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Hawaiian Islands Aloha - Paradise exists for the shooters of the Hawaiian Islands

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Old 02-22-2008, 05:15 AM   #1
Daryl Wong
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Finally got out this year!

Aloha gang,

The weathers been terrible for the last five weeks. So our gang hasn't been able to get out . When we did get desperate enough to go on a nasty Sunday two weeks ago I ended up with a blown out tire on the way. We pulled over and were able to get all the lug nuts off except two. One sheared of and the other just spun it the hub. This prevented us from taking the tire off to change. We finally ended up taking the whole hub off the spindle, grinding the stud off from the back and then going back and putting on the spare. Meanwhile while Joe and I were doing this, my cousin said two crack heads came by to rip off the boat seeing that there was no truck hooked up and no one around. They didn't realize he was under the trailer checking out the other tires. He could see them get off their bikes and when they approached the boat, he got out from under the trailer with a hammer. They got surprised and then said got a flat? DUH.....then they left.
By the time we got the spare back on it was almost noon. We ended up back at my place and took off all the tires and did maintenance.

The following weekend the weather broke and was dead calm. I had a rare Saturday of and Monday was a holiday. Pete our living legend at 71 years old and I decided to get out to see if the Onos were still in. We launched at 7:30 am and went to our favorite spot. The bait were everywhere and I could tell it was perfect conditions. I saw a few nice AJ's or Kahalas as they are called here and watched them cruise the bottom. Very few people eat them here. Pete has a friend that eats them and loves shooting them. So rather than waiting to see if the onos were around he dove and shot a nice 20 lb AJ. It was a nice center mass shot which is Pete's favorite shot. It gave him a struggle. When he finally got it up, here comes the Ono school.... there must have been a dozen or more. I lined up on the nearest one and pulled, and pulled and pulled. What??? When it finally went off I ended up jerking and missing! The Ono wasn't even fazed. I reloaded and had another one come in. I pulled, and pulled and then hey, what the hell? I turned my gun over and found that my push rod had come out and was jammed on the side of the trigger mech.

Wait, this isn't supposed to happen to me! I make these damn guns and this one is mine. I even let my friend borrow my super magnum and she shot a world record tuna on film with it!
Shit, I missed a second time. This time I got my knife out and pushed the rod back in place. Pete was still getting his fish off and the onos were very where. They were milling around because of the blood and the chum we were chumming with. I finally reloaded and then shot a nice one. I strung that fish up and put it on my stringer. The onos were still around and I saw another one nearby. I got that one to come in and shot it. This time when I got it up, I dragged it over to Pete so that the school would follow it. One fish went right across and in front of Pete and he shot it. Center mass of course! We took our fish to the boat, took a few pictures and then went back in. It's a good thing I have a good waranty for my guns. I had to fix my own gun this time. So if your push rod ever gets jammed some how, I appologize in advance. It's called Shit happens.

Within a half hour another one came by. It was pretty good sized for Hawaii standards and I got a nice shot on it. I took that back to the boat and went to check on Pete. We waited a few hours and no fish came by so we called it a day.
I was taking the boat out on an overnight trip the following day with Joe Strona, and Kaipo, so I had to refuel and get supplies for the next two days. Back home to four Onos went 53,48,36,32 lbs. We cut up the two smallest and I took the two biggest to our local auction block.

Sunday, Joe Strona, Kaipo and I left for our overnight trip. We arrived around 8:00 am and the water was crystal clear and calm. The ride over was like sliding on ice it was that smooth! Normally our ride is 3 hours and we got there in 1 1/2 hrs. We got there so early we decided to troll until the sun got higher. No takers.
We had a blast spearing our favorite Parrot fish and I took Kaipo to an Ulua house where he got his first ulua. I ended up trashing three shafts on three uluas. Joe got a personal best Kumu or goat fish of 4.6 lbs. The record is 5.2 lbs so it was a huge one. We all had a blast exploring new grounds and finally getting back into the water.

Wednesday I had a Dr's appointment but the water was still dead calm and Pete had the Ono itch so we went on a late morning dive. We got to our usual spot. I got in first and while waiting for Pete, two nice onos came by and I got the biggest of the two. Pete finally got out and I dragged the ono over to him and the mate followed. Pete took a long shot but the ono gun I made for him doesn't shoot 50 ft. He was 20 ft short! I asked what took him so long to get out and he said he was feeding our pet turtle chomper. Later while waiting for more Onos, a big 12ft tiger shark cam up on us. It got withing 8 ft of me and then turned. It wasn't aggressive and was just checking us out. By then the current was running due to the full mood tide so we came in early.

