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

After fishing last weeks tournament with me Chuck and Margaret wanted to give it one more try in the deep blue.  We started the day with a small mahimahi only minutes into trolling and Chuck jumped in the chair and quickly fought it to the boat.  We trolled for several more hours without a bite and at the end of the day we found a big bird pile right out front the harbor.  We made several passes around the skipjack tuna that were busting bait on the surface and were about to give up.  On our last pass, the long rigger came down with a solid bite.  Chuck got in the chair and fought his 2nd 30lb short nose spearfish  to the boat.  We had a great time fishing with Chuck and Margaret!  Hopefully they will be back to Kona and fish another Kona tournament!

Yesterday was a great day!  We caught three nice yellowfin tuna so we were excited to give the porpoise school another try!  Today I hosted Will from Kenai, Alaska on a full day charter.  Like all fishing, it is fishing and sometimes unfortunately not catching.  We again found the porpoise but later in the day and only had a short time to fish them.  The pod was spread out for most of the day which prevented us from finding where the fish were located within the miles of porpoise.  When the pod finally came together it was 1pm and I decided to drop some bait down deep.  On our first drop the rod screamed out line for about 10 yards and stopped.  I cranked up the slack line only to find no hook on the other end.  We broke it off!  Ugh!  We made several more drops in the school but couldn’t get a bite.  The porpoise spread out even more and with time running out we ran back to the harbor without anything in the box. 

I will be off for the next two days so more reports (successful reports) hopefully this Friday!

With the lack luster marlin bite from this weekend we decided to head offshore in search of tuna.  Local residents Bill and Cookie of Captain Cook fished with their son Errol and were looking for some offshore action.  A friend of mine had found the school early and called us to his location.  On our first pass trolling we marked several fish down deep at 55 fathoms and never got a bite on the surface.  For about an hour we trolled without a bite and decided to drop bait down deep.  On our first drop at 55 fathoms the rod bent over and the line screamed off the reel.  Errol was up and fought his first 124lb ahi to the boat in about 25 minutes.  The next 3 drops would yield 2 more ahi, a 88lber and a 106lber.  The fish were there but as the day went on we slowly saw less and less on the sounder.  Several fish were caught by other boats in the area.  My good friends’s father Archie had a double strike trolling but unfortunately one came off right away and the other was lost at the leader.  Tomorrow’s another day so hopefully the fish will still be around!  There was a 927lb blue marlin landed today so who knows what tomorrow will have in store for us!

Chuck and Margaret were ready for a big one today.  Yesterday 2 fish were lost that were estimated at over 500lbs.  We needed one of those today but it just wasn’t meant to be.  We fished hard working the areas where the bite was yesterday.  Today only one blue marlin was tagged and none were landed over the 300lb minimum weight but there were over 10 short nose spearfish tagged and released.  Chuck had never caught a short nosed spearfish.  Around mid day he got his shot when the stinger came down in about 500 fathoms straight out front of the harbor.  Chuck fought the 30lb spearfish to the boat and we successfully tagged and released it in about 5 minutes.  We really needed to tag a small blue to win the dailies, but this was the only fish we would get a shot at today.  Chuck and Margaret will be back on Friday June 24th to fish another full day on the Lepika!

Today Chuck and Margaret were back for the first day of the Rock and Reel Tournament.  28 boats entered to try their luck.  After an epic day ahi fishing yesterday we were excited to see what today had in store for us.  We ran to one of the nearby buoys that had been holding some nice skipjack tuna and small yellowfin for the past few weeks.  I hoped a big blue was holding on the buoy feeding on all the bait but after two hours of live baiting we decided to troll our way back towards the harbor.  A few boats had spearfish bites and marlin bites in that area.  Two boats today had shots at fish over 500lbs but unfortunately they came off.  We had a shot at a 150lb blue which jumped off the hook shortly after it bit which would have put us in a good position to win the tournament.  Today only one 391lb blue marlin was weighed.  Three other small blues and four short nose spearfish were tagged and released.  Not a red hot bite considering there were 28 boats but there were a few fish around today and we had our shot.  Tomorrow we still have a chance and need to get either 2 small blues or one monster.  I prefer a monster but I’ll take what we can get!!!  More of day 2 of the Rock and Reel Tournament tomorrow!