Kona Hawaii Fishing Report – December 2020 wrap-up.
The week between Christmas and New Years' has always been the busiest tourist week for Hawaii. People looking to get out of the cold and get just a little bit more summer in.
While there are definitely a lot more tourists around than we've seen since last April, it's nowhere near the normal numbers. After the holiday season, Hawaii will return to very few tourists. It happens that way every January and February but current virus conditions and ever changing infection rates and new "rules" will amplify that.
Even with Hawaii opening back up for tourism a couple months ago, the Covid infection rate has remained pretty low. People in Hawaii in general take distancing and mask wearing more seriously than most places on the mainland. Tourists have told me that seeing people in stores or gathered together without masks is common on the mainland but you don't see that here. Knowing that we're the most isolated populous on the planet might tend to give us islanders a different perspective.
Striped marlin season has started but we're not seeing them yet. The blue marlin bite has been picking up the slack. The spearfish came in early but then slacked off. The beginning of spearfish season actually starts now.
Mahi mahi season is winding down but there are still some around. It's months past ono season but running in ono lane, there's still a pretty good chance to hook one or two. This is the time of year for smaller but more abundant tunas around the buoys and ledges and they're here but not very eager to bite.
The big news for the month here on the Big Island was another volcanic eruption. The volcano has been very quiet since it stopped flowing a little over two years ago. It was nice not having a constant supply of volcanic smoke covering our island but we all knew it was only a matter of time before it would start up again. It's got to come out somewhere. The only 'somewhere' where it can come out but still leave us with smokeless skies would be the new island forming to the South East of the Big Island called Lo'ihi. That will happen sooner or later. The sooner the better.
