Hawaii Travel Update: Grand Times on the Island of Oahu!

We just got back from a fabulous trip to Oahu. I was gathering content for an article about an exotic fish that lures well-heeled anglers from all over the world. Along the way I spent time with my family savoring this fantastic vacation destination. Sorry if that sounds like an ad, but there's no other way to describe Oahu. On the South Shore you have Waikiki, which is a busy metropolis, world class shopping hub, and home to some of the world's most famous beaches. On the North Shore, you have a rural, down-home country feel, mixed with some of the most beautiful mist shrouded valleys, sun soaked beaches, and of course, the most famous surf spots in the entire world.

We stayed at some really awesome resorts. One was the Kahala Resort, which is a high-end exclusive resort about 10 minutes out of Waikiki, located just past Diamond Head. In addition to being a travel and fishing writer and photographer, I do a lot of resort photography (you didn't think I just sat around on these trips, did you?) Anyway, I got some neat shots at the Kahala. Here's one I took of the Spa they have:

and here's a shot of my daughters living it up in the pool:

and here they are chilling on the beach:

Maybe I should trade jobs with my kids! At the Kahala, they have this thing called Dolphin Quest, where there's a salt water lagoon and dolphins swimming around in it, and you can swim and interact with them. It's fantastic. I pointed out to my daughters that the girl in this photo below, who I assume is a dolphin trainer, seems to be having the time of her life, and is getting paid for it. So I gave them the "Hey, go to school, get good grades, specialize in marine science, and become a dolphin trainer" speech. I don't know if you can relate but I am getting to the age where I need to start guiding them in life choices, and having a fun job that you like, like this dolphin trainer here, seems like a great thing to strive for. Plus they can do that in Hawaii and I can come visit them!

Anyone who goes to Oahu and doesn't stay for a spell in the heart of Waikiki is really missing out. My wife LOVED it there, because it's like a little mini 5th Avenue, NYC style, right on the prettiest tropical beach you can imagine. It's where surfing took root, and where I first fell in love with the State of Hawaii. Here's my whole family...

Here's what it looked like at night from our hotel room:

After Waikiki we ventured over to the North Shore and stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort. It's a high end resort on the very tip of the island, and it has stunning views, beaches, golf courses, restaurants, and privacy, if you want it- just the place to go to after a stay in busy Waikiki. Here's a shot I took at sunrise our first morning there:

 This is the view from the resort looking out over Turtle Bay itself.

and here's a picture of my own daughter ripping it up on the surf they have right next to the resort!

I've been fortunate to do a lot of traveling and have a lot of exciting personal adventures but watching my daughters enjoy themselves, and photographing them surfing, was a special treat! I was the proudest daddy in the entire world!

Just past the Turtle Bay Resort, there lies an expanse of secluded beaches that are breathtakingly beautiful. I went for a short hike there with my daughters, in part because we wanted to see the rare Hawaiian Monk Seal. I was told that there are very few of them left. I took this shot with my long lens because you're not allowed to get very close to them. I also wondered where her pup was, as I was told that she was spending time on the beach with her pup and waiting until the pup was grown enough to fend for itself. Maybe the pup already flew the coop?

One of the shots I did in my resort photography there was to capture the view that massage clients have when they are in the spa. It's kind of an interesting puzzle to get the shot so that the inside of the spa is lit properly, while the view through the window is not blown out and overexposed. Here's what I got:

My daughter Leilani is a pool freak. She gets a crazed look in her eye when she is playing in the pool and is in a total world of her own, she is having so much fun. It's almost like she doesn't hear you when you talk to her, she's in such a state of bliss. Last year I took a neat picture of her underwater and when she saw me with my camera she told me that she wanted to try for that shot again.

Great kids fishing picture

I frequent fishing chat boards and saw a post that asked readers to submit their favorite kids fishing photos. Because I have three kids of my own and have been a fishing enthusiast and elementary schoolteacher for over a decade, I have had many opportunities to get some great ones. The above is one of my favorites.

Kasey and his grandfather came out with me to kayak fish in Southern CA and we ended up catching a big fat yellowtail. In fact I picked the two of them up at 3:30 in the am and like a true angler, Kasey bounded down the steps barely able to contain his excitement at that early hour. We paddled out in the dark and made squid for bait under the moonlight, and were finally rewarded with this tasty treat.

