own bag of tricks.

peter-b-web-image

After I climbed through the boat and tested its ability to dance, with me at the controls, Captain Pete asked me if I wanted to catch a couple of sail fish. Of course I did! He handed me a light, 20 pound, outfit and a huge, plastic headed marlin lure with multiple skirts! I blinked and said, “I can’t catch sailfish on that!” He replied, “Do you want to bet?” in a tone of voice that put me on guard immediately.

He was way too confident in what looked like a ridiculous set up for me to bet any real money. I knew Pacific sailfish were larger than the Atlantic ones I grew up on, and I had caught several, large sails in Australia by that point.

At the time, I rarely used lures as large as the one Pete had handed me, even on full grown blue or black Marlin!  My hookup ratio was not high enough using large lures compared to smaller lures. Only after using Grosbeck’s lure was I able to realize it was the hooks, and not the lure size that made the difference.

peter-b-lure

I could not believe a sailfish would even try to eat such a huge artificial lure. If it did, I was sure that the hook up ratio would have to be at, or near zero!  Little did I know that in a short period of time that day, I would have 5 strikes from sailfish, and tag and release 3 of them! I was amazed! When I carefully checked out the hook set that Grosbeck was using, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. He was using 2 small and short shanked “J” shaped hooks, sized about 5/0.

peter-b-rig

I can best describe them as being similar to what we used during live bait fishing for small Florida sailfish before switching to circle hooks. I tested the hooks on a line testing machine and it takes right at 100 pounds of pull to straighten one out. Each hook was on its own individual leader, and the hooks were not completely inside, or outside, the skirt’s tail! The skirt just barely covered the eyes of both hooks! It was an IGFA legal set up! Each leader had a loop eye and the main leader passed through the eyes of both leaders.

Years later, while, trying to catch Fonda Huizenga her first world record spearfish, we would catch a 300 plus pound Big eye tuna, and tag an estimated 500-pound blue marlin, which became the first Atlantic blue marlin ever to wear a satellite tag! We finally got the Ladies Spearfish Record late that day!  All the fish were caught on IGFA 50 pound class line, with the Grosbeck hook set on small Mold Craft “needlefish” lures!

I have won several tournaments using that same set-up. Including the Dunk Island classic, a 12 pound IGFA class line competition for Sailfish and Black Marlin, for three consecutive years.  We might have won it 4 years in a row if I had not made a silly mistake!

Trailing my old deck hand, Laurie Wright, by 3 fish on the last day, I figured there was no way we could get 5 releases before Laurie got at least a couple more.  Sailfish and small Black Marlin tagged and released were worth something along the lines of 35 points each.  Marlin over a certain size could be gaffed and boated, and were worth a point per pound of body weight.

I knew we could catch a decent Black on 12-pound so we went for broke and ran outside the edge of the reef to where the big ones lived. Almost immediately we got a bite!  Instead of being worth 5 sails or small blacks the fish we were fighting on 6 Kg. line was a full grown female in excess of 800 pounds! And worth a point a pound!

If we could catch her, we would win by a mile! My mistake was in not changing from the 80-pound test leader we used on the little blacks to something much heavier! I managed to get the leader to Doug Haig over 10 times! Each time he pulled as hard as he could, without breaking it, then dumped it, turned to me and said “Sorry Pete, I was going to break it.”

“Great job Doug,” was my reply. “We still have her on!” We were never able to get a tag on her and get the release points but it was one of the best fights we ever had! Whenever I show amateur crew members and anglers how to use the “Grosbeck Rig” I tell them to always use heavy leader and go fast.

One new friend called me up recently and told me “It works!”. “What works?” was my puzzled reply. “I got my wife her first sailfish, then we hooked another one! But it was not a sail. It was a marlin right here in front of Stuart. We messed up trying to tag it and broke the leader at the boat.”

THANKS AGAIN TO PETE GROSBECK.

