Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 1990 — Naturally Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Naturally Hawaiian

By Fatrick Ching artist/cnvironmcntalist

Ulua — a fisherman's favorite

Of all the fish in Hawaiian waters, the most sought after by far is the jack crevalle or ulua. The younger or smaller ulua were called papiopio by the Hawaiians. Today most loeal fisherman know them as papio. It is the papio that

most of us who have grown up fishing īn Hawai 1 are familiar with. Besides being one of the more eommon salt water fishes, they are also one of the best shoreline sport fishes offering an angler a challenging fight. Papio frequent open oeean waters as well as inland streams and estuaries. Papio and ulua are agressive predatory fish whieh ean be caught on many different kinds of fishing lure. Some of the baits commonly used for papio are 'opae (shrimp), muhe'e (squid) and aku (tuna) belly. When going after ulua a fisherman would use larger baits such as whole octopus (he'e), 'a 'ama (crab) or whole fish such as 'oama (young goat fish).

The distinction between a papio and an ulua is often one of judgment and varies upon locality. For instance people on O'ahu may consider a 10 lb. jack crevalle to be an ulua while the folks at South Point Hawai'i are calling the 15-pounders papio. The majority of recreational fishermen never get to land an ulua. To do so takes a good amount of skill or luek or both. There are several kinds of ulua that inhabit Hawaiian waters. The most eommon are the ulua

aukea (white), ulua 'ele 'ele (black), ulua pa'o pa'o (striped), ulua kihikihi (shiny silver with streamerlike fins prevalent in the immature), and omilu (blue with black and yellow spots). The biggest ulua caught (on record) was an ulua aukea that weighed 137 lbs. caught by Roy Gushiken in Hilo.

The summer months are the best for catching ulua. It is at this time when they eome near shore to spawn and patrol the shallows for food. The ulua is and has always been an important part of the Hawaiian diet. In old Hawai'i they were sometimes even offered in plaee of humans as sacrifices.