My “Lucky” Pinky!!
by Guy Tsurumaki
The line hook line cut and we lost the Papio. The hook went straight to the bone, there was no way to remove it. If you measured the pain with a scale from 1-10, my finger pain ranged from two when not touched to eight when touched. I thought to myself maybe it was a sign to go home, but decided to continue through the pain. Before starting trolling, Casey and I had a discussion that he would have do most of the work if we hooked up with a fish. There were a lot of birds scatter all around the area. At 8:00 a.m. the center pole line screamed, and our great anticipation was finally fulfilled. It was a black Marlin that revealed itself by thrusting its body out of the water over and over. The fish continued jumping on the side of boat, almost overtaking us, I applied full throttle to keep the fish in back of the boat. Finally, when the fish settled down, three quarters of the line was gone from the 130 Shimano reel. After one hour and thirty minutes of fighting, the fish finally surrendered to us. As the fish got closer and broke the surface, we could see the two hooks were locked together around the bill and were starting to slip off. The fish turned his head causing the hooks to slip back up. Casey and I couldn’t believe our luck. The next task was to secure the Marlin to the side of the boat. When the fish was secured, a quick celebration was done, with a wounded pinky and one exhausted son. We estimated it to be around 300 pounds. After crawling for 2 hours we reached the harbor. We were greeted by our family and by a bunch of local people and tourist that helped us lift the fish in the back of my truck.
We would like to thank the local fishermen who greeted us at the pier and help us weigh the fish. The black Marlin weighed in at 420.8 pounds. What a catch, a story to tell, and an experience that will never be forgotten. This was truly, a father and son quality time that we will keep in our memory. We would like to say a special Mahalo to Randy Domingo, family and his friends for assisting us with cutting up the fish.
As for the hooked pinky, the hook was removed at 4:30p.m. Saturday at Poli Momi Emergency Hospital. I kept the hook and learned that being hard head and not quitting sometimes pays off.
On 7:00 pm Friday, July 29, 2011, my son(Casey Tsurumaki) and I(Guy Tsurumaki), set out to do some night fishing, and early morning trolling on the Waianae coast. Casey heard the day before that Ahi was around 5 miles out from Nanakuli. The trip started out rough with a blown out trailer tire on the freeway, with a two feet space to change the flat, and hanging inches into the road. Changing the tire took ten quick minutes with butts tucked in to make sure not to get hit. Finally reaching Waianae Boat Harbor, we launched “Cori-Jo” a 17 feet New Bay, into the night with great anticipation. The night began with luring in a school of dolphins hanging around, waiting for an easy meal. After awhile of not catching anything we decided to move to find a new spot, by 4 a.m. the fish finally started to bite. As I pulled in the handline with Akuli and Opelu already in the box, a Papio, hit the line. When Casey was getting ready to net the Papio, it took off again, which caused the line to slip out of my hand, hooking my right pinky.
1st Fish off my Kayak
Metalman aka Bert Wong Jr.
Two rigs lures, and half hour later, the lure Mongoose gave me for my birthday went screaming!
I sheeted in my sail, brought in the other pole in, lifted up the mirage drive and the rudder and started reeling her in. It took a third of my line, but easy to bring it in. I thought shibi, ono, or shark. Then it screamed out line again! This time, took half the spool from my ancient 4/0 wide penn reel, overhauled by Alan Tani, loaded with 100lb test PowerPro from Kevin Uyeda and topped off with 100 feet of 60lb test mono. Yes, I said mono!
All of a sudden, line went slack. I started reeling in as fast as I could, then started feeling drag and head shakes again. Whew! I got to the mono leader, and the fish screeeeamed out line again! This time almost spooled me. I tightened this drag just a hair more so it wouldn’t take the rest. The line held.
For the next 2 hours, the only thing going through my mind, were Rocket’s famous words: “Boost ‘em!” Mongoose circling me and yelled “Boost ‘em, Chad! “Eye of the tiger, baby!” I figured shark, ono or whatever (we both figured shibi), It would be a good idea to have Mongoose’s gaff as a backup in case it was too big (for me). for
All this time I worried that I would lose it at the ‘yak, my knots would come undone (thanks Kevin) or Mr Sharky would take part or the whole thing. I would get line, then the fish would take right back out and more.
Mongoose said that I’d better say the heck with it and tighten up on the drag; lose it, or schmooze it. During the last ½ hour, the headshakes stopped, and I was strictly boosting. I got the fish to leader and this time, saw color. I yelled to Mongoose Shibi! After all that, I was hoping for an ahi! I grabbed Mongoose’s gaff, stuck it in the mouth and boosted it onto my hakas. Mongoose said at least 100lbs!
