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

Today Jeremiah and his father Mike joined me for a consecutive 3 day charter.  Jeremiah is an avid fisherman and wanted to show his dad a good time in our calm Kona waters.  On the first day, we struggled to get a bite.  We stayed in close and worked the ledge and finally got bit by a nice size ono.  Mike was up in the chair and caught his first fish of the trip!  The marlin bite has been spotty but the porpoise school has been holding some nice ahis consistently so that’s where we headed on day 2…out to the deep.  I set lines on the 1000 fathom line and within the first half hour a nice ahi ate the long rigger bait!  Line was peeling off the reel as Jeremiah buckled himself into the harness.  The last few days we’ve been getting blind ahi strikes so I wasn’t too surprised by this bite.  This was Jeremiah’s first time in the chair and he did a great job by landing his first and biggest ahi in about 20 minutes!   It would scale out at 158lbs!  After packing the fish away I got us set up and continued trolling.  I had just got up to the flying bridge and looked straight ahead and there they were!  Porpoise, about two miles straight ahead!  We made a trolling pass in front of the school and didn’t mark any fish.  I decided to put the greenstick up in case some of the fish were high up swimming with the porpoise.  We worked the school for about an hour when another school came in from the south.  This school looked really good!  There were shearwaters and frigate birds following them which meant there was a good chance ahi were with this school.  I pulled the greenstick across the front of the pile and a nice ahi blasted one of the squids but missed!  I continued on then another ahi blew up on one of the squids and yanked on the breakaway line.  As the ahi struggled to break the breakaway line two more ahi piled on two other squids dangling in the water!  It was a triple!  Unfortunately, all three ahi would come off!  UGH!  Jeremiah was lucky enough to get the triple on video so hopefully I can put that on this blog soon.  We set up again and worked the school.  It didn’t take long before another ahi inhaled one of the squids!  Mike was up and landed his first ahi in about 15 minutes!  Mike was really surprised by the power of these fish.  Pound for pound they are by far the strongest fighting fish in the ocean.  We again ran back to the school and set up.  It took a while but we were able to get another ahi to jump on another one of our baits!  Jeremiah got strapped in and landed his second ahi of the day in about 10 minutes!  We would end day 2 with three ahi from 100lbs-158lbs!

Mike and Nick are back for day 3!  They both really wanted to catch a blue marlin so instead of look for porpoise we trolled the ledges and put out some bigger lures.  It didn’t take long before a small dorsal popped up behind the stinger lure…a short nose spearfish eyed the lure and gave it a half hearted tap and left.  I continued down the coast and not too much longer the long rigger came down and a mahimahi came leaping out of the water!  Nick made quick work of it and in the fishbox it went.  I headed offshore and we found a small porpoise school.  I worked it for about an hour but only saw one ahi on my sounder.  Since Mike and Nick wanted a blue marlin I decided to back up to where we had the spearfish bite earlier.  As we neared the area another spearfish ate the stinger lure!  Nick got harnessed into the chair and made quick work of his first short nose spearfish that weighed about 30lbs!  We continued on when suddenly a HUGE fish exploded on the stinger causing Mike and I to leap out of our chairs and scream some expletives!  It missed the lure completely and never came back which led me to think it was a big ahi but in hind site I think it was a big blue marlin that decided at the last second to not eat the lure.  We had found the fish so I stayed in the area.  About 30 minutes later, a blue marlin popped up behind the long corner lure.  Mike and I watched as the blue eyed it from the side and then piled on!  The fish took off on a blistering run leaping several times going away!  Nick again got in the chair and watched as line disappeared off the Fin Nor 130.  Nick had a lot of practice fighting fish the past two days and did another great job fighting his first ever est. 200lb blue marlin!  His fight time was just shy of 15 minutes and we safely released him to fight another day!  I started to set up the spread and only had two lures out when the long rigger came down!  Nick again got in the chair and fought a 20lb ono to the boat!  We were definitely in a fishy area so I pounded the spot relentlessly.  Not much later another blue marlin ate the long rigger and quickly came off!  UGH!  It would be our last bite of the day.  Mike and Nick’s three day total concluded with two big ahi from 121lbs-124lbs, two onos from 20lbs-52lbs, one mahimahi, a 30lb short nose spearfish and a 200lb blue marlin!  That’s every pelagic fish you can catch in Kona and had we caught an ahi today could have been a Kona Clean Sweep!

After yesterday’s fantastic day I decided to again look for the porpoise school.  We left early and went right back to where we had found them the day before.  About an hour into trolling the long rigger came slamming down!  Nick got into the chair and went to work fighting the fish.  I wasn’t sure what it was at first….it fought down deep like an ahi but didn’t take out too much line at first.  Maybe a big spearfish, a smaller ahi or even a small blue?  I got the gaffs and hook remover ready for either case and to my surprise it ended up being a monster ono!  We usually don’t get ono this size out in the deep and see them more frequently trolling the shallower ledges.  Nick’s ono would scale out at a whopping 52lbs!

Mike brought his son Nick to Kona to get into some big fish.  Mike has a 29′ Blackman in San Diego and is an avid fisherman but the fishing has been slow there so why not fly to Kona for a few days to get some action?  Mike booked three full days with me to guarantee getting some nice fish.  Today we decided to fish big tunas since the porpoise has been holding nice fish.  Most of the ahis they are accustom to are in the 30-60lb range so anything over that would be awesome!  We looked in the same area we had found the porpoise in the last few days but they weren’t there.  Luckily, a good friend of mine had found them in the shallows.  There were already 6 boats working the pile so we went right to the greensstick.  On our third pass Mike got a good look at an ahi blowing up on one of our squids!  It missed at first and came back and inhaled the squid on it’s second try!  This was Nick’s fishing trip so he strapped into the chair and started fighting his fish.  He did a great job and got his first ahi to the boat in about 15 minutes!  It weighed 121 1/2lbs!  We quickly set up again and made another pass.  It was hard to maneuver with all the boats but we finally got another nice pass.  I marked another fish at 40 fathoms (240 feet) and as I bounced the squids in and out of the water it came up and blasted one of our squids!  Again, Nick got into the chair.  He did another awesome job on this fish and got it to the boat in about 10 minutes!  This would be his biggest ahi so far and would scale out at 124lbs!  More coming up tomorrow for Day 2!