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

Today my kids had the day off from school so Fisher and I decided to go looking for ahi in the porpoise school.  We trolled our way south working our way down the 1800 fathom contour.  The ahi haven’t really been holding in the porpoise school lately but you have to keep checking to stay on top of what’s going on.  One day the porpoise may not have  any fish and the next day it could be loaded so you just never know unless you go looking.  As we passed outside of Kealakekua the stinger came down and Fisher got settled into the chair to fight our first bite of the day.  It ended up being a really nice short-nosed spearfish about 25lbs which he managed to get to the leader in about 10 minutes.  We hadn’t caught a spearfish since winter so we decided to take it for the dinner table!  Unfortunately, we never found the porpoise school today but there’s always tomorrow!

Scott, a commercial fisherman from Alaska chartered the Lepika for a full day.  A few years ago he fished Kona on a different boat without success so the pressure was on to get him something.  He had also been following my blogs for the last several months so the pressure was REALLY on!  I decided to head south today because the current was right and the fishing up north had slowed.  We worked out way down and found a nice porpoise school.  There were about 8 boats fishing the school and I made a pass with my sounder on but didn’t mark any fish.  I made a few more passes just to make sure and again, no fish were swimming with the porpoise.  I decided to go back to trolling and pointed the Lepika away from the school.  I set up the pattern and went upstairs to put the last lure out.  I pushed the drag up on the Fin-Nor 80 and as I turned back to the helm Scott yeld out, “FISH!”  I whipped around and watched as a big blue marlin piled on the lure I had just set!  Line went screaming off the reel….FAST!  Scott got in the chair and we watched as a big blue marlin tailwalked across the surface and headed straight for the horizon.  By the time I cleared the 2nd line out of the water Scott was into the backing which means he had at least 500yards of line out.  I started backing down hard on the fish and we slowly gained line back on the reel.  Scott did a great job keeping good pressure on the fish.  After a 25 minute fight we finally got the fish to leader for a clean release.  I estimated his blue at 350lbs!  We again set the pattern back out and headed out to the deep.  About an hour later we were on the bridge talking when we spotted a small log floating on the water straight ahead of us.  Usually mahimahi will hang around floating debri but this log was so small I really didn’t think anything would come of it.  As I made a pass two nice mahimahi came charging in and ate the stinger and long rigger lures.  Scott fought one of the mahimahi and I fought the other.  I cleared a few lines and as I reeled them in more mahimahi charged in trying to eat the lures right in the wash!  The water was literally neon blue with mahimahi.  There were easily a hundred mahimahi around this tiny log floating in the middle of the ocean!  We got to work and switched over to some lighter tackle.  In the next 2 hours we would catch 20 mahimahi to 27lbs!  We probably could have caught more but we eventually lost track of the log.  We were both pretty wore anyway out after all that action!

Today my charter cancelled on me.  It happens maybe once or twice a year and since I had already fueled up and loaded ice, I decided to go anyway.  My son Fisher is 13 and deckhands for me on Fridays as part of his school’s mentorship program.  I wish I had a mentorship program at my school when I was growing up so I could fish on Fridays!  Fisher by-the-way is one of the luckiest kids I know when it comes to fishing.  We ALWAYS catch something when he’s on board!  We left the harbor early around 6am and headed north.  The water was getting a little choppy so we decided to work our way back south in search of porpoise.  We’ve been doing really good on the big ahi the last few days and the school had been holding a lot of fish.  It didn’t take long before we spotted a lone frigate bird working bait scared to the surface by hungry porpoise and hopefully fedding ahi.  The porpoise were spread out for about a mile and on our first pass I marked a fish at 35 fathoms.  I pointed it out to Fisher and we both turned to watch the lures.  The short rigger fired off as a nice ahi inhaled the lure.  Fisher got into the chair as I brought the rod over to him.  He quickly had our first 100lb ahi to leader but it appeared to be snagged in the belly.  As I reached out for the leader the fish came off and we both watched in disgust as it righted itself and swam into the blue.  We quickly set up again and continued to troll.  Two other boats arrived and worked the school with us.  I looked at my sounder and saw two nice marks at 45 fathoms and again Fisher and I turned to watch the spread.  This time the fish were really aggressive and came in on the short bait and the long corner.  Both those lures run well inside the whitewater of the boat’s wash..  Unfortunately, the one of the long corner came off but Fisher was still fighting the one on the short bait.  He landed our first ahi to the boat in about 15 minutes – 139lb-er!  More boats had shown up and none of them had a trolling bite so we decided to change our strategy and go to the greenstick.  On our 5th pass I saw a fish shallow on the sounder.  I jigged the squids and watched as another big ahi came skyrocketing out of the water with one of our squids in it’s mouth.  Fisher got in the chair and got to work on our third bite if the day.  He had our second ahi to leader in about 20 minutes and this fish went 146lbs!  I got the fish packed in ice and off we went to the front of the school for another ahi.  By now there were eight boats fishing the pile and only one other ahi had been caught by another boat.  We worked the school for a few more hours and the fish just wouldn’t bite.  I told Fisher, “Last pass and we are out of here”.  I continued on as another boat crossed in front of us.  We were just to the outside section of the porpoise when a really nice ahi exploded on the squid closest to the boat!  Fisher came running out of the head just in time to see the bite.  This was a bigger fish and Fisher chose to fight this one out of the gunnel instead of the chair.  He did a great job and landed his biggest ahi yet in about 15 minutes.  Our last ahi of the day weighed 177lbs!  We called it a day and made it back to the harbor before 2pm with three big ahi!  Too bad our charter cancelled!  I think they really missed out! 

