Ahi #2, 28 lbs.
It’s been two and a half months of fishless days, and (most recently) weeks without fishing at all, but I’m happy to report that the fishing gods have smiled upon me once again. There are days when it doesn’t take long for you to realize that going fishing was maybe not the best idea. While it was a day off from work that I had pegged for fishing from a week ago, there are of course, all of life’s little pains that need to fill in the day as well. I thought, it would be fine to drop the kids off for the first day of school, drop the truck off for new exhaust work, then get myself and my boat dropped off at Leleiwi for a quick tour of the grounds. Everything went as planned, until I tried to pull the damashi rig behind the boat outside the rocks, just in case there were any live-bait fish that were interested in joining my cause. None were. Next, I threw out a crystal minnow while trolling out to water deep enough to throw out the opelu, but fearful of getting a bad tangle with the damashi, I trolled fast and soon reeled the CM in in order to drop the opelu. Now, why I was so concerned about the CM getting tangled with the damashi, but not the opelu rig, I’ll never know. Guess what happened next?
As soon as I felt I had dropped the opelu out far enough, I thought that it sure would suck if I got my damashi tangled up in it, so I decided to reel it up. Seemed heavier- seemed like there may be something on it, though I couldn’t feel any pulses. But as got it up close to the surface- sure enough- there was a fish on. Turned out to be a dead opelu- mine. The one I just dropped. Pffftht.
I spent a good 10 minutes focused on twisted lines in the 5-6 ft swell before I felt sick enought to realize it was time to cut. Not only the big knot-ball the damashi rig caused, but yards and yards of twist in the middle of the opelu line. I pulled it all in by hand, cutting and wrapping, and stashed it all in the bottom of the kayak. I was left with about 50 yards of line between my hand and the opelu, and just decided to tie it back on to what was left of the spool on the 6/0, hoping for the best. Especially since I couldn’t remember how to tie those fancy ‘line to line’ knots, so I just tied two clinch knots (trilene knots?) together. I assumed it would break. I should add here that I came real close to option #2, which was paddle straight in, as the swell, while commonly that size for us out there, was being really confused and annoying with multi-directional combers and shifty lines. The yak was being thrown around like a toy, and it was hard to stay focused on watching the seas.
Actually I combined the two options; paddle for shore after letting more line out. What more could go wrong? Fortunately, aside from the wacky following swell throwing my tail right and left, nothing did go wrong. Then (finally) something went right- the reel began to sing. “That’s what I’m talking about.” I actually said it out loud- being prone to talking to myself when fishing. Actually, I’m just prone to talking to myself. I grabbed the rod and gave it a tug, and felt nothing. Turned the boat into the fish, and then felt something taking me for a ride. Went slamming over a few big waves, and then began a fairly straight-forward pump and reel routine, until I got the fish up next to the bow. This time, the fish wasn’t side-hooked and came up much more easily. The first thing to pop up, was the lovely yellow-flecked tail of an ahi. I wheeled it around to the side of the boat and made three really bad stabs with the kage, but he was hooked well, and the fourth stab finally killed him.
After (comically) flipping him into the hatch behind me while a passing boat stopped to watch, I almost dropped another opelu before continuing my paddle, but decided to count my blessings instead. Turned out- I forgot to bring my cooler, so I had the lovely wife pick up some trash bags on her way to get me, and then went to buy a cooler. The cooler selection at wal-mart sucked so bad, that I just bought a big rubbermaid tub and filled it with ice. Worked just fine, just have to add plenty of ice.
I probably had the opelu in an ‘effective’ troll for less than 20 minutes when the ahi finally hit, so- next time that little voice tells you that you shouldn’t even have paddled out; ignore it. Just keep fishing…
28 lb Ahi. For immediate consumption.
August 15, 2010 at 08:49
Nice fish. Don’t feel bad about talking to yourself, I do it all the time.