With the air and water temps now approaching Hawaii-like conditions, the season at Midway is good, and getting better all the time. There are still some available slots and Midway is a short flight from Honolulu, so there's still time to plan a summer or fall trip.

Lagoon/Inshore action

The notable exception to the slower Ulua bite early on was made right off the bat by "Bigboy" (aka Paul Dozier), the new captain of the 38 Bertram "Enterprise." Kona legend Lincoln Ahlo could not return this year to skipper and is missed by all, but Bigboy started off right with a group of Japanese magazine writers, tagging 3, 4 and 5 GT's each day they fished.  The anglers left several broken rods but took home aching arms and big smiles. Paul's biggest fish for the group was around 5 pounds short of "Kong" status, (100 pounds and up) but GT fishing on the big boats is tougher than on the smaller boats because fighting such a fish on stand-up gear requires a great deal of maneuverability. By comparison, landing a 100 pound tuna is considerably easier than landing a 100 pound GT, and the smaller Glacier Bay 22's even the score a bit.

Freebird (aka Capt. Mike Crozier) is now running the 26' Glacier Bay, "Atlanta," moving up from the 22' "Astoria". Mike knows how to find and outwit GT's in shallow water, driving the boat for last year's now official IGFA 6 pound-class world record Ulua of 44 pounds 9 oz, which was landed in 13 minutes and released alive. His group of anglers from Cape Cod (sent to Midway via Destination: PACIFIC) just last week landed the season record Ulua of 53 inches, a "kong" of 115-120 pounds. Earlier they captured the pending IGFA all tackle record barred jack, an exactly five pound fish, which surpassed a fish of 4.1 pounds caught just 4 hours previous. The new records are pending with IGFA, and both of these fish slaughtered the previous mark of 2lb 5oz. Both were also released in the inner harbor and darted away.

Since the avid anglers from Cape Cod (owners of the first class fly fishing shop "The Hook-up") already had one record, they asked Mike to tag and release the monster Ulua on the reef and not take the chance the fish would not make it. The 50, 80, and 130 line class records are 119, 145 and 116 lbs, respectively, so this BIG ULUA (remember this for the phone number) could have broken one or two of these marks.

The new fly fishing pro here is from Key West, and driving the Glacier Bay 22 "Astoria" quite well. Capt. Arron lead his anglers to a unheard of GT landing on a 9 weight fly rod in late May, and has nearly a dozen GT's tagged in just three weeks on conventional gear. Arron was the last captain to arrive and with him the GT's were now appearing and commanding front and center attention.

Capt. William "Bamboo" McCue, the captain who last September led Destination: Pacific's Mike House to three Ulua at or over 100 pounds in one day, has returned to drive the Glacier Bay 22 "Portland" again, and has the raised the Ulua hook-up to landing ratio to nearly 80% on his boat with careful coaching and patience. Everyone on the boat works as a team and when a big GT is cruising the area, the practice and teamwork pays off.  Several ladies in their 60's have landed fish over 80 pounds on 50 pound stand-up gear this year on the "Portland". Three pending IGFA records have been submitted while fishing with Bamboo, including a Hawaiian Grouper caught on a diamond jig, a 25lb 14 oz specimen. The current record is also a Midway fish, tipping the scales at 23 plus pounds.

It is important to note that Midway does remain oriented toward conservation. Freebird's Barred Jack and all three of Bamboo's record fish have been kept carefully kept alive throughout the required photo's and weighing to qualify for IGFA consideration, and been released inside the inner harbor. Including last year's GT, five of the last six records between Freebird and Bamboo have not had to be killed for the books, something done nowhere else on the planet.

Offshore Action

Captain Chris Sheeder returns again to skipper the "Yorktown", after a winter at Costa Rica's Crocodile Bay where he honed his billfishing skills on the numerous Pacific Sails there. He's got a good joke and a good idea where the fish are everyday, this being his 4th season. The offshore action this year for Ono (Wahoo) has been very good so far, with many days of double digit numbers. Yellowfin are come and go thus far because the water temperature hasn't quite stabilized in the mid-70's and above offshore, but when they have come, they come in force. Trips to Kure atoll have been very productive for the tuna and anglers have headed that way whenever the weather cooperates enough to make the trip.

Billfishing has been a little slow so far this year, with just a couple of Blue Marlin being tagged and released. Sea temperature has been the main reason, and as the season moves forward, we expect to see excellent numbers. One specimen caught was a 325 pounder caught by a California group that also spends a great deal of time fishing in Southern Baja. This group, proclaiming Midway to be one of the best great fisheries, has already begun planning their return trip for 2002 with Destination: PACIFIC.

Shore Fishing

The shore fishing is just phenomenal so far this year - the area on the North Side of the island known as Rusty Bucket boasts all the Moi (a bonefish lookalike) an angler can catch, which is a blast on 4 and 6 pound test. Also Amberjacks and GT's cruise the area looking for Akule (small schooling mackerel) to snack on. If one is not careful, one of the Moi or Akule will become just another mouthful for them - great fun but certainly not encouraged here unless anglers have adequate preparation and understanding of what this is like!!

Bluefin trevally (Omilu) can be found around the East harbor breakwater, and of course the local favorite on the South Shore, Bulky Dump, can be loaded at times with everything. The Cargo Pier is a super fishing and diving site because it holds so many fish, but as Boss Hawg (fishing manager Bill Boagey) says in his deadpanned voice, "don't come to a gun fight with a rubba knife."

To give an idea of catching large fish under the cargo pier is like, last year a group of anglers from the Hawaii Fishing News pulled a few big fish with lots of flashlights and teamwork. They made a wall of light between the fish and legs of the pier and then sent the angler hustling down to the sandy beach or old seaplane ramp close by to land the fish. The fish doesn't want to go through the wall of light, so without this technique landing big GT's and Amberjack is pretty difficult, if not impossible!!

GT's are not the only fish cruising the reefs this season so far - Midway holds Amberjack, Butaguchi (thick lipped trevally), Lai (leatherback jack), Goldenspot Trevally, Bluefin Trevally (Omilu), Barred Jacks, Uku (aka Highway, Jobfish or Grey Snapper), and numerous Wrasses. And of course, no report would be complete without mention of the Tiger Sharks, which congregate in Midway Atoll to feed on the thousands of the Laysan Albatross chicks learning to fly. Over half a dozen Tiger sightings have been reported already, with many, many more to come. Off Eastern Island, an estimated 300 pound Hammerhead spent two hours on the surface mixed with dozens of reef sharks, GT's, Amberjacks and Uku for a day, a rare treat for those that spotted it.

RECAP:

Here's the fish to beat for the 2001 season as of early June: