Not quite what I expected...
I went out early this morning to do some light jigging with small plastic lures and light line (15# test) to get bait and warm up the old arms a little before breaking out the irons. My target was small goat fish which my mother-in-law enjoys eating. After about half an hour of slow action, I felt an initial light tugging followed by a real hit. Since I was using light gear, I made sure that drag wasn't too tight and just maintained patience. 15-20 minutes later I could see this large Omilu (local name for this type of caranx) at the surface and was able to gaff it and bring it on board. Later I had it weighed at the local fish market just to make sure of the weight which was 20#.
The state record (using speargun, hook & line, whatever) is 25 1/2 # so I felt pretty good about this one...
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15648
Date Joined: 29/11/05
Awesome
Gotta be happy with that Kawika! Only 5 1/2 pound under the record is pretty impressive, what state of Hawaii are you in out of interest?
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jay_burgess
Posts: 4648
Date Joined: 18/08/05
Wow is that a bluefin
Wow is that a bluefin trevally? It looks quite different to the smaller ones I've seen taken from the Rowleys.
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Jay Burgess
Kawika
Posts: 19
Date Joined: 01/12/06
Replies...
Hi Adam,
Well, some would say that Hawaii is a "state of mind" but I live on the southeastern most island, the island of Hawaii also called the Big Island. My wife and I live in Hilo, with a population of ~40,000 on the eastern side of this island. Hilo is generally a pretty convenient little place. We live about a mile from the boat ramp and since I'm more or less retired, access to fishing is pretty much dependent on the weather.
Hi Jay,
Yes, it's a bluefin trevally. I've normally caught them about 10 times smaller - pan size, right? But this bad boy has probably been the one that's taken so many of my mother-in-law's goat fish on other occasions that it was time to take him to task. So it's a sashimi party tonight, that's for sure.
I should note here that although we're pretty much out of the way, if any Fish Wrecked member is coming through and the weather is reasonable, I'd be happy to take them out for a spin...I'm not sure there's enough beer in Hilo to make things right but we'll see what we can do...
Andy Mac
Posts: 4778
Date Joined: 03/02/06
Nice fish Kawika
Top effort, might take you up on the fishing trip when I win lotto and can afford to fly to Hawaii, but I'll buy the beers so no dramas there.
Cheers
Andy Mac (Fishwrecked Reeltime Editor & Forum Moderator)
Youngest member of the Fishwrecked Old Farts Club