Kasey was a very advanced student and also knew a lot about the local fishery. In the first week we struck a bond and I ended up going over to his house to meet his family (it was a public school that I taught at on Camp Pendleton). His dad was deployed in Iraq and his grandpa (pictured) was helping to take care of him with his daughter, Kasey's mother. He turned out to be a master angler and was schooling Kasey in all things fishing so we became fast friends. I told them, "Look, when the squid start spawning, I'm going to call you and we'll go out and catch us a big one!" Sure enough I got a call that the fish were biting and so I put the plan into action. You can bet he was stoked to tell his classmates about our adventure!

My Fishing Calendar published by Willow Creek Press

The first official calendar exclusively featuring my photography has just come out and I am excited! It's published by Willow Creek Press. They do all sorts of high interest wall calendars (way more than just fishing calendars) and seem to be a big name in the publishing world so I was honored to have my work selected.

Ironically the image you see here that is on the calendar cover was one of the first shots I ever took from the water. I sent it to my friend who is an editor and he said "Nice shot but you should have shot it vertically so I could have used it as a cover!" Ever since then I have been hyper vigilant about shooting vertically when I am doing these types of shots.

The fish is a striped marlin and it was caught and released off of Cabo San Lucas at the Golden Gate Bank. I've been meaning to do more blogging but I keep getting so caught up in photography and writing for magazines (which is a good thing!) that I haven't had time to log in and blog.

I was recently on assignment on the island of Oahu. I had such a great time there that I can't put it into words. I was like a kid in a candy store. Stay tuned for some really cool pics that I took of the fabulous scene there!

My new article & cover shot in Marlin World

I wrote an article about some of the great fishing adventures I had in Kona, Hawai this past summer for a really cool online magazine called Marlin World. The web has completely changed publishing, and Paul Watson, the editor of Marlin World, may well be onto something we'll see a lot of in the future. One can visit his website or subscribe to the free mailing list, and then you are can view the publication on your computer. The cool thing is that it reads much like a magazine- a virtual magazine. The pages flip with the help of some fancy dancy computer program and you can zoom in and out, and also watch videos imbedded on the page. It's interactive. Videos play as you are reading text above and around it. Pretty wild!

In any case, in the article I talked about the great times and luck I had photographing marlin, sharks, and other big fish from all sorts of vantage points in Hawaii, including face to face underwater (that's how I got the cover shot of the blue marlin that you see on the cover of Marlin World) and even from helicopters. Tell you what, between the pic I took of the marlin for the cover, and the self portrait I took above, I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm uglier than a marlin. Like, way uglier. Is that sad or what? Maybe if I got a hairpiece....

                                      

But I digress. Back to the Kona trip... I got so lucky that on the very first helicopter ride of my life, I witnessed something possibly only a few people have ever seen from above- a marlin jumping out of the water behind a boat!

The bizarre thing is that, as I noted in some hastilly scribbled text on the above photo, this is a photo of a marlin, jumping behind a boat called "Marlin Magic", owned by a famous captain named Marlin Parker! ( That's not something he calls himself, his dad named him that. His dad caught the first recognized blue marlin in the Pacific in, I think, 1954, and then months later had a baby, so naturally he named him Marlin.)  In fact, right now I am penning a series of articles about Captain Marlin Parker and his fishing techniques for a fantastic magazine called Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing. I was lucky to have one of my photos chosen for their cover earlier in the year- a shot I took of a sailfish being released in Guatemala:

The first article I write for Bluewater Boats will be on Captain Marlin Parker's fish fighting tactics. In reviewing the tapes I came upon a story of Marlin's that blew my mind; he and a friend were chasing the world record, day after day, when they hooked into a MONSTER that was "way bigger" than the 1400 pound behemoth he landed at another point in his career. He and his friend fought this fish for 23 hours and, well.... you'll have to find the rest in upcoming issues of Bluewater Boats!

Now if you don't mind I am going to share some photos that I took in Hawaii last summer. My wife and 3 girls were there with me for two of the four weeks I was there, and we had a great time hanging out and sight seeing.  Seems like no matter how far we go from home, all my girls ever want to do is lounge in the pool! Then when I chase after them with the camera they tell me all I ever do is want to take pictures. Below is a picture of them chillin' at one of their favorite places, the Sheraton Keauhou.

Now here's a pic of them at the Hilton Waikola:

One of these days I am going to write a major tome about all of the cool things to do in Hawaii. They have an active volcano and they also have inactive ones. You can take hikes through the tubes that the lava used to flow through. This is one of the pics I took that I like the best from that area

( Hawaii Volcanoes National Park)

They had these awesome flowers there at the Park ( it's a huge place, like Yellowstone, so when you hear 'park' don't think like the postage stamp place down the street from you where the kids play). Anyway I spent hours photographing these flowers. Then the problem is I get hundreds of nearly identical shots and can't help but look at each one carefully to pick the "best". Moreover, I snuck over a rail to get some of the flower shots, my expensive shades fell out, and I immediately stepped on them. The curse of the sunglasses repeated itself at Tropic Star Lodge in Panama not more than 4 months later.

