So the competition begins! What will be the biggest fish of each species for the year? It doesn’t take much to make the “Big Fish List” in January especially when it’s the first one of its kind weighed in. The bite has been real good so far this year with spearfish being the most common. The striped marlin bite is pretty good too and even though it’s not really blue marlin season, I think the numbers of striped to blues is about 50/50. It’s also the time of year to find out what place in the world will land the first “Grander” marlin. It’s a pretty safe bet that it will be Kona. We usually do take that honor. There’s one more type of marlin that can be caught here in Kona. The back marlin. Although a fairly rare catch here with an average of less than half a dozen a year caught, eventually someone will bring one in to make the list. The same holds true with sailfish. Again, less than half a dozen a year caught but that’s from the fishing boats. Fishing from Kayaks is getting more popular by the year and since the sailfish tend to like cruising near the shoreline, it only makes sense that they would more likely be caught by a kayak fisherman, and they are.
The mahi mahi bite is still happening and because of the warmer than normal water temperature (El Nino), they might just stick around even though January and February aren’t typically good months for them. There’s even been some ono around but not many. Ahi, the 100 pound plus kind is another fish that is not very abundant in the winter months. My first trip out of the year, totally in the blind, I hooked up three of them at once. I was lucky that one of them came off almost right away. I used my boat to separate the remaining two and landed them both. The smaller ahi can typically be had on the FAD’s but the bottlenose dolphins have been ruining that action. They follow right behind your boat and as soon as you hook one up, it’s an easy meal for them to catch.
The bottom bite has been pretty good this month. The key to catching from the bottom is fresh caught live, dead or cut bait. The biggest part of that being FRESH. With the bottlenose dolphins making it impossible to catch tunas around the FAD’s lately, it a good thing that the mackerel have returned to the ledge outside of the airport. For many years I’ve always just taken it for granted that they would always be around but then in 2014, they just disappeared. The most abundant fish on “The Grounds” gone! I have no idea why but I’m sure the opinions on why range from over fishing to global warming to abducted by aliens. Well, maybe not that last one. Come to think of it, the other two are equally as preposterous. Anyway, I hope they’re here to stay.
