Olona fishing line:

Olona. The plant, left. Above, a bone fishhook with olona cordage. Photographs from David Webb, used with permission.

 

“In the old days there was this twine called olona," Craig says. "It was just a traditional rope. Some people used to tell me that in the old days, that was passed down. Hawai‘i was known for this cordage that made manila rope look like rubbish. The hi-tech line that we have nowadays, called Japanese shibu, it’s maroon, like dried-blood color and it’s super hard, stiff, strong, sensitive. The old man that I went on the boat with, he said that old Hawaiian rope that they had was so sacred and so strong and so sensitive, he could tell what kind of fish was down there nibbling on the bait, compared to that line that we have today. You know today, that one will tell you if you got a little small little thing, trying to steal the bait.

"But he said that olona line was so sensitive that that thing could tell you what kind of fish was eating the bait. And I believe that, because he could do that. He could tell me what was biting on the hook. And sometimes he’d get mad and say, ‘Aaah,’ he’d grumble the name of the fish. And the next thing you’d know I’d look at the fish. He knew exactly what was on there already before he brought it up.

"When he was a grandchild, his grandfather would tell him, ‘that line touch the deck, you gonna get cracked on the head.’ That’s how sacred that rope was. As much as possible, that rope was not to see any sunlight. It would go into the ipu, the gourd. When I see the pictures nowadays, they got the big calabash with the big wide mouth. It looks like a big bowl. Back then, the one that he was talking about had less than a two-inch opening. He had to go hand over hand and put all the line back in that hole.

"He told me he had to sit there on his knees all day long. That line ever touched the deck he got whacked on the head. He said that’s how sacred they kept that rope. Somebody else told me, that that’s why the Hawaiian Islands were famous for the cordage. The ships used to come here and trade. The Hawaiians made rope out of that. And that rope was so superior, it was like nylon to them. They’d come here to get that special kind of rope."

Pacific Worlds > Hawai‘i: Kawaihae > The Sea > Fishing