By now, the waves were choppy and the winds picked up. With all the extra weight, I wasn’t making headway and Mongoose offered to tow me. After he hooked up to my bow, for half an hour we tried, but too much water was coming into my ‘yak and I couldn’t bail, ‘cause if I opened the hatch, I would have flooded for sure. Mongoose said he would wave down a boat coming into the harbor from the Ahi Fever tournament (which had just ended)
Coming to my rescue, were Stanford Shimizu and Cheryl Mizusawa from their boat, the “KE KAI MALIE” and their crewman Jason Adachi. They asked if I wanted to be towed in. As much as I didn’t want to, I either had to let the fish go, or take the tow. I succumbed. I needed this fish for my dad for father’s day. As they hooked me up, they saw a shark cruising between the boat and the kayak. I yelled “LET’S GO!!!”
As we got to close to the shore as was safe for the boat, I yelled out my name and phone number and told them to call me in 2 hours. A guy in a Hobie revolution pulled me the rest of the way to the shore (Guys..this is embarrassing…I help people in trouble, not the other way around!). A big crowd was already gathered there on the beach. They helped me pull my kayak on the sand. My wife met me there with my larger cooler and ice. Mongoose and I along with some kids (who saw how wiped out I was.) load everything up, and we headed to the scales at the boat harbor.
The folks at the harbor were amazed. The scales were off , but the lead guy called the person to bring back the scales, just for me.
The official weight was 103.8 lbs.
The time spent boosting Miss ‘Ahi was three hours and 10 minutes.
All in all, it was a good day and a bad (embarrassing) day.
We went by Seven-11, bought 3 more bags ice. Went home, called my friend and her husband to help me cut up the fish, then went home and vacuum packed almost everything.
I didn’t know the name of the boat or Cheryl or Standford’s name until Brad Deffenbaugh from Hawaii Fishing News hooked me up to Lani Sylva (“Wai’anae Seawatch” writer and personal friend of Cheryl and Stanford) and I was able to meet them 3 days later to share the fish with them and talk story. Thanks Chuck, Brad, and Lani for hooking me up to my heroes and the rest of the HFN team for putting out such a great magazine.
I also want to thank all the officials and crew at the Ahi Fever Tournament to go out of their way to help me get an official weight, Mongoose who had my back the whole time in case Mr. Sharky came by and designed my rod holders, Tom Leinweber who got me to buy and use my Hobie Adventure Island kayak, taught me how to make my hakas and who introduced me to Rocket, who started the world renown AQUAHUNTERS and the crew who taught me kayak safety and fishing, so old guys like me could catch the fish of a lifetime.
Check out www.aquahunters.com for all the information you want to know about “Hawaiian Extreme Kayak Fishing”
Last year, Tom Leinweber talked me into getting into kayaks again (wife and I had scramblers years ago), so after he let me try his kayak a few times, I was sold on it and bought myself a used Hobie Adventure Island.
I want to first thank Isaac “Rocket” Brumaghim who started the Aquahunters and taught me everything I know about kayak fishing (it’s lot different than boat fishing!!!). Without the knowledge and friendship of the Aquahunters (and without them taking on an “older” newbie), catching this tuna would never have been possible. I haven’t caught a fish off of my kayak since I bought it. So this year I entered the Aquahunters Makahiki Tournament.
First of all, let me start by saying this: All of you who catch big fish and do it by paddle only guys like Isaac, the Uyeda Brothers (Kevin and Gareth), Chris “ The Hammah” Paglinawan, Andy Cho, David “Boogie-D” Elgas, Doc, Rob, I succumb to your awesomeness. I unfortunately, am not as good as you, and my Makahiki scores had been proving it.
I met my partner Steven Uchida aka “Mongoose” on the West side of Oahu and he got in the water at 6:30am. I left and got in at 7am. Knowing the winds were up today, we planned to go out no farther 2 miles… I had my frozen opelu and was trying different rigs that Rocket, Doc, Boogie, Hammah and the Uyeda Bros showed me (sorry guys, promised to keep it a secret). But for almost 4 hours, nothing worked, So I said to heck with it; called Mongoose and told him I was just going to go back and forth and troll my lures (like I did in my “boat” days when I used to and learned how to fish with Doug). Two rigs/lures, and half hour later, the lure Mongoose gave me for my birthday went screaming! So I said to heck with it; called Mongoose and told him I was just going to go back and forth and troll my lures (like I did in my “boat” days when I used to and learned how to fish with Doug).