It was great to get back into the water. A good friend of ours Bob Bachmann has been waiting to come over and visit. Pete called him the other week but he had business to take care of. So I'm sure Pete will rub it in when he calls Bob.

I hope theweather holds and I can give another report next week.

Aloha,Daryl
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Old 02-22-2008, 05:41 AM   #2
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Re: Finally got out this year!

damn fine fish and hell of a story

send the gun back it has a lifetime waranty
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Old 02-22-2008, 06:51 AM   #3
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Re: Finally got out this year!

Nice chicken salad I hate when the day starts off and all you have is bad luck and chicken shizzle to work with.
You guys in Hawaii have some strange names for your fish and stranger nick names. If your turtle friend is nick named chomper, what do you call the 12 foot Tiger Shark?
Around here 12 Foot Tiger Sharks eat turtles.
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Old 02-22-2008, 07:38 AM   #4
Md Spear
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Re: Finally got out this year!

" The weathers been terrible the last 5 weeks."

Daryl........thats a riot ..... Hawaii ......MMM.... We had snow w/ an ice storm in the North East mainland.

Great story and pix. Makes me want to move to be in your bad weather.
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Old 02-22-2008, 08:12 AM   #5
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Talking Re: Finally got out this year!

Gotta love that "Ono itch"! Way to go Pete and guys.

Great spearing there Daryl in your latest islands adventure. Tony
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Old 02-22-2008, 09:41 AM   #6
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Re: Finally got out this year!

That is awesome. I cant wait til my trip to the big island this summer!
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Old 02-25-2008, 10:44 AM   #7
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Re: Finally got out this year!

Nice report,
I just got back from Oahu and dove town side quite a bit. Those fish are smart!! Looks like getting offshore and finding some secret reefs is the way to go. Congrats on a nice catch, fat KUMUS!!!
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Old 02-25-2008, 10:53 AM   #8
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Re: Finally got out this year!

Nice Daryl! I figured Pete would have taken a shot at the Tiger....
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Old 02-25-2008, 02:53 PM   #9
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Re: Finally got out this year!

Hey Daryl, Great story and glad that you finally got out!! I couldnt help but notice the hat you are wearing in that one picture!! Thats a Custom Rod and Reel hat and thats the place i work at!! I work for Tom Greene!! hahaha!! Way to Represent!! Nice Fish and congrats again!!
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Old 02-25-2008, 05:51 PM   #10
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Re: Finally got out this year!

congrats daryl on getting to go out... tell kaipo congrats on his first ulua.... i think i might be able to make it out there in april since i cancelled my trip to england....hopefully ill see you soon


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Old 02-25-2008, 07:31 PM   #11
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Re: Finally got out this year!

Great story. Nice pics. Congrats on the fish and conditions. Peace.
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Old 02-26-2008, 01:56 AM   #12
Daryl Wong
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Re: Finally got out this year!

