As drones have become more commercially available over the past decade, recreational fishers have discovered a new way to scout for fish and cast a line. Some newer flying drones are purpose built for fishing—they’re waterproof and can carry heavy loads of bait. Amateur anglers can even get their hands on a submarine drone armed with sonar and a light-up lure. While some videos appear to show anglers hooking and hauling in fish with drones, most of these devices weigh only a few kilograms, making it unlikely that they could reliably reel in fish, especially heavy fish like ulua. But they can carry a hook farther than even the most expertly cast line.
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The giant trevally, a stubborn and powerful apex predator, is one of Hawai‘i’s most coveted game fish. Hiding out in coral reefs and caves, the fish is tough to see when fishing from shore. But Brandon Barques, a 35-year-old construction worker in Honolulu, knows how to find it. Watching through the video feed streaming to his phone, Barques sends a flying drone carrying a fishing line out over the surf, searching for large sandy canals and depressions in the seafloor. When he finds the right spot, he triggers the drone to drop the line. Then he calls the drone back—and waits for a bite.
Among anglers, smaller trevally are called papio, but fish over 4.5 kilograms are known as ulua. Barques has been fishing since he was young but says he’d never caught a proper ulua until he started using a drone. In 2017, with the assistance of his metallic companion, he finally landed a 54-kilogram giant. Drone fishing is a new world, he says. “It changes the way we fish and the way we think.”
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