Bayard, Dave and John joined me today for a full day of fishing on the Lepika.  The ahi are biting in the porpoise school so we headed out in search of porpoise.  We trolled our way north of the harbor out past the 1000 fathom line and scanned the horizon for signs of life.  At about 9am we spotted a nice pod working their way south out of the wind.  Our first few passes never got a look but the ahi were showing on the sounder so it was just a matter of time before they bit.  Pass after pass I marked fish shallow but they wouldn’t bite the typical trolling lures so we switched over to the greenstick.  Again however the fish were shalllow and just wouldn’t jump on the squids.  Bayard and his friends were really patient as we worked the school.  Then, out from under the porpoise a big ahi exploded on one of the squids!  Bayard was first up and landed his first big ahi weighing 105lbs in about 15 minutes!  We immediately set back up and worked the school.  The fish were still shallow but we had to be patient.  I made pass after pass over fish that should have bit.  Then, almost when we were about to give up another big ahi blew up on one of our squids!  This time Dave was in the chair and the fight was on!  Dave also landed his first big ahi which weighed 136 1/2 lbs in about 20 minutes!

Trent works on a charter boat out of southern california.  He wanted to fish an overnighter and hopefully get some fish to take home for dinner.  The ono bite has just started up so we headed south in hopes of making it to South Point.  On our way down we ran into a small pile of porpoise that just didn’t have any fish in it so we decided to head offshore insearch of more productive water.  About 20 miles offhshore we ran into a nice cargo net that was holding small big-eye tuna in the 10-20lb range.  We pulled in the heavy gear and brought out my new 30lb Fin-Nor Marquesa outfits.  Trent loves to jig so he tied on some of his chrome jigs and sent them down.  There were so many big-eyes and yellowfin tuna that he couldn’t get his jig more than 20 feet down before he was bit.  Fish were everywhere and we could see them swimming just a few feet under the boat.  He even caught one just dangling his jig of the rod tip while we were taking a break!  After catching about 40 ahi in the 10-20lb range we decided to head back inshore and anchor for the night.  On the way back in we had a nice short bait bite that screamed out about 30 yards before coming off.  We never saw the fish but we thought it might have been a nice size bigeye tuna.  Later in the evening we finally made it to Okoe Bay where we set anchor and had a nice dinner.  We got a good nights rest and woke-up early the next morning to hit the 40 fathom ledge for ono.  There were already boats fishing the lane and we just couldn’t get an ono bite nor did we see anyone else get any.  So again we headed offshore insearch of marlin and ahi.  As luck would have it we ran into a big pile of porpoise that was holding fish.  We trolled the school for about an hour and marked two fish down deep.  We went to the greenstick and started to work the school.  We made pass after pass without a bite when finally a nice ahi exploded out of the water and ate one of the squids.  Trent got in the chair and landed his ahi in about 15 minutes that weighed 135lbs!  It was getting late so we worked our way back to tthe harbor where I filleted a few big-eyes for Trent to take home.