May 8 2024
Ep.05 Capt. Chris Donato: Lure 101 and the Kona Fishery
In this Episode, host Katie C. Sawyer interviews Captain Chris Donato, a big Marlin fisherman in Kona, Hawaii. Chris shares his fascinating background, which includes fishing in various locations around the world. He discusses the Kona fishery, known for its lure fishing, and the deep marlin culture in the area.
Our Favorite Lures
Lure Making 101/102: The Kona Fishing Chronicles - Book
Fishing Hawaii Style - Volume 3 - Book
Fishing Hawaii Style - Book
The conversation also delves into the logistics of shipping boats to the Southern Pacific and the different types of lures used in Kona. In this part of the conversation, Chris Donato discusses the different types of lures and their characteristics, including plungers, tube lures, scoop face lures, and bullets. He also shares the historical origins of lure fishing in Kona and the transition from live bait fishing. Chris explains how to choose lures for the spread based on their aggressiveness and loudness. He also discusses the feeding behavior of marlin and the factors that affect lure performance. Finally, he provides tips on adjusting lures for optimal performance. In this conversation, Chris Donato discusses various aspects of lure fishing. He explains how the orientation of a lure can affect its swimming behavior and the importance of adjusting lure position based on wave conditions. He also compares vinyl skirts to rubber skirts and shares his preference for rubber skirts. He discusses the benefits of teasing fish and the challenges of heavy tackle bait and switch fishing. Finally, he introduces GZ Lures and GZ Tackle Co. as platforms for providing the best fishing equipment and educational content.
Takeaways
Kona, Hawaii is known for its rich marlin fishing culture and lure fishery.Shipping boats to the Southern Pacific can be a challenging and stressful process.The Kona fishery offers opportunities to catch big blue marlin, with the best months being July and August.The marlin culture in Kona is characterized by a deep history, ego, and a focus on big fish.Lure fishing in Kona is a popular and effective method, with a variety of lure types used. There are different types of lures, including plungers, tube lures, scoop face lures, and bullets, each with its own characteristics and performance.Lure fishing in Kona transitioned from live bait fishing, and lures became more popular due to their effectiveness.When choosing lures for the spread, it is important to consider their aggressiveness and loudness, with the most aggressive lures placed closest to the boat.The feeding behavior of marlin can vary, with some periods of aggressive feeding and others of territorial behavior.Factors such as water conditions, lure design, and rigging can affect the performance of lures, and adjustments may be necessary to optimize their performance. The orientation of a lure can affect its swimming behavior, and adjusting the position of the lure can optimize its performance.Rubber skirts are preferred by some anglers due to their durability and color variations.Teasing fish can lead to proper bites and better hookups, but it requires skill and technique.GZ Lures and GZ Tackle Co. aim to provide the best fishing equipment and educational content for anglers.
Transcript
Katie (00:00.238)
Today's podcast guest is proficient in the art of big blue marlin fishing. We're gonna sit down with Captain Chris Donato and go through different types of lures, what they're used for, how you can make them work the way you want them to, and what to look for in the spread. Stay tuned, it's a chat you're not gonna wanna miss.
Katie (00:27.662)
What's up, you guys. Welcome to the Katie C Sawyer podcast. I'm your host, Katie. And today we have big Marlin fisherman, Chris Donato, joining us on the scene. Chris, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us today. Yeah. Thanks for having me. So you are checking in from Kona, is that right? Yep. Yep. We're here in Kona. I love that. So I personally have never been to Hawaii.
I've never fished the Kona scene, not even close. I just have heard a lot about it. I'm really excited to have you here. You have an extremely fascinating background that I think might be a conversation for another time. You've done some incredible things. I want you to go over that a little bit with us. Then I really want to dive into the world of lure fishing, which correct me if I'm wrong, but Kona is known for its lure fishery. Yes. Everybody that's -
what everybody's pretty much doing. Unless they're just fishing for ahis or something with live baits, it's pretty much all lure fishery. The conditions just make it easy for us. We're like in a swimming pool and the way the fish feed here and everything. I mean, it's kind of like the birthplace of like modern lure fishing for the most part. And yeah, that's it's it's the spot to do it. That's for sure. I'm particularly excited because it's it's not like you've spent your entire life fishing Kona.
