Sportfishing! Once you try it, you can never look at fishing the same. It is the most exhilarating experience. Especially if the spot for it is in Hawaii. Any of the beautiful Hawaiian islands will do. Oahu? Check. Maui? Check. Lanai? Check. Kauai? Check. Hawaii Island – the Big Island? Even better. The deep and wide ocean in front of you, the calm, the wait, the planning, all the effort that goes into it, and then there is this moment when everything changes. The fight, the pull, the art of letting it lose and then tightening it again, sometimes for minutes and sometimes for hours you battle with this magnificent creature in the ocean. When you start seeing this silhouette that starts to appear on the surface of the ocean after a long battle, you take a deep breath and go “wow!”
Sometimes it is a smaller marlin, sometimes it is a magnificent sailfish, and sometimes it’s a bluefin tuna that is multiple times bigger than you. You bring the fish up to the boat and you are in bliss, complete excitement. You are in awe of the experience and what’s in front of you. You hold the fish up, measure the height, the weight, you pat yourself on the back, you brag a little to others. And then you take a moment to thank the fish and the nature and the awesome ocean, and God for giving you that experience and allowing you to partake in the beautiful blue marble’s circle of life.
You might say, “What? All that from sportfishing?” And, yes, I can confidently say, “Yup! All that!” and most likely, even more.