More luck from Hawaii

[acurasquirrel]

Braved the 6-8 foot seas to go fishing this morning. Since its usually just me who wants to go I do share charters which so far has worked out not to bad. Today a couple guys from Vancouver yaked all day long, but that was the worst off it. I caught my first billfish a shortbilled spearfish. Its not the biggest fish out there, but I was happy. Ended up with 3 mahi and a couple small tuna too. Here are the pics.

 

[seaweaver]

Nice catch! 6-8??
I don't know too many that will do that!(including me)
cw

 

[gotitwithmybow]

Nice fish

Nice fish. I have never been to HI so don't take this wrong......Are most charter captains/fisherman still killing billfish on a regular basis? Just wondering. From my experience, tag-and-release is becoming more and more accepted.

 

[hevishot]

same thing I was thinking....why dry out a billl fish? Just curious...

 

[acurasquirrel]

It wasnt my choice. Before I could even say anything the mate had a gaff in the fish and was clubbing it. Here in Hawaii most billfish are kept. They typically sell the catch to make a little extra money as the cost of the charter doesnt cover much more than gas and equipment. That said I dont agree with the practice, but its the norm over here.

 

[rip18]

Looks like you had a good trip!

It's amazing the seas that folks (commercial & recreational) in the northern Pacific fish in and consider it "normal" - of course they use a boat with a little bit different design too....

 

[gotitwithmybow]

I've heard of that

I have heard about some areas that still are killing billfish. I guess I would try to discuss this with crew before hand. I hope to go to HI sometime in my life and a day or two of fishing would be a requirment. Thanks for the pictures!

 

[Mistrfish]

acurasquirrel ,those are some nice fish , My time here in Australia will be up in March and Im going to take my family to Hawaii for a vaction on the way back to Georgia and would love to catch a few fish like that in your photo. If you dont mind me asking what was the price and lenght of the trip . Thanks

Allan

 

[acurasquirrel]

My price was $200 for the 8 hour share charter. Too book a boat exclusively is 750-950 average for 8 hours. Ive been twice so far and the second boat I went one was much much better than the first as far as how hard the mate and captain worked to put us on decent fish. The first boat wanted to spend the whole time catching tiny tuna so they could sell them.

 

[redneck_billcollector]

That is something you need to discuss with your captain before you charter. In Hi. they eat billfish, actually marlin is a big deal there. The charters run about as cheap as they get in the U.S. for big game, considering the cost of fuel there it is strange, until you find out most of the fish, even the good ones are sold by the captain to defray the cost. You can keep some for yourself, but once again make sure prior to the charter what is gonna be killed or released. Oh yeah, nice spearfish, I just need both types of spearfish to have gotten all the billfish.

 

[Trizey]

That's a pretty afforadable trip compared to some of the prices on the same length trip in the Gulf.

 

[Mistrfish]

Thanks Mate, what Iland was that from and would I have luck getting a boat as a walk up or should I make a reservation. We are going to be staying on Oahu so maybe you could steer me in the right direction.

Allan