Wales Tourism and Visit Planning

Fishing Hawaii on a Budget (Don't Use)

Author: Rick Gaffney
Hawaii and blue marlin: synonymous terms in the world of offshore sport fishing. Indeed, anglers battle big billfish in Hawaiian waters every month of the year. And in 1996, the season began with an unprecedented number of blue marlin caught, and that level of action held through most of the year. In September alone, anglers fishing out of just one harbor in Kona caught nearly 200 billfish as well as many other game fish (including tuna over 200 pounds).

Holiday In Wales But the hunt for 1,000-pound blue marlin in the blue depths of the Pacific Ocean too often seems a rich man's game. And often, it is. However, if you think there's no such thing as bargain fishing for big game, you don't know Hawaii. Speaking from a lifetime of experience, I can tell you that if you can afford to get to Hawaii, you can afford to fish here. In fact, Hawaii offers some of the greatest bargains in the world of sport fishing.

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Holiday Wales Hawaii's dependence on tourism has created a vacation paradise with everything from five-star hotels to family-size condominiums and quaint bed-and-breakfast accommodations. Along with an abundance of facilities, competition has kept prices of air and ground transportation and the plethora of restaurants very competitive. The same is true of the burgeoning ocean recreation activities industry - including sport fishing.

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Cottage Holiday In Wales Another advantage these islands offer over many of the world's most outstanding offshore fishing destinations: a variety of interests and attractions. Beyond the lure of fishing, Hawaii also features some of the world's best golf courses, celebrated resorts, a live volcano with molten lava you can watch flow into the sea, tropical rain forests, water falls, gorgeous beaches and more. That means family/friends who don't fish still love to visit Hawaii, which can't be said about many other great fishing locations.

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Caravan Holiday In Wales The Price Is Right

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Camping Holiday Wales Options for fishing in Hawaii range from casual shoreline casting - or "whipping," as Hawaiians call it - to trolling offshore for billfish that can certainly exceed 1,000 pounds in weight. In fact, grander marlin have been caught in Hawaii in virtually every month of the year. Hawaii is a rarity in the fishing world since anglers here hook blue marlin day in, day out nearly year-round. And most of the islands' charter fleets have another advantage: proximity. They waste little precious time getting you to the fishing grounds since they start almost immediately offshore, thanks to the precipitous depths without any continental shelf surrounding the Hawaiian Islands.

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Accommodation Holiday Wales But best of all is how reasonably you can fish Hawaii. For example, where else in the world could you expect to fish aboard a state-of-the-art, 42 Merritt like the Huntress, out of Kona, that caught the second-largest billfish ever taken on rod and reel for just $650 a day for as many as six people?

Holiday Last Minute Wales For a boat of this caliber in most big-game fishing destinations, you could expect to pay $1,200 or more for a day offshore. But that rate is near the top end of the Hawaii charter-boat price structure. Rates as low as $58 per person per day to fish big game offshore can be found in Hawaii nearly any day, though rates do differ island by island.

Catering Holiday Self Wales And every island that offers visitors accommodations also offers both offshore and shoreline fishing. That includes the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Oahu and Kauai.

Holiday Wales Walking Time It Right - for Bargains and Fish

Family Holiday Wales Look for the best bargain rates during periods when tourism tends to be slowest in the islands. Avoid holiday periods and the winter peak from Christmas to Easter if you want the best rates for most accommodations, transportation and activities in Hawaii.

Holiday Riding Wales Although fishing can be great all year, for bargains the best window of all may be right after Labor Day until about mid-October. The weather's usually flawless, rates have dropped, everyone's gone back to work or school, and the fish are generally snapping across the island chain. March through June offers another period when fishing can be excellent and better rates can often be negotiated.

Adventure Holiday Wales Pacific blue marlin and other billfish are caught throughout the year in Hawaiian waters, as are game fish such as mahimahi, wahoo and several species of tuna. But you'll find the best fishing during certain peak seasons. Fortunately, for the bargain traveler, those fishing peaks also occur when hotel, rental car and some fishing charter rates are lower (or at least negotiable).

