Kona Hawaii fishing report – April ’05 –
The billfish bite was real good for April. It’s still going strong now. It’s mostly spearfish with blue marlin of every size mixed in. Personally, I’m still having problems getting a decent billfish bite. Here’s an example of the kind of luck I’ve been having lately. I’m up on “the grounds” last week trying to catch live bait. The baitfish are in the area but not biting too well. I finally get a bait bite on the rod that I set and then notice we had a double baitfish hookup but my customer forgot to set the clicker on his reel. His baitfish already had about 2/3 of the Shimano TLD25 emptied. He gets his bait about ½ way back to the boat and then something grabs it and starts running with it. There had been some bottlenose dolphin in the area so I just figured it was one of them. I push the drag up to strike on the 25 lb. test and suddenly a huge blue marlin makes it’s hook up jump behind the boat. Now were hooked to a huge blue with a bait rod! Right about the time I was contemplating turning a chasing it, the line broke. Good thing anyway, we really couldn’t have done much with a fish that size on such light tackle. That marlin (or possibly another huge one) was hooked a little later, a short distance away. Angler Kevin Poynter fishing on the Sundowner with Capt. Darrin Isaacs pulled in what is now Kona’s biggest fish of the year. A 991 ½ pounder. Just shy of that elusive“ grander” victory. Anyone think there was a chance at it on a bait rod with 25 lb. test?
The ahi, mahi mahi, ono, and shibi bite it also good right now. Some of the ahi are getting caught in the porpoise schools but most are getting caught “in the blind”. There’s been some 100+ bigeye tuna getting caught in the blind also. Ono lane is producing many of the ono but they’re also biting in the deep.
With the trolling bite doing good, I’m only spending a small portion of the day bottom fishing lately. If you know where to go, it doesn’t take long to hook up. The middle of April we hooked up to a shark (one of five) that quickly took out over 300 yards of 100 lb. test line with the drag cranked up high. I was backing down the boat hard and it was still taking line fast. I was turning to chase when the leader snapped. I figured it had to be a tiger shark by the way it fought. The next day in the same area, same anglers, we got to see the beast. Estimating it to be every bit of 1000 lbs. I threw a skipjack tuna to it and although it followed it, sniffing it out for some time, it just wouldn’t take the bait. Yesterday, in that same area, another grander tiger (or possibly the same one?) came in trying to eat a 50 lb. amberjack we were hauling in. The water was real flat so we all got a good look at it. No one on the boat wanted to have anything to do with a beast that big. The best angler I had on the boat was still huffin’ and puffin’, out of strength from fighting the amberjack. I’ll be out tomorrow and the next day with an experienced jig fisherman that has fished with me several times over the years. He brings his own tackle and only wants to jig but I’m hoping I can talk him in to going after that tiger with one of my new 2 speed Penn Int. V reels. It’s Penn’s latest model and so far, I’m very impressed with the performance. If we do catch that tiger, you won’t see a picture of it hanging dead at the dock! I get a few of these beasts hooked up every year, It could even be the exact same ones. A photo and release will do just fine.
See `ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers ,
<A href="http://fishinkona.com">Kona Hawaii fishing</A>
