HOOKING THE HAGATSU:(Striped Bonito)

It was 6:00pm and the waters in Hilo Bay was relatively calm. We were on my 19-foot Olympic boat called the Yokomaru and it was a perfect evening. The anchor was out and my daughter; Stefanie Sakamoto and I were situated between the two green buoys in the bay and in about 50-feet of water. Previously, as we were cruising out, we could see "nervous", or "jittery" water between the buoys which either meant opelu(mackerel), akule (big eyed scad) or the hagatsu (striped bonito) were feeding and driving up schools of nehu and iao to the surface. So the outlook for that night looked good.

In minutes we had four ultra-light spinning rods rigged up, baited with shrimp and down about two-thirds of the way from the bottom. We sat back and started to eat our dinner when the first rod heaved over like it was going to break in the rod holder. The small Penn 4200SS spinning reel’s drag screamed, but Stef was on it and soon holding on for dear life. Whatever had taken the bait wasn’t in the mood to do any preliminary nibbling...it just grabbed the bait and ran straight for the open ocean. Soon the run stopped and Stef fought the fish back to the boat before it screamed off in another determined run. This fish was stronger than an akule or opelu and the fight wasn’t over yet. The fish would stop and in seconds run again, but this time they were shorter but still dogged.

After about 6-7 strong runs Stef worked the fish close. I looked over the side and into the greenish water and could see some slight shining of the fish. A couple more cranks & lifts and the fish was up on the surface and thrashing about. I reached down and grabbed the leader and lifted the fish up and on to the deck. About 2-3 pounds; it was a striped bonito, (sarda orientalis) or as the local Japanese would call it...hagatsu. Looking very much like a dogged-tooth tuna because of all the long and sharp teeth in its mouth, it has caused its share of confusion at the local tackle shops. Some anglers also thought the bonito was a kawakawa cause of the seven, dark, longitudinal, black stripes on the back, but the hagatsu doesn’t have any black spots on the belly like the kawakawa. Claimed to reach up to 30 inches, the majority of them in Hilo Bay were 2-3 pounds in size. Distribution is world-wide in warm waters, and they seem to really like Hilo Bay.

A powerful fish when taken on ultra-light to light spinning tackle, the hagatsu lived in big schools and migrated in and out of Hilo bay for months and months. We would strip and dry many of them and they were great eaten that way or simply fried. A little too soft for sashimi, or poki, it proved to be best cooked and eaten with a hot bowl of rice and some takuan.

The leader system we were using was a simple but effective one, and one that I’d used for years. It consisted of a small half-ounce egg sinker, a swivel, phfluocarbon line about 20" long and a small number eleven Maruto MZ hook. The mainline is pushed through the hole in the egg sinker and then tied to a small barrel swivel. To the barrel swivel is connected the six pound test fluorocarbon leader and then to the hook.

Once the hook is baited it simply lowered straight down from the boat to the bottom some 50 feet below. Once the lead hit the bottom the reel is engaged and the lead is cranked up two to four cranks. Then Stefanie simply held on to the rod or placed it in the rod holder.

As for the bait or baits we’d be using, it varied from bits of shrimp, chunks of opelu, strips of cuttle fish to strips of aku belly. All worked, but the strip of aku belly worked the best and the striped bonito seemed to be unable to resist it.

But the cheaper bait; cuttlefish worked too. I had striped it the night before and then put all the strips in a small discarded butter container. Then I tossed in a big handful of rock salt and let it sit in the frig. In the morning, I poured out the fluid that had accumulated on the bottom of the container and it was ready. The salt would help preserve the strips of cuttlefish and make it leather-tough.

The opelu could also be salted like the cuttlefish and made tough and more effective. But it was tougher to get although it was probably the best bait of all.

Some other fishermen slow trolled just outside of Hilo Bay for the hagatsu during the day and proved to be most successful and made for a fun day. Small, plastic, glitter-strips...curly tails, or small feathered streamers worked on the bonito, but swimming lures like the crystal minnows proved to be deadly when the school was hunting and on the prowl for the small nehu.

As the evening fell, the bite continued and we were very busy fighting fish, rebaiting and trying to keep all the lines out and in the strke zone. This proved to be good in that we kept getting fish on but many times the radical fight of the hagatsu caused lines to be tangled.

So leaders had to be retied as soon as possible to stay in the battle and that too kept us busy. Sometimes we’d get multiple strikes and it was like a Chinese fire-drill, and at times the bite died down completely and we used the time to straighten up the boat, ice down the fish in the ice chest and grab a soda or a drink of water.

Then the school of hagatsu would come roaring by and take all the baits hanging below the boat. It was pandomonium and every man for himself, but most of all it was just pure fun.

Story, Art and Photography by Mike Sakamoto