You Will Not Find a Fiberglass Marlin in Honokohau Harbor

Captain Chuck offers deep sea fishing on Fire Hatt.

When we decided to go fishing in Hawaii, I did not think about a fiberglass marlin. I thought it would be a quiet activity. The kind where you rent a private boat, go out to sea and sit with a rod, watching your bobber bop about in the waves. That’s fishing. Maybe you catch something, maybe you don’t. The fun is in watching the bobber in anticipation of snagging a fish. It’s a bonus to reel in a fish.

Probably the biggest fish I ever caught was in Maine. Bluefish. The summer of 1988. Couldn’t eat those fast enough. Some of those fish weighed 25 or 30 pounds. Once you got them into the boat — they were fighters — you had to club them over the head with a hammer to keep them from biting you or jumping back into the water. That was excitement.

But nothing compares to sportfishing in Kona, Hawaii. We could have caught a 500- to 900-pound marlin — that’s how big those fish are — or a huge ono or mahi-mahi. The reels are as big as your head. The lures are the size of bowling pins. This is a totally different league from the days of toting around my ice-fishing pole with a string and bucket of minnows. If you’ve ever noticed a fiberglass marlin in a restaurant, that’s a good replica of these fish.

Elizabeth gets strapped into the CHAIR to fish for marlin.

We rented the Fire Hatt, a 43-foot boat owned and operated by Captain Chuck Wilson out of Honokohau Harbor. Delightful guy retired from the fire department and who still teaches men and women of the fire department in Roseville, CA. His deck hand, Adam — an easy name to remember — was instructional and amusing to boot. Adam strapped me in the “chair” and showed me what to do when the reels “went off.”

No sooner did we troll about 2 miles out than, whammo — a bite! By all appearances, it was a 200-pound blue marlin! I began to envision the fish mounted on our family room wall, right over the sofa. That wall is long and bare. It’s the only spot in the house with nothing on the wall. Probably because it’s been waiting for a marlin to go over it. You think? My husband disagrees. But suddenly I am consumed by mental images of a big honkin’ marlin over our sofa. I can’t explain the urge.

Did you know that the fish you often see mounted on the wall in seafood restaurants — those marlins with the long bills — are not real? I did not. This is like finding out there is no Santa Claus. That wall mounted monstrosity is actually a fiberglass marlin. What sportspeople do is take the weight and measure the length of the fish they actually catch, and they give those dimensions to the place that manufacturers your custom marlin. Most people, unless the marlin’s tail is wrapped or otherwise damaged, those people throw the marlin back and buy a fiberglass replica! It’s the marlin catch-and-release practice.

So, there I was, imaging this gigantic work of art hanging on my wall in the family room when all of a sudden, the line went limp. Just like our ragdoll cat Jackson. All floppy like. The fish was gone. Just as well, I hear. Because it takes about 90 minutes to reel in a fish — gives you a good workout. But that would have been fun, nonetheless. As it was, we enjoyed yachting, shooting photos of dolphins, and hearing stories about Britney Spears when she was onboard, how Adam deems it a pleasure not a job to work as a deck hand (and I believe him — I feel the same way about being a Sacramento Realtor) and about Captain Chuck’s wife, the former rodeo queen. You can’t go wrong with Fire Hatt. I recommend the experience, whether or not you get that big marlin.

Still, I could get a big fiberglass marlin. Does not have to MY marlin. That’s the part that has my husband worried. I say I am just wondering about it. He says he knows how my brain works. First I develop a thought and the next thing he knows that thought has become a reality. I say he should be happy to be married to a woman who is able to conceive a great idea and then put that idea into action — because for many people, that is not an ability they possess. He is one lucky guy.

This blog was published elsewhere on this day in 2011 and is reprinted here while Elizabeth is celebrating New Year’s in Honolulu.