The blue marlin bite is on! We’re not seeing many big ones here in Kona but there was a “grander” caught off of Oahu. Of the 3 granders caught in the world so far this year, 2 of them were caught here in Hawaii. The marlin we’re seeing in Kona are mostly in the 100 to 200 pound range and almost all of them are males. Only the females get to 300+ lbs. So, it’s mostly males here because, well? I don’t think they’re having a gay pride parade. There are only a few big girls around and there’s heavy competition for daddy status. More big girls will be on the way soon because the girls are looking for the guys too. That’s how nature works. It shouldn’t be confusing. Unless the marlin start watching TV.
Spearfish are still around and just like last month, the bite was on/off, hot/not. The ono bite is going strong and there are about as many ono flags flying in the harbor as there are marlin flags. The spring mahi mahi season is over but not many showed up for it anyway.
The otaru tuna (also called otado) showed up on “The Grounds” this month and almost all of them are well over 20 lbs. A good fight on light tackle and good eating too. The otaru usually don’t show up in number until late summer but they’re here early. The ahi bite has been just OK but I was really expecting the “blind strike” ahi bite to pick up. That’s catching an ahi while ‘not’ running in a porpoise school. Usually that starts happening with more frequency in May but didn’t. I haven’t heard of it happening much this month either although it did happen to me just the other day. 2 on at the same time. I was lucky enough (a little skill was involved) to get both of them in. At the weigh in at the harbor, the scale read lighter than it did at the fish wholesale place where I sold them the next day. Each ahi gained 1.5 lbs. over night. At the fish wholesale place, the guy had weights right there and put them on the scale to show me that his scale was indeed accurate so I’ll trust his weights at 120 and 160. Another captain said he had the same thing happen to him recently so I talked to the gal that does the weigh in at the harbor. She claimed that her scale was accurate and actually became a little angry that I would question the accuracy of her scale. I hope they get the harbor scale fixed before July 4th. It would really suck to lose the World Cup fishing tournament by a couple of pounds because of the harbor scale and a gal that takes scale accuracy personally. I told a couple of other guys so it might just get checked.
While bottom fishing last month, I started catching (tagging and releasing) more GT than usual and that continued on into this month but not for long. The current switched in the 2nd week of June and sharks again became the most common catch I’ve getting from the bottom. I really don’t think that the sharks chase off the GT. GT are a lot faster and I think they’re even more aggressive than sharks are. I’m basing that on the harder strikes, harder fights (pound-for-pound) and the longer runs that GT do when compared to sharks. I’m just guessing of course. It’s a wild world down there and we humans know very little about it. Maybe there are gay pride parades down there after all? NOT.
