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

Danny and his wife Stacy of Woodinville, WA, along with his cousin Tanya and her husband Dan of Phoenix, AZ fished on the Lepika with me today.  We started right at the harbor mouth for ono early in the morning.  We made pass after pass on the ledge without a bite.  As the sun rose higher over Hualalai Volcano we decided to head offshore insearch of bigger game.  For the next four hours we would struggle to get a bite.  We only heard of one other boat that caught a blue marlin so we headed in that direction and worked the area.  Everywhere we went sheets of flying fish bolted in front of the boat…a good sign at least that there was a lot of feed for predators, but where were they?  At about 1:30pm I headed straight out off of Red Hill when the starboard outrigger flexed back signaling a bite but it quickly straightened out as whatever it was let go of the lure.  By the size of the boil it was either a small mahimahi or a timid spearfish.  We continued to work the area when the long rigger rod started to scream followed instantaneously by the stinger.  It was a double strike!  In the distance two nice striped marlin started a series of jumps.  Dan was first up and got in the fighting chair with the stinger rod as Danny stood next to the long rigger rod and started fighting his fish with the rod in the holder.  Danny’s fish came to leader first and we quickly released his 70lb stripey in about 10 minutes.  Soon after, Dan got his stripey to leader and after a few quick pictures we safely released his stripey which weighed about 80lbs!  Persistence definitely payed off today!  At the end of the day we found out that Dan and Stacy’s offer on a condo in Waikoloa was accepted so it sounds like we will hopefully be seeing more of them in the future!

Today I took my good friend Dave, his daughter Maluhia and my son Fisher out on the Lepika.  My youngest son Kai had a football game so we planned to fish just a half day.  Since the kids were on board we opted for lighter tackle and went with my Fin-Nor 30W with 50lb line.  Maluhia had chosen two lures which we opted to run on the stinger and long rigger position.  The next few hours would reveal those lures were hot!  The ono have been biting pretty good lately so we tried that first.  It was barely light as we made our first pass down the ledge when the short bait took off first with a screaming run (that was one of my lures – Maluhia!).  Unfortunately, it quickly came off before we could get to the rod but the stinger lure fired off a few seconds later with another ono bite.  Maluhia was first up and quickly got to the rod as Fisher and I cleared the inside rods.  She chose to fight the fish out of the rod holder as Dave gave her words of encouragement.  Maluhia fought the fish unassisted and landed her 30lb ono in about 15 minutes on her hand picked lure!  More and more boats tried their luck near us so we headed offshore to look for a spearfish for Fisher.  He and I have been practicing all IGFA angling techniques lately which means he must take the rod from the holder and strap himself in the chair unassisted.  The only time someone can assist him is leadering and gaffing/releasing the fish.  We traveled south where we had several bites the last few days.  We worked the 1000 fathom line without any bites.  Other boats in the area also reported slow fishing so we decided to call it a day and work our way back up towards the harbor.  As we neared the harbor we couldn’t believe we didn’t get a bite.  Suddenly, the long rigger bullet that Maluhia had picked out came down hard and the Fin-Nor 30W screamed as the fish took a long run!  Fisher got himself buckled into the fighting chair and got to work.  Dave helped me clear lines as Fisher fought the fish.  In about 10 minutes the leader was at the rod tip and Dave wired the spearfish into gaffing range.  Fisher’s spearfish would scale out at 33lbs!  Overall, it was a great day with the kids getting some nice fish and all on light tackle!

After catching a nice ahi a few days ago Don joined me again along with my son Fisher.  As I have stated before, he is the luckiest kid in the world when it comes to catching fish!  We left the harbor early at around 5:30am to get the jump on a pretty good ono bite which started the day before.  We set lines up at the harbor mouth and Fisher drove the boat up the 45 fathom line towards the airport while I adjusted and rigged the lines.  On our first pass up the coast we had nice signs of bait and onos on the sounder.  The short rigger was the first to fire off as a big 30lb ono crashed the lure.  Don got in the chair and caught his first ono in about 10 minutes!  We set up again and made another pass over the same spot.  Fisher and I watched the sounder and again saw signs of bait and onos in almost the same spot.  We turned to watch the lures as another big ono erupted on the bait but didn’t hook up.  As we worked ourt way farther north we saw lots of good signs of fish but no bites.  We were about to give up when another ono ate the short bait running deep off the corner.  This time, Don was nice enough to let Fisher fight one so he got in the chair and made quick work of a nice 40lb ono!  With enough fish to eat we decided to head offshore and look for Don’s big blue marlin.  We headed straight out and ran straight into a huge porpoise school.  It was one of the biggest piles I had seen in a long time but as we worked the pile I didn’t mark any fish on the sounder.  Regardless, we continued to work the school when the stinger took off and then the short rigger as well.  It was a double!  Don jumped in the chair as Fisher fought the other in the rod holder.  Line wasn’t peeling off the reel like an ahi would run and we weren’t sure what it was until Fisher’s came up jumping – double spearfish!  Fisher got his in first and we released it unharmed it weighed about 30lbs.  Don quickly got his to leader and we released his 35lb spearfish soon after.  We set up again and worked the school but just didn’t see any signs to warrant spending more time there.  We trolled back towards the harbor and worked the shallower ledges.  Just outside the harbor as we were headed in another big spearfish pile on the bullet on the stinger.  Don got in the chair and landed another really nice spearfish that was probably close to 40lbs!  What a great day – a 30lb and 40lb ono and 3 short nose spearfish releasesd that went 30lbs-40lbs!  I guess Fisher is good luck!

My neighbor Cara, along with her father Don, and children Sierena and Dominique fished with me today.  Last year, Don had his mind set on a big blue marlin but we couldn’t find one but we did catch a nice 35lb short-nose spearfish.  Today, we decided to go straight offshore and look for the north porpoise school.  The trolling bite overall has been pretty slow with only one or two boats in the entire fleet finding big fish.  We needed to find a porpoise school that held fish to have a shot at catching something.  About 8 miles outside of F buoy we saw porpoise jumping on the horizon.  It looked promising as shearwaters and terns worked ahead of the pile.  We made a nice first pass and I marked a fish at 30 fathoms.  I watched the spread but nothing came to the lures.  I switched over to the greenstick right away before the fish I marked went deeper and out of range of surface lures.  As I made passes with the greenstick I no longer saw the single fish I had earlier marked.  For two hours I made pass after pass, jigging the squids in and out of the water.  I had thoughts of leaving but I knew there was a fish somewhere in the pod.  Then, out of no where an ahi exploded on one of our squids.  Don was first up and got into the chair.  He made quick work of his first and largest ahi that weighed 98lbs!  To date, that’s his biggest fish but we will be fishing again on Friday when my son Fisher (my good luck charm) will be crewing for us!