The Weekly Fishing Line

Looks like it’s turning back around for the bigger fish this week. Big Marlin and a couple Ahi’s approaching 100 pounds were reported. Sea Verse ran into a nice school of Ahi and boated a nice 90 pounder toward BO buoy, while another boat, Sea Hawk, got into a 469 lb Marlin out off the Power Plant. Their charter was a 15 year old boy and his family, so that was a thrill to say the least.

Over the weekend, the entire charter fleet came in with an abundance of Spears, Mahis, Akus (little ones which are better for baiting), and we even saw a few Ono from the guys who were running the Barber’s Point ledge. We really didn’t hear of any consistent place the fishing was better than in others, but deeper water did seem to be one of the themes. Most of the bigger stuff was caught in at least 500 fathoms and deeper.

No tournaments to report on for the weekend and we didn’t hear much from the Holoholo (recreational) guys, but the way the charter fleet did, it’s looking like some major action is right around the corner. The water is warm off the Penguin Banks, HH Buoy, P Buoy, and it looks like with all the bait cruising around we’ll have some big fish here shortly.

Still real slow for Marlin lately, with only a few spotty reports of pointy noses coming in. Recent tournament at Pearl Harbor produced Mahimahi and Ono in good volume, with a few smaller Shibi and a couple of Spears as well. The charter fleet has been cleaning up on the Mahimahis, too. And they’ve been BIG. Sea Verse caught six in one outing recently at an average of 30 pounds. Kamome did the same thing, and added a couple big Onos as well. No specific locations, for these fish, either.....they seem to be pretty much in the open and under the nets guys are lucky enough to find.

The bottom fish still seem to be at the Banks, and we got a report of a nice 106lb Ulua down at the South Tip coming in. Another tournament in Kona this weekend produced a Marlin at 500+, but even over there, the Marlin fishing has been a little slow. Well, that’s OK. Since Hawaii is a year round Marlin Fishery, we’re allowed to have a couple of breathers here and there. The weather has been good, maybe even too good lately, but with the predominant water temperature around
25 - 26 degrees Centigrade, it’s not surprising the tunas and other baits are in town.

Be sure to check our weather, tide and sea surface temperature pages at www.sportfishhawaii.com/weather.htm so you can follow along with where the water’s good.

The Uku seem to have come up for air and arrived with force recently. Penguin Banks went off this week and the Uku were hammering the trolling lures with some kind of agenda, with many boats posting multiple landings. For those of you not familiar with all the Hawaiian fish names, Uku is a Gray Snapper with large scales and sharp fang type teeth. They are excellent eating fish, and are often found in shallower water up to about 100 feet. We often catch them on the trolling lures as we cut the corners rounding various parts of the island(s), and they have similar feeding and habitat patterns as the Ulua (Giant Trevally). They usually don’t go into deep water, but with the Banks at only 240 feet for much of the flats, this isn’t really too deep for them.

Some of our charter guys were out of the water in dry-dock this week, so unfortunately we don’t have much else to report. We did receive one report from Sea Verse, who was able to get back in the water and immediately found some large open school Mahimahi, posting double digit landings up to 44 pounds. He also took an overnight charter to Kalaupapa on the North shore of Molokai and reports they had a great time catching 32 Mahi, and while at anchor in the lee of the isthmus, they caught a bunch of reef and bottom fish to pass the evening away.

The best fishing for the early week was out towards the Banks, while later was Barber's where the Aku and other bait were running. BO and Waianae were OK, too, but the charter guys must have known something when some of them decided to haul their boats for bottom service this week, as fishing along the South shore suddenly dropped off after a great start. Topping the list was a 552 lb. Blue Marlin caught on the 4th off Barber's Point, ironically after the crew had dropped off their charter and gone holoholo back to Kewalo basin. A real nice 383 lb. Blue Marlin, 2 Mahis and a nice Spear were all brought in on a 17' whaler on the 5th from the South tip of the Banks, making for a heck of a day for that father son angling team. The fishing stayed strong out that way all week until the weekend when the bite seemed to just stop.

Come the weekend, signs of good producing water were still all over the place and an enormous school of Aku was found off the Pine Trees in Ewa Beach, but most of the boats passing through weren't able to get much to bite. A yacht club tournament produced about 18 fish for 18 boats on Saturday, but the distribution was more like all or nothing. While some boats caught a bunch, most of the fleet got skunked. Good variety, though. Of the fish brought in, the species included the following: Spearfish, Mahimahi, Ono, some Aku, and even a Kahala (amberjack).