There weren't many trailers down at the marina, which is usually a sign that the fishing's subpar. No worries for us, because when the fishing's bad, we're taking photos. Likewise, when there's nothing to photograph, we're fishing, so we're always occupied.
We did our usual rounds of going out to the FADs (Fish Aggregation Devices), but there wasn't much happening. Masa put out all kinds of trolling lures, but we had no luck. Because we were out earlier than usual, we had a nice view of Mt. Hualalai, which is often clouded over a little later in the day. There were no whales or dolphins to photograph, so we took some scenic shots of the mountain.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Big Island, Hualalai (8,271 ft) is one of the 5 volcanoes that make up this island. It's not as well-known as Mauna Kea, the highest point in the Pacific, or Mauna Loa, the most massive mountain in the world, or the active vocano, Kilauea, all of which are also on the Big Island, but it's the dominant geographical feature of Kailua Kona, where we live. Hualalai is dormant, but will no doubt erupt again at some point in the future. It last erupted in 1801, and they say it erupts in a 200-year cycle, which means ... well, let's think about fishing.
We headed south, trolling for ono, also known as wahoo or Pacific kingfish. We traveled at high speed of about 8 to 12 knotts, which is best for ono fishing, and with all the right gear out. We found ourselves in a small parade of fishing boats doing the same thing: going out to the 150 to 250 ft. depth, called "Ono Lane", then following the drop-off in a southerly direction. We did this from about 7:30 to noon. There was no action on our lines, so were taking pictures of the nothing that surrounded us. The Kona coast doesn't have the dramatic cliffs of the Hamakua coast on the north side of the island, so pictures of this area aren't very marketable. We got some scenic photos that could make background shots for a magazine spread or pamphlet. We also got some shots of the waves crashing on the 20 ft volcanic rock cliffs when we passed by the tip of Kealakekua Bay.Having gotten up so early on this beautiful, calm day, I was sleepy, so I slept on the floor for a while. Masa told me later that C buoy was as dead as it could be for fishing. When I woke up, he was driving the boat down to UU buoy, which is near Kona Paradise subdivision. Finally we saw some activity. There were about 5 fishing boats working at the buoy and many birds flying overhead.
We saw a small pod of pilot whales nearby, maybe 9 or 10, logging. As expected, there were some oceanic whitetips milling around with them. Masa wanted to get in the water for some photos. He entered the water quietly and found himself fairly close to the large bull pilot whale that was relaxing there. These bulls can be unpredictable, and Masa didn't want to get close enough to disturb it. They floated around in the water there together for about 10 minutes or so, just eyeing each other.
While Masa was attempting to photograph one of the oceanic whitetip sharks coming his way, he saw one of the pilot whales poop 30 feet below, which sent the oceanic whitetips into a minor frenzy. Three of the four sharks immediately sensed the huge, free meal and rocketed into the cloud of poop, eating it. This behavior explains why they hang with the pilot whales, but it makes you wonder why they don't spend more time checking out the delectable diver in their midst. I guess whale poop is tastier, which is lucky for Masa.
Masa got back in the boat and we continued fishing. Right there at UU buoy, he got a 20 lb bigeye tuna on a jig. He bled it over the side, which is what Masa does to ensure tasty sashimi. This brought those whitetips barreling over to the boat. With all that blood in the water, Masa jumps in for some pictures! Unfortunately, the whitetips didn't approach Masa close enough for the picture he wanted, of several in the same shot. Masa finally came back on the boat to try for another tuna.
Right away, he got a tuna, but with the blood in the water, those whitetips didn't let Masa enjoy it for long. They latched onto that tuna, churning up the water, and tore it apart. Now we know why the whitetips are nice to Masa; he feeds them tuna!
We headed south for a while and ran into a pod of friendly pantropical spotted dolphins. They hung with us a bit, but the light was poor, so it wasn't a great photo op.
Now we were at B buoy, which is really far out from Kona for a small boat. The B buoy is located about 5 miles offshore of an old fishing village, Miloli`i. We quickly got another bigeye tuna, 15-20 lbs, then another. These fish are great for sushi, but for the moment, we were fascinated by the small cookiecutter shark scar that decorated the side of one of them. For those of you unfamiliar with this species, a cookiecutter shark is a small (20 inch) shark that latches onto dolphins, whales and large fish with a suction action. It then twists its body in a violent motion and slices off a hunk of flesh, leaving a single circular scar of 2 to 4 inches in diameter, depending on the size of the shark. The victims generally have no long term effects from this, but live the rest of their lives with that nice, round tattoo.On our third strike, we knew a shark was in the area. The tuna was being reeled in at a predictable pace, when suddenly, in a burst of strength, it just took off, as it tried to avoid the shark. No luck for the fish or for us, as the large shark grabbed the tuna and settled in for a short game of tug-of-war. The shark was thrashing around and cut the tuna in two; all we pulled up was the head. You'd think Masa would be disappointed to lose the tuna, but he seemed pleased that he didn't lose his jig. However, with sharks in the area, we knew we'd lose any tuna we'd catch, so we headed back to UU.
