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So here I sit at the computer again about to write the Kona Hawaii Fishing Report. I've been doing it once a month for over 10 years now and I always try to get it done just before the month ends. Last month I didn't even realize the month had ended until after the fact and I found myself cramming the time into my schedule to get the report done. Just to let you know, it takes the better part of a day to write it and post it in several fishing forums. I decided to make yellowfin tuna the focus of the report because I had recently talked to several captains about my tuna theory but in doing so, with blinders on, I didn't do my billfish homework. My bad. There was a new State record Striped Marlin caught in late March weighing in at 212 lbs. and I had even forgotten that Hawaii's first "grander" of the year was caught about the middle of the month weighing in at 1062 lbs. That catch had just escaped my tunnel vision mind. This month the billfish bite remained pretty good although slightly less than last month with striped marlin, blue marlin and spearfish being caught in Kona almost daily.
On a trip earlier this week we landed a 519 blue marlin that died during the fight. A 500+ pounder is called a "beast" and I wasn't sure if it would make the weight or not but I knew it would be close. We weighed it and were happy that it made the grade. The guy who filleted it up called me the next day and said that it had a 30 lb. spearfish in its stomach that had just been eaten. It was so fresh that no digestion had even taken place. I'll take the "beast" status anyway :) The already full marlin just couldn't resist the smell of my anchovy stuffed Gatorade bottle lure. That's right, a plastic bottle. I describe these lures on my web site and they were also featured in Marlin Magazine in '09. To my surprise I found out last week that I'm in this month's issue of Sport Fishing Magazine on page 55. There's no mention of my name but that's me with the spearfish.
Yellowfin tuna, big skipjacks, mahi mahi and ono are still biting pretty good. There were several more instances of blind-strike yellowfin this month. I had a nice blind-strike yellowfin on myself recently but we broke line on it during a hard run. I've had some people comment on the yellowfin theory I wrote about in last month's report. The theory makes too much sense to just discount it. The increase in yellowfin tuna populations has to be due to something. There's so many out there now that fishermen are having a hard time finding someone to buy them because there's so many on the market.
The bottom bite has been mostly sharks lately with a few amberjack thrown in. I haven't had time to update the fish photos page on my own web site lately between fishing trips and other duties but now that this fish report is written, with still several hours more needed to publish it on fishing forums and, got to go into town today, I might just be able to update my fish photos page soon. Darn, just realized I got to stop by the boat too and get my camera with all this weeks photos in it.
See 'ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers
http://FISHinKONA.com