Kona Hawaii fishing report - Archive -

Kona Hawaii fishing report Feb. '05

The trolling catch in Kona diminished in February from a really good catch in the first part of the month to only a good catch recently. We`re still getting lots of hits but everyone here is having "rubber hook syndrome". When the fish get less aggressive, they tend to just zip off a little line and then come off. Captains and crews start changing hook sizes, angles, length in the skirts and of course sharpening the hooks to a fine needle point. That helps somewhat but if the fish just won`t hit hard, there`s not much you can do. I had a REALLY HUGE marlin (well over 500 lbs) checking out one of my lures a couple of days ago and even though I teased her with it, she just watched it for a while and then moved on. There are some really big marlin swimming the Kona waters right now. Two monsters were caught this week. The biggest of year is now 923 1/2 lbs. and that same day, another marlin over 700 was caught. Most of the bites in Kona are still coming from spearfish. These guys are really stealthy and have a tendency to grab-let go-grab-let go-grab-let go. They`re really hard to hook when they do that. The striped marlin and mahi mahi are doing the single hit and run thing. If you don't hook `em on the first hit, chances are that they won`t come back for a second try. Ono are still biting in the deep. Plenty of shibi and otaru still around. The current is pulling North again and appears to be stable. That's always good for the bite right in front of the harbor and North of the airport.

The bottom bite has been slow because of the recent inconsistent currents. It could also be that the big sharks that were here for the last two months sent the typical reef dwellers running for their lives. The shark activity seems to have shifted to the South and that`s good because the best bottom fishing is a short run North of the harbor.

Tourism here is Kona is going full tilt! All the hotels are full. Many boats going out. This is odd for February but I think I know the reason. The mainland U.S. has been getting slammed with some pretty foul weather. Many mainlanders go to Florida or the Caribbean to escape the nasty weather but because those places are still repairing and cleaning up from all those hurricanes, Hawaii seems like (and is) the better option. The sun is shining, the waters are flat and the fish are biting, biting, biting ….. well as long as they keep biting, sharpen those hooks more, you`re just one hook-up away from the fish of a life time.

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