About 180 freshwater fishers took line and pole yesterday and angled their way to the ol' water hole — otherwise known as the Nu'uanu Reservoir No. 4 — for opening day of the weekend catfishing season.

Folks who could have been cutting bait by the sea got a chance to reel in something other than saltwater fare.

These casters were young, old, and in-between. Entire families showed up, to the delight of Knud Lindgard, on-site volunteer fishing expert.

"This has turned into a picnic thing for the whole family," said Lindgard, 76, who specializes in teaching kids every trick in his tackle box.

Take the stuff you stick on the hook. The smellier the better, insist some, who can spend years designing the perfect stink bait. Others pay good money for bad-looking store-bought blood and cheese mixes to slather on a J-hook.

But Lindgard simply picked up a stick, scrapped it through a mound of leaves by the side of the reservoir parking lot, and pointed at dozens of worms wriggling through the mess.

Can't get any better bait, Lindgard said. It doesn't cost a penny.

Earthworms were exactly what the Hsu family used, and they were yanking fish out of the water at a steady pace.

"We love to fish," said Alice Hsu, who moved to Hawai'i Kai from California a month ago with her husband, Dante, and their three kids, Caleb, 8, Priscilla, 5, and Tryphena, 3. "But we usually we go shore fishing."

She said the family heard about fishing for freshwater catfish at a local fishing shop and they couldn't wait to try it out for the first time.

Now, she said, it's the family that's hooked.

"We will definitely be back. We didn't know it was so easy — see, Dante just caught another one," she said.

"I caught a fish about this big," piped up Priscilla, holding her hands about 6 inches apart. "It was fun. It was easy. Then I threw it back in."

Lindgard wasn't surprised the kids were catching catfish.

"Seasoned anglers don't change their ways," he said. "Kids are easier to teach."

Lindgard said he began fishing in Denmark nearly 70 years ago. The first thing he learned about the sport was how to lie.

"That part just comes automatically," he said.

If they'd have had a fish tale prize yesterday it would have gone to Khamtoun Porter of Kane'ohe, who walked to the weigh-out scale toting a very large bucket in which there flopped a relatively puny 1-pound catfish.

Porter, 57, said he intended to take the diminutive catfish home to cook for lunch, but he was more interested in talking about the one that got away.

"I caught a pretty big fish and put on it the ground," he told anyone willing to listen.

"Then, I heard this noise. And then I looked around and it was gone! I said, 'Where's my fish?' And then I realized a mongoose had dragged it into the bushes and got into a fight over it with another mongoose. That was the noise."

Not content to leave the story at that, Porter continued — and this is where the whopper came in.

"I actually caught an even bigger fish than that — I'd say it was maybe 12 to 15 pounds," he said.

"And then I fell down by the bank and got all wet, and then I lost my slipper, and then the fish got away.

"My butt still hurts from where I fell. It's all true, but no one will ever believe me."

While some listeners shook their heads, Cory Onishi of Kapahulu — either out of admiration or pity, he didn't say — reached into his own bucket, filled to the brim with some large catches, and handed Porter a 3-pounder just so he'd have something substantial to sink his teeth into.

"Thank you, thank you very much," Porter said.

Officially, the biggest catch of the day was a 27 1/2-inch catfish weighing 10 pounds and 6 ounces.

But Theresa Uyema of Honolulu said she was content with her second biggest take — a 25-inch, 9-pound, 8-ounce cat that was only one of a number of hefty fish on Uyema's stringer. She's known for catching biggies.

The whole trick is knowing where to fish, according to her.

"We have a secret spot," she admitted.

"But usually a bunch of people have found it by the time we get there."