I am in Kona with the family for this years Christmas, from my family to yours.  Merry Christmas and a happy new year!  I'll be getting some time on the Nai'a (Rybo) this week.  They boys just spent 6 weeks of hard work on Nai'a, mostly doing her varnish work, she looks as perfect and to museum quality as a boat can look.  Beautiful classic machine!   The fishing actually has been pretty good for December, some blues have been caught along with some Yellowfins under the mammals.  We went out for a half day on Christmas eve day, we are fishing ultra light and light tackle to bait and switch spearfish and blue marlin.  Trolling 3 teasers with bait rigged from 4lb to 16lb tackle, depending on what class fish raises behind the boat, Randy will shout out which rod for me to drop back to maximize the tackle.  And who knows, we might get lucky and break a world record.  I got my first Spearfish on ultra light tackle today, a 30 lb class Spearfish that switched perfectly in the pattern on 4lb gear.  Nai'a was true to her pedigree as she spun and maneuvered perfectly with Randy spooling up the twin turbos in reverse, even in calm seas--I got soaked with the sea coming over the transom due to the pure speed in reverse.  We got the leader in less than 10 minutes, what a blast! 

I'll be updating this post as I fish the days here, since there are only 3 of us on the boat, the pictures will be lacking on action shots.  The other problem with this type of fishing in Kona Grander waters is...if the fat lady shows up, better act fast and get a 130 with a rigged bait back there before she loses interest.  In Kona, granders are caught year round, so that's always the risk when fishing light tackle.  Randy has dozens of stories of monsters hooked on lighter tackle.  Some of them were close to being caught after long battles..

Christmas morning in Kona.


Notice the pheasant walking across the driveway

Not exactly a white Christmas here in Hawaii.  The sky and the sea are the same shade of blue in the early mornings


Well, we all get reminded of why it's called "fishing" and not "catching".  After we got the Spearfish on day 1, the next 3 days were pretty slow.  We raised one more Spearfish that did not switch in the pattern, the weather was great with calm seas.  The fleet was catching a few blues each day with some at 500lbs, but those are few.  I've decided to take a couple of days off and take the family to the Hilo Zoo (by the way, it's a great zoo that's free), but it rained all day once we go there.  So...we decided to drive up to see some snow in the tropics by drivng up to Mauna Kea another day, there has been a lot of snow up there.  Well, we got to the visitors center just to find the roads leading to the higher elevation is closed.  Ok, maybe this Kona trip was not one of our best, we ate at LAX on the way here and all got food poisening for 3 days coming out of both ends.  Stay away from California Pizza Kitchen in LAX unless you want forced weight loss for the next 3 to 4 days.

Happy new year everyone.


Fishing in the rain, it has been raining almost daily.  December is usually dry.

OB rigging baits.  Look at the beautiful wood.  Randy and OB just finished up several weeks of wood and varnich work.  Since we were such in a hurry when the boat was getting a complete re-fit in the Rybo yard at Florida, the varnish was rushed and was thin.  The boys got to work and this is the results.  This boat is almost a work of art!

Snow on Mauna Kea.  Almost 14k feet above sea level.  Both Kea and Loa had snow.