Since my last column, the offshore bite has been as hot as the lava flowing on the other side of the island.
Ahi, yellowfin tuna over 100 pounds, are readily showing up now and the chances of catching one while trolling on any given day are very good.
The billfish bite is still amazing, and on several days, many boats have had multiple shots at blue marlin in the 250-pound and under range, and a couple of boats hooked into huge marlin that Kona is renowned for, including a grander, which you’ll read about shortly.
A steady spearfish bite is on, providing anglers delicious meals and an opportunity to catch a billfish species that is not too difficult to reel in. The spearfish bite is also a great biological indicator that blue marlin are in the vicinity. When spearfish are around, it’s a sure bet blue marlin are going to be around too.
Big striped are patrolling the coast of West Hawaii, as they do at this time of the year. The monster 155-pound stripey that made the Big Fish List two weeks ago, I thought would be hard to beat. Well, it has already been beaten – by the same captain and boat, too. More about that in a minute.
For those looking for smaller fish to catch and digest, the ono are still biting inshore, and there has been some nice mahimahi around too. Last week, one of Capt. Dave Bensko’s clients caught a nice 40-pound bull mahimahi while fishing on the Bite Me 4, and Capt. Jah Nogues on the High Noon had a productive day catching mahimahi and ono he found around a floater while fishing offshore.
On certain days with the right currents coinciding with tide changes, some of the local state buoys have held baitfish and fishing around them has been productive too.
Simply put, now is a great time to fish.
Another grander gets away
The charter boat Lepika with Capt. Russ Nitta came very close to landing a blue marlin estimated at 1,200 pounds. His angler got the enormous blue to the boat quickly but Nitta who captains and crews by himself needed a gaff man in order to land the submarine-sized marlin.
Nitta called friends looking for someone to help him land the fish. While waiting for the assistance, Nitta watched the gigantic marlin stay 30-feet behind the boat ready to be captured for over 30 minutes.
Help eventfully arrived and Matt LaSasso, who is experienced with big marlin, jumped onboard. Angler, captain and crew went into action attempting to land the behemoth. In the ensuring battle with the monster fish, the leader broke, and what would have been the first grander caught off Kona since August 26, 2015, swam away.
It was the second grander that eluded capture in the last two months. And if anyone is counting, the last grander blue marlin was caught two years, nine months and four days ago as of this column.
A big one that didn’t get away
The beauty of fishing off our beautiful coast is you never know what you’re going to catch, and big things can happen fast on any given day.
Fishing on his 22-foot Glacier Bay catamaran Lukila, Scott Hawkins took Kona resident Cynthia Johnson, and Craig Wood —who was visiting from the San Francisco Bay area — out for a fun day of “holo holo” fishing.
The day was off to a good start when the trio caught an ono 15 minutes after leaving Honokohau Harbor. The ono was only about 12 pounds, but they were happy to catch one and felt fortunate to have a fish in the boat.
Hawkins fished up and down the coastline in what is known as “ono lane” for the next couple of hours. They caught another single ono and then had a double ono strike, landing both fish. By 11 a.m. they had four ono in the boat. Having a great day and with plenty of tasty fish to eat, the captain decided to change lures and fish for larger game.
After fishing for five hours with no more bites, the captain was about ready to call it a day. At 2:55 p.m., about two miles off Kaiwi Point, immediately south of the Honokohau Harbor, Hawkins’ 130-pound class Shimano reel started to scream. Judging by the way the line was quickly disappearing off the spool, Hawkins knew he had an enormous fish on the other end of the line.
After gaining line back on the reel, and three more hard long runs, a gigantic blue marlin erupted coming completely out of the water four or five times, showing its powerful size, while throwing whitewater in all directions.
Unlike reeling in the ono, it took a serious team effort to battle the big blue. All three took turns on the reel, and with a good group effort, they had the leviathan tied alongside the boat at 5:05 p.m.
Hawkins called the Honokohau Charter Desk hoping to weigh and load the fish at the fuel dock, but they had already left for the day. He ended up taking the fish to the boat ramp where he would have to figure out a way to load the giant marlin in his truck.
Hawkins measured the marlin, its measurements were 125 inches in length on the short measurement to the lower jaw, and it had a 72-inch girth.
By using a blue marlin weight estimate equation — girth number squared, multiplied by the short length measurement, divided by 800 – it would put the marlin’s estimated weight in the 810-pound range.
Be advised that this measurement is not always accurate and doesn’t allow for the wedge factor which Jim Rizzuto wrote about in masterly detail a couple of years ago.
Regardless of its precise weight, it’s an incredible catch and kudos to Hawkins, Johnson, and Wood on a wonderful team effort. I’m sure it will be a day they will always remember. Congratulations!
Hawkins did get that fish in his truck and would like to thank Justin and his forklift, both from Kona Coast Marine, for helping him load the fish so the meat could be put to good use.
More big blues
There were nine other big blue marlin either tagged and released or caught that weighed over 500-pounds the past two weeks. Most notable were a 730-pound blue caught by angler Dennis McKibbis fishing with Capt. Shawn Rotella on the Miss Mojo; a 650-pound blue tagged and released by angler Paul Dolinoy fishing with Capt. Chris Choy on the Sapo; a 602-pound blue landed by angler Josh Blatnik fishing with Capt. Jay Lightly on the Mariah; and an estimated 600-pound blue tagged and released by an unknown angler fishing with Stegman Child on the Maverick.
Blue marlin estimated over 1,200 pounds, 800 pounds, 700 pounds, 600 pounds and plenty over 500 pounds. Kona just might be a good place to fish the single day worldwide World Cup blue marlin tournament for approximately a million dollars on July 4th, along with the three-day Kona Throw Down that fishes on the same day as the World Cup.
Lightning strikes twice
In my last column, I wrote about Captian Bradley Damasco, and deckhand JJ Baulcan on the Bite Me 2 catching a 155-pound striped marlin, the biggest striped marlin of 2018. I wrote that the 155-pound stripey would be tough to beat.
Well, it appears that the Bite Me 2 is a big striped marlin magnet. Lightning struck twice and Damasco beat his own record when 12-year-old angler Caden Piatt caught a 182-pound striped marlin last Saturday.
Damasco said he had a triple-header, three striped marlin all around the same size, on at the same time, and ended up catching the 182-pounder.
Caden did a great job in the fighting chair and ultimately reeled in the biggest fish ever caught by any member in his entire family, beating his grandfather’s personal best by 6 pounds.
Congratulations to Caden, Bradley, and JJ.
Now to motive Bradley to catch an even bigger one – I’m going to say that 182 pounds is going to be tough to beat.