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

Sorry, no pics today!  We fished three day Big Island Marlin Tournament with Steve (owner of the Last Chance) and his friend Bob. Capt. Tim Hicks ran the boat and Ian and I ran the deck.  On the first day we tagged a small blue marlin about 150lbs and missed another.  Other boats faired the same, tagging one blue marlin or not getting a bite all day.  No qualifying blue marlin were caught on day one so all the daily big fish money rolled over to the following day.  On day two, we worked far south off Pebble Beach and beyond.  We would end the day with not a bite.  The day would end with some boats tagging small fish but no qualifying fish (over 300lbs) were landed.  Day 3, we had our strategy to fish south, but closer to town.  Within and hour of lines in, we had a small blue knock down the short rigger and then drop back to the stinger lure.  The fish took out a little line and soon came off.  We worked the area anf 30 minutes later had another fish up on the stinger.  The fish showed its dorsal as it chased the lure but faded away.  We continued our way south.  The swell picked up a bit and Ian and I changed lures to run in the bigger swell.  We had just carnked in the short rigger when the long rigger came down and line peeled off the reel.  Steve jumped in the chair and fought a 410lb blue marlin to the boat in 15 minutes.  This was the first qualifier for the tournament so we were all excited to see what the rest of the day would bring.  A few minutes later the Five Star, captained by Carlton Taniyama boated an estimated 400lb blue marlin.  We thought our fish was just shy of that mark so we ran to the scales to weigh our fish (410lbs).  Near the end of the tournament another boat boated a qualifier estimated at 625lbs.  We were out of first place for sure which would have guaranteed us over $145,000.  At the weigh in, the Five Star’s fish went 525lbs and the winning fish 633lbs!  It was a great tournament and even though we didn’t win we did take third for a $17,800 finish.

Brett and Courtney fished today in hopes of some big ahi or blue marlin.  We didn’t find any ahi but we ran into a nice 150-175lb blue marlin that ate the long corner lure.  The fish surprised us all by creaming out about 300yds on it’s initial run.  Brett fought the fish for about 15 minutes and got the fish to leader in great shape for a clean release.  After a few pics (thanks Courtney!) we released the fish to fight another day.

It’s been sometime that I’ve posted a report because I’ve been fishing the 2011 HIBT on board the Foxy Lady with Capt. Boyd Decoito and Sam Choy Jr.  This is a light tackle tournament which means we fished with 50lb and 80lb outfits – light for Kona waters.  On Monday July 25th we had a nice fish over 350lbs eat the short rigger bait on 50lb.  It sedemed like we had good hooks in her as she peeled off several hundred yards of line.  Unfortunately, the angler made the mistake of pushing the drag all the way up and we broke her off on the run.  Soon after we caught a small short nose spearfish on 50lb line.  The remainder of the day was extremely frustrating as we missed the next 4 blue marlin.  Day 2, we tagged a small blue marlin on 50lb and missed a short nose spearfish.  Day 3, was our day and we had high hopes for better days ahead.  In the morning we had a big blue marlin over 700lbs eat the short rigger on 50lb line.  Everything went well as the fish screamed out line and the angler backed off the drag to survive the run and jumps.  Unfortunately, we had about 300 yards of line out and the fish came up jumping alongside the boat creating a huge belly and we quickly broke another nice fish off.  We would end Day 3 with only one short nose spearfish.  Day 4 we struggled to get as bite.  The current had been constantly changing and there was a flurry of sporadic bites north of us.  On the last day we needed to kill a big fish or tag a bunch of small blues on 50lb line.  We would end Day 5 with only one blue marlin.  Over all, there were good numbers of fish caught in the 2011 HIBT.  Most boats caught fish everyday with a lot of missed

Newly weds Mark and Denise Lund joined me for another day of fishing.  They had fished a few days before on another boat without any luck and Mark was ready to catch something…anything.  The day before we had some spearfish bites down south but there were also some big blue marlin missed in the same area too.  We headed a few hours south and caught a short nose spearfish about midday.  It was Mark’s first spearfish and he was pretty happy to catch such a rare fish.  We kept going south and found a nice porpoise school outside Milolii but again there weren’t any ahi in the school.  Mark really wanted to try the greenstick rig but “you can’t catch what isn’t there”.  We started our way back to the harbor but this would be the only fish we would catch today.  Mark and Denise plan to come back every year to celebrate their anniversary so hopefully we can get them a big ahi on their next trip in 2012!

Matt Wilner and his three sons Ben, Russell and Jacob fished with me today.  Matt wasn’t sure if the boys could handle a full day so he booked a half day.  The bite had been a little farther from the harbor lately so he agreed to extend to a 3/4 day so we could fish longer and further down the coast.  As we trolled south I saw 2 boats hook-up in our area.  We worked an area off Kealakekua Bay and raised a 30lb short nose spearfish on the stinger bullet.  Benjamin was in the chair and caught his first short nose spearfish.  Later in the day we found a nice porpoise school but the big ahi were elsewhere.  This is the time of year when the ahi leave the porpoise to spawn and it’s more likely to get blind strikes and see ahi chasing bait on the inshore ledges.  The kids had a great time watching the porpoise jump near the boat and play in the prop wash.  On our way back to the harbor we had another spearfish on but it came unbuttoned soon after we strapped Benjamin into the chair.