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

Today Chuck and Margaret fished on the Lepika.  Chuck and Margaret chartered us for the Rock and Reel Tournament on Saturday and Sunday so we prefished today to get the “bugs” out and scout the water.  Deckhand Kevin Shiraki is crewing for me for this weekend’s tournament and joined us on the prefish day.  There hasn’t been too many blue marlin around so I took them to the porpoise school to get some practice yanking on some big ahi.  We found the school far to the north of the harbor and on our first pass hooked a nice ahi on the long rigger.  Margaret was in the chair and fought her first hawaiian ahi to the boat in about 30 minutes.  We ran back up to the school and continued to troll lures.  We marked another fish at 30 fathoms and it bit the stinger lure but came off after a short run.  We went to the greenstick and after a few hours finally started to mark fish in the school.  Eventually we caught one that went 110lbs and missed another.  The fish were deep so we decided to drop bait on the maki doggu rig and a very special Kealaula cone dog made by the daughter of one of Kona’s best bait fisherman.  The maki doggu and the Kealaula cone dog are designed to take both chum and bait down to depths of 45-60 fathoms.  On our first drop we missed the school completely but on our 2nd drop we had a screaming bite but it shortly came unbuttoned.  The 3rd drop was perfect and the Kealaula cone doggu was the first to get bit.  Chuck was up and fought a nice 128lb ahi to the boat.  On the fourth and final drop it was the maki doggu that got bit.  Margaret was up and did an awesome job fighting her 2nd big ahi to the boat.  Both Chuck and Margaret got a good workout today fighting 2 big ahi each to the boat  and hopefully tomorrow we can duplicate our results and win the Rock and Reel Tournament.  Day one of the Rock and Reel coming up tomorrow!!!

Today was another great day fishing on the Lepika.  John and his son Kyle flew over from Maui to hunt and fish the Big Island.  Yesterday they went sheep hunting on one of the Big Island’s public areas and shot a nice ram which they ate and saved for their trip back to Maui.  John’s goal was to get his son into a big blue marlin or some nice ahi.  The last few days have been great with lots of big tuna on the bite so we went looking for the porpoise.  My good friend David Nahuina found the school and called us to come fish it.  We were the third boat to the school and were lucky enough to get a nice fish to bite on our first pass.  Kyle was in the chair and caught a nice 107lb ahi in about 15 minutes.  Soon after we landed Kyle’s fish, Dave Nahuina got bit and was fighting his first fish of the day.  Dave would end the day with two ahi  and missing two others.  We worked the school for several hours and managed 2 more nice ahi that weighed 102lbs and 143lbs.  Steve and his son Kalani on the boat Moana C joined us and trolled the school hoping for a bite.  Steve is one of the best trollers I know in Kona.  He and Kalani caught a nice ahi in the school that weighed 123lbs.  They also hooked a BIG blue marlin in the porpoise that almost jumped in another boat that was fishing the school but unfortunately it came off.  On their way back to the harbor they caught a 73lb ahi in the blind and jumped off a small blue marlin.  Good going Steve and Kalani!!  Tomorrow I am taking the day off to get ready for our first tournament of the season.  Hopefully we can continue on our lucky streak!

Allen and Gunner Palic were back in Kona.  They fished with me two years ago and unfortunately we got skunked on that trip.  Today was REALLY different!  We headed out for one of the nearby buoys that was holding some bait.  On our way we had a real nice short nose spearfish eat the stinger.  Gunner was up and did a great job reeling it in.  Since they were staying in a condo we decided to take it for some nice spearfish fillets for the grill.  We got to the buoy and caught some small tunas which we live baited.  Gunner fought a small tuna almost to the boat but a big shark intercepted it.  We made several passes with the live baits but the only predators around were two unfortunate galapagos sharks that recieved some extra metal in their mouths.  The guys were pretty worn out pulling in the sharks so we headed offshore and found a small porpoise school.  On our first pass we took a double but unfortunately one of the ahi came unbuttoned.  Allen was in the chair and did a great job fighting his first big ahi to the boat in about 15 minutes.  It weighed 132 1/2 lbs!  On our way back Gunner fought another spearfish but it also came unbuttoned.  I’m sure father and son are resting right now but they have some nice spearfish fillets to enjoy!

James Schwemlein of Washington D.C. fished today with me.  James works for the State Department and is involved with our relationship with Afganistan and Pakistan.  Little did he know what was in store for him today.  The big blue marlin had been on the bite a few days ago but slowed a little yesterday.  The past few days we struggled to get a bite from a nice blue but did manage some bites from smaller blues.  Today was different.  We trolled south of the harbor early in the morning but didn’t get a bite.  We heard of a nice porpoise school and ran to it farther offshore.  When we arrived we found the porpoise scattered over a 2 mile area so we decided to troll them.  We put the lures out and before we could set the last line the long rigger came down with a screaming bite.  The fish tore out half the spool, roughly 500 yards.  James got in the chair and strapped in for a long fight.  About 15 minutes into it James made great progress but he was tiring quickly.  Kevin Shiraki was crewing for me today and assisted James in fighting the ahi.  After a 30 minute fight on the Fin Nor 80w, they manage to get the ahi to leader.  James’s ahi weighed in at an impressive 206lbs!  We left the school shortly after and joked about hooking a big blue marlin.  If James thought fighting a big ahi was hard he would be in shock if a monster blue bit on similar tackle.  About 45 minutes later we passed the 1000 fathom line and a small finch flew onto the boat and landed on my steering wheel.  This bird had probably flown at least 100 miles over water and was so exhausted it quickly fell asleep.  We joked about getting a big bite and scaring it off the boat.  Minutes later the finch woke up and flew off towards land.  As I watched it fly off I saw a big fish grab the short rigger bait.  The marlin came screaming out of the water jumping towards the boat.  We throttled up trying to keep the line tight but the fish came off.  I quickly circled back around hoping to try and raise it again.  On our second pass thru the area a big marlin piled on the stinger lure and took of for the horizon.  It came up jumping about 300 yards away.  James strapped himself in and hunkered down for a long fight.  We fought the fish for over an hour and finally had it near the boat.  The fish was smart and zig-zagged behind the transom not giving us a chance to grab the leader.  About 90 minutes into it the fish rolled over and gave up.  We got the leader and decided the fish just wasn’t going to survive.  When we pulled her thru the transom door she was pretty long but really fat.  Our guess was right around 600lbs.  When we got back to the dock she weighed 572lbs!  James had a great day out on the water and caught two fish of a lifetime – ahi 206lbs and a 572lb blue marlin on his first day saltwater fishing!!!