You've spent, I mean, you're originally from New Jersey and fished the East Coast, grew up sometime in Florida, correct? Spent time in Florida. Yeah, South Florida. Yep. And then you ran several charter operations in the Southern Pacific in Samoa and... Yeah, Samoa and then Vanuatu. Vanuatu. Man, that's amazing. So give us a little bit of like a rundown. I want to know...
what your age range was, what you were doing. We're going to dive in in a separate episode of what makes Chris Chris, but give us just a professional rundown of your experiences. Yes, I won't draw it out too much because it's a whole thing we could go down. I pretty much just grew up pretty much fascinated with the -
Katie (02:44.462)
South Pacific and fishing and surfing to surfing was probably what brought me more so into that area. Um, you know, I, I went to Costa Rica a bit and did that, but then I, I did a trip down to, uh, French Polynesia. I actually was the first time and actually wasn't fishing. I was actually working on a sailboat. So it's kind of embarrassing to say, but I was pretty young. I was like 17 or 16 or something. I was pretty young and I just wanted, I had an, I had an
to do it and I was like, I want to check this out. This is great. No, come on. What a way to get exposed to it. That's amazing. Yeah, so it was like sailing and surfing and checking that part of the world out. I was like, wow, this is insane. I always love fishing. I obviously thought, obviously, there's a lot of fish here. It took a little while for me to end up getting back down to that part of the world.
fishing wise, I went and surfed a lot, but I would just go surf and come back or whatever. And then I was fishing in Florida and long story short, I ended up being involved in a surfing resort with, with a buddy of mine in Samoa. And so we started building it up and we have a little skips. We go out to all the reefs to surf. And so I was one year like, okay, I'm going to bring down all my Florida stuff.
Cause the seasons were a little bit different. Like, um, and I would go down there when I wasn't fishing in Florida, I would take time and go down or whatever. So I was like, I'm going to bring down a bunch of stuff and just go fish with our little like panga style boats and check it out. What's the time of the year and how old are you at this point in time? Um, at that point I was probably 19. Yeah. Somewhere around that. I think I was pretty young. Um, cause I was, yeah, I was in college. Yeah. Yeah. I was about 19, I think.
Maybe, maybe just turning that, but, um, I don't, to be honest, you know, someone was a little bit like here in terms of like seasons. I mean, you can fish there year round. Uh, it just gets really rough in our summer, which is their winter. Um, and then, um, you know, I get that it just kind of gets kind of choppy and rough and windy and trade winds blow. And, you know, I caught my grander there in November. So I kind of say that that was the season, you know, but I, you can fish there year round really.
Katie (05:08.845)
Congratulations. Yeah, thanks. That was a big monkey to get off my back for sure. Anyways, yeah, so I just went down there and just like brought some stuff and just I got my ass handed to me. I mean, I thought I knew what I was, you know, I thought I knew Bill Fish and stuff and I had like, I think my biggest was like a 50.
And I'm on a panga by myself cruising around doing what I probably shouldn't be doing. After your experience, what were you doing in South Florida? Sail fishing and sword fishing? Sail fishing and sword fishing. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Maybe in white Marlin or something. Yeah. So it was, yeah. And I had done some, I'd done offshore stuff, but like, I just wasn't to that extent. And so, yeah. So at that point it was like, okay, this is the place.
It took some time and just things just evolved. And next thing you know, I'm down there. I'm running a 43 foot Cabo there and then, um, ran a boat in Vanuatu. And then we cruised around the islands and it just turned into a pretty much what I did up until 2016, um, was just down in the South Pacific for the most part. You know, I come back forth, but yeah, that was it. So just loved it down there. How old were you?
