Deep Sea Fishing ... and my first fish!!

My friend Walt, owns his own boat and goes fishing all the time.  So he took a me, Don, Dave and Kristin (Dave's wife) out deep sea fishing on Sunday.  Don used to fish with Walt all the time, so they were used to each other.  And Dave been fishing with Walt once before.  I went fishing with Walt once before, but it was years ago, and I don't think we caught anything.  I know I didn't catch anything!  I don't think Kristin went before.

I had to drag myself out of bed extra early, and I was glad that Don was driving me, I was soooo tired.  We stopped by Walt's house first to see if he needed any help.  The sun was just starting to wake up, and we looked up at the grey sky above us.  We all commented on how ugly the weather looked, and how the wind seemed to be picking up, not dying down as the weather report said it was going to be.  Walt also pointed out that it was almost a full moon too (right around a full moon, fish don't really bite anymore, and it's harder to catch anything).  We followed him to the boat harbor, where we met up with Dave and Kristin.

As we packed the boat with our stuff and got the boat in the water and ready to go, it started to sprinkle some, and I started getting worried that this would be a very short fishing trip.  But the sun rise over the Ko'olau Mountains was pretty.

Walt and Don getting the poles set up before we go in the water.

It started sprinkling some, and I was worried that it was going to be raining the whole time.  Thankfully it wasn't.  It gave us a really nice rainbow over the harbor.  It was a perfect semi-circle.  I wasn't able to get the whole rainbow in my camera, though.

I climbed inside the boat and tucked my bag away someplace safe, and looked over to see Kristin rumaging through her bag.  I saw that she had a banana in her bag, and quickly went over to her.  I very quietly told her that bananas on boats were considered bad luck, and Walt was extremely superstitious about it - to the point that he gets mad if you bring the Banana Boat brand sunscreen onboard, cause it says "banana".  Although Don pointed out that he's not sure if Walt gets mad because he doesn't like sunscreen (the smell or the greasiness that gets all over his poles and boat), or cause it has "banana" in it's name.  So Kristin quickly made sure that she hid her banana in her bag. 

We were finally ready to go, and we headed out of the harbor.  The weather looked like it was clearing up and although it was a little windy and made the waves choppy, it wasn't really all that bad.  Walt set up the lines in the water, and then he climbed up to the top of the boat where all 3 of the guys squeezed in.  Kristin and I stayed below.

Here's Walt setting up the lines for while we were heading out.

It was turning out to be a nice day, we started trolling around an area that he said he had a few bites the other day.  Almost immediately, one of the poles look like it caught something, but the reel wasn't spinning.  I pointed it out to Walt, and he said it was probabbly the drag created from the lure.  We trolled for hours and nothing was biting!  I laid down to take a nap, and shortly after, woke up to Walt yelling "WAKE UP!"  I sat up quickly and saw Don jumping towards one of the poles.  I was so excited!  But we lost whatever fish had bit real quick.  It's the pole on the right that's dipping down some ...

Don reset the line, and I decided to go back to sleep.  I woke up a little later and decided to just sit straddling the boat with one of my legs dangling over.  It felt nice when a wave would come up and hit my leg. 

Don told me there were pilot whales ahead of us, so I woke up Kristin and told her to look.  Dave and Don were both below decks, so I climed up to sit with Walt, who was driving, and to get a better view of the whales.  There was a pod of them, and they seemed to be swimming right towards us, even though we had turned a bit.  I didn't get to see their whole bodies, but swimming, they looked like black dolphins.  Walt told me there were babies and that pilot whales were bad, because they would eat the ahi.  He told me there were times where he had caught an ahi, had it on a gaff to get it on the boat, and the pilot whale would rip it off the gaff and swim away with it.  So he really did not like them at all.  I watched as they swam towards us, and dived under our boat, bumping it a bit as they swam by.  Walt and Don told me that the mommies do that, but with a lot more force - cause they weren't happy that you were in their space.  Walt started cursing at the pilot whales, and we sped off in another direction.  Deciding to try our luck along the ledge.

I stayed up there and chatted with Walt a bit.  I knew that I should keep a look out for a pod of dolphins or a bird pile, but I saw neither the whole time we were up there.  No one, it seemed was getting any fish.  I was starting to wonder about Kristin's bananas....

