Hanapa'a

"Hanapa'a" is the term that Hawaiians use when shouting "fish on!"

We finally got the chance for a little "hanapa'a" now that our buddys Brian and Kodi bought a boat. We spent last saturday and sunday trolling for Ono (wahoo) without much luck. Sunday we found some fish around a FAD (fish aggregation device), which the state puts out in the water to attract fish. It is basically just a bouy anchored in deep water that attract all kinds of little fish, which in turn attract the big ones. We trolled around the bouy for an hour or two with only one bite.

Our baits were a little big for the fish that we found. A local Hawaiian was fishing near us and catching a ton of Aku, which is a small tuna that tastes a bit fishy. The locals love them. After watching us make pass after pass with no luck, he pulled up and tossed us a few small, homemade baits and said "try these, the shibis should start biting soon." A shibi is a small yellowfin tuna. Sure enough, we get a hookup and I land a small shibi. It was getting dark, so after we boated the fish we trolled around for a few more minutes and headed back to the harbor. It was the first fish for the boat, and we were stoked! We had a bit of sashimi, and saved the rest for the frying pan. Tasted great!

We sometimes troll baits on the boat that I work on during the morning trips down south. Earlier in the week the other crewmembers caught a nice Ono. We trolled today and had a good fish on for about 5 seconds and it came unhooked. It was an exciting five seconds! We will get em next time..