In 2016, what's the time frame there? How many years were you doing that? Gosh, I think maybe 15 years. I was in Samoa. That's amazing. Yeah. I'm not the best with IDA. But yeah, so I'm 41 now, and I moved out here in 2016. So throughout your late teens, your 20s, and into your 30s. Let me get my calculator. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I'm a knucklehead when it comes to that type like timeframes and stuff that some are really not the best with it. But but I was down there for a while. And then I had the 37 Meriden I had someone that came in and was Joe who actually was my crew for a long time. He works on the series now. And he really he was in like the film industry for a while like working as like, I forget what the word I like.
Katie (07:20.749)
working with all these like movie stars and stuff, like helping them with things they needed or whatever, kind of like a assistant kind of deal. Um, and he did really well. And then I think he just really wanted to get into his passion of fishing. So he had contacted me and I'm like, man, I'm trying to get over to Kona and we ended up being partners in the beginning and he, he invested money so I could ship that boat to Hawaii. And then he worked for me for years and, um, yeah, it was pretty cool. So that's how I ended up. Super cool.
So you ship the boat from Vanuatu? We had 37 Marriott. No, the Marriott, well, so I went, I was in Samoa for a while, then I went to Vanuatu and I was there for a while and then there was a tsunami that came through and wiped out like our whole resort, everything in Samoa. Was that in 2014? No, it was before then. It was, it just hit like Tonga and Samoa. It wasn't the one that hit like Indonesia. A lot of people think of it, but yeah, it was terrible. And.
Luckily, nobody died on our property, but like, and everyone, the resort got evacuated. We were really lucky there. Um, but, uh, yeah, it was totally lost everything. Um, so we kind of had to make a decision with the insurance and everything like, okay, we're just going to take the money and just say, this is done and walk away from Samoa forever, which was tempting because my life was kind of going in different roads. I was definitely following fishing more with my career than surfing. And so.
but I love the place and I missed it and I just, I had so much, I mean, I still do and I'm going down there shortly, like end of the week or something for us as well. So I mean, I go down there all the time. That was home for so long. Yeah. I mean, it still feels, I love it. It's going to be until the day I can't walk around anymore, like it's home for me as well. I can't imagine. So I'll have to go in there. Honestly, like we've been places with the boat, like we stayed, for example, like La Gomera, we lived there for three years and Drake and I are always like, man,
It's like part of our hearts, you know, like that's a part of you. And I mean, 15 plus years, that's a long time. I mean, I have staff that work at the resort that knew me when I was like 18 years old, 17. They laugh at me. They're like, I go down there with my girlfriend and they're like telling her, oh, I knew him when he was a little. And they're like, he has a pain in the ass. I bet. That's so great. But yeah, so. So you all ship the merit. Yeah. So.
Katie (09:45.133)
Yeah, I ended up after that tsunami, I ended up moving back to Samoa because we ended up rebuilding the whole resort. And I was like, I got to be here and manage this and we got to do it correctly. And I'm like, I'm going to turn into a fishing surfing lodge. And so that was the deal and started doing that for the little wall down there. And then, so I had him at that point, sold the, the Cabo got sold in Fiji to a guy. It's still over there. I don't know what's going on with it nowadays, but, and then got the merit down there in, in Samoa, sent it from Virginia.
to Samoa. Oh my gosh. Had it there for a few years and then sent it to Kona. And now it's the boat I'm running now and I'm owner operator. And so the joys of that. Yeah. There's a lot of joys with that type of situation. Oh man. Man. OK. Already just like the logistics. So there we go. That was really good. I'm really impressed. Like what are we? We're 10 minutes in and you've told us your entire life history. So good for you, Chris. You assignment. You've completed the assignment.
The logistics behind shipping a boat already in itself is one thing, but to go to bring, because you brought three total boats to the Southern Pacific. Yes, I shipped three boats down there. One was an Ocean Master, one was a Cabo, and the third was the Merit. None of them were shipped with that yacht path or any of that. I had to deal with, oh gosh, just giving me anxiety thinking about it. It was just dealing with shipping companies and they're like, what do you want to do?
