There were a few good size marlin brought in this month and last month also, since I didn’t report on the fishing last month. I would have to say that the most spectacular of those big marlin catches was a 901 lb. black marlin caught on the same day I did my last report. Black marlin are a rare catch here in Hawaii with only about a half dozen caught a year. In 2000, I caught an 843 pounder that was the biggest anyone had seen in a long time and it took 17 years for someone to beat it. In 1980 there was a 1, 205 lb. black marlin caught and is the only “grander” black on record ever being landed in Hawaii. I think the 901 pounder will remain on top for a long while.
Still no grander blue marlin for us this year and although there were a few big ones so far this summer, the overall marlin bite hasn’t been very good. People pointing fingers have come up with a couple of good reasons as to why. One being that the use of Private FAD’s has become common place. These FAD’s (Fish Aggregation Device) hold the tunas and other bait fish in large numbers and keep them from coming to the ledges on our island. Most are placed 50+ miles from shore. With so much fish being held offshore, the marlin are staying out there too. The 2nd reason could be the longline fishing fleet from Honolulu. The majority of the fleet has formed a horseshoe around the South, East and West of the Big Island. It’s like a wall of commercial fishing boats offshore. While the majority of their catch isn’t marlin, they take a bunch!
Summer isn’t mahi mahi season but we have had a fair bite on them all summer long. The ahi bite has been fair. Summer is ono season but this summer hasn’t been very good for them. Some spearfish are being caught even though it’s the slow season for them. The otaru (otado), (big skipjack tuna), (chunk light tuna) are a typical catch in late summer but the run actually started in early summer this year. They’ve been a little finicky about biting but putting in your time, you’ll eventually get some.
The bottom bite has been really good for it being summer. Typically the bottom bite is slow in the summer but not this year. While the sharks are a year round fishery, the giant trevally are usually a pretty rare catch in the summer but I caught a few nice ones this month. There’s one really good thing about the bottom fishery, no matter how many longliners and FAD’s are out there, it has no effect on the bottom bite.