And here's your standard. guy throwing flaming sticks in midair and then catching it in his legs shot.

And then we'll wrap it up with a picture of my youngest daughter at a luau. Her name is Leilani, it's a Hawaiian name and it means flower from heaven:

My new article on fishing and travel in Panama

The editors of Official Guide to Billfishing contacted me recently; they'd read my travel articles on Cabo San Lucas, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Hawaii, and Costa Rica ( which you can see on my site in the "articles" section) and asked if I could write an article on Panama. I've been there three times in the past year and it's one of my favorite destinations, so I jumped at the chance!

One of the reasons I was excited to do this article is that the editor wanted me to include a lot of travel content. Panama is more than a great fishing destination- it's an incredibly diverse country that plays host to a thriving modern metropolis (Panama City), dense jungles, indigenous tribes, a large amount of retirees from the United States and Europe, and the Canal Zone, which is like a mini Hong Kong because of the Duty Free Zone.

Plus, Panama uses the dollar- did you know that?

It's listed in many travel magazines as one of the best places in the world to retire. Google "Panama" and "Retirement" and you'll see what I mean.

I grew up 45 minutes from New York City, so I am not usually wowed by cities, but Panama's capital is indeed impressive. This waterfront city is mostly comprised of completely new and soon to be finished high rise condominiums, office buildings, fancy malls, and even a John's Hopkins Hospital and Trump Tower (I'm not sure if he actually calls it that, but he owns it and it's a towering building!)

The article gave me a chance to share some of the images that I'd recently taken of the bustling Panamanian skyline, as well as photos of Choco Indians and upscale stores like Tiffany's and Gucci. 

People's eyes always pop when I show them these photos and then tell them where they were all taken in the same country! To read the full article, follow this link:

 Panama Pastimes: Fishing and Travel Article by Jon Schwartz

My New Article in Marlin Magazine: Hawaiian Lure Magic!

I wrote an interesting article on fishing with lures in Hawaii called "Lure Magic" that's in the March 2010 issue of Marlin Magazine. Funny story: I had already penned several features on my trip to Hawaii in various publications, including another article in the February issue of Marlin on fishing for spearfish in Hawaii (see earlier post ), but I couldn't find anyone who was interested in having me write an article on Kona's great blue marlin fishery.

Why? Well, the topic has been covered many times over; writing an average garden-variety article about fishing for blue marlin in Hawaii is like writing an article about the existence of taxicabs and skyscrapers in New York City!

Anyway, I followed Jim Rizzuto's advice (Jim's a legendary writer and expert on all things fishing in Hawaii) and made arrangements to accompany Captain Teddy Hoogs for several days in August.

Teddy ( pictured above) is a young, talented, and very well respected captain on Hawaii's Kona Coast,  and happens to be the son of  Kona Legend Peter Hoogs, who's been operating a charter boat in Kona since the late 60's. Teddy happens to run one of the nicest boats in all of Hawaii, a 53' Merrit called the Kila Kila.

                                            

 During a lull in the action, I decided to pass the time by documenting how they rigged lures. Along with recording the whole process on audiotape, I took about 50 close-up pictures of the lure as it came to form in the boat's salon. Once the lure was completed, Teddy's mate put it into the spread behind the boat and then only half jokingly said, "Now watch that lure get hit."

Within minutes all heck broke loose- a real started screaming, and we all ran to the deck. One of the lures had gotten hit by a nice blue marlin- the very same one that the mate had painstakingly constructed in front of my camera only minutes earlier!!

The fish  flailed wildly in midair, tossing the newly-rigged purple Bomboy Llanes bullet lure like a ragdoll. I got some decent pics of that, and then dove in (Teddy and I had rehearsed a plan well in advance) and I got some really incredible photos of the marlin swimming underwater with the same lure. To finish the release of the fish, the mate grabbed hold of the blue marlin's bill, held the fish's head parallel to the water to run water through it's gills, and they made a pass by me as I lay submerged in the water. Right when they began to pass me, just as planned, the mate released the fish and it went streaming off calmly into the clear blue depths.

If this sounds too good to be true, check the article and the pics out! I have a slew of images documenting the whole episode, and they are all among the best underwater images of blue marlin that I've ever taken.