It was earlier in the stage where a lot of people were shipping boats, especially to that region. Or if they were, they were going with Yacht Path or Dockwise. I don't even think Yacht Path is around anymore, but they were the ones back there. I don't know, it was a while back. But anyways, yeah, it was a nightmare. Everything had to be shipped on top of all the containers. And it wasn't fun. I had all kinds of issues. That's a whole different world.
Yeah, I mean, and then after all this and the merit gets to Honolulu and I'm standing there and they're offloading it off the boat in Honolulu and this big gust of wind came and it started swinging back and forth and everybody started scattering. And the guy, my agent that's standing there is like grabbing him. We're like hiding behind a minivan in the parking lot. And he's like, start.
Katie (12:06.957)
Yeah, he's like start videoing with your camera because you're going to need this for the insurance company and shit's like falling off the boat as it's like snap swinging. Holy crap. Oh my God. All this and here goes this merit. You know, there's going to be one less merit and I don't know. Somehow they freaking got it under control, got it in the water. I don't know. But yeah, it's shipping boats is I see so many people do it nowadays and I think there's a lot more people involved like to help you do it and.
It's still stressful even now. It's so stressful. There's so many pros and cons with shipping a boat. Sometimes you can't avoid it, like when you're taking a merit from Virginia to Honolulu. Sometimes you can and there's still pros and cons and people definitely decide to ship. Again, a conversation for another time. Also, the logistics behind going into these,
these places that there's not a lot of people going to to start a sport fishing operation and to create a successful charter business. That's really, that's super impressive. So definitely don't want to take away from that because I'm blown away by what you've managed to do. So.
Tell us a little bit about the Kona fishery. I like to approach these podcasts, assuming my listeners really don't know anything about sport fishing and they want to learn. So, big blue marlin over there? Yes. Yeah, we have big blue marlin. Every year is different, but there's always a handful of really, really nice ones caught out of here.
Every year there's at least a few over the mark that are at least seen and hooked, you know, um, and then a few over the mark is yeah. So over over a thousand pounds. Yeah. Um, the last few years, there's been a little bit of a slump where like there haven't been a lot weighed, but there's been a couple of ways in the last, and there was one last year and then I think two years before I, or Marlin caught one. Um, but they're there every year. There's several people that see them. They're just, they're paying the ass to catch. Um, they pull all the tricks. Yeah.
Katie (14:20.461)
Um, and then obviously too, when you lose one, it always is a little bit bigger than what you think. So there's a lot of probably 800 pounders that get called over the mark. I would think sometimes, so you never know. But, um, that's still a really big fish. Yeah. Yeah. But in terms of like, like bigger, like, like nicer size fish, we get, we get quite a few. Um, I would say, um, you know, things are changing a little bit with that Omni sonar stuff. Like there's probably more, there's going to be more numbers, but, um, historically, uh, if you're catching like,
through the season, like if I caught 11 over 500, I was pretty happy. That was pretty good. But again, that's probably going to start to change, I think with the sonars, because that thing's a weapon over here. Because it's just like a lack of bait. It's flat calm. Like we're fishing in a swimming pool, and there's not a lot of targets to get. No, you don't need a stabilizer. But people are putting them in there because they're just putting them in there, whatever. But if you go up off the ground, so if you go north, it can get a little lumpy. But. OK.
