Last week’s episode of The Bright Side reported on “The Case of the Secluded Scale” with the Charter Desk abruptly closing shop on Sept. 25.
There is only one fish weigh-scale on the entire Kona Coast, and when they closed, they locked down the power to the scale. From Sept. 25 to Oct. 9, no one could weigh a fish. To make matters even more confusing, no one seemed to know when the situation would be rectified.
We are happy to report that the situation with the scale has been rectified, with the folks from Miss Mojo Charters opening a new business in the old Charter Desk space, in partnership with Amber Hudnell of Sea Wife Charters. They are now operating the scale.
They announced on Oct. 9 that they will officially open on Nov. 1. To get things back to “normal” with the fishermen, they advertised that if you have a fish to weigh in the mean time, just call Amber and she will help you out.
If you would like a first hand confirmation of just how amenable they are to help you weigh your fish, you need look no further than Windi Robinson. Windi and husband Jim Robinson were on their way to Okoe Bay last weekend on their boat “J.R.’s Hooker” when they hooked into a chunky marlin that put on a nice show of aerial acrobatics and then went down. In fact, it expended so much energy jumping around that it never equalized and once it arrived at the boat the crew agreed: it would only be wasted meat if it was “released” because it was not going to survive.
No fish goes to waste around her, so it was an easy decision to put it in the boat. Once on deck, it was also easy to see that this was by far Windi’s biggest marlin — ever. Windi has been with Jim for 12 years and seen a fair few fish, too. High fives and touchdown dances went around the crew.
Once everyone’s excitement was just about to Super Bowl level, it dawned on one of them that the reason they were heading to Okoe Bay was to get out of town on Ironman weekend because it was race day. Roads were closed and they had marlin they estimated to be 500 pounds taking up most of the space in the cockpit.
No one wanted to spend two days shacked up on a boat with a dead 500 pound fish, so they did as advertised, and called Amber. If you’ve never tried to get to the harbor on Ironman race day, put it on your bucket list. Many years ago, yours truly had to get to my boat on race day, for some reason or another. This was so long ago I couldn’t pinpoint a year, but back then Kealakehe Parkway did not cross Queen K highway. So, I had to park at the corner of Hina Lani and hike to the harbor. Absolutely no vehicle traffic was allowed on Queen K in those days.
By the time I headed back to my truck, the athletes were off their bikes and a steady stream of them were jogging by me as I slapped along in my slippers. Lost in thought, one of the runners brushed against me so I looked up just in time to see him spin sideways then pirouette, before executing a perfect face plant, right onto the highway. Before I could reach him to try and pick his pockets, a helicopter with a TV cameraman circled. In short order a medic rocked up on a scooter. In an instant, there were so many people in attendance that I had to pick up my pace and jog along with some competitors just to get past the crowd.
People look at me askance when I tell them that, yes, indeed, one year I was in the Ironman, but I digress.
So how the hell did Amber get into the harbor on Ironman day to weigh Windi’s fish of a life time? She said that surprisingly, it was far easier than she thought it would be. Now that Kealakehe Parkway is open, she could just sit at the intersection and wait for break in the athlete traffic.
This is just one more example of how easy people have it today compared to the old days.
Windi didn’t take the easy way with her fish though. She transferred the rod from the holder to the fighting chair all on her lonesome, and fought the fish unaided by any of the able-bodied men on board. In case the guys missed it the first time, she did it once more that day, on a smaller marlin that they successfully tagged and released.
After a peaceful evening at anchor in the vat of heaven that is Okoe Bay, they got up the next morning and tagged and released a third blue before Jimbo had change from his at anchor P.J.’s into his fishing togs.
On the way up the track, they tagged one more small blue, for a total of 3 tags and Windi’s fish. They had estimated her fish to be 500 pounds but it came close to 600 pounds, tipping the scales at 589 pounds.
After all the uncertainty and speculative gossip concerning the scale, based on Amber and Reynaldo Rubaclava’s commitment to stand by the fishing community, everyone can rest assured that the scale is up and running again.
One thing in Kona that is as sure as a sunset is that any void in space and time will be filled with rumors. A 15-day stretch like that was more than ample for the rumor mill, but the last episode of The Bright Side reported on only the very looniest rumor of them all.
So just to clarify, no, the divers were not trying to get fishermen to stop bringing fish to the scale by shutting it down. They had absolutely nothing to do with the scale at all. That rumor was mentioned in the last article because the very idea was ridiculous, but the good folks at Jack’s Diving Locker wanted us to clarify this for our readers. Done.