Mat Bowman on one of last duck hunting days before he heads back to Kona. We are looking forward to Mat coming back to help out this season again. We are fixing to get busy soon so I think his timing is right on track.
Archive for the ‘Kona Fishing’ Category
Mat Bowman Due Back
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012Andre get the biggest of 2011
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
An
Noklby’s almost get one
Friday, December 30th, 2011Tday Chip Van Mols and I took out the Noklby Family for a day fishing on the 40 foot Gamefisherman. We had a long day of trolling until we saw a really nice fish come to the short bait. It came up all over the lure and didn’t bite. It looked well over 500 but it was hard to tell how much over it was. Big bill and big dorsal all over the lure. We waited for a bit and nothing. We turned around on the fish and and I never could raise the fish again. We worked the area outside the grounds for awhile with no action. As our day came close to an end we trolled back south to the harbor where we had a fish about 300 blow up on the long corner. We had about 300 yards of line out at one point and got it all back after 40 jumps. It seemed the fish was ours at that point it simply came with no trouble when the hook pulled. Great afternoon and had one close but it came 3 minutes away from getting a tag in it. I guess we got the best part of that one.
My Apologies
Friday, December 30th, 2011I apologize for my posts being late this season. It has been a great year with a ton of good action. We have been in the field so much working that it has been really hard to get in the office. I have been hoping to have the trips and stay busy fishing and hunting and thanks to all of you we have. The problem with this is it is hard to post. My New Years resolution is to post on time and be better at keeping up. For those of you who follow our website regularly I apologize to you for the spotty posting. The news is all there it is just a little late. If you don’t hear from me for awhile you know that we are busy in the field or at sea. This is a good thing!! With good luck we will have a bunch more catches and hunts to share with you. Aloha Kev
Boat Work Begins- Let It Shine
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
Boat Work Begins- Ready for Stain
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Here you see the wood stripped and some of the stain applied. It felt good to get to this stage. Once the stain goes on it is down hill from here. We use a filler stain that stains the mahogany and helps fill the grain. It is nice to get a good uniform color throughout the boat. I like when the wood matches.It looks newer and richer. When there are different colors throughout the boat due to stripping at different stages it is hard to get the uniform look. I like the mahogany and the stain for that reason. Teak is strong and holds up better to the abuse and raw new teak varnished is so beautiful. The challenge for me with teak is keeping everything uniform as the sun bleaches it blond. To keep the teak looking rich many times you have to sand the blond colored wood off the top to get to the rich wood below. This means taking a bunch of meat off of the wood to get there. The patches are harder on teak and you don’t have the stain to help match color when you have an accident and put a ding in the wood. The oils in the teak and the hard body don’t allow for even staining.One of the tricks that has been painful to learn after all these years of varnishing the boat is to sand down to 400 grit before any stain even goes on the stripped bare wood. It is so tempting late in the day after getting it down to 220grit that you just want to get the stain on. From what I have learned it is better to get the wood so smooth it is almost polished smooth before the stain goes on. The reason is that the coats of varnish to follow are fewer and it saves a ton of work later filling in the grain with varnish. With what we do with the staining if you have some stray sanding marks from stripping this sanding helps get rid of the last ones. At the 400 grit stage the grain is way less and mostly filled in by the stain. Many of my mentors and most captains of today feel the varnish is foolish and a movement towards painting the wood out is becoming the norm. At times I agree when a careless guest puts a big ding in it,but after working hard all week and it is shining in the sun it is beautiful and really makes the boat pop. It represents our commitment to our job.When we fish on custom boats with beautiful wood that is taken care of it just feels good. The custom boats of the vintage age all had varnished toenails and cab arounds at the least, so we like to try to carry on the tradition by keeping our wood varnished. As busy as we get there is time to get it done it just takes hard work to keep up with it. Next we put on the varnish and make it shine.
Boat Work Begins-Stripping Varnish
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
A Halloween Birthday
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011The Bergstedt family fished with us today on Halloween. It was Sharon’s birthday and we had a good day at sea to celebrate. We trolled down to the dolphins and fished the tuna stick most of the day. It was poor timing for the traffic. There were a lot of boats there which made it more difficult to fish. After lunch the tuna came up all over the surface of the water. I was able to get a few shots as they slowly cruised around on the surface eating little fish off of the top. They are such a nice family and did so well on the boat because the fish were there and the boats left we stayed late and got one to bite. Great finish to a long day of watching 
tuna.
Day 5 and 6 of Spearfish Impossible
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011We had a nice couple of days of fishing focused on our goal. A spearfish. By this time word had spread of our quest. Everyone in the fleet was helping us try to find one but they weren’t to be found. At 2:30 in the afternoon on our last day we hooked another nice Blue Marlin. It was over 600 pounds and jumped all over the ocean. We got 40 jumps out of her before she settled down. We got tight on the belly that collapsed after a 10 minute chase and it appeared the fish was tired and we would get an early shot. We just started gaining on the tight line and the hook pulled. After all of that jumping, unreal. After day 6 Sandra decided to keep traveling in search for a couple of the other billfish she needed.We wish her all the best in her quest for all nine billfish.Perhaps we can try again when they show up in better numbers this winter. Thanks to Brain Balancio, Boyd Decoito, and Chip Van Mols for helping me with Spearfish Impossible I know we gave it all we had and caught some nice blues on the way.
Day 4 Spearfish Impossible
Monday, November 7th, 2011
We hunted and hunted for spears and found that they really are rare billfish especially in Oct. It was a tough thing to do but we kept fishing hoping for the luck that Sandra has in fishing. She has caught a lifetime of billfish in a short time. Her accomplishment over the last 35 days fishing was unbelievable. Many of the billfish she caught in her quest were caught out of season. We kept hoping that her luck would continue for the spearfish. Her fishing luck proved to come through for her today on a really nice blue. I marked the fish shallow and we watched to see if it would come up. The fish did exploding on the short bait. We missed it and it went and ate the long corner. Chip Van Mols got the lines clear in time to release the fish in about 15 minutes. Chip had a good pull on the leader and did a great job. We got photos and released the fish at 600 pounds. My camera card got full and I didn’t get the greatest shots but got these before it tapped out. It really bummed me out that such a large card got so full so fast.
