Happy holidays and a warm aloha welcome to our off-island visitors.
After an entire day of nonstop rain and flash flood warnings a week ago, the skies opened up and great offshore fishing materialized. Many anglers were afforded early Christmas gifts with excellent catches of blue and striped marlin, spearfish, mahimahi and ono.
There were two boats, specifically, over the past seven days that represented the classic Kona fishing experience, holiday spirit and how family finishing traditions are made.
On-board Nasty Habit
After the miserable weather on Wednesday, Kona’s charter boat captains were smiling when they saw the weather break Thursday morning. I happened to be filling in as crew on the Nasty Habit with captain Greg Hopkins, hence I was smiling too.
The fishing had been great the week prior and the captains were eager to get back out. You could feel the energy in Honokohau Harbor as the boats woke up and started to spring into action. Captains and crews were raring to go.
As the beautiful sportfishing boats marched out of the harbor in single file formation, Hawaiian spinner dolphins welcomed them into the realm of the sea. While each captain devised his or her strategy for the day, the spinner dolphins, one of seven species found in Hawaiian waters, happily played in the boat’s wake.
The clients on-board the Nasty Habit were patriarch Greg Schlutz, his son-in-law Donn Nannen, and grandson Michael Nannen. It was the first time all three fished the deep blue waters of West Hawaii looking for big game.
Around 7:45 a.m., as the 47-foot Cabo sportfishing boat trolled north into a somewhat bumpy sea, the captain and I were looking at, and talking about, the action of the long corner lure. At that exact moment, a 175-pound blue marlin hit the lure and seemed to stall behind the boat on the top of the wave. The fish tried to give everyone on-board a good, almost daring look to catch it before it took off, peeling line off the reel.
Michael, the youngest member of the family and a rookie blue marlin angler, jumped into the fighting chair, clipped into the rod and reel and expertly battled the feisty blue.
Following suggestions from captain and crew, Michael fought the fish as only a young man can, he was relentless and never let up on the fish. With his father helping turn the fighting chair in the direction of the energetic fish, he had the marlin alongside the boat in 10 minutes.
The lively marlin was still very frisky and lit up its body markings and fins a vibrant blue before having the hook removed. The fish swam away unharmed. It was Michael’s first blue marlin, and it was very apparent that he had caught the bug and now had blue marlin fever.
High fives and kudos spread around the boat, with Michael’s father Donn up next. Maybe it was just beginners luck or perhaps just good juju, but right before before 9 a.m., the short rigger lure was crashed by another blue marlin.
Donn followed suggestions, taking his time and focusing on doing it right. With his son turning the fighting chair for him, the fish exploded from the water several times a couple of hundred yards behind the boat. With vivid blue and purple colors bursting from every stripe and fin, the fish was believed to be a striped marlin at first.
Nearby, another charter boat, the Marlin Magic had just jumped off two striped marlin at the same time, known as a double-header. Once Donn’s fish was by the boat, the dorsal fin and pectorals easily identified the fish as a 130-pound blue. The little marlin had the hook removed and swam away unharmed.
Forty-five minutes later another 150-pound blue marlin nailed the long rigger lure. Greg wanted to see Michael catch another fish and graciously turned the chair over to his grandson. Michael was in the chair even before the fish knew it was hooked. Sadly after a few jumps, the marlin shook the hook and reminded us you can’t catch them all.
It wasn’t even 10 a.m. and the family from Colorado had already caught and released 2 of 3 blue marlin hooked. More importantly, a new family tradition may have been born.
I asked Donn Nannen if he saw more blue marlin fishing with his family in the future. His son’s eyes grew wide, and Donn quickly replied “Yes.”
“I never got to do this as a kid, and I want to continue to do this with my son and hopefully my grandsons one day,” he added. “I didn’t know what to expect marlin fishing, but this was really cool.”
Big blue on Topshape
Thursday was a busy day and another story was brewing on the charter boat Topshape and it was a big one.
Captain Al Gustavson and longtime crew member John Bennett were fishing with two of their favorite good luck charms, Wayne and Elfriede Crawford and their grandson Justin Corn.
The Crawford’s, a wonderful couple in their eighties, have been traditionally fishing with Gustavson for the past five years and are well known amongst Kona charter fleet captains as good luck. They always catch fish regardless of what boat they are on.
“I could troll in the harbor and catch a marlin with their luck,” Gustavson said.
Keeping with Crawford and Kona tradition, around 10 a.m., while rods were bending on other boats. Gustavson’s stinger lure, the lure furthest from the boat, which caught an ono a little earlier, is crushed.
This time it is not a 20-pound offshore ono. With tremendous amounts of white water erupting high in the sky and surrounding vicinity it was quickly obvious a giant-sized blue marlin, the dream fish for big game anglers, had hit the lure.
With another big blue marlin battle beginning, Justin climbed in the fighting chair to try to catch his first blue marlin, and with line screaming off the reel the gigantic fish slipped under the waves and disappeared about 300 yards behind the boat.
With expert instruction and support from his grandparents, who were guiding the chair and supplying hydration, Justin did a great job angling. Catching big blue marlin isn’t easy and it takes proper technique and some serious stamina.
The marlin stayed down and battled hard but Justin slowly gained line on the behemoth. After an hour and 10 minutes the big beautiful marlin was just 20-feet away from the back of the boat.
It was obvious the fish was 800-pounds. At this point a new battle began, the fish locked in at this distance and was not going to give up for Justin that easily.
For 20 minutes the marlin stayed just out of range of Bennett’s grasp, with the big blue slowly doing switchbacks, going back and forth from one side of the boat to the other, a memorable sight to behold when you see a fish of this magnitude. The colors in contrast with the clear Kona blue water is simply amazing.
The fish surrendered after one and a half hours of battle. Bennett took hold of the leader and brought the enormous fish to the boat. The marlin was released unharmed after a few hasty photographs. With a fish this size, you want to release it as quickly as possible for the safety of the fish and the crew member.
With the fish in, Elfriede Crawford leaned over the side to look at her grandson’s big blue.
“Now that’s a real fish,” she said.
Over the three-day charter, Justin also ended up catching a striped marlin, a spearfish and an ono. Elfriede showed her moxie and caught a small blue marlin too.