for the most part, Kona, it's just you're fishing in a pool. It's like fishing for bass, but big blue marlin. So it's pretty cool in that regard. So that sonar is making a big difference. But you can find them, you can spot them, you can stay on them, and then you can just watch them come up. So is the season summertime? Is it like June, July, August? Yeah. Well, generally, historically speaking, well, first off, the one saying that's just like,
which has been true in Kona forever. It's like, people are like, when should I come? When should I come? And everybody's like, come when you can come, you know, get on a flight when you can get here. There's big ones caught all the time. There's been a grander caught in every month of the year here. So if you look like at the records, every single month has a grander, you know, a thousand pounder caught in. I think December might be the one with the least amount. I think there might be like one or two in December. All the others have months, but if you look historically though,
The majority of them have been caught in that July, August time period. And so summertime, but like generally a lot of people really like the spring. I've usually seen like my biggest fish of the year in the spring. The fishing can be like really hit and miss. Like it could be, you go five days without a knockdown, nothing. And then you see a 750 and 800 something, you know, pile on. So springtime, I think,
Katie (16:46.925)
Most people here that really want like very large blue marlin. They do like the spring. It's kind of like in quiet type of conversation. Like not everybody knows about it really, I guess. They think the summertime is when you would come, but spring, if you could put in the time, you know, if you can only get to Connor for like three days, maybe spring's not the best, but if you can put in the time, there's usually a couple of really giant ones seen in the springtime. Um, and then as you start to get into the summer, we'll get like a run of rats around June, usually.
How big are the rats? They're like 150, 200 pounds maybe, you know, yeah, somewhere in that range. And they'll start to kind of show up in more numbers and then you'll pick through them and then catch a nice one here and there. And there'll be a lot more like 500 and 600 pounders caught through like that June, July period. All the tournaments run all through, well, they really run June, July, August as the final one in September, but the lion's share of the tournaments is all pretty much July.
I don't get a lot of charters in July because I'm fishing mostly all those tournaments. Um, so my charters are like tournament charters, so not a lot of days in between it. And then you throw in the world cup as well. So July is usually a really busy time. So like if people are asking me when they message me, um, I tell them, you know, come in May, June, August, or early September. Um, that's usually a really good time, you know, but.
Pretty much now all the way up until mid to late September. Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. How big is the fleet? Well, it's, you know, there's quite a few boats, but it's not giant. Gosh, I guess I could say there might be like 50 or 60 fishing boats, you know, like that might run charters more like recreation. Well, I guess it would be commercially kind of style, you know, like take it.
paid charters are out there more regular. But the actual boats that you'll see day in and day out, I would think might be more in the 20 to 30 numbers. And then there's days where you don't see really almost anybody. That's a good size fleet, though. Yeah, yeah. Some of those boats may only fish a little bit here and there. But I think.
Katie (19:04.365)
You know, any day you'll probably see between 10 to 30 boats would be what you would see out there. But like, you know, there's, Kona is starting to shift a little bit. Like it's starting to turn into more of a private boat fishery. And there's the, there's, there are charter boats, obviously, and like all the private boats charter, but the owners aren't like really pushing the charters. They're just kind of more like, so the captains have some days to go out and fish and the crew don't go crazy sitting there cleaning the boats.
But a lot, it's starting to turn into a private boat fishery. Hawaii has just gotten insanely expensive and you know, with like the sonar stuff and things changing, the owner operator thing is a really difficult thing to accomplish here. And then we also have a business out of Kona called Bite Me Sport Fishing, which is like a, it's like they got a bunch of boats and it's kind of like cheap style, you know, like you can pay like a hundred bucks and you'll like share, you'll share a charter with.
whoever, you know, and they do all that kind of stuff. And it's kind of changed things a little bit there. They've been around for a while, but I kind of foresee it being a situation where you'll have basically the bite meat charter boats, and then you're going to have just a lot of private boats. So it is changing a little bit. And, you know, so I would say like in terms of boats that are actually really out there professionally just blue marlin fishing and actually targeting it, there might only be really like 10 or 15 of us.
