Again, for a second day of a 4 day charter(Aug 11), Jon Schwartz fished with me with hopes of getting underwater footage of a fighting ahi. We ran south to look for the south porpoise school and we found them. Unfortunately, they were far from the harbor and we marked only one ahi in the school holding deep at 50 fathoms. Regardless, we worked the school hard but in the end couldn’t get a bite. We decided to give up and trolled our way home. Off Keauhou, we had a small blue about 150lbs eat the shortrigger. I fought the fish to the boat as Jon got his camera gear ready. We got the fish close the boat and Jon was able to get some great underwater shots of the energetic blue.
Day 3 (Aug 12), we hoped would be our day. We decided to go north and look for the north porpoise school instead. We headed to OTEC buoy which had been holding a few 40-50lb ahi. I trolled up the 1000 fathom line and off the corner of the Grounds we took a triple blue marlin bite. The first fish ate the short rigger, the second tried the long rigger and the third showed it’s dorsal as it wolfed down the stinger. In the next 30 seconds all three would come of. UGH! We continued north. Upon arriving at the buoy we saw 40lb ahi busting the surface. I put out the greenstick and we quickly caught a 45lber. I fought the fish close and Jon slipped into the water with his camera. He was greeted be two big Galapagos sharks which wanted a piece of our ahi. Jon was able to fend off the sharks and got some great pictures of the ahi underwater. Although he took some great pics, we wanted an even bigger ahi so we headed off to the deep to look for porpoise. About an hour into trolling away from the buoy a small blue crashed on the long corner lure but quickly came off. It then dropped back and inhaled the short rigger. Again, I fought the fish to the boat and Jon went into the water to take pictures of the third marlin we caught in the last three days. We would end Day 3 with a 45lb ahi and releasing this small blue estimated at 150lbs.
Day 4 (Aug 15) was Jon’s last day to fish. I had fished the two days prior with charters and caught an ahi on each day. You can read those reports in the next blog. I had told Jon about the ahi and he was hell bent on getting one. Again, we headed off to the deep to look for porpoise and found them. On our first pass we saw a nice ahi pounce on the stinger lure. The fish took out about 3 feet of line and came off. While we looked at each other in disgust, another ahi piled on the short bait only 3 waves behind the boat. This was it! This is what we had been waiting for all week…a chance to capture underwater pictures of a big ahi. I fought the fish up to the boat and Jon jumped in to get his shots. He had me leader the fish around him so he could get some photos of the fish. After almost 15minutes in the water, Jon got back in the boat and we both looked at some of the best photos of an ahi I’ve ever seen. Hopefully he will be able to use the photos in one of his many articles. His four day charter ended with 3 blue marlin and two ahi from 45lbs-145lbs!