Fishing

From Tuesday July 31 2012
By Brian Carroll

Tuesday was a good day for me and the rest of the LAIP interns. First of all, those of us who are still in school got our first taste of being excused early to go to work!  On top of that we were relieved of our usual duties of gathering samples and recording data to learn how to fish from Hi'ilei. We were lucky to be taken fishing before having put in time restoring the fishpond by rebuilding the wall and cutting mangrove, but i have a feeling we will pay our dues soon enough.  She taught us to fish using bamboo poles and how to tie the necessary knots used to secure the line to the pole and the hook to the line.

Hi'ilei demonstrating how to tie a fishing line

After we selected our poles and practiced our knots with string, we tied our lines and hooks to the bamboo poles. We were ready to catch some fish!  Using scoop nets, we caught a bunch of baby shrimp and put them in a bucket to use as bait.  We cast our lines at an opening of the pond where water (and smaller fish) comes in and out with the tide.

Apparently I was out of luck because every time a fish went for my bait it got it without getting caught!! Sometimes you just cant catch any fish.  My fellow interns however were a different story catching as much fish as they pleased while i secretly tried to copy their techniques with no success.  Ty (who claims to have never caught a fish before that day) surprised everyone by catching anything she wanted with the flick of her wrist!

Ty (the fish whisperer) showing off her fresh catch

 After having my hook bitten off by a fish, I retired from fishing for the day and became the photographer.  Many fish were caught that day by the crew and I was there to record it all. Here are a few of the unlucky fish that fell victim to our new skills.

Lissa with her first (but not last) catch of the day

Ty caught this Kumu fish off of the break in the wall

Israel removing the hook from his catch

Having caught and released fish after fish, the group moved down to the break of the wall to pursue new prey.  Kaua, Israel, and Hi'ilei ventured off along the makeshift part of the wall which connects the bigger rock wall and were rewarded with as many fish as they could catch! The mountain range looked beautiful in the evening light as the day came to a close.

Kaua in his magic spot

Since we didn't have many functional poles left and having caught enough fish to feed a small family, we packed up and headed back to clean our gear and leave everything the way we found it.  Overall the day was a nice change from our usual duties (even though we have really just started) and we got to relax and learn some new things about the pond and fishing from Hi'ilei.  

Even though most of the fish were thrown back, some were not so lucky.

R.I.P