You know, like for instance, me, like I only billfish and I told my charters that when I first came to Kona, I wasn't that way. Cause I had to, I, I was broke. I mean, I didn't have autopilot on the boat for like two years because I just couldn't afford it. I was like, I was just like, I mean, thank God I didn't have like a major breakdown. Cause I, but would have been for sale. Like I was, by the time I got there and did everything that I was like balancing. I mean, it was like, I was just, I was so stressed. Yeah. And, uh, you know, over years you make a little bit more and then, you know,
could afford an autopilot, could do this and you work your way up. You know, but, uh, so I was just fishing whenever I could, but now I'm in a situation where I'm lucky enough where I kind of, um, I just bill fish and I tell people right away. So when they call me or they text me, I'm like, Hey, look, you know, first off, understand, you know, we, we are just bill fishing. If you want to just go catch fish, that's cool. I'll recommend some guys that are really good at that. You know, if you got like a bunch of kids with you, you had a 13 year old with you that he's going to hate trolling around. Um,
Katie (21:28.365)
Let me send you with my buddy who's going to go out and catch you a bunch of Shibis like little yellow fins or whatever. I want people to have a good time. I don't want them to be out on the boat. Like, uh, you know, whatever. And for sure. So there's probably only a few of us that specifically more, more do that. That just focus on the bill fishing. And, um, I think that if you really want to do it right here and like catch a majority of really nice ones, you do sort of have to more target them, um, instead of just pulling.
mixed spread and changing up halfway through the day to go try something different or whatever. I want to get into that. But first, I want to hear about it seems like Kona has, I mean, there's some good fishing there, ahi, ono, excellent stuff, reef, all that stuff. But what is the marlin culture? Because there seems to be a very deep marlin culture in Kona. Sure.
Well, it's, I mean, it's got a really deep history in Marlin fishing. Um, it's, I mean, every year I learn more stuff about the history of it. And, you know, before any of this social media, any of this stuff, I mean, there were guys out there doing just insane stuff and you never even heard about it. And like, there's guys I'll see, like I've known them there and they do something different now, you know, they work somewhere else or whatever. I, you know, served with them for a while and never even knew they fish. And then someone will tell me a story like, Oh yeah, that guy caught like,
three over 800 and this tournament went back out and caught a grander and did that and like all this crazy like all these different stories and you're like that guy you're like what what the heck like the dude cleaning up doing that like what it's just like there's so many like tigers in that harbor that you just don't know about they're very humble or they're quiet or you never knew or like you know instagram facebook all that it's changed fishing in that way because everybody you
Unless it's on a post or something, you don't even know about it really, but there's, there's just such a history here. Um, I mean, it goes back so long, um, to, you know, the early days of, of the Parker, you know, tube lore that caught a grander and all this stuff. So, um, so there's that rich history, um, and, and it's, it's beautiful that way. You know, there's a lot of ego here. There's probably the most ego I've seen anywhere I've ever been. Um,
Katie (23:44.717)
So, you know, there's a little bit of a that side to it. And there's just a bit of a big fish mentality here. Like that's what a lot of us are wanting to target and find out there. And there's a chance of like the giant one showing up whenever. So yeah, I mean, really the culture has been lure fishing forever. And there's a bit of a, there's not a lot of change.
that happens here is a lot of like stubbornness to certain ways that have worked and they continue to work. So why change it, right? But there is, um, there's kind of like the old way and there's only like little adjustments and there's a Kona way of doing things and you'll go and jump on other boats in different parts of the world. And it's a very different, it's not very different, but there is a certain way you can jump on 10 different boats in Kona and they're all doing something pretty much. They're all doing the same thing. Um,
where if you go to different places in the world, everybody has their own little spin -off on things or people are doing different whatever. And so there is kind of like a Kona way of doing stuff. And generally that Kona way of doing stuff is like big, loud, heavy tackle, manly, ego kind of centric, big fish oriented. And that's cool. That's what this place is kind of about. So it's funny when you...
get people that want to come here and catch mahi -mahi or something because it's like, I don't understand. Go to the Keys. I don't know. Go to Mexico. What are we doing here? So I always chuckle. But I do understand. People just want to catch fish sometimes. Yeah. Well, they've never experienced an 800 -pound blue marlin. I assure you that that's definitely generally the case. That's not even something that could even cross their mind, what it takes to do that. Yeah. Yeah.
