Capt. George Parker and Capt. Henry Chee are credited with developing the first marlin lures way back in the 1950’s, right here in Kona. They made them from all sorts of stuff. Chee experimented with glasses from the Ocean View Inn bar. In 1954, Parker single handedly caught the very first marlin over 1,000 pounds in the United States on a lure he made from a shower head. Thousands of fish and more than 148 “granders” have been caught in Hawaii since then on trolling lures made here in the islands.
But of course, fishing here goes way back beyond that. Before Capt. James Cook showed up Polynesians had already crossed the Pacific many times, ostensibly catching fish along the way. Voyagers would have welcomed fresh fish over dried stores. It’s not surprising that by the time folks from the outside world “found” them, they were very skilled fishermen, indeed.
In 1824 Reverend Artemus Bishop and his family were stationed in Kona. In his book, “Reminisces of Old Hawaii,” he noted; “In handling canoes the people were most adroit. The people were skilled fishermen and often went many miles out to sea, in search of the larger deep sea fish. Successful fishing implements such as hooks or cowry shell lures became famous and were prized, passed on to heirs and sometimes fought over.”
Almost 200 years later, Capt. Marlin Parker personifies that tradition. He told me a story about how his dad, Capt. George, hung the shower head lure on a wall in his home, along with a photo of the first grander ever caught. But like the Hawaiians of old, Marlin said, “ I wanted to fish with that lure. I didn’t agree with Dad that the shower head lure should just be on display. It was made to fish!”
Marlin said that he pestered George to take him and that lure fishing again, for a long time. Finally, George relented. “I got some tooth paste and polished that thing up, straightened out the skirts and told him, ‘Let’s go!’”
Up on The Grounds they caught two small marlin, then headed home. Along the way, another monster marlin ate the shower head lure, and the battle was on. This time, the marlin avenged the grander caught on the shower head and broke the line, taking the famous old lure with it. Parker is philosophical about that, “Lots of the great lures get lost to giant fish. That’s why they were great lures!”
Over centuries many fishing techniques were invented here in Hawaii, but it is interesting to note that not all of them are universally adopted around the world. Back in the early 80s while working as a “marlin bum,” I decided to skip the Hawaii, Australia and Tahiti circuit to check out the blue marlin hot spot at St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Many folks on the mainland think of the Pacific Isles as being “backward” but fishing St. Thomas was like stepping back in time.
Yes, the captains, crews and anglers were all top notch, but some of the techniques they employed had been abandoned out here back in the 1950s, or thought of as unnecessary. These guys labored for hours rigging dead mackerel for trolling bait, even going so far as to “juice” the mackerel with formaldehyde. In the end, they simply had a rubber fish, in essence — a lure. And, it smelled like a biology lab. Go figger.
Robbie Engelhard had given me a handful of lures to try in St. Thomas, but when I asked if I could put one out, my crew mates scoffed. The captain in particular was adamant in his disdain for the “Kona Heads.” Finally, about 3 weeks into the season they tired of my pestering and let me put one out, straight off the rod tip, from the fighting chair, no further back than the second wave, in the heaviest froth of the wake.
The lure got climbed on, time and time again. This frustrated the skipper to no end and he finally demanded that it be reeled in and put in a dark drawer, far forward. Since I was last mate in a strange new world, I just laughed and went back to work making lures out of fish, wondering anew why mainlanders thought of Hawaiians as “backwards.”
If you hunt around the internet for the story on Capt. George Parker’s first grander, you will see that the skipper is credited with catching the fish. However, none of the stories explain how the captain was able also be the angler. So, I asked Marlin, “Was your dad all by himself when he caught that fish?”
“Yes!” Marlin emphatically replied. “Back in those days there were not a lot of reliable crewmen, and my dad was a very capable man. When he needed to take the boat to Oahu for dry dock, he’d just do the trip on his own. Back then there wasn’t much of a weather forecasting service, so he’d troll up to Kawaihae and Mahukona and watch the wind in the channel. When it looked good to him, off he’d go. He caught the first grander on the last leg of such a trip, in front of Koko Head.”
As often happens with these stories, more information generates more questions, and this one fairly screamed, “OK, but how did he do that?”
Marlin continued, “The old Mona H had one giant propeller, and he could idle forward at a crawl with the steering wheel tied in place with a rope. If he needed to turn, stop or backup, he would slack off the drag on the reel, walk to the controls and make the needed change. Once satisfied, he’d tie the wheel back in position, put the drag up, and go back to fighting the fish.”
So, yeah. If anyone asks me what the folks are like in Hawaii I always say, “Oh we’re really backwards out here.”