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

Since marlin fishing has been so bad the last three days I decided to head out in search of porpoise.  A few days ago, Kevin and the kids caught a nice ahi while fishing with me.  Kevin was joined again by James and Z for day 2 on the Lepika.  We left early and ventured far offshore.  We found a small porpoise school early in the day and took a few passes with the lures without a bite.  The school was pretty small and I scanned the horizon for another pile that was possibly joining up with this one.  About 30 minutes later another pile was coming up from the south.  As I neared the pile I could see a lot of birds hanging on the far side of the porpoise.  We made a pass in front and as I neared the birds on the far edge three ahi almost simultaneously exploded on the long corner, short rigger and stinger lures!  A triple!  Z was first up so I put one of the screaming rods in the fighting chair for him.  Kevin and James stood next to the other two rods and fought their fish out of the rod holders.  As James’s fish neared the boat it had wrapped around another line so I had to put it over and under the other line.  While doing that his fish came unbuttoned!  UGH!  Kevin and James’s fish were both really close so we decided to continue fighting them out of the rod holder.  Luckily, both fish had swallowed the lures and were firmly hooked.  Kevin’s fish would end up scaling out at 168lbs and James’s at 107lbs!

Again I fished aboard the Last Chance with Capt. Tracy and Deckahand Ian.  Today was day 1 of the Marlin Magic Lure Tournament.  Marlin fishing has been incredibly slow and we were lucky to even get a bite but it unfortunately it was a short nosed spearfish which does not count in this tournament.  Of 30 or so boats entered, there was only one blue marlin weighed and it was 560lbs!

July 4th was the World Cup Blue Marlin Tournament.  Bermuda caught one of two qualifying fish over the 500lb mark and it went 768lbs!  No qualifying fish were landed in Kona and we went without a bite today….UGH!

July 6-July8 was the Skins Marlin Derby.  Some 50 boats entered this three day tournament.  On day 1 we had one spearfish bite and on day 2 missed a 200lb blue.  Had we tagged that fish we would have won over $150,000.  Over three days, 50 boats would tag only 3 blue marlin and none over 500lbs were landed.  Marlin fishing is horrible!!!!

Kevin and his family is back in Kona and booked me for two days of full day fishing on the Lepika.  Last year we caught a nice blue marlin and a big ahi and this year we set out to do even better.  The fishing had slowed a little the last few days because the current is almost non exsistent along our coast.  The ahi are still showing a little if you know where to go but the marlin have almost all but disappeared.  We started early and headed straight out.  We found a porpoise school almost immediately but they were spread out for about two miles.  We trolled the school for a few hours without bite hoping the school would come together.  It wasn’t looking good so I headed to a nearby FAD (fish aggregating device) to get some action.  We were slmost to the buoy when my friend called and let me know the school had come together and he was marking fish.  He was some distance away so I pulled up the lines and ran about 9 miles to his location.  I put up the greenstick and got bit almost instantly!  James was up and fought his first 104lb ahi to the boat in about 15 minutes!  I ran back to the school but didn’t see any other fish with the porpoise so we trolled back to the FAD.  There were some nice fish on my sounder at the buoy so we went back to the greenstick to try and catch something to eat.  It took several passes but we caught a nice 35lb ahi and some 15lb aku as well.  We later caught some live bait and tried for bigger fish but none were feeding around the buoy.  Kevin and his family were able to get some nice fillets off the 35lb ahi and had a great dinner the following night!  Kevin and his family will fish next Monday again so hopefully we can get into more fish then….stay tuned for Day 2!

Summer is here and that means tournament time!  During the last two years I’ve tournament fished on a 43′ Cabo, Last Chance, captained by Tracy Epstein and deckhand Ian Keinath.  Ian’s father Steve and good friend Bob were our anglers.  Fishing with Tracy and Ian is a nice break for me and a chance to win some big money.  On the first day the fishing was tough.  It wasn’t until 12pm when a small blue marlin showed up on our stinger.  Steve dropped the lure back and put a solid hook into the top jaw of the small blue.  Tracy backed down hard and we put a tag in the 200lb blue in about 5 minutes!  It was the first blue marlin tagged on this day and one of only 3 blue marlin caught on this day of 51 boats.  A big blue was killed by the Kona Blue and it would end up taking first place.   Day 2 proved to be just as slow.  We went all day without a bite and only 4 boats caught fish.  Since we tagged the first blue marlin that put us ahead of all the other boats that tagged only one fish and we took home just over $43,000!

Today,  Mark joined me for a full day of fishing on the Lepika.  The ahi bite has been fantastic the last few days so we headed offshore to look for the porpoise.  Mark has fished several times on long range boats out of San Diego and his biggest ahi to date was 90lbs.  The ahi are here to spawn and some have been pushing 150lbs to over 200lbs so I knew we could beat his 90lb mark.  We found a nice porpoise school down south and there were a few marks on the sounder but not too many.  I went right to the greenstick because we were the 5th boat to the school.  We made pass after pass without a bite and I knew if we stayed in there we would eventually catch one.  The fish were just not interested in the squids so I put a small lure out on the 130 Fin Nor and set it just in front of our leading squid.  At about 2pm, just as I was about to give up I started to mark more fish in the school.  Suddenly,  a big ahi piled on the small bullet I had on the 130 and headed down to the depths!  Mark got in the chair and worked the ahi to the boat.  He got me to leader in about 2o minutes and I lifted his 135 1/2 lb ahi into the boat!