My latest cover shot, Saltwater Sportsman Magazine Feb. '10

I took the above sailfish shot, now the cover of Saltwater Sportsman, last year in Guatemala during a stay at Casa Vieja Lodge. Yes, that young lady did catch the fish! Here is a pic of her in action:

As soon as the fish calmed down and got near the boat, I dove in and started taking pictures.

 When I am taking pictures, especially underwater, I am not usually thinking about getting a size estimate on the fish, I'm more concerned with getting myself and the fish into position for "the shot". It wasn't until I looked at the photos later that I realized this was one huge sailfish! Everyone keeps asking me how big the fish was, and my honest answer is, I have no idea, I just know it's very large for a sailfish. The fish was released in great shape right after the shot was taken.

On board was the young lady in the shot, and her father Ric Weider and younger sister. The older daughter got the cover shot, but I don't want to leave the youngest daughter out. She caught several with the help of her dad. Here's her in action: 

If I didn't get a picture of her with a fish it wouldn't have been fair, so I jumped in and got this photo:

I talked to Ric yesterday and he said the older daughter was running around her school showing off her cover shot. That must have been fun for her! I'm glad I was able to play a small part in enhancing their Guatemalan vacation.

New Article on Fishing for Spearfish in Marlin Magazine

Do you know what a spearfish is? Pick up a copy of the Feb. 2010 issue of Marlin and read my feature on spearfish, the world's rarest billfish, to learn all about them. The title of the article is "Spearfish Skippers", and it has a lot of insight on how three top Kona captains fish for the shortnose spearfish.

I interviewed veteran Captains Marlin Parker, Guy Terwilliger, and Gene Vanderhoek for the article, spending days with each one during the height of the season on the Kona Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

 

There's been very little written on the species. When I was tasked with writing the article, I felt a little overwhelmed, so I let the experts do the talking, quizzing them for interesting information, tips, and anecdotes. For example, Gene Vanderhoek talked about the time he hooked one on 4 pound test, and 6 hours into the fight, his potential world record fish was eaten by a giant blue marlin!!

You'll also get a chance to see some of the very rare shots I took of spearfish. Catching a spearfish is rare enough, but getting high resolution images of spearfish is much more difficult because you never know when they are going to be there. It was all about being in the right place at the right time, and with a LOT of luck, I ended up with lots of goodies, all of them taken from the water. That shot on the cover is not mine, though- it's a striped marlin taken by Brandon Cole. I wish I took that shot!

To read the article go to this link Spearfish Skippers: Fishing for Spearfish in Kona, Hawaii

New Article: HIBT, Hawaii's Legendary Marlin Tournament

If you go to this link you can see one of my latest articles. HIBT: Legendary Hawaiian Marlin Fishing Tournament. It's on the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament's (HIBT) 50th Anniversary that took place in July. Kona's got some of the calmest, cobalt blue waters in the world, and some of the best big game fishing on earth!
By the time you read this post there will another article of mine on newstands; it's one about fishing for the world's rarest billfish, the shortnose spearfish, and it will be in Marlin Magazine. I'm really excited to see how it looks in print. There will be many rare spearfish shots that I took above and below the water and it will be exciting for me to see how the magazine laid it all out. There will also be a shot of mine that is on the cover of Saltwater Sportsman Magazine due out in about a week.

Photos in new books from Guy Harvey and Rybovich Boats

Two new coffee table books are due out soon that feature my photographs. One is from the legendary Guy Harvey, entitled "Panama Paradise: A Tribute to Tropic Star Lodge" and another was put out by the world renowned Rybovich Boat Company, simply titled "Rybovich". I  look forward to seeing these books as they come out in a matter of weeks, and it's an honor to have my work selected for inclusion. If you go to my gallery pages Jon Schwartz Photo Galleries, which happen to contain over 50 new images, you will see some of the photos that will be in the books.

This week I also submitted feature articles to Marlin Magazine and the World Billfish Magazine. The article in Marlin is about how the pros lure rigs in Kona, and the other article is about Panama. This is the second article I've written on Panama, and this one goes into Panama's history, the history of sportfishing in Panama, and reviews some of the best fishing lodges in the area that exist today.

For the Kona article, I spent many hours interviewing Teddy Hoogs, captain of the Kila Kila, a beautiful 53' Merrit, and I interviewed a wide range of people for the Panama article, including Guy Harvey.
I may end up going back down to Panama in February. I have some time off from my school teaching job ( you know I teach third grade, right?) and the places I reviewed look so spectacular, I just may have to visit one!