Holiday Park South Wales Schools of tuna generally start to mass in Hawaii in early March, congregating billfish and other game fish, and fishing remains dependable usually into October, though in recent years it's stayed good right though the winter and into the new year. In fact, 1996 started off with the kind of extraordinary billfish catches that generally only happen in the summer peak months of June through August. Yet many skippers were dying to find charters, and some could be convinced to take a pittance, just to get out into the action.

Cottage Holiday Wales Hawaiian charter fishing boats - mostly "six pack" vessels - don't carry masses of humanity like the party or head boats found in most other U.S. coastal fishing areas. Chartering options include trips of a full (eight-hour) day in length as well as three-quarter (six-hour) and half-day (four-hour) trips. These may be "exclusive" charters, where the entire boat is yours to fill up to its six-passenger capacity as you see fit, or "share" charters, where you pay for a "share" of the vessel with others, generally booked by the agency or charter desk.

Holiday In Wales Exclusive charters allow you to fish pretty much as you please, and are generally more satisfactory to serious game fishermen, or to groups of friends and families. Share charters allow individuals to experience fishing in Hawaii for less money, but can lead to dissatisfaction if "the other guy" is the only one to catch a fish.

Holiday Wales Kona: Calm, Close and Affordable

Cottage Holiday In Wales Offshore fishing at the lowest rates will be found where the fleet is largest, the competition keeping prices to a minimum. That means Kona on the island of Hawaii, where nearly three-quarters of the state's charter fishing fleet berths.

Caravan Holiday In Wales Kona fishing not only promises some of the best prices in the world, but some of the most famous fishing grounds as well. Numerous world records, nearly 50 marlin over 1,000 pounds in weight, and a number of international tournament competitions attract anglers from all over the world to the Kona coast of

Camping Holiday Wales The island of Hawaii every year.

Accommodation Holiday Wales Top charter boats can be booked exclusively for as little as $400 a day. With big game fish (including the all-tackle record for Pacific blue marlin) regularly caught just a few yards from the Honokohau Harbor entrance buoy, Kona also offers the advantage of almost no time lost in transit to the fishing grounds.

Holiday Last Minute Wales And there's more: Kona also promises the calmest game-fishing waters in the state (and much of the world), thanks to the protection of the largest island in the Hawaiian chain with two 13,000-foot volcanoes.

Catering Holiday Self Wales Maui: A Longer Run Costs More

Holiday Wales Walking Just north and west of the island of Hawaii is the "Valley Isle" of Maui, which attracts about a third of the six million visitors to the state each year. Sport-fishing charters depart daily from both Maalaea and Lahaina harbors, the former located closer to the resort areas of Kihei and Wailea, the latter closer to Kaanapali and Kapalua.

Family Holiday Wales Much of the attraction for Maui visitors lies more in the plethora of activities available on land than the quality of its sport fishery, though great game fish are caught off Maui. And it was a charter boat based in Lahaina (the Hinatea), not Kona, that became the first in the state to tag and release over 100 billfish in a year.

Holiday Riding Wales Many fishermen also appreciate the interisland nature of Maui sport fishing since Maui boats generally cross channels to fish around the islands of Kahoolawe, Lanai and Molokai. The scenic tour is all part of the package.

Adventure Holiday Wales Maui charter rates are generally higher than most other areas ($140 a person), in part because of the longer runs - typically still just 8 to 12 miles - generally required to get to productive fishing grounds.

Holiday Park South Wales Molokai and Lanai: Small Packages With Good Fishing

Cottage Holiday Wales Although small islands with far more modest tourist infrastructure and limited numbers of sport-fishing boats, both Molokai and Lanai boast nearshore and offshore fishing. In fact, the quality of the fisheries off both islands is generally excellent.

Holiday In Wales Visitors staying at any of the three hotels on Lanai can book the 27-foot charter boat Spinning Dolphin for light tackle and nearshore fishing. Or they can book one of the Maui-based charter fishing boats from across the channel that many cross anyway to access the excellent grounds just offshore, south and west of the tiny island that was until recently the world's largest pineapple plantation. For these trips, expect to pay $600 for a full day and $400 for a half-day (but reservations must be made in advance so permits can be obtained).

