‘Hanapaa!’: Oahu man reels in record-breaking 26-pound monster tako

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A record-size octopus was caught in Hawaii waters!

He tried to lay low but his record-breaking catch went viral — Michael Matsunaga is the new tako champion.

The 69-year-old Wahiawa man was expecting just another day on the ocean Tuesday morning, until he felt a tug on his line about a mile off Turtle Bay.

“It felt like it was stuck,” Matsunaga said.

He was bottom-fishing at 400 feet and struggled to reel it in.

“He has eight legs. I get two arms. I kind of put him in the cooler. But he tried to get out everything. I finally got him in the cooler. And then I had to sit on the cooler because he was kinda of lifting me up.”

Matsunaga brought the monster catch to Hanapaa Fishing and on the scale it weighed 25.95 pounds.

He beat the previous record held by his brother Stewart who hooked a 19-pounder off Kaena point in 2000.

Using fish and squid for bait, the tako champion thinks he just got lucky.

He’s made several gyotaku prints of the tako and eventually plans to eat it — not squid luau or tako poke, but the old school way.

“Just boil it in beer probably one leg at a time,” Matsunaga said.

“Hanapaa!”

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