Drifting Son

You gotta take the bad with the good, as they say.  On these infrequent weather situations where a Low moves close enough to the islands to shut down the trade winds, all hell has a chance of breaking loose.  We call it ‘Kona Winds’, as the wind switches around to coming from the south or west, i.e., from Kona.  The two volcano plumes of poisonous gas that are normally streaming away from the village, then get pumped directly into us, making for air so caustic one can go into fits of coughing within minutes of venturing out.  It’s best to simply not venture out at these times- unless of course you are a kayak fisherman.

While Volcano Village is uniquely located near the world’s most continually active volcano, it also happens to be relative close to some of the best fishing grounds in the Islands, on the remote and wild south side of the Big Island, but which are normally rendered off limits by the Trades wrapping around the island at 20-30 knots.  For the uninitiated, you tend to keep a fishing kayak home for anything above 12 knots or so- you could do it, but it wouldn’t be very fun.  So naturally when the Trades shut down, it’s time to load the gear and head south.  I often watch the systems develop in the computer models on screen through teary eyes, as I prepare to head to work or other obligations, and then sadly see them pass through unfished.  But not this time- for better or worse, work has slowed enough lately to allow a little more fishing time, and happily it is during a period of Kona’s.

An hour of driving had my fellow Volcano resident (who I’ll call G) and I,  winding down the mountain as the sun slowly rose to cast its light on the stunning district of Ka`u, eventually winding up at the southernmost boat ramp in the USA.  When you

Kalae, from the sea.

paddle off-shore from here, you are basically headed for Tahiti, which is also where your boat may very well end up months later if you launch here on the wrong day.  Winds aside, the monstrous currents that slam together here creating the nutrient rich waters that draw the fish in, are a enough of a force to be reckoned with.  But on this day, they proved to be not only quite mild, but switched in the opposite direction of what is normal.  It feels like you are at the end of the world when you are out there, and when the water is flat and glassy, it is downright surreal.  We paddled around looking for fish, and could often look over the side of the boat to see them swimming around under us, but couldn’t get anything to strike.  I had a lovely moment of watching four big dolphins swim within 20 feet of my boat, able to see them looking at me through the crystal clear water, but eventually we moved around the point to below the cliffs where the water goes from the shoreline to the abyss within a few hundred yards.  Here we found fish at one of my newest favorite spots- a sizeable school could be seen below us, but after dropping bait and catching two 3-4 lb Kawalea (Heller’s Barracuda) that I don’t like to eat, I thought I may have to move on to look for something more desirable.  But one last drop, brought up a small Kamanu (Rainbow Runner), which is a fine fish to keep indeed.  Right about this time G had also arrived to the spot, hungry for his first Kamanu catch ever, and as the baits were dropped, the frenzy began.  Every drop would result in a strike, not all being converted to fish in the boat, but most were- and I quickly found that I had nice 3-5 lb fish stacking up in the boat.  I would drop a hook while trying to get the previous fish in the bag, but would get a strike before I could even pick the fish up.  I had to simply stop fishing to pack them away.  After I had gotten 5, I started releasing some hoping to just keep a few bigger ones.  Both of us were catching one fish after another, and having not fished for months, my partner was happily stuffing his bag full as well.  At some point the bite slowed down a little and so we move out a little from the spot and just slowly paddled and drifted around.  We took more strikes- some were pretty big strikes that didn’t stick, but the action continued until G took a very big strike that stuck and he began a lengthy battle that kept me quite entertained as a spectator.  The fish was big, going deep immediately and staying there as a big dead weight.  G would boost for a while and gain some line, only to lose it again on another run.  Knowing what a battle like this usually means, he said he suspected a shark, and eventually he got the fish up enough to confirm our fears.  It wasn’t massive, only about 5-6ft long, but they don’t have to be very big to be dangerous.  At one point when he was close the boat, he made one last big run that nearly pulled G out of the boat.  We were laughing at this point, and should be pretty entertain on video if he had his camera on at the time.  Finally he got the line cut just above the hook and sent the shark on his way, and just sat still for a while to recover.  I caught a 5′ Hammerhead a week earlier, so I knew what his arms were feeling like after that fight.  It hurts.  The catching was slower after that, but we got a few more, and I lost one Kamanu that was double the size of the biggest we had bagged so far, but that’s how it goes.  Eventually we trolled our way back around the point and headed in, with happy complaints of sore hands from fighting fish after fish, and kayaks that wouldn’t hold a straight line due to too much weight in the fish bags.

I ended up with 10 tasty Kamanu and have already passed much of it around the neighborhood.  One son and I ate almost three whole fish yesterday- half of it as sashimi for lunch, and then fish tacos for dinner.  I think G ended up with 8 himself, as well as an Aku and some very nice goatfish.  A bomber day, and well worth the wait for weather and work to line up properly.

This entry was posted on January 16, 2012 at 11:12 and is filed under Fishing, Kayaks . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.