You mentioned the Kona mentality, how everyone is doing similar things and that it's really deep in the culture and that shows. Kona, from what I understand, Kona is known as a lure fishery. That's what I really want to talk to you about today is really diving into lures because my personal experience in the sport fishing space has been primarily light tackle.
Katie (26:04.365)
Heavy Tackle has been more bluefin. We did a season in Madeira for Looking for the Grander. We didn't find her. Drake swears he saw her, but there was another fish in the spread. I was laughing when you were saying that, but there was another fish in the spread at the time. Hit our long. It was a good one. She was upward 600, right? Yes. Hit our long and we got her and Drake's up there and the bridge just yelling and we're like, what is going on? We had no idea there was another fish back there and he was like, that was definitely.
That was the fish. I didn't see it, but that was July 3rd too. He was like, I know where she is. We'll be back tomorrow. We didn't see anything. Anyway, I have some heavy tackle experience, but very little lure knowledge. We do a lot of - We pulled teasers in Costa Rica or super proficient bait and switch and pulled a little bit of lures in Madeira. We did like a -
like a mixed spread teasers in the shorts and then lures in the longs. What are the different types of, there's so many different types of lures out there. Can you give us a general rundown? What types of lures there are? The difference between manufacturing and handmade lures. There's a lot of lure makers out of Kona. Some of our favorites are out of Kona.
Take the wheel, Chris. Okay. Yeah. I mean, oh boy, that's it. This is a load of questions. Like there's so much there. Um, but I'll, I will try and generalize it. Um, there's, there's a few like basic shapes and then from those shapes, there's like all kinds of spin -offs, right? So you kind of have what a plunger, um, I grabbed a couple of lures real quick from my garage. So a plunger. So this is, this is a big one.
This is a Lee Simmons one, but this is a bigger plunger, kind of like what Joe Yee called the super plunger. And so you could see it kind of has like a taper right here, kind of comes down a little more taper. So plunger meaning it plunges, it pops down, it goes down in the water, it'll go down deeper. And then the longer, the longer head kind of makes it act a little bit more like a tube in a way. But that plunging kind of.
Katie (28:28.205)
drives it down. So you're going to have more downtime in the cycle. And like, generally, these are like pretty consistent with their pop, like, you know, it, you can almost count it like a pop and then 123456 pop one to, you know, they're generally like pretty consistent in how their action is. And they're fun to watch. They're like a pretty, a pretty, pretty good just like, do their thing plunge, pop, do their thing. So that's a plunger. And then, you know, from that head shape, there's like,
all kinds of different things. There's lungers, there's different variations of plungers, there's sharper cut plungers. So the cut is the face, by the way, like when we're talking about a cut on a lure. So there's like, you know, different cuts on it. There's people that might add like a scoop to it. There's different steepnesses of how it plunges down there. So there's so many variations, but the plunger is one style a lure. Then you have a tube lure.
did grab a tube lure. Here we go. There's a tube lure, which is pretty simple shape. It's the first lure because it was a simple shape. And this was, you know, this is more of like a historical style type tube, like a Henry Chi one, like that they were making out of like bar glasses and stuff. This is a koia that he just did like a one off for me on it, but it's a
It's kind of your more historical type of tube. And they've evolved into, here's a tantrum tube, which is made out of acrylic or a type of like acrylic type material. But as the name states, it's a tube. Right. What's the story about the bar glasses? Yeah. So.
Gosh, I don't want to butcher the story too much, but it had something to do with, I think they were like sitting at the Kona Inn. And I think back when, I think it was Henry Chi and gosh, I can't think of who else, but they were, they were basically looking at ways to make lures. And he grabbed a bunch of bar glasses in the back there that they were going to be throwing out or something and put resin in them and was able to basically create a lure off the.
Katie (30:47.437)
off the glass and then they cut it to whatever angle it was. The reason the original tube lures and stuff, they're all at a certain angle. They're all set at that one angle. The reason for that angle was back then the tool that they were using to cut it, it was only made at that angle. That's why they cut it at that angle and then it worked.
