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Hawaii Sportfish Species |
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| The anglers of Sportfish Hawaii are always in pursuit of Hawaii’s ultimate sporting prize: The Pacific Blue Marlin; one of the largest, most beautiful, and most powerful fish in the sea. Sharing the Hawaiian waters with this awesome creature are a variety of other sportfish species, some of which we feature here. While there are many types of fish in Hawaii, in keeping with our offshore theme we profile the types of sportfish we’re likely to come across in our quest for fishing nirvana. Like many issues related to fishing, the data and narratives provided here are always subject to varying opinions. State and IGFA records are current according to the best available information. We’d sure appreciate an email with any new State or IGFA records if we've missed them. |
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Pacific Blue Marlin - Makaira
nigricans
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Read what you will in the magazines and
papers and interpret it any way you wish, but the entire calendar year is the season for Pacific Blue Marlin in Hawaiian waters. Sure, many skippers will
say there might be a few more in the summer time coming in behind the Aku (Skipjack), but
take a look at the catch records over time. There is no fishery in the world that can make
the claim that Hawaii does in that a large Blue Marlin can be caught any time of year.
The bait will become nervous when a strike is impending, and this is where the angler’s and the boat driver’s skills must work in unison. Although many claim the right approach is to count to 10 or more after the initial strike, Marlin open their mouths wide and engulf the entire bait with a vacuum-like force. We believe the hook should be set about 3 to 5 seconds after the taking of the bait. Any longer and the fish tends to have swallowed the bait making for a less enjoyable fight and a higher chance of mortality caused by gut-hooking. One of the great advantages of live baiting a Marlin, if
done correctly, is the cost of releasing it. When the fish is controlled at leader, if the
hook is not easily removed the line can be cut and the fish released with minimal trauma
and a total loss of about $3.00 worth of fishing gear (a hook and 8 inches of line)
instead of losing a whole $50.00 lure. |
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Striped Marlin - Tetrapturus
audax
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| Catch a Striped Marlin
the same as you would a Blue if you are running with plugs. One of the fun things about
Stripers is multiple hookups are quite frequent. Unlike the Blue which is essentially a
lone-wolf predator, the Stripers often travel in pairs; male and female. Stripers are
often found away from the usual banks and bottom curves that many other fish hang around
in, and most interestingly, the Stripers often school up in deep water hundreds of miles
off shore (out of range of most day trips, but certainly within range of our Long Range
Charters). Although not as large on average as the
Blue, the Striper can be an awfully fun fish to play, especially on light tackle. Because
of this, Sportfish Hawaii anglers like to switch to lighter tackle in areas where we
believe Stripers are more prevalent than Blues. |
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Black Marlin - Makaira
indica
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| Black Marlin are very rare in Hawaiian waters; we only average
about half a dozen or so a year throughout the whole state. It is thought that the Black
Marlins that travel away from their "home" in Australia strayed following a
school of bait and forgot the way back after the feeding frenzy dissipated. Not much is
known about the breeding or feeding habits of the Black in Hawaii, and all of the Blacks
landed are incidental catches while trolling or baiting for Blues. We hear Blackies put up
one heck of a fight, but frankly, none of the Sportfish Hawaii anglers have ever caught
one. |
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Broadbill Swordfish - Xiphias
gladius
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| This fish is one of the reasons why Hawaii is
able to provide such diversity to the Angling Adventurer. The Broadbill,
a night fish caught using a lightstick at the end of the line (basically the same trolling
methods, just done at night), supplements the Billfishing activity after everyone else has
gone home. These fish are more abundant in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands than in the
main islands; possibly as a result of overfishing by commercial fishermen. The Broadbill
is a delicacy known as Shutome in Japan, and they have truly become a specific target of
longliners looking for supplements to their stocks when the tuna bite is slow. |
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Shortbill Spearfish - Tetrapturus
angustirostris
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| This fearless little predator is often a
precursor to the Marlin. If a hook up with a Spearfish is
made while trolling for other gamefish, pay attention to the direction the fish was
headed, which you can sometimes tell by watching the strike or by the feel of which boat
heading makes for a more difficult fight. It’s important to know this information
because if you know which way the fish was headed, you can often tell where he came from.
