You Just Never Know 

                                             by Steven Heusser

As I pulled into Keahou bay, I could tell that the fishing was not good. Usually when I arrive at the boat ramp, there is already a shortage of parking slots.  When things are good the area is jammed with the boat trailers of night fisherman. On this morning however, there were only three trailers in the  whole parking lot. As I down loaded my “yak” and arranged my gear a long time commercial fisherman pulled up in his truck. He was curious about my set up and we began to talk story.  He told me he was on shore because this was the slowest fishing year he could remember, and that he had just spoke to one of the guys out on the water night fishing.  From the report, nothing was caught all night. Some people think I do nothing but Kayak fish and make DVDs, but I do have a full time job.  Most days it’s more then full time. “I just put in 50 hours at work this week, and I need to get on the water”  I explained. “ What’s the point of living in Hawaii if I can’t fish once week” A few minutes later I slid down the ramp and set course for the drop off , the sun just peeking over the mountain behind me.  I trolled a fresh Opelu , Zig Zagging between the 300 and 400 ft mark for the next 2 hours with out a scratch. The sun was getting higher and hotter, and I thought about calling quits, but the tide was not all the way in yet. I decided to give it another hour , “ you just never know” I thought to myself. I think the fishing god was testing my dedication, because only moments later I had a vicious strike. As the kayak spun around in reaction to the fish on the line, all I could see was white water spraying in the air. The fish stayed right on the surface. At first I thought I might have hooked a Spearfish, or some other small bill fish. But this animal never jumped, it just ripped line from the spool at a line burning speed.  Just when I thought I had it under control, this fish would make a 180 degree turn and charge the boat.  The water was gin clear and flat as glass, as the fish tried to get behind me I was able to finally see what I had hooked. It was the biggest Ono of my life. I have to be honest here, and tell you I don’t know how much this fish weighed. I had the toothy critter right up to the boat with my “Fish Spike” in hand, ready to stone him before hauling him into my lap, when he opened his mouth and the hook just fell out. He was so tired that he didn’t swim away, I actually swung my empty hook over his back in an attempt to snag him.  The sting of my hook woke him up enough that he shot ten feet down and hung almost right under me for a full minute. ( so near… yet so far )  It would have been nice to boat that fish since it would have been a personal best, and that my freezer was empty. But, I wasn’t angry. That fish had given me the best ride of the summer. At times he pulled me so fast I felt like I was surfing. All the stress of the work week was gone.The rest of October was not all bad luck. On several trips we were able to boat some small mahi mahi.On many days we were the only boats in site. Everyone else decided to stay in a save on gas money. The Mahi seem to be slowly returning. But we never ran into the wolf packs we normally do. These fish seemed to be alone.  Thomas Wyatt did run into a pair of “rat” size Mahi on one trip. And a new friend of mine “ Patrick” nailed a nice fish out of Mahukona one morning. That fish also had one buddy hanging with it. We had just finished taking photos of Patrick’s catch, when a nice bull about 20 pounds came cruising right between the Kayaks. I threw a bait at him, then Patrick threw a bait at him, and then the fish lost interest and disappeared.

 We both laughed at our frantic attempts to hookthat fish. “ Man we were like two excited kids in a bass pond for a minute there, weren’t we” said Patrick. It was a perfect analogy, there were Opelu flying at that fish left and right. “ Well that’s what   I love about this sport, anything can happen” I said. “ You just never know”