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

Martin Romero (previous owner of the Lepika) is back in town from Taos, NM.  I didn’t get a chance to fish with Martin this summer because I was busy with charters and he went back to Taos to spend time with his children and grandkids.  Martin loves to catch blue marlin but the marlin bite was really slow so I decided to take him up North to look for the porpoise school we had caught the ahi in with Kurt the day before.  The water was dead flat calm today which makes it hard to locate the porpoise because they tend to wander really far north.  Today, they were REALLY far north.  Another boat the Lightspeed, run by Capt. Rob, had found the school and called me to relay his position…31 miles north of Kona.  He was 12 miles away from my position and I looked at Martin and said “Should we go?”  Why not?  We’re already out this far what’s another 12 miles!  So off we went…  Kahoolawe loomed in the distance and we could see the red dirt mountains and scattered trees.  I had never been this close to another island on the Lepika.  I felt a little out of place.  Rob had been trolling the school for about an hour without any bites so I went to the greenstick right away.  On our first pass I marked a fish shallow and it came up and ate one of the squids.  Martin set himself up in the chair and made quick work of the ahi that weighed 115lbs.  It was getting late so we started our 3 hour run back to the harbor with the island of Kahoolawe closer to us than Kona!

A few days ago, the fishing had been really good north of the harbor.  I had fished by myself the day before and caught 4 nice ahi in the 130-160lb range so I decided to take Kurt and Sydney up that way on their full day charter.  The water was a little bit more bumpy than usual and Syndey was feeling a little sick a few hours into the day.  She stuck with it and we found the North Porpoise school coming out of the wind line just outside the airport.  On our first pass I saw a big mahimahi feeding in front of the porpoise and it came charging in and ate a 12″ marlin lure on the long corner.  It fought pretty good and Kurt quickly got it to the boat.  It was a nice one by Kona standards and went about 35lbs.  On our next pass in the school I marked a few ahi down deep and they didn’t bite.  After a few more passes,  I had a nice mark on my sounder at 30 fathoms and a big ahi railed the stinger lure.  Kurt was upstairs with me and was shocked by the amount of line peeling off the Fin Nor 80.  We got him in the chair and after a 20 minute fight he caught his first ahi that weighed 140lbs.  Since the water was pretty rough we continued to troll the school and not deploy the greenstick which is how we usually catch our ahi.  Pass after pass we marked fish but they wouldn’t bite.  At about 11am, the short rigger came down hard but not much line came off the reel.  Maybe another ahi that didn’t know it was hooked?  Nope, it was a big bull mahimahi that had both hooks buried in the corner of it’s mouth.  Kurt again hopped in the chair and fought his second mahimahi to the boat that weighed an impressive 43lbs!  By this time the water calmed down a bit at the porpoise started to move together a little better.  Agian, we saw marks but no bites.  Then on the outside of the school the long rigger came down hard and line melted off the reel.  This was no mahimahi!  Kurt strapped himself in and in about 30 minutes landed his second and largest ahi that weighed 161lbs!  Sydney was a trooper and stuck with us all day even being seasick.  That’s not a good feeling so we called it quits and headed home with a nice load of fish!

While I was weighing our three ahis from the day before I met four guys from California who were interested in ahi fishing.  After answering a few questions they decided to book a full day and fish with me.  We decided to leave early in the morning and look for the porpoise school.  James, Mark, Brian and Ron met me at my slip at 6am.  We ran south for a while and then set up 5 rods and started trolling.  It wasn’t long before I had a mark on my sounder at 25 fathoms.  I turned to look back at the pattern and a nice blue marlin stuck it’s dorsal up behind the short rigger lure.  Ron was upstairs with me and we both watched as the blue inhaled the lure.  Brian was first up and strapped into the chair.  The fish didn’t show itself until it was about 200yards from the boat.  She put on a great show and jumped about 10 times going away.  We were at a half spool of line, roughly 400 yards of line out before she stopped.  Brian bore down and got to work and brought the fish to leader in about 35 minutes.  It was his first blue marlin and it was a great one to start off with!  I removed the hook and let her swim off.  I estimated her at 450lbs!  We continued down the coast and found the porpoise school.  It was a big pile with plenty of birds working the front of the pile.  We went right to the greenstick.  I marked several fishi in the pile and saw several more feeding on the surface.  Our first hour in the school and no bite.  The school came together a little bit more and on our next pass a big ahi exploded out of the water and ate one of the squids.  Ron was up and buckled into the harness.  The ahi fought deep and Ron was able to finally get the leader to me in about 15 minutes.  His first ever ahi weighed 165lbs!  After packing the fish in ice, we headed back to the school which had spread out making it harder to locate the fish.  We set up again and on our next pass had a nice skipjack tuna eat another squid.  James pulled in our last fish of the day that went 26lbs!

