Kona Hawaii fishing report – April wrap-up.
April was a pretty weak trolling month overall with mahi mahi being the main catch but things are really looking up now. The ono run had started! I can’t say that it will stay in full swing through the summer but if the current run is any indicator of what’s to come, it’s going to be a good season. Another fish just coming into season is yellowfin tuna. There has been some caught almost daily in the porpoise schools but we’ll know the real run is happening when we start getting “blind strikes”. No indication that the yellowfin are even in the area and all the sudden one or more lines go off. Tuna surprise!
No matter how slow the trolling bite is in Kona you can always count on at least some marlin being caught here. That’s what makes Kona the Pacific blue marlin capitol of the world. A few big blues were landed in April although most were tagged and released. Striped marlin are scarce right now but still a couple a week coming in.
The bottom bite has been turning hot and cold. Normally the jacks are hanging on the edge of the ledges but bait schools running around is the flats, a very large area, have been scattering them and making them hard to find. A lot of big sharks have shown up too. Several 1000+ lb. tiger sharks have been spotted lately. One followed up an almaco jack that we brought in last Thursday but it was getting late in the day and not the type of people on board that could handle a big fight like that. I had several big shark fights in April and either pulled hook or broke terminal tackle on every one of them. I’ve been beefing up my rigs trying to prevent more failures but mostly it’s been a problem of me being too stingy with the drag at the end game. My anglers for the most part have been getting these huge sharks close to the boat but that’s when they go nuts, do a lot of thrashing and head shaking. It’s funny when anglers do that …… no no no, just kidding. Some of them have been less that happy that they didn’t get a chance to get a good shark photo though.
See ‘ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers ,
<A href="http://fishinhawaii.com"> Kona Hawaii Sportfishing</A>