There we caught a small great barracuda. Barracudas are beautiful fish, but not good for eating because of the danger of ciguatera, a reef toxin prevalent among predatory fish that inhabit tropical reefs. It's rare to catch a barracuda so far out, as they generally stick near the reefs where they feed. As we took some photos, it thrashed about and cut the line with its sharp teeth, and plunged back into the water. Chalk up another one for the fish.For our efforts this day, we had little to speak of in the way of photographs. On the other hand, we caught several bigeye tuna and managed to land 4 intact. Great sushi tonight! And for those of you who follow this blog, we are pleased to say that Sugar, my Tibetan spaniel, did really well on the boat today; no sea sickness at all!
Kona Sue
http://www.seapics.com
SeaPics.com Blog
All pix from today's excursion!
Links to stock photos of species mentioned in today's blog (please be patient!-10 seconds to load):
cookie-cutter shark
great barracuda
pilot whales
oceanic whitetip sharks
We thought the pilot whales had gone north, so we slowly went that way, back in the direction we came from this morning. We soon came across them again, and they appeared much more relaxed now. We've seen pilot whales often, and it's always hard to know what kind of behavior to expect. Sometimes they leave as fast as they can, sometimes they stick around to see what's up. This time, fortunately for us, it was the latter. We watched the pilot whales "
He got into the water, and sure enough, that big whitetip rolled right up to him. This species will often do that, as they're curious to see what you are. They'll come right in for a bump to see if you're edible, so it's nice to have a camera housing between you and them. With the adrenalin rush of that big whitetip coming in, Masa waited and waited till the last second and snapped the shot. He got it nicely, and the shark veered off when the strobes flashed. Check out the shot to the right, as well as this nice profile shot of an 
While we were focusing on the oceanic whitetips, the pilot whales continued heading north. Masa got back in the boat, and we followed them for another go. Masa kept shooting the oceanic whitetip sharks, but he also had a good opportunity to observe a mother and calf pilot whale pair. This is not easy to do, as the mother is protective of her offspring, just like human mothers. Invariably she keeps the calf on the far side of her, away from strangers, which means she's usually blocking the shot. She kept nudging the calf away, but at one point, the calf, like a typical teenage, ignored Mom's warning, and slid under her for a better view of Masa. The shot here on the left is the result of that episode of misbehavior.
We caught no fish on this day, but it was awesome photo-wise. There's actually a lot more to write about, but I'm going to save if for another day. As a final shot, though, here's Sugar, expressing her feelings about today's experience on the water. Don't worry viewers; after two minutes on dry land, she stopped drooling and was feeling just like normal!
We began our day at VV buoy where the current was really ripping. There wasn't much going on there fishing-wise, so we concentrated on photography. We took some photos of the buoy, which was tilted over diagonally by the current. At 
I climbed out of the water, and Masa tried his luck again. We repeated our game of hide-and-seek with the shark, but the current never did cooperate, and we called it a day, with just some so-so pics of her. Too bad; that 
From there we went to C buoy. A small pod of pilot whales, probably juveniles, was out there, just a little too far away for any decent shots. We noticed a frigate bird circling, which is usually a sign of baitfish, which in turn attract the big fish and the dolphins. As expected, there were some pantropical spotted dolphins leaping around the baitfish. We got some excellent pics of airborne dolphins. They jumped so high, it was sometimes hard to keep the horizon line in the shot. There were also some big tuna out there, and I got off a nice shot of a leaping tuna. I say it jump once and held ready for the second jump, which I got. Nice work, me! After a good afternoon of dolphin photography, we took off for home. Some baby dolphins followed us and rolled around and around in our boat's wake.
By now, a huge dark cloud had descended on us. We wanted to reach port before it really started pouring, but just then we spotted a beaked whale break the surface! We cut the engine, and miraculously, that whale metamorphosized into a drifting log. Incredible, the things that happen at sea. Despite the impending downpour, we decided to fish the log. Driftwood tends to accumulate small fish, and before long, it's a complete environment. We had time to catch a small striped wahoo, and then headed back to the Keauhou marina. We were drenched from the rain, but I had no time to change or even dry off, as it was my turn to carpool for my daughter's gymnastics group. No time to help Masa clean out the boat either; maybe next week!
After about 2 hours of watching the mahi mahi swim races around the boat, we finally hooked one! It leapt out of the water about 10 times, and got as high as 8 ft out of the water. Several times it jumped up and landed on its side with a big splash! When we got it in, it was over 3 ft long and about 15-20 lbs, a beautiful yellowish-green with blue speckles. Masa was so happy, as we'd been out all day. About an hour later, we caught another.
