Hunter is a 6th grader and fishes as often as he can.  I fished with him and his middle school crew last year, which turned out to be my last halalu outing for the year.  Here’s how we did.

Hunter wanted to share his truly exceptional catch from shore – big pao’pao, or golden trevally he caught a week before Christmas.  Thanks Hunter!

Hunter:
I was fishing in Kaneohe Bay with my Grandpa and my Uncle Dean, when my uncle’s pole went off. It was peeling line off the real really fast, and caught us off guard. We were fishing for Pualu, and it was evident that this was not a Pualu. Uncle Dean told me to start reeling in the pole, so I started to reel it in. I kept thinking throughout the fight that it was a stingray or a shark, but after five minutes, it came to the surface and felt a lot lighter and started moving around more. A little while later, it came close to us and we saw the signature golden flash of a big Pao’pao.

At this time, I was pretty exhausted and handed the pole over to my uncle to finish the job. It took a little bit of skill to get it up to us, but Uncle Al came and netted it for us.

When we got home, we weighed it and it weighed five pounds and 10 ounces. My parents were delighted to have a Pao’pao. We ate some as sashimi, and then cooked the rest. Too bad I couldn’t have caught it later for Christmas!