A Giant!

As stated on our fish identification page, besides invasive species, we also hope to come across some big game. The easiest way to describe game in Hawaii is big and silver! This Awa is very much both of those. We were out on a little private morning one-on-one session. The Roi seemed to be pretty timid and water clarity was going from crystal clear to murky and back again. We decided to swim over to a slightly shallower area that had a little dirtier water to see what might be hanging out. And just up ahead I noticed something… Big! It was just sitting there, motionless, about 5 feet off the bottom in only about 15 feet of water. We happened to bring the big gun along because the client for the day had some experience spearfishing. I knew soon later that it was an Awa (milkfish) sitting on a fish cleaning station. I split up to the left while my dive buddy stayed to the right. Milkfish have a hard time deciding where they should go when you swim parallel to them instead of directly at them. This is especially true when you have multiple divers on different sides of the fish. He simply let me swim parallel to it and lean down for an easy shot behind the thick gill plate. He put a up a slow, strong fight for a couple minutes before giving up. A near 25 Lb catch! Nothing like dragging a monster like that back up onto the beach and seeing the look on everyone’s face when you get out. Hah!