Holiday Wales The "Friendly Isle" of Molokai also offers just one charter fishing boat at present, but Capt. Joe Reich and his 30-foot Alyce C regularly produce great big-game catches - and, at $350 for a three-quarter day of fishing, do so at one of the best bargain charter rates in the state. Anglers take smaller game fish such as wahoo or mahimahi within minutes of leaving Kaunakakai Harbor, while larger billfish and yellowfin tuna abound in the deep Kaiwi Channel that separates Molokai from the bustling island of Oahu about 20 miles away.

Cottage Holiday In Wales Honolulu: Fishing and Lots More

Caravan Holiday In Wales The island of Oahu includes not only the state's capital city of Honolulu, but Pearl Harbor, Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head and famed surfing spots. It's also the port which weighed in the largest marlin ever caught on rod and reel, an 1,805-pound monster blue caught in 1970 and fought by several anglers (disqualifying it as an IGFA record). Fishermen can charter boats from Kewalo Basin (nearest Waikiki) as well as Waianae, Haleiwa and Heeia Kea harbors.

Camping Holiday Wales Oahu charter rates vary according to home port and size, but $500 and up is typical for a full day of fishing. The Kewalo Basin-based boats generally have the farthest to run to reach productive fishing grounds, but some offer additional amenities like hotel pickups. Oahu, often described as "the gathering place," generally offers more to do and better prices for food and lodging than any other island in the 50th state, if you don't mind the urban bustle of Hawaii's most populous island.

Accommodation Holiday Wales Kauai: Productive but Pricier

Holiday Last Minute Wales The oldest island in the main Hawaiian island chain, Kauai is commonly described as "the Garden Island" because of the rainfall that produces so much lush greenery. Kauai sees the first of the state's annual yellowfin tuna run each spring and the promise of good fishing is made by those vessels berthed at Nawiliwili, near the capital of Lihue and at Port Allen, closer to the resort area at Poipu.

Catering Holiday Self Wales Kauai's fishing starts immediately offshore; a run across the channel to fish around the island of Niihau can be productive, but the small island offers little lee when island waters are boisterous. Charter rates can be comparatively steep on Kauai, with boats running $650 to as much as $800 a day.

Holiday Wales Walking Other Fishing Options

Family Holiday Wales Other Hawaii options for anglers include overnight charters/mother ships, where you live aboard in luxury and fish longer hours in the top locations for two days or more, and specialty fishing (bottom fishing, fly fishing, nearshore reef fishing), typically from small charter boats.

Holiday Riding Wales Inexpensive sunset fishing charters are available on an exclusive basis for as little as $150 in Kona on the Reel Action. These evening charters will get fishermen with limited time and/or money offshore at a time of day when fishing is generally good, fishing pressure's generally light, and the scenery - such as a Kona sunset viewed from offshore - spectacular.

Adventure Holiday Wales Together, Hawaii's islands provide the fourth-longest coastline of any state in the country, with the majority of it accessible to anglers. So, an option to supplement offshore charters: Bring your own tackle to fish the shoreline.

Holiday Park South Wales Many anglers find some of the best fun fishing right in front of their hotel, but you can check with local tackle stores (in the yellow pages) for latest tackle/bait info, or you can go on-line before you leave and request e-help from Hawaii fishing Web sites.

Cottage Holiday Wales For fishing Hawaii's shorelines, try spinning gear with 8- to 20-pound line. Cast Pencil Poppers, Kastmasters and Hopkins spoons or lead-head jigs dressed with Boone Touts and Scrounger tails in black and clear/sparkle. Your rewards may include a variety of jacks (trevally), goatfish, wrasse, snapper, Pacific barracuda and other species.

Holiday In Wales The only shoreline guide currently available in Hawaii is Walter Naki on Molokai.

Holiday Wales Hawaii offers enough budget-massaging prices on everything from hotel accommodations to sport-fishing charters, so anyone heading across the pond to the nation's only island state need not question whether they can afford to fish here.

Cottage Holiday In Wales Rick Gaffney, a newly appointed IGFA representative, is a lifetime resident of Hawaii who has been fishing island waters for 40 years. He is a USCG licensed charter-boat captain who retired from daily fishing charters to concentrate on writing about and photographing the great sport-fishing destinations of the world, including the one right outside his office window in Kona, Hawaii.

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