Wish I had all the stories in front of me right now so I could like go into details because it's really cool. But like people that are interested in that type of stuff, Jim Rizzuto is a really good guy. He's passed away, but he wrote a lot of books. He's a good guy to look up. Like you could just Google him and look up some of his literature and he's done a lot of historical stuff on lores. There's also a good book that...
Joe Yee didn't write it, but somebody wrote it for Joe Yee, and it's about him and about Lors. There's a bunch of good books about Lors, and it's really, really interesting when you start to dive into the subject and hear all the different things. But Jim Rizzuto's got some great stories. So if anyone's interested to kind of elaborate, you could check out his books probably. Well, I'll tag some – put some of your favorite books in the description. We'll get together on that, and I'll add that. So if you guys are listening…
Check out the description. I'll link some of those books in there and you can check it out a little bit more. So we got the plunger, which plunges. Yeah, so you have a two blower. So a two blower is going to kind of stay more on the surface. And we like to call it mole hilling. And they're not all going to do that. But when we're talking about mole hilling, it's kind of like it just like pushes a bulb of water in front of it all the time. And it'll kind of do like a little back, a little tight.
wiggle as it's pushing this ball of water in front of it. And it just stays on the surface, just pushing, pushing water. And every once in a while it'll kind of push a little bit more, but it really does what we call molehill. But some of the tube lures will do more of like, kind of like a skitter right on the surface and really like just explode a bunch of water. They're really aggressive lures. And the only downside of a tube lure is they're hard to pull in rough water. So a lot of people like on the East coast could struggle pulling these. What's his name? Eric.
Katie (32:58.989)
aloha lures that that smash bait is probably one of the few him and the cramped in baits I think can handle the rough a bit in terms of a tubular but yeah they're hard to pull in rough water again that's why I like Kona exactly and that's why like we're it's such a good lure fishery because we just have a flat calm and we just sit there and stare at lures so we're all like lure snobs and everybody's you know.
Everybody's got their own thing and everyone's got their own opinions on it. And it's yeah, you just like staring at lords all day, which is it's fun. It's like playing with toys. You're just like, it's exciting. And it's a dress them up however you want. Yeah, exactly. Right. And then, yeah, then you have like, I mean, it goes into all kinds of areas. You have like flat, you know, like just like a flat head, like a hard head or something like a mole, craft wide range or something. Now there's a lot of guys that make them with just a resin.
Um, and then you have just like variations to, you know, like this is a ruckus of Marla magic ruckus. Everybody knows a ruckus. Yeah. I mean, it may, and for what it's called, I mean, it makes a ruckus, you know, um, these things are killer, but, uh, but yeah, that's kind of their own type of, uh, of a shape. Like you couldn't really say, Oh, this is a plunger. This is a tube. I guess it, it might be more along on the lines of like a lunger or something, but.
Okay. You know, there's just so many variations to what there are. And then even these ruckus is like, they make them in like a hard cut. They make them in a soft cut. They make them in whatever, which people don't really know about, but you can ask for it if, or try and find them. But the regular just ruckus you get off the shelf is the one that most people catching fish on. But in Kona, they, you, there is one that's like a harder cut, which we would call like a Kona cut or a hard cut lure. And that's just a, that's just a steeper angle.
on the face and it just it's just a lot more aggressive. But again, it's a lot harder to run. You got to really kind of adjust it in the rigor and everything. So but yeah, I mean, you have that then you have you have like scoop face lures, you know, cup face lures like, like the, you know, and then here's a classic scoop face lure. I call my grander on this, not this actual one in my hand, that one's up on the wall, but but this, this this model. And so yeah, you have like your scoop
Katie (35:16.301)
style lures, which are awesome. Um, and this old shape that they were using for a long time back in the day. And then I think they had them, you know, all kinds of different sized and shapes. And the thing about those two is like back when they used to troll, um, the old like wooden, uh, sand, sandpans, they couldn't go very fast. So they needed lures that could like do a lot of action. Um, so like