For awhile now Charles and I have been trying to arrange some time for us to do a few days of fishing in his backyard; i.e. fishing "Gt Fight Club" style in Hawaii. Last week Charles had some free time to fish all week and we finally made it out there.
Since Hawaii is renowned for much more than its fishing, I decided to get to Oahu a few days earlier with my wife and do some site seeing. Not only is Oahu a beautiful place, it also has friendly people and awesome food! With all the Asian tourists and persons of Asian descent living on the island, there is a cornucopia of great Japanese, Korean and Chinese food available; my favorites!
Before we joined him, Charles fished three days with his local buddies, and his daily updates really got me excited. During those three days they caught 18 GT's in total, including 10 GT's in one day! And mind you, Charles and his guys are usually back at the dock by the early afternoon, so these numbers are very impressive! Although I was enjoying my time at the beach, hiking, and site seeing, I could not wait to get out on the water!
Finally, Raymond arrived and we met up with Charles. We had a nice dinner and he gave us the run down of what we would be doing for the next two days of fishing.
The first morning on the way out Ray told Charles how he had not gone fishing since visiting the Dry Tortugas this past December; so needless to say, Raymond was "itching" to get his line in the water and catch a fish. And would'nt you know it, within 10 minutes of hitting the spot and working his Siren lure, he comes tight on a GT and gets it in the boat. What a great moment; many months of seeing Charles' reports from Hawaii, and now finally, we were experiencing this awesome fishery. Plus this fish represented many firsts for Ray; his first fish of 2014, his first fish caught in Hawaii, and his first "American" GT!"
Over the course of the next hour or two we landed a few more small GT's using a mixture of poppers and floating stickbaits. Then we hit a period where the bite alows down. Charles tells us its time to break out the Carpenter Pandoras; a staple of Hawaii GT fishing. Unlike a lot of other GT spots, the water is pretty deep here, so we are letting the Pandoras sink for a considerable amount of time; sometimes over 30 seconds. Ray lands a GT. Then a short time later, while working his Pandora, Charles gets a bite but doesnt connect. He reels up the Pandora to where it is about a two to three feet away from the boat on top of the water. He turns to me to tell me I have a sun screen glob on my face when all of the sudden a bigger GT inhales the {andora; what an explosion! I get to see Charles put the wood to this nice sized fish with his Race Point 250. I must say, Charles has an awesome fighting style! With the way he always wears his buff over his face and his technique, he is like a ninja warrior doing battle! After a nice fun fight Charles had his fish to the boat and its the biggest of the day so far!
A short time later I finally get my first fish on the Pandora; and it just happens to be one of the bigger GT's I have ever landed!. With a measurement of 120 cm, it was probably around a 35 kilo fish. No problem with the Race Point 250!
We finished with 8 GTs for the first day; awesome!
The second day was a little slower and a lot more choppy. At some points while moving around I felt like I was experiencing what its like to surf in Hawaii. Working through some gnarly conditions, in addition to a bluefin trevally, we manage to land 4 more GT's for the day, bringing the boat's total to 30 GT's landed in 5 days of fishing that week. What a great accomplishment for Captain Charles!
When the afternoon lull came on, we decided to show Charles one of our favorite things; light jigging! We found a reef loaded with cornet fish, aka "trumpets" as well as a few triggers and yellow spot travellys. We had a blast landing these for an hour before calling it a day. Charles fell in love with light jigging and will try more often to tear himself away from the uluas to catch some "monster trumpets!"
That night, We capped off the trip with a nice BBQ with Charles and his family.
Ray and I had such an awesome time! Big thanks to Charles for all the hospitality!
Hawaii is such a great place, I will definately go back to explore more of what it has to offer.
I have some nice footage from the trip and should have a video up shortly.
Tackle used:
Rods: Saltywater Tackle Race Point 150, 200 & 250, El Maestro
Lures: Carpenter, GT Fight Club, Moutoukenmaru, Craft Bait, Siren, Bertox
Reels: Shimano Stellas
Beautiful Waikiki
Did some hiking, which is great in Hawaii because you are rewarded with stunning vistas...
A lot of great Japanese food in Hawaii...
A visit to Pearl Harbor
Now to the fishing!
Ray lands the first GT of the trip with the RP 150 and Siren.
Im get a little warm up on a small GT
Some more early morning topwater fish...
Charles says its time to start using the Pandora, and he produces...
Charles doing work on his custom RP 150
Ray gets in on the Pandora act...
Charles' Pandora gets inhaled on topwater and he lands a nice GT!
A short time later I get my first GT on a Pandora. Nice size too!
End the first day with a nice sunset.
As you can see the second day was choppy, but we landed some fish!
Charles gets the last GT of the trip, and the 30th of the week for his boat. Nice work!
Charles says "ma halo" to the fish and sends it home. The GT Fight Club guys are doing a lot to promote catch and release among Hawaiian anglers.
We finish the day with some light jigging in calmer waters.
The house Ray and I stayed at had bananas growing in the back. Thankfully that did not give us any bad luck.
Finish with a BBQ at Charles'. What a great trip. Thanks Charles!
