I have to report that there weren’t a whole lot of marlin caught this month but I can easily point to the cause being a lack of fishing effort. If only 1/3 of the boats (or less) that would normally be out fishing in April are going out on charters, then you can expect a big drop in the number of marlin being caught also. Tourism is so slow right now that on several days that I fished this month, the parking lot was near empty, I was the only boat in my row of boats that went out and while I was out, I hardly saw another charter boat all day. I’m one of the busiest captains in Kona and I had several unplanned days off this month. Another thing that has brought the marlin totals down for April is that we’re having a pretty good unseasonal ono bite going on as I mentioned in last month’s report. It’s still going on but it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever hook a marlin while fishing for ono because the ono like the shallow water and the marlin generally don’t. Of the few boats that are going out, many are spending time hunting those delicious ono instead of marlin.
There’s been some spearfish and mahi mahi around but same as the marlin, that’s an offshore bite and there just hasn’t been much fishing effort going on. The tuna bite has slowed also. Last week one boat caught several small yellowfin off one of the FAD’s so I went out there this week and the tuna were gone.
The bottom bite has been pretty good although it has been tough to catch the bait fish. The best bait fish for dropping is a 3 lb. or less skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna or frigate mackerel but you need to catch your own as there are no bait barges here and they’re not sold in the stores either. Live or even fresh dead usually brings success but when I know that bait is hard to come by, I take some that I kept and froze from previous trips. They don’t work near as well as fresh and if the fish are being picky at all, forget it! As a result, I too have been spending more time targeting the ono with pretty good success. While I might complain sometimes about a lack of business, I can never complain about all the delicious fish I get to eat from our abundant Hawaiian waters :)
