Kona Hawaii fishing report - Archive -

Kona Hawaii fishing report 12/23/01

Striped marlin tops this months fishing report as the most common Kona catch. The run has been awesome. Plenty of multiple strikes and catches. It's slowed down a little this week but will pick back up again with the coming of the full moon. Along with the stripies, there's still some blue marlin coming in. Not too much size to 'em but still bigger than the average stripie.

The end of the mahi mahi season has come. There's still a few around but as soon as they figure out that the water is getting colder, they'll be gone with the rest of 'em. I haven't seen any spearfish at the dock in a while but by the middle of next month we'll be seeing more. Their season really kicks in starting February and remains good 'til April. A little flurry of ono came through this past week. Lost? Who knows, who cares. Ono are good eating any time of the year.

Kona is having another poor year when it comes to Shibi season. Last year, the run never really showed up and this year looks much like the same. Shibi season is the time when the smaller yellowfin (5 to 30 lbs) tuna and bigeye tuna hang around our ledges and FAD's. It's not too late though. I still have hopes to catch some new years sashimi.

The bottom fishing bite has been extremely slow for this time of year. The recent current switch from North to South nearly killed the bite all together. A few of the commercial snapper fishermen have found some spots where the bite was good but as soon as the word got out, those spots more resembled a parking lot for boats.

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