I went back down and grabbed some water and a bite to eat, and just enjoyed the waves for a while.  Then Walt got really excited and when I looked, I saw a guy in a small boat practically in the middle of a bird pile!  I wasn't sure if the birds were stealing his fish or what.  Apparently, the birds were feasting on Nehu, this tiny little fish.  And there were some Aku and Shibi eating too, they were the ones that were scaring these little fish up to the surface where the birds were catching them.  Walt made Don drive the boat while he changed out the lines and pulled in the lures from the other poles.  Walt explained that we were going to catch the Nehu as bait, and use the bait to catch the Aku.  So Don had to drive the boat into the Nehu pile without using the motor to scare them away, while Walt would try to scoop up as much as he could with the net.  Don was having such a hard time positioning the boat the way Walt wanted it, and Walt kept screaming at Don.  It was a little funny, and I was glad I wasn't Don!  Here's some nehu we scooped out of the ocean.

I've never been in the middle of a bird pile, and it was really neat to see all those bird grabbing the fish out of the ocean.  Dave and Kristin took over the scooping job, and I would try to assit them getting the nehu in the buckets, or pick up the ones that landed in the boat and throw them back in the bucket.  Walt changed the lures to hooks, and baited the fish.

I started chuming the water and we soon got a bite!  Walt hooked the fish and handed me the pole, and I started reeling that sucker in.  I could see the flashes of blue under water as it swam around.  Then next thing I know, Don and Walt are yelling at me to hurry up and reel it in, or a shark's going to get it!  Apparently, there was a shark that swam under the boat, and another one that was swimming after the aku I hooked.  I started reeling it in a little faster, and I could see the shark as it came closer.  Shark week was only a few weeks ago, and thoughts of a shark breaching the water or bumping the boat flashed through my mind.  But Walt was right next to me, and I knew he'd kill me if I lost the fish sooo close to the boat, that I figured I'd take my chances with the shark.  We could see the fish and Walt kept telling me to keep it's nose up!  So I reeled it in some more and Walt scooped it with the net.  I had caught my first fish!!!!

I was sooo happy!  Kristin and I took turns after that catching fish.  We caught 5 aku total.  My last one had such a HUGE belly!  I was so happy that we caught some fish despite bananas being on board.  lol.  We started heading back towards the harbor, detouring through a few bird piles, but catching nothing else.  Walt made a little pit stop in Poaki Bay for us to go swimming for a little while.  As soon as Don anchored the boat, Walt jumped from the top of the boat and made the biggest cannon ball into the water.  Here he is swiming back to the boat.

Walt swam back to the boat and climbed aboard.  He told us that if we don't get in the water, be expected to be thrown in the water.  The boys jumped in quickly.  Kristin was a little hesitant, and I asked Walt how are we supposed to get back in (I didn't want to jump off and have a hard time getting back into the boat).  He said that there was a step on the back of the boat I could just climb on and get back in.  So I jumped in, and the water felt so cool and refreshing after being in the sun all day. 

After we all got back into the boat, Walt decided that he'd gut and clean the fish right there.  So he told us to hurry up and take pictures with our fish.  I grabbed a fish in each hand, and they were soooo heavy!!  We took several pictures.  I caught 2 fish.  I don't know if these are the same 2 I caught though.  lol.

We caught enough fish to have one for all of us! :)

Walt decided that he wanted to clean and gut the fish right there, so he could throw the junky parts outside of the harbor ont he way in.  Don decided that if we weren't ready to leave, he'd go back in the water.

I watched Walt gut the fish, and almost every fish had a big fat belly!  Remember when I said my last first was fat?  Well, when Walt went to cut the fish open, his knife just nicked the belly, and a whole lot of nehu came spilling out!!

We waited till we were out of the swimming area and Don threw the fish heads and guts out and washed down all the blood in the boat.  We saw a honu swimming around behind us.  I didn't get a good picture of it, though.

Then we were back in the boat harbor, and got the boat on the trailer, headed over to clean the boat.  We made a quick pit stop at the grocery store to grab some ingredients to make poke, then headed to Walt's house.  He taught me and Don his secret poke recipe (sorry guys, he said that it was not to leave his house), and fired up the grill to make some teri beef.  The food was sooooo yummy, and I was so full and tired and happy from a long day, that all I could think about at that point was how much I wanted a hot shower and my bed! :)