We spent about two weeks in Nuku Hiva, waiting for parts that never came. One thing I enjoy is going to the docks when the fishermen came in with their catches. There are no sportfishing boats working out of Taiohae Bay (cruisers have nicknamed it Rainy Bay), so I spent time with the commercial fishermen to see what they were catching, and how they were doing it. One day I asked Tony Yua if I could go out with him. Tony responded “no, I am a commercial fisherman”. I then said “look, I will give you $50 if you let me go with you, and I will act as your deck hand”. Tony’s wife Yvonne overheard the conversation, and told Tony to take me with him! I guess she figured the $50 would pay for the diesel fuel, if nothing else. Tony and Yvonne act as a team, with Tony catching the fish and Yvonne selling it to pensiones and private parties. They have a pretty good little business doing this. Tony is a Chinese/Tahitian with bright green eyes and Yvonne is full Marquesan from Nuka Hiva. So plans were made to fish in two days.
Tony’s boat was typical Marquesan……25’ long, about 8 ½’ wide, single Yanmar diesel, with a 700 quart cooler midships that you could walk all the way around when working a fish. The steering was done by a joy stick, in the very bow of the boat, and this is where Tony, his normal deck hand Dino, and myself would stay on the trip to the fishing grounds. Needless to say it was a rough 2 ½ hour ride to and from the fishing grounds. The concept of having steering way up in the front of the boat allows you to use the whole boat for fishing, but makes for a really hard ride for the crew.
Anyway, two days hence I jump into Mary Lee’s kayak at 3:45 AM, and hunted up Tony at his boat The waters between the Islands are pretty rough, with 5-8 ft seas the norm. Because of the rough ride and distance (about 30 miles), there were no other boats there! Tony does all his fishing with 300# handlines, on the troll. . The fishing grounds are a pinnacle (shallow shelf ) similar to Gordos Banks off San Jose Del Cabo in Baja, very rich with lots of yellow fin tuna and wahoo. We started trolling about 6:00AM, and about 15 minutes later we had our first strike. I was holding one of the handlines and felt the strike. My job was to yell “hook up”!, then get out of the way. Dino grabbed the line from me and started hauling in the fish hand over hand. Tony is in the bow screaming instructions to Dino in Chinese and Marquesan. When there was about 30 ft of line left Tony leapt to the back and took the line from Dino, the fish took off….it was amazing to see the line screaming out of Tony’s hands. He fought the fish back to the boat, and Dino handed him a club, and Tony whacked the fish until it was still, then yanked it into the boat…..all of this took about 1 ½ minutes! Tony turned to me and said “this is how we fish in the Marquesas. We don’t play the fish….this is a business….we get it into the boat”. The fish was a beautiful 70# Wahoo! Tony has been fishing for 40 years, and is proud of the way he handles the catch after it is in the boat. They immediately bleed the fish, then cover it in with ice in the 700 qt cooler in order to cool it down as quickly as possible. This guarantees a fresh product when they get back to the docks. Yvonne has many customers such as pensiones (B&Bs) who covet their fish for sashimi, etc.
After the first fish I am promoted to club holder…..I get to keep an eye on the club and hand it to Tony at the critical moment so he can dispatch the catch. No time can be lost because every second the fish is outside the boat just increases the probability the fish will be lost. During the next 2 ½ hours we caught 15 fish, 8 yellow fin tuna, and 7 large Wahoo. The smallest being a 50# yellow fin tuna, and the largest a tuna in the 75# class. At one point Tony was clubbing a large wahoo and the club (made of heavy ironwood) slipped out of Tony’s hands into the ocean. Tony started screaming at Dino, who promptly leapt overboard, dove down, and retrieved the club. All this was going on with a very large pissed off wahoo in the water next to the boat!
About 9:30 Tony said it is time to go home. His philosophy is that the fishing is best at first light until about 9:00AM. The fish are up close to the surface during this time and go deeper during bright sunlight. So this trip was about 5 hours of rough boat riding and 2 ½ hours of fishing. Tony said it is typical of his fishing days. The trip back I would call the “ride from hell”. Seas were about 6 feet and Tony was hitting crest to crest, meaning there was tremendous jarring with every wave we hit. Dino and I were holding on right behind Tony. About half way back my knees started to lose their flexibility and ability to absorb the pounding. I found myself getting knocked partially to the deck with each jarring wave hit, and not being able to get back up! Tony looked around and saw what was happening to me and said “you, get to the back of the boat!”, then turned around and continued pounding into the waves. I thought thank God! I crawled to the back and sat on top of the engine co ver. It was still a Nantucket sleigh ride because there was nothing to hold on to. But it was infinitely better than standing in the bow.
We got back to the dock and Yvonne had buyers lined up for all the fish. Tony gave me a huge chunk of Wahoo, which we enjoyed and shared with other cruising friends. Tony invited me to go fishing with him the next day (he said I brought him luck), but I told him I was too beat up to do it two days in a row! We did go fishing….this time for fun, two days later. This pinnacle we fished would be considered a world class fishing spot, except for its remoteness. It was a wonderful experience.
Mary Lee and I became good friends with Tony and Yvonne, and had them for dinner on Lardo, and they took us to dinner in town along with their gorgeous little 4 year old daughter “Ani”. Yvonne took Mary Lee and I on a tour of Nuku Hiva one day while Tony was out fishing. She is from Typee Bay, scene of Herman Melville’s 1842 classic book “Typee”. As it turned out her mother still owns a substantial portion of the land around the village there, and it seemed she was related to just about everyone in the village. When we left Nuka Hiva Yvonne brought us a lot of fruit for the voyage to the Tuamotos…..grapefruit, mangos, and bananas. ”. I think we have made lifelong friends with this wonderful Marquesan couple!
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