Day 21
Still nursing a head cold I decided to get out as it would be my last day to try since the tournament ends on the 30th and there would be no way for me to get out again before then. The weather report was iffy again but me, Mike, Stan, Doc, Roman and Scupper headed out to Pokai Bay for paddle anyways.
I had some fresh Halalu for bait, fresh line and leaders on the gear and was optimistic on the day's run. Paddled out at dawn and I decided to stay well within sight of the launch area, so I only ventured one to two miles out tops. On the way out just past the channel I got a huge hit that screamed out line from my Avet MXL straight out. I peddled forward to get the line tight and took hold of the rod. I set the hook and it took off again for the horizon, my 150yds. of yellow 50# PowerPro line was disappearing from the spool down into the red 65# braid backing. I was able to crank whatever it was in and gain line to the point where it was about 20ft. from my Hobie Revo and *PLINK*, the line cut. I reeled it in to find that it was bit off at the 30# fluorocarbon leader just above the lead hook. Oh well, that's why it's called fishing.
Re-rigged and peddled out to about 190ft of water just outside of the bay. I found some structure and marked it on the Humminbird 363 GPS/FF unit. I drifted around some more and the sounder started to "blow up" with fish marks below. I dropped down a bait for a bit but nothing bit. Brought it back up a bit and dropped down a jig on my other rod to see if anything got excited enough to take it. Nothing, so I journeyed another mile up the coast to an area just before Makaha and found a lot of bait busting the surface and being chased by predators. A couple of Iwa birds were in the area, dive bombing and picking up Malolo. I trolled through with a Yo-zuri minnow and a fresh bait but again, nothing took them.
Got bored of that and went back to the structure I found earlier. The sounder blew up again with more marks and so I dropped another fresh bait, hit bottom then cranked it up so it drifted about 10ft. off the structure. I then got out the butterfly jig set up, dropped down and started to speed jig on the other side of the yak. After a few drops I look at my bait rod and found the tip dipping into the water. Hanapa'a!
I pulled up the jig and grabbed the bait rod. As soon as the fish felt me on it sounded straight down heating up my drag pretty good. Because I was using lighter line than I usually did, I was careful not to horse the fish up. When I felt it start to take more line, I let the rod and drag take care of the work. It was a back and forth battle lasting a good 20 minutes. I had called the strike on the VHF just as it took some line and the rodbutt was in my gut so I know I sounded pretty goofy on the radio.I finally got the fish up to the surface and it flopped to it's side. It was spent and I was breathing pretty hard myself. Once I got it closer, I knew it was an Ulua and of decent size. Not a monster, but enough to give
me a damn good thrill to close out my last tournament day. At the beach it was identified as a Kagami and it weighed in at a respectable 15#.
Hrs logged
0600-1000
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