Lepika Sportfishing, Kailua Kona, HI 96740 • 808-960-0068

Today, John and Austin along with their wives fished a full day on the Lepika with me.  They are both avid saltwater fishermen from southern California and make frequent trips to Mexico.  John had no interest in catching blue marlin and had his sites set on ahi so we headed out to search for porpoise.  We worked our way out to deep water and about mid morning I spotted a nice porpoise school about 2 miles away from us.  As I turned to head their way a nice blue marlin came charging in on the stinger lure.  It ripped out a few yards of line and gave us a nice aerial display before it came off!  Ugh!  We continued on and it was no more than 10 minutes later when another blue marlin charged in and ate the short rigger!  Austin was first up and got strapped into the harness.  We backed down hard on the fish as it took out about 300 yards of line putting on a nice show in the distance.  Austin cranked hard and got me to the leader in about 20 minutes.  We safely released his first blue marlin in about 20 minutes!  It weighed about 180lbs!  I set lines again and continued towards the porpoise when another blue charged in and ate the long corner lure and quickly jumped itself off!   Three blue marlin bites in about a 30 minutes period!  As we neared the porpoise we could tell they were spread out for miles chasing flying fish.  We worked them hard for about an hour when we got our first bite.  The school was just about to come together and we trolled the outsoide edge of the school when a nice ahi exploded on the stinger lure.  John was up and harnessed the Fin Nor 80w into the chair.  John worked hard and landed a nice 102lb ahi in about 15 minutes.  The porpoise looked really good now so we went to the greenstick.  I didn’t mark many fish in the school but there were some.  About 20 minutes later John was upstairs with me when a nice ahi came all the way out of the water and missed one of our squids.  I continued to jig the line and it came back and again came all the way out of the water and inhaled the squid!  It was Austin’s turn and he got buckled into the fighting chair.  He made quick work of our second ahi of teh day in about 15 minutes!  His ahi weighed 101lbs!  We decided to call it a day and headed back with a blue marlin release and 2 nice ahi!

David and his two sons Ian and Logan, along with Logan’s girlfriend Olivia fished with me today.  We planned to leave at 6am but didn’t leave the dock until 7:30am because the fuel pumps were down.  We waited along with three other boats for over an hour until the pumps were fixed.  Since we left later I ran a little farther than normal to get to the better fishing area.  I worked my way to deeper water and we ran into another nice pod of porpoise.  The porpoise were spread out pretty far chasing flying fish but I decided to put the greenstick up and see if we could get lucky.  We tried for about two hours before got lucky and had a nice ahi blast one of our squids!  David was sitting next to me and got a nice look at the speed and accuracy of a big hungry ahi!  Ian was up first and struggled to get his harness on.  He made quick work of his first big ahi in about 15 minutes.  His first ahi would weigh 98lbs!  I reset the greenstick and ran back to the porpoise.  We worked the school hard for the next few hours marking fish here and there on the sounder but they just wouldn’t bite.  At about 2pm another nice ahi blew up on one of our squids while we were turning!  Logan was up next and got down to business.  He landed our second ahi in about 10 minutes!  His ahi would scale out at 115lbs!

Dan and his family fished with me today.  Dan’s daughter Meredith, is the real fisherman of the family and the plan was to get her a nice fish, preferably an ahi.  We searched for porpoise as we headed along the ledge.  Off Hookena a blue marlin cam flying into the pattern and ate the long corner lure.  Meredith was up and got harnessed into the fighting chair as line dumped off the reel.  We backed down on the fish and Meredith cranked as hard as she could with assistance from her father.  We got the fish close to the boat and got some nice close-up jumps as the blue tore off more line.  We released her biggest fish ever and her first blue marlin in about 20 minutes!  I estimated her fish at 160lbs!  I set up again and worked the area.  Sometimes when you catch a blue marlin you can sometimes find more in the general area.  It didn’t take much longer when another blue came in and knocked down the short rigger and came off.  We continued to work the area and had another blue pile on the stinger and quickly come unbuttoned!  UGH!  Two misses back to back!  Soon after we would be visited again by another blue!  It piled on the long corner and missed the lure!  It switched to the long rigger and took off for the horizon with hooks dug deep!  This time, Dan was up and buckled into the chair.  Dan’s fish was also pretty feisty and put on a good show with a nice series of jumps.  Dan landed his first marlin also in about 15 minutes.  We safely released it and I estimate it weighed about 200lbs!  I’m sure Meredith will be back to Kona one day for more blue marlin and hopefully and ahi next time!

Today, my wife Melissa and her co-workers Jill Spanel, Sherry Denis, Rose Mckinnon and Tanya Posey, fished the Huggos Wahine Fishing Tournament onboard Lepika.  75 boats were entered in this years tournament.  This is an all girls tournament and is one that I look forward to fishing every year.  The girls decorate the host boats and dress up in their hottest “theme” costumes to win money and prizes for the best costumes, best decorated boats and of course biggest fish of the tournament.  The morning started out at 7am as we motored to Kailua Bay for the infamous water fight!  The girls held their own in some pretty hardcore water fights.  One boat had iced water which we quickly backed away from after getting drenched in freezing cold water!  The tournament started at 8am and we ran south and started near a spot where my father and I tagged a 200lb blue just the day before.  We didn’t have lines in for more than 30 minutes before a small blue ate the stinger lure.  My wife Melissa was first up and quickly buckled into the fighting chair.  The 125lb blue gave us some nice jumps far from the boat and Melissa quickly got the leader to me in about 12 minutes.  After taking a few pictures with the fish we released it in good condition.  We worked our way farther south and saw a few other boats hook up in the area around us.  The fish were really tight to the coastline in about 200 fathoms of water so we worked that contour line really hard.  At around noon, another small blue ate the long rigger.  Tanya was up and got harnessed into the chair.  This was the biggest fish Tanya has ever caught and she wasn’t sure she could get the fish to the boat.  After a few minutes she quickly found her technique and got our second blue marlin estimated at 170lbs to leader.  We were now in second place since another boat had also tagged 2 blue marlin before us.  No qualifying marlin (over 300lbs) had been caught yet but a few hours later another boat would land a 401lb blue marlin to take first place and bump us to third.  In the end it was a really fun tournament and everyone had a great time.  A few years ago we also took third so maybe next year we’ll win it!

Dennis is back in Kona for more offshore action!  Last year he and his son Max fished with me for a few days and we got some nice blue marlin and missed a big ahi at the leader.  Max didn’t make it out on this trip so it was just Dennis and me.  Dennis was a little late getting to the boat so I ran a little farther than normal to get ahead of the boats that had left before us.  It looked good in the area we fished.  There were bird piles and bait everywhere but the predators were not.  About midday we had a double spearfish bite and missed them both!  UGH!  Our first bites came at about 12pm, right on the tide change and I feared that may be our only shot.  At 2pm I headed back to deeper water and we watched as a big ahi blasted the stinger lure leaving a monsterous hole in the water.  Line was peeling off the Fin Nor 80 as Dennis got buckled in the harness.  As the fish settled down Dennis turned to me and said, “I don’t think its very big” and I looked back at him pointed out that he had 400yds of line out!  Dennis worked the fish for about 35 minutes and we finally put gaffs in his 168lb ahi!