“Blind strike” yellowfin tuna tops June as the most common catch. I’ve discussed “blind strike” before but for the benefit of my newer readers, I’ll explain it again. Here in Hawaii “Ahi” are yellowfin tuna that weigh over 100 lbs. Smaller ones are called shibi. The ahi are typically caught year-round in the “porpoise schools” and even that term is a bit misleading because they aren’t porpoise at all but are actually spotted dolphins. The ahi have a symbiotic relationship with the dolphins because the dolphins work hard to keep schools of bait fish balled up tight and the ahi take advantage of that behavior by crashing the concentrated bait schools. More ahi arrive in Hawaii during the summer months and that’s when you don’t need to be working a “porpoise school” to get bit by an ahi, hence the term “blind strike”. When a reel starts screaming, maybe, AHI! Another thing about this summer run is that we’re seeing many ahi tipping the scales over the 200 lb. mark. Ahi over 200 lbs. are somewhat rare here though the state record stands at 325 lbs. It’s quite possible with the size we’re seeing now that the record could be beat this summer. Ahi populations here have been on the rise over the past several years here and I came up with a theory as to why that is. If you’re interested in it, go to the fishing reports page on my web site. At the bottom of the page are links to over 10 years of archived fishing reports. The Mar. ’11 link will get you there. After that report, I had some feedback emails from people in that particular business that indicated that my theory was correct.
Summer is also better for blue marlin but we’re not seeing that many yet. It’s also ono season but there hasn’t been many of those around lately either. Mahi mahi season is about over and so is spearfish season but it’s always possible to have a late or off season run.
The bottom fishing bite has been pretty good but I certainly would not say it’s great with sharks being the most common catch along with a few of the more typical bottom catches like amberjack, almaco jack, giant trevally and gray snapper. Bottom fishing is usually some fast action and almost a guarantee of catching something, unlike the trolling bite. Even though there have been many blind strike ahi being caught lately, there’s also plenty of boats each day that come home empty handed because all they did was troll lures all day.