Big Island Beast Number 5

By

Grander 6Aug. 26, 2015

Captain Mat Bowman showed his former boss he knows how to catch a grander too!  The former deckhand, and now captain of Northern Lights I, caught a 1,309 pound blue marlin  just  a week after his mentor Capt. Kevin Nakamaru caught a 1,075 pound blue on the Northern Lights II . Angler Michael Bilich, on a routine Kona charter, caught the monster fish after a 2 1/2 hour battle. Bowman and crew member Kyle Vannatta have seen some serious BIG game action over the past two weeks, as both were working the deck  a week ago when Nakamaru caught his grander. Worth noting is both granders were caught on Koya lures. The 1,309 on a Koya Poi Dawg and the 1,075 on a 13 inch tube. And the 1,309 the fish broke the “tail stump” rule. The girth of its tail stump was 19.5 inches, a predicted a weight of only 950 pounds.Congrats to all involved! Pretty soon they might have to change the name of Honokohau Harbor to Grand Central Station as this is the 4th grander caught off Kona this season and the 5th (Hilo) off the Big Island. In reality, it is Kona’s second fish over 1,300 and the 6th grander caught in Hawaii in 2015. The grander that was caught by a 21 foot skiff on an electric reel seems to not count in many peoples eyes for some reason.

 

 

 

 

Big Island Grander Number 4

By

11885053_10153192443948195_628774513077783159_n

 

A big congratulations to angler Brent Nelson for catching  a 1,075 blue marlin fishing on the  Northern Lights II in Kona on the Big Island of Hawai’i.  Nelson caught the beautiful Pacific blue on a 12 inch Koya tube lure while fishing the TART (Tag and Release Tournament) tournament with veteran big game captain Kevin Nakamaru, along with crew members Mat Bowman and Kyle Vannatta. It’s quite possible the Big Island of Hawai’i is appropriately named because of the big fish caught here -this is 4th grander caught here this year. Other monster blues have been tagged and released  in Kona’s calm, cerulean waters. In the past two days,  Kona Spirit tagged and released an estimated 800 pounder and Marlin Magic II tagged and released an estimated 700 pounder,  not to mention over a  dozen smaller blues tagged and released. Kona is the place to be folks – it can happen any time of the year here and captains are always ready for battle.

 

11864825_10153192446178195_3335250196915776313_o

 

 

1,368 Pound Blue on 21′ Skiff

By

photo courtesy: Charter Desk Honokohau Harbor

photo courtesy: Charter Desk Honokohau Harbor

Bringing credibility to the saying “the fish don’t care how big the boat is”! Fishing onboard  Dayna, a 21′ Grady White, anglers Darrell Omori and Guy Kitaoka boated an enormous 1,368-pound Pacific blue marlin on July 28th. It is Kona’s biggest blue marlin since a 1,356-pounder caught on Spellbound in June, 1992 and a 1,400-pounder on Marlin Magic in May, 1990.   The duo fought this “fish of a lifetime” for an hour and a half on a Penn 80 electric reel after it attacked a towed 4 pound aku (skipjack tuna). The amazing catch was meant to be, they caught the behemoth on a 80 lb reel, with only 400 lb mono leader, and the bait actually slid 50 feet up the line for the entire battle and remained untouched. While the  fish is only 8 pounds under the 1,376-pound World Record certified by the IGFA, it would not have been eligible for record consideration because it was caught with an electric reel.  After the fish was caught and tied to the skiff, Bomboy Llanes on the Lana Kila came over and loaded the fish into his boat for an easier trip to the scales at Honokohau Harbor. Congrats to all involved, what a catch ! This is the Big Island’s 3rd Grander of the year.  I guess they call it the Big Island for a reason.

 

 

Big Bones in Hawaii

By

 

clay

Nice Moloka’i Bonefish

The excellent bonefishing on the island of Moloka’i may be one of Hawaii’s best kept secrets. Moloka’i, a hidden gem, is just north of Maui, and has the largest fishing flats in the entire state. The flats are protected by a fringing reef along the entire south shore of the island. With very little boat traffic and fishing pressure, the bonefishing areas are pristine, the majority being away from any man-made structures. Most importantly, the bonefish are BIG, averaging 5-8 pounds. If you are interested in a great bonefishing experience and want to pursue these giant bones, I would highly recommend Capt. [Read more…]