The Svan family from Northern California are in town to support their son Eric who is participating in the 2011 Ford Ironman Triathlon this Saturday.  It’s a grueling 2 mile swim, 100 mile bike ride and a full marathon that only the top elite athletes in the world qualify for.  Eric plans on finishing in around 9 hours!  Eric chose not to fish today with us and trained instead.  We met at the boat early and headed south looking for the porpoise.  Today they were far, roughly 24 miles from the harbor.  We went right to the greenstick and started to work the pile.  There were dolphins everywhere and the pod appeared to be joining up with another one coming in from the outside.  I was marking a lot of ahi in the school but they didn’t bite right away.  We made several passes in the first few hours of the trip without a bite.  As I made a pass on the outside corner of the pile a big ahi pounced on one of the dangling squids.  Val was up first and although he had some leg problems did a great job fighting his first-ever ahi to the boat in just under 20 minutes.  It weighed 192lbs!  We quickly packed the fish in ice and headed back to the pile.  Again, it would take a few more passes to get our next bite.  Everyone was watching the baits behind the boat and witnessed another nice ahi come halfway out of the water and inhale the squid just a few yards behind the boat.  This time Bev was in the chair.  She also angled her first-ever ahi to the boat which weighed 126lbs!  We ran back to the front of the school and set up the greenstick again.  Next up was their son Vito who had planned the trip.  He was nice enough to let his parents catch the first two fish but really wanted to get one for himself.  We again worked the front part of the school and saw several ahi rolling on the surface feeding on really small baitfish.  As I bounced the squids along the surface an ahi made one of the slowest bites on the squids I have ever seen.  It ate the squid about as fast as a trout would sip a bug off the surface of a stream.  Vito went to work in the chair and landed his 122lb ahi in just about 15 minutes.

Craig was back for Day 2 on the Lepika.  Last Monday he fished with me and caught a nice 174lb ahi.  Today we were out to catch more ahi and hopefully, one over 200lbs.  Again, we found a pile close to the harbor and worked them for about an hour without a bite.  Although we marked fish in the pile I didn’t think it was the “right” pile to fish for the rest of the day so we pulled our gear out and continued along the coast looking for the “right” pile.  About an hour later we spotted boats on the horizon and they were on the porpoise.  As we approached the school there were birds everywhere picking off small baitfish chased to the surface by feeding tuna and dolphins.  I had a live bait in the live well and sent it back in front of the feeding frenzy.  We were instantly bit and Craig fought his first ahi of the day to the boat in about 20 minutes.  It weighed 112lbs.  Ahi were feeding on the surface so I put up the greenstick to try our luck.  On our first pass a big ahi exploded on the squids but completely missed the hooks.  It never came back for another try.  We continued on and another big ahi blew up on the squids and was hooked well.  Craig fought his second ahi to the boat in about 15 minutes.  It weighed 132lbs!  For the next 2 hours we would miss 3 more ahi.  It was really frustrating and Craig jokingly said we need to beat 200lbs – total weight.  I was pretty sure we had that beat already but we tried hard for a third ahi the school but no takers.  We decided to high speed troll home (trolling 2 lures at 12 knots).  I catch a lot of marlin trolling this way and to some it may seem fast but big fish can move even faster when chasing their prey.  Halfway home, the long corner rod bent over and line peeled out.  As I prepared to strap Craig into the chair it came unbuttone! UGH!  It could have been his 200lb blue marlin he had been hoping to catch.  We continued to high speed troll back.  We joked about it happening again.  No sooner had we looked back when the same rod came crashing down.  This time it was on!  Craig strapped into the chair and I watched behind the boat for a jumping blue marlin but nothing showed.  The fish dove deep and fought like an ahi.  Was it an ahi?  It sure was!  Craig fought another monster ahi weighing 176lbs to the boat in about 30 minutes.  He was worn out and we cleared lines and ran to the harbor to weigh our fish.  His 2 day total was 4 ahi for a total weight of 594lbs!