Kona Hawaii fishing report - Archive -

Kona Hawaii fishing report - June wrap-up -

The marlin have arrived. Blue marlin of all sizes - small to grander. Yes, there was a 1075 pounder caught and there have been reports of other 1000+ marlin fought/lost and one even caught, at the boat floating belly up dead but due to the incompetence of one of the crew, it slowly sank to the bottom with a bunch of shallow gaff holes and one gaff still in it. It was definitely a sad tale to hear and extremely frustrating for the angler and the one experienced crewman who, like many of us has yet to attain that coveted "grander" status. I congratulated the guys that did land that 1075 pounder this month and asked my long time friend Steve "How long did it take you to get it?" His answer "22 years Jeff." A lot has to go right to subdue an animal that big. Most of the time it just can't be done and the fish wins. Sometimes the boat wins and on rare occasion, they both loose. Personally, I've never even had a decent shot at getting one. I'll continue to dream of that day though. The spearfish are here in full force and something very strange, the striped marlin came back. Normally a striped marlin caught in the summer is a rare thing here but several are being caught now. For those billfish huggers that are appalled about us killing a few (I almost always get comments from them), lighten up! We release many more than we kill (and eat). Unlike the longliners that kill thousands just to toss them back into the water dead. If you really want to make a difference, do something to shut those guys down instead of wagging your finger at us small time operators.

Ahi season has arrived also. This is the time of year that we get the "blind strike" yellowfin tuna. One of the exciting things about this time of year is that when a reel starts screaming, it could be just about anything on the line. There are still some mahi mahi around and some ono being caught in the deep. Small yellowfin and bigeye tuna on the buoys and those "blind strike" tuna are usually yellowfin over 100 lbs.

Sharks are dominating the depths right now. If you hook up anything other than a shark down there, you better be quick to get it up. Sharks can really move fast but as a general rule, they swim slowly acting like time is on their side. Almost every fish we hook that isn't a shark will either get attacked right away or will have a shark following it right up to the boat. Slow down your (fast) retrieve rate just a little and your fish (and maybe your jig) is gone. Last month I talked about cheaper jigs. Yes, they work real good and yes, I've lost them all + some of the expensive ones to shark attacks. Back to the tackle shop today to get more of those cheap ones and some more hooks. I did some work on my jigging page (FISHinKONA.com/jigging.htm) and illustrate how to tie your own trapper hooks. The cheap jig (lost the last one yesterday to a shark) is in the bottom photo, the jig on the left.

See 'ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers
http://FISHinKONA.com