Since the Spears and the Marlin eat the same food, once you know with some degree of
accuracy where the Spear came from, you have a good chance of going in that direction to
find the Marlin. It may not happen the same day, but usually within the next couple of
days, especially if the Spears are schooling, the Blues will be right behind. |
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Pacific Sailfish - Istiophorus
platypterus
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| Don’t spend too much time targeting Sailfish in Hawaii, because they are pretty rare. If you have light
tackle and happen to run across one, play it and then actually say you intended to do it,
the gang back at the dock will call you a liar. This beautiful species is one in a million
in Hawaii, so if you get one, the best thing to do is immediately go buy a lottery ticket,
because you are on a hot streak. |
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Dolphinfish - Coryphaena
hippurus
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| This Hawaiian staple table food fish is also
one of the most exciting to angle for. While out cruising for Marlin, the anglers of
Sportfish Hawaii will often find a cargo net, a piece of plywood or some other floating
debris with a nice school of Mahi-Mahi underneath it. We try
to catch the first one as we troll by the hazard, and if we get a good hookup on about a
fifteen pounder, we either leave it on the rod or set it out on a bleach bottle rig
attached to a 40 foot piece of 20lb line. The Mahi will return to the school, and as he
does, one crew will go below and get out the light tackle casting gear while two or three
crew will watch the bottle and the floating debris. Then the fun really begins. We cast
live Opelu (if we have it), spoons or small plugs with or without dead bait into the
school, and we then spend a couple hours fighting beautiful, rambunctious fish. The
lighter the tackle, the more fun the fishing. |
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Wahoo - Acanthocybium
solanderi
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| The rule of thumb for catching Ono, one of the
fastest and the most delicious yet sharpest toothed of the Hawaiian species of gamefish,
is to use the depth recorder religiously in order to stay right at 40 fathoms. Although we
don’t know what the reason for Ono’s preference to this depth is, we do know
they often hang around near the bottom in this part of the water column and then attack
surface lures with a vengeance. Our theory is the pressure gradient at 40 fathoms allows
them to be comfortable yet still have the ability to feed on both the bottom (hence the
sharp teeth) and the surface. Hawaiian waters have many ledges very close to shore, and
the depth often drops from 40 fathoms to several hundred fathoms in only a few miles.
While we do occasionally catch Ono in deeper water, we usually consider the deep water
dogs to be an incidental catch. Don’t target Ono in deep water, or you might spend a
bunch of time wondering why you have no fish back at the dock. To prove our point, we
often share the story about the end of a recent tournament we were in. While heading home,
the Sportfish Hawaii anglers traveled and zig-zagged right at 36 - 40 fathoms and boated
several Ono only 300 yards away from another boat in the same tournament who was
consistently outside the 40 fathom line in deeper water. Our competitor didn’t need
to stop at the weigh scale on the way into his slip. |
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Yellowfin Tuna - Thunnus
albacares
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| Some anglers, like our master lure craftsman
Stu Dixon, don’t consider a Yellowfin Tuna an
"Ahi" unless it exceeds 100 pounds. Although from a scientific standpoint the
characterization is inaccurate, it is fun to follow the same guideline and call the
smaller ones Shibi's. Thus an "Ahi" is more of a prize, while a 15 pound
Yellowfin is a baitfish or a great piece of raw table food. A long time staple in the
Hawaiian diet, Yellowfin are succulent and flavorful, especially when prepared with Musubi
(a mixture of soy/shoyu and green-paste Japanese horseradish), and served chilled over a
bed of shredded green cabbage. Hunt for the Ahi the
same way you would for Marlin and other gamefish; look for piles of birds that are active
and organized. The anglers of Sportfish Hawaii also try the FADS (Fish Aggregation
Devices) when looking for Ahi. Mix up your lures to see what they bite on a given day;
sometimes it’s big and purple, sometimes it’s small and green. You should also
carry bait if you are looking for Ahi, because there are times you’ll want to drop
bait down to the fish instead of trying to troll the surface. |
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Bigeye Tuna - Thunnus
obesus
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| The Bigeye
is often mistaken for a Yellowfin, but it is typically a smaller fish and does have a much
bigger eye. The other most remarkable difference is found in the dorsal and anal fins; the
Yellowfin’s are longer and sharper, almost like a catfish’s, while the
Bigeye’s are more fin-like. Bigeye is seldom targeted per se in Hawaiian waters
because Marlin, Yellowfin and other species are so readily available, and they often are
found as incidental catches with the other Tunas. In fact, many anglers catch them and eat
them as though they had caught a yellowfin without batting an eye that something was
different. |
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Skipjack Tuna - Euthynnus
pelamis
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| Known in Hawaii as Otado’s
when they exceed 20 pounds, many anglers target Aku for their
multi-hookup action-packed activity which makes for a fun time regardless of whatever else
is caught on a trip. Once an Aku school is found and identified by constant surface
boiling combined with active and organized bird feeding, get out the smaller lures and
handline them with small double hooks for quick retrieval. Multiple hookups are frequent,
and the crew work will be constant. For big time sportfishing excitement, however, the Aku truly is the known hero for live-baiting Blue Marlin. Where there’s Aku, there’s usually Marlin. Rig the Aku as described in the Marlin section, and troll at slow speeds just outside the school creating the disturbance and fear that predators sense so well. The great thing about live baiting Aku is if you catch a
Marlin you have a story to tell your friends about forever. If you don’t catch one
and the Aku dies while trying, you can bring it back on board, ice it down, and make
sashimi (raw cut fish) or poke (a salted concoction mixed with herbs and greens) for a
delicious crew meal. |
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Kawakawa - Euthynnus
affinis
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| This little fellow will show up
when you least expect it; trolling for hours on a sunny day with no strikes, the Kawakawa will suddenly strike a lure rigged on a 130 class line and
try to hard in vain to outstrength the drag. The poor thing usually ends up being towed
around awhile before the half asleep crew even notices strange activity out off the back
of the boat. This fish is similar in appearance and often found with Aku. The easiest way to tell a Kawakawa from an Aku, especially if they are in a school together, is the underbelly of the Kawakawa has spots instead of black stripes. It tends to stay nearer to shore and in the same areas, and will feed off both the bottom and the surface just like Ono. These traits may help explain why Marlin are more likely to hit the Aku than the Kawakawa in a live baiting situation. |
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