Big Island

A couple of summers ago, my brother Micah and his wife Kristie, along with my girlfriend Gerrainne and myself, were lucky enough to manage a quick weekend getaway to the Big Island. We were graciously treated to a day of fishing on our friend Gavin and his partner Mikey's boat, the Joi Ride. We headed south out of hilo harbor and got some fun bottom fishing action outside of Pohoiki. We picked up a bunch of moana and ran into a school of yellow-spot papio. Good fun. We then headed out to the buoy to try and bait for some rats (small aku and shibi). After luring some of our target fish to the boat by chumming with anchovies, we started tossing out the spinning tackle baited with the small sardine-type fish. This was my first time doing this type of fishing, as I usually fish the shorelines of Oahu. So....to say we were "stoked" is a complete understatement.
We were having an unreal time and it was all fun and games, until I hooked into the leader of the small pack we were fishing. When the 34 lb. ahi first took the bait, it started peeling out line from the penn 850 (80lb. powerpro) slow and smooth. The little chubby didn't even realize it was hooked until I gave a quick yank to set the hook. That's when the fun began. Hanapa'a!! The shibi ripped line out of that reel like nothing I've ever encountered from shore (yet...), even after locking the drag down to its' near limits. After about 15 minutes into the fight (and a ton of good-willed badgering from the boys), I reached a stale mate with the ahi. With about 3/4 of the spool out and down deep, I couldn't bring the fish up. When I tried to lift the rod, line would simply come off the reel. The only solution would be to hold the spool, lift, and reel. With only 40 lb. leader though, and this being my first ahi (besides the 5-6 pounders we just caught), I didn't want to take any chances of breaking off. Luckily, the ahi was pretty much spent and I began to gain line back, a little at a time. After a total of about 25 min. we were able to land the big football and bring him into the boat. My arms were pretty much jello, but we headed back to the buoy to try again. We lost the little pile we brought up earlier and were only able to hook a couple more little aku jigging with some diamond jigs.
We headed back in after an extremely fun fishing expedition with a respectable catch of an assortment of bottom fish, some 2-4 lb. aku, a couple of 5 lb. ahi, and the 34 lb. ahi that gave me sore back (but was gooood eats).
Thanks Gavin and Ross , for bringing us out. And Mikey too, who wasn't able to come out, but let us fish his boat.
-jed