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October has often been one of my favorite months to fish because often it's just an extended summer month with flat seas, light winds and a pretty decent bite but this October we got hit by a couple of winter storms. The last one dumped so much rain on us that it sunk two boats in Kona and three on Oahu. Other boats were in danger of sinking and came close but didn't. Any more rain and there would have been more sinkings. A bilge pump is only as good as the battery that supplies its power. Even after that storm passed, the seas remained pretty rough for a couple of days.
Luckily for us here in Kona even in the winter we have more calm days than rough days. The high mountains protect the Kona coast and by tucking in closer to shore you can usually find some calmer water. And hopefully some fish. With mahi mahi season starting, fishing the ledge can be quite profitable. The ledges and VV buoy have also been holding tunas.
In the middle of the month the currents got going so fast that the bottom fishing bite died. If the current is moving too fast, the fish need to go hide from it. It was frustrating that while the current speed was favorable and the bottom bite was good, the bait fish became really hard to catch. Catching one / some and dropping to the bottom became a nearly instant bite. When the current started moving fast, the bait fish were easy to catch but it didn't do us any good since the bottom fish were no where around. The current has since slowed way down and the bottom bite came right back. And yes, the bait fish are again hard to find and hard to catch. Persistence has paid off though. I caught a lot of sharks this month and some of them were species that I rarely catch. I got a mako. It's been more than 10 years since I've caught one of those. Another was a Galapagos shark. I maybe see 2 or 3 a year. Another was a oceanic blacktip. It's been more than 5 years since I've seen one of those and another was a bignose shark. Again, I only see 2 or 3 a year of those. They're all hard fighters.
See 'ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers
http://FISHinKONA.com
