First fishing trip in my S4

By Terry Wilkison

Hawaii

Was able to go fishing today. Left the house at 4 and was out in the water before first light. I made my way from the west side of the island out to a point that I’m very familiar with and a good first fishing run as I’m getting my routine together and used to the new setup. On top of a new boat I’m changing my fishing style from trolling to catching and using live bait. We get large mackerel scad locally called “opelu” which I have never fished for before so it was all new to me.

I installed a Garmin 64cv and boy I’m glad I did. Not only was it great for marking bait I could see the depth of my damishi used to catch them.

I was able to get 4 of them which isn’t bad for my first try (figuring out what colors and hook size). They are large bait, nearly a foot and fight hard while having a fragile mouth…. I bridled up the first one and 5 minutes later I noticed he was running along the surface which I thought odd, all of the sudden the water exploded and I saw the flash of a big ono (similar to king mackerel) my reel started screaming and the drag froze on the run….. ugh!!! That got my heart going. I had 2 more bite offs (using wire) and caught the cuda fly lining a piece of opelu that got sliced in half, there were 3 cuda taking turns with it. Right when he picked it up 3 mahi swam right by, if id just had waited a minute! The water clarity was about 80 feet so I could see straight below the boat for the action.

Also had a humpback come by and check out the S4, he gave me quite a show with a couple large tail slaps before making his way up the coast.

It was a choppy confused sea today. There was a large north and a northwest ground swell of medium period that rolled by like hills, the south wind started driving a 1 to 2 foot chop on top directly opposing that made it snotty. I didn’t win any speed records but cruised along at a leisurely 6 knots and riding it comfortably on the saddle seat. The boat did terrific, and the stability and safety I felt with it were great.
Catching bait, fighting fish, messing with the fishfinder and re tying cut off lines, I never had to worry about stability. Looking forward to next weekend! Getting my go pro mounted this week is a high priority!

More offshore fishing with Terry »