02-27-2008, 12:43 AM
[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Kona Hawaii fishing report – February wrap-up .[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]The biggest blue marlin of the year was weighed in on the 15th. The year is still young but a 934 pounder might just stand for a while. The marlin died 1-½ hours into the fight and it took another ½ hour to plane it up. It’s a lot of work to plane up a dead fish and luckily they were using 130 lb. test line. There’s a theory among fishermen that if the dead fish is 10X the weight of the line, then it can’t be planed up. I proved the theory wrong about 8 years ago by planning up an 843 lb. black marlin up on 80 lb. test line. It took 45 minutes of hard work and I don’t think I’d ever like to test the theory out again. I think we were just lucky that the line didn’t snap. [/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]We had some striped marlin caught this month but it looks like striped marlin season will remain slow this year. The last good season we had on them was back in ’04 so we’re over due for a good one. It’s a good thing we’re having a good spearfish season. Spearfish and mahi mahi top the list as the most common catches and there’s still some yellowfin tuna being caught also. I got word that there was a decent ono run happening down by South Point but it takes an overnight trip to fish that far away. I hoping they make their way North. [/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]The North bottom fishing grounds has had flat water fishing conditions and the bite was pretty good until just recently. The current is switching around so the baitfish took off. Hopefully it won’t be long before they show up again. It’s usually easier to catch the bottom fish using live bait and on some occasions, jigging may even out-perform live bait but the average size fish caught on bait is much bigger than on a jig. Big sharks usually won’t take a jig and if they do, they usually bite it off anyway. The monster amberjack and trevally rarely eat a jig either. OK, so I know what some of you are thinking. Why be so cheap? If you want the bigger fish, go buy some live bait! And I would have to say to you, you’re spoiled if you can go buy your live bait. I would gladly buy some if someone sold some. The bait we use here are mackerel and tuna in the 2 to 10 lb. size. For many of you, the fish we use for bait would be for you, a “keeper”. Not only are these baits usually in abundance here so it’s pretty easy to catch your own but, they’re also hard to keep alive. Forget about putting them in a bait tank unless your tank is a hundred + gallons. The tuna tube was invented about 12 years ago and this, for the first time allowed us to keep bigger baits alive for a while but, they also tend to get weaker and weaker the longer they stay in the tube. I take frozen bait with me sometimes but it just doesn’t catch as well as live bait. If there are any really really smart people reading this, let me know when you get baitfish cryonics figured out. Sometimes I put frozen tuna into my tuna tube just to thaw them out a little and have actually had customers ask me if the bait is now alive. [/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]See ‘ya on the water ,[/size][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Capt. Jeff Rogers ,[/size][/font]FISHinHAWAII.com
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]The biggest blue marlin of the year was weighed in on the 15th. The year is still young but a 934 pounder might just stand for a while. The marlin died 1-½ hours into the fight and it took another ½ hour to plane it up. It’s a lot of work to plane up a dead fish and luckily they were using 130 lb. test line. There’s a theory among fishermen that if the dead fish is 10X the weight of the line, then it can’t be planed up. I proved the theory wrong about 8 years ago by planning up an 843 lb. black marlin up on 80 lb. test line. It took 45 minutes of hard work and I don’t think I’d ever like to test the theory out again. I think we were just lucky that the line didn’t snap. [/size][/font]
[size 3][font "Times New Roman"] [/font][/size]
[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]We had some striped marlin caught this month but it looks like striped marlin season will remain slow this year. The last good season we had on them was back in ’04 so we’re over due for a good one. It’s a good thing we’re having a good spearfish season. Spearfish and mahi mahi top the list as the most common catches and there’s still some yellowfin tuna being caught also. I got word that there was a decent ono run happening down by South Point but it takes an overnight trip to fish that far away. I hoping they make their way North. [/size][/font]
[size 3][font "Times New Roman"] [/font][/size]
[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]The North bottom fishing grounds has had flat water fishing conditions and the bite was pretty good until just recently. The current is switching around so the baitfish took off. Hopefully it won’t be long before they show up again. It’s usually easier to catch the bottom fish using live bait and on some occasions, jigging may even out-perform live bait but the average size fish caught on bait is much bigger than on a jig. Big sharks usually won’t take a jig and if they do, they usually bite it off anyway. The monster amberjack and trevally rarely eat a jig either. OK, so I know what some of you are thinking. Why be so cheap? If you want the bigger fish, go buy some live bait! And I would have to say to you, you’re spoiled if you can go buy your live bait. I would gladly buy some if someone sold some. The bait we use here are mackerel and tuna in the 2 to 10 lb. size. For many of you, the fish we use for bait would be for you, a “keeper”. Not only are these baits usually in abundance here so it’s pretty easy to catch your own but, they’re also hard to keep alive. Forget about putting them in a bait tank unless your tank is a hundred + gallons. The tuna tube was invented about 12 years ago and this, for the first time allowed us to keep bigger baits alive for a while but, they also tend to get weaker and weaker the longer they stay in the tube. I take frozen bait with me sometimes but it just doesn’t catch as well as live bait. If there are any really really smart people reading this, let me know when you get baitfish cryonics figured out. Sometimes I put frozen tuna into my tuna tube just to thaw them out a little and have actually had customers ask me if the bait is now alive. [/size][/font]
[size 3][font "Times New Roman"] [/font][/size]
[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]See ‘ya on the water ,[/size][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Capt. Jeff Rogers ,[/size][/font]FISHinHAWAII.com
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