 |
Makapuu Madness!Ed Kawasaki shares one crazy day at Makapuu, Oahu, with Mike Ichiyama, a day which included a hook-up with a marlin and a nice uku! We launched on a nearly windless day at 7:00AM near the research pier at Makapu'u and headed out toward Rabbit island. We made a few passes outside of the islands and took quite a few strikes, most of which I suspect were Aha. I managed to release two nice size ones that day, but was bummed that we had not hooked up any decent table fare yet.
Mike Ichiyama and I were cruising alongside each other at 10:00AM, about 100 yards off Rabbit island when the Marlin hit. We both turned around at the same time to see this beast thrashing wildly on the surface. My initial thought was that it was a sailfish and immediately started hollering, "Sailfish! You got a sailfish!"
The Marlin dove down and towed Mike in toward the smaller island and eventually pulled him right up along the rocks where large waves were crashing. In the photo you can see the rocks with Makapu'u lighthouse in the distance. I paddled up alongside of Mike as he threw me his lanyard. I quickly clipped it on to my kayak and started to tow Mike away from the rocks. Almost immediately the fish spit the hook. Major bummer!!! Return to Hawaii Fishing Tales Visit other fishing pages: Return to HawaiiBeachcombers Homepage
|
Mike had done a great job fighting this fish for at least 30 minutes only to lose it when the fish was just about beat. He even had it right alongside the kayak at one point and could clearly see its bronze hue and vertical stripes. Oh well... such is fishing. At least he caught a nice Uku, which would make any angler quite pleased. He also had a unique fishing experience and an amazing story to tell. 
Mike was using a large dead Opelu as bait, a conventional reel about 3/0 or 4/0 size, and I believe 30lbs test mainline. Both the Marlin and Uku hit during the slack low tide, which is my favorite time to be fishing, followed by the peak high tide.