Aloha Gang,

Glad you enjoyed the report. The weather has been super nice and held up this weekend. So it was back into the blue looking for the onos again.
I gave the guys a choice. Shoot a bunch of fish or spend the day looking at blue water and maybe some sharks and turtles. Old man Pete said the onos are only here for a few months and we can shoot reef fish anytime. That pretty much summed up the vote.
Also I had a friend Craig Dockendorf in town with his soon be be wife. They came over from Kauai on their way back home to California. He popped the question in Poipu Kauai and after much groveling she finally said yes. The one caveat was that he could only dive until 10:30 and he had to get back in to catch an early afternoon flight out.
So we met at my place and Craig followed us to the pier. Launching at 7:00 am, we were able to get in three hours of diving. Of course the beautiful weather turned the minute we got out. It rained for two hours on and off and was windy and overcast.
When we first got in. I had my buddy Kaipo stick next to me. My job that day was to shoot small bait fish to use as chum. I must have speared a dozen stick fish.
With in the first half hour two onos came in. I threw some chum out and as it was drifting down, one of the onos came in. I told Kaipo to drop down and just shoot it when he got up to it. Kaipo dropped down and from about six ft away, missed! Of course the ono made a big circle and came back to check out the shaft. Then it slowly swam away while I was dropping down to shoot it with our rail gun. We told Kaipo to get used to missing. We all miss and it just makes us appreciate the times we do land an ono. No one else saw anything so a we left to drop Craig back off at the pier. At the pier, we said our farewells, and headed back out. Our second stop was a small pinnacle . The gang was suiting back up and I jumped in to start shooting bait. While I was chumming two onos came in. Everyone was still on the boat so I dropped down and shot the closest one with the rail gun. By the time I got it up, the gang had arrived. Two other onos came in to follow, but no one could get a shot off. The water go cloudy and we could barely see the bottom at 100 ft. I saw the big tiger there last week and it wasn't fun to be there in cloudy water so we pulled up and left. It was back to the first spot.
There the bait were everywhere and I started shooting more bait. By 3:30 I had had enough. I had shot three nice yellow spot papios, a 12 lb milk fish and headed back for the boat. Kaipo and Ron wanted to hang out for a little more. Just as I was getting back to the boat, I saw a school of 12-15 onos on the surface coming to me. I dropped some chum and they started to angle down to check out the pretty silver fish chunks. I swam up to th closest one and strung it on Rob Allen shaft. While it was running in a big circle the shaft came back through and toggled at the barb. I held onto the float line since it was making a big circle below me. Then I realized that there was no tension on the line and the fish was still going in a circle on the bottom with the shaft hanging out on one side. The small diameter cable had cut at the back of the shaft! Shit, I saw the frays but didn't think it was too bad. The boat was only 20 yards away so I swam over and got my super magnum that Craig was using in the morning. I loaded, got back in and the other onos were still milling around. My ono on the bottom was gone so I chummed a little more and two more onos came in. I shot the closest and it was fish on! I got that in and took a few pictures with Pete who was taking a beauty nap on the boat and when Ron and Kaipo got near they saw a few onos but couldn't get them to come near. They were wise to the chum trick. We ended up with two nice onos and a bunch of the best tasting of the Jack family. The biggest ono was 40 lb and the small one 36 lbs.
We all got back safely despite the three pesky sharks and still had fingers and toes.
The onos should be around for another few weeks if we are lucky. I'll know Wed when we do a half day dive in the afternoon.

Mike, I got the hat from Tom Greene. Give him my regards. I had lunch with him and met him as a sponsor to Sheri Dayes Blue Wild dive expo. He had told me about the new young dive fanactic he had at the store. Sorry we didn't get to meet the few times I went in. You had just started then. Tell Tom its my lucky hat! As you can see it is well worn. Actually since I'm an old fart now and may hair is thinning I have to wear one now! Next on my list is hearing aids and old man shoes. Got the shoes next the hearing aids! I can still see onos though, may not hear them. haha.

Ryan, Pete did have his power head loaded and ready to shoot when the tiger came in last Wed. But the shark had already turned back into the deep and was gone by the time Pete got up to me.

Franke, Tom is coming in April. We can all dive if you get out here.

I'll give a report on Wednesday's dive.

Aloha,Daryl
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Old 02-26-2008, 02:31 AM   #13
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Re: Finally got out this year!

Good story Daryl, Nate and I are leaving for Kona on the27th. We got 2-3 days of diving lined up with Rick and Angela, I can't wait. Still hope the gang can make it over for some Kilua Pig on Sunday. Dive safe, Chris
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Old 02-26-2008, 10:58 AM   #14
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Re: Finally got out this year!

nice fish Daryl and crew
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Old 02-26-2008, 03:28 PM   #15
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Re: Finally got out this year!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daryl Wong View Post
I gave the guys a choice. Shoot a bunch of fish or spend the day looking at blue water and maybe some sharks and turtles. Old man Pete said the onos are only here for a few months and we can shoot reef fish anytime. That pretty much summed up the vote.
Smart move, I would have voted the same way! This is why I enjoy diving and or talking to the more experienced divers as they often know where the fish are. Here on Maui, our last two ono trips are the exact opposite, with the exception of seeing a tiger shark approximately 12 ft. on both days. Somehow whenever diving with Lance Otsubo big sharks seem to appear out of no where. This makes diving with him so much fun. Too bad the camera was not rolling as it would have made for some nice footage!

Anyways, sweet report Daryl. Looks like Oahu was the place to be for the ono action the past two weeks. Might have to jump on a plane and get in on some of that action with you guys while it lasts.
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