We moved to Kona, HI, on October 6 of last year. I began hunting in November. Since then I've taken 10 hogs, 6 with rifle and 4 with bow. We eat wild pork at least 5 times per week, sometimes more. We prepare some Hawaiian style, smoking it slowly. Other cuts we pressure cook and then fry into carnitas. We made about 40 pounds of smoked German sausage but it's almost gone and then yesterday we ground up 35 pounds of wild pork and mixed it with 15 pounds of domestic pork that I also ground by hand [with the old-fashioned grinder that great grandma used in her day]. We seasoned it and it tastes great. Had it last night on spaghetti and this morning with scrambled eggs. We'll give away about 10 pounds [in exchange for vegetables] and keep the rest.
I've been mouflon sheep hunting 3 times and have come really close, but no luck yet. Spanish goats are everywhere [I went running yesterday evening down by the shore and counted at least 50 goats, all within bow range] but I haven't hunted them yet because there is no room in the freezer and their meat is inferior to hogs or sheep. The other game taken includes 3 wild turkeys, dozens of quail, pheasant, chukar, and francolin.
I've got a little 15' skiff with two outboards and I go out about 3 miles from a small harbor where I launch. The catch there includes lots of ono [I hooked 6 this past Monday, all within 1/2 mile of shore], ahi, bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna, mahimahi, and one approx. 700 lb. marlin that spooled me within 15 minutes.
Guava, mango, passion fruit, avocado, papaya, and various other fruit grows wild everywhere and even at the local farmer's markets, it's really inexpensive.
At this point, the value of the game taken and fish caught pays almost all the expenses of hunting and fishing, including gas, gear, licenses, depreciation on the truck and boat, and beer. Never thought I'd see that.
This isn't meant to be a brag or a boast, just the way it really is over here. And the hardcore native hunters tell me that the hunting is actually better now than it was when they were kids. There is a lot more game and most of the younger generation no longer hunts and the old hunters are dying out or are physically no longer able to hunt. The younger people don't like getting up early in the morning and they don't like physical exertion. This is evident in the age of the hunters I meet out in the field, very few of whom are under 30 and most of whom are well over 40. I'll go up to Mauna Kea in the public hunting areas [hundreds of square miles] and often not see a single hunter or another vehicle.
Imagine this: We went sheep hunting up on Mauna Kea a few weeks ago and at dawn while driving from the check station on the highway to where we turn off to go uphill to the high country, a distance of about 4 miles, we saw dozens of wild turkeys, at least a thousand quail [no kidding], hundreds of francolin, and dozens of pheasants. Up on top we saw hundreds of chukar. All of these birds were on the dirt road. Bird hunters from the mainland would go nuts here.
The big ahi [150+ pounds] are moving in now, but I'm not exactly sure I can gaff or harpoon one and pull it up up over the side into my little skiff all by myself. Some locals told me to kill a large ahi [I carry a .22 stainless revolver and shooting hooked tuna is legal, and I also carry a large harpoon, which is deadly] and then tie it to the side of the boat. Other locals told me that if I do that and begin hauling the bleeding carcass back to the harbor, tied firmly to the boat with heavy rope, the tiger sharks will appear en masse [as many as 5 or 6, each over 1000 pounds] and become so aggressive that my little boat would be in danger of capsizing. I'll have to figure out what to do once I catch one, I guess.
That's it for now. The water is too rough today for my skiff and the freezer is full and my belly is more than full, so my wife and I will go for a long, long run out in the rolling grasslands of Waimea and then come home and eat ono fillets on Kaiser rolls with homemade tartar sauce, washing it down with a couple or three Kirin Ichiban beers [The Japanese influence here is as strong as the Mexican influence in California. Many of the hunters I do meet are Japanese---real gentlemen.].
Life is rough. By the way, I made a trip back to SO CAL about a month ago and about went nuts. All the traffic, people driving over 50 mph, wall-to-wall concrete, noise, graffiti, cold water---I know why I left.
Aloha for now.
I've been mouflon sheep hunting 3 times and have come really close, but no luck yet. Spanish goats are everywhere [I went running yesterday evening down by the shore and counted at least 50 goats, all within bow range] but I haven't hunted them yet because there is no room in the freezer and their meat is inferior to hogs or sheep. The other game taken includes 3 wild turkeys, dozens of quail, pheasant, chukar, and francolin.
I've got a little 15' skiff with two outboards and I go out about 3 miles from a small harbor where I launch. The catch there includes lots of ono [I hooked 6 this past Monday, all within 1/2 mile of shore], ahi, bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna, mahimahi, and one approx. 700 lb. marlin that spooled me within 15 minutes.
Guava, mango, passion fruit, avocado, papaya, and various other fruit grows wild everywhere and even at the local farmer's markets, it's really inexpensive.
At this point, the value of the game taken and fish caught pays almost all the expenses of hunting and fishing, including gas, gear, licenses, depreciation on the truck and boat, and beer. Never thought I'd see that.
This isn't meant to be a brag or a boast, just the way it really is over here. And the hardcore native hunters tell me that the hunting is actually better now than it was when they were kids. There is a lot more game and most of the younger generation no longer hunts and the old hunters are dying out or are physically no longer able to hunt. The younger people don't like getting up early in the morning and they don't like physical exertion. This is evident in the age of the hunters I meet out in the field, very few of whom are under 30 and most of whom are well over 40. I'll go up to Mauna Kea in the public hunting areas [hundreds of square miles] and often not see a single hunter or another vehicle.
Imagine this: We went sheep hunting up on Mauna Kea a few weeks ago and at dawn while driving from the check station on the highway to where we turn off to go uphill to the high country, a distance of about 4 miles, we saw dozens of wild turkeys, at least a thousand quail [no kidding], hundreds of francolin, and dozens of pheasants. Up on top we saw hundreds of chukar. All of these birds were on the dirt road. Bird hunters from the mainland would go nuts here.
The big ahi [150+ pounds] are moving in now, but I'm not exactly sure I can gaff or harpoon one and pull it up up over the side into my little skiff all by myself. Some locals told me to kill a large ahi [I carry a .22 stainless revolver and shooting hooked tuna is legal, and I also carry a large harpoon, which is deadly] and then tie it to the side of the boat. Other locals told me that if I do that and begin hauling the bleeding carcass back to the harbor, tied firmly to the boat with heavy rope, the tiger sharks will appear en masse [as many as 5 or 6, each over 1000 pounds] and become so aggressive that my little boat would be in danger of capsizing. I'll have to figure out what to do once I catch one, I guess.
That's it for now. The water is too rough today for my skiff and the freezer is full and my belly is more than full, so my wife and I will go for a long, long run out in the rolling grasslands of Waimea and then come home and eat ono fillets on Kaiser rolls with homemade tartar sauce, washing it down with a couple or three Kirin Ichiban beers [The Japanese influence here is as strong as the Mexican influence in California. Many of the hunters I do meet are Japanese---real gentlemen.].
Life is rough. By the way, I made a trip back to SO CAL about a month ago and about went nuts. All the traffic, people driving over 50 mph, wall-to-wall concrete, noise, graffiti, cold water---I know why I left.
Aloha for now.
