Kona Hawaii fishing report February wrap-up .
The bite has been soooo good for February that the term I first thought of to describe it is "off the hook"! That's urban slang for awesome, incredible, wicked, unbelievable, gnarly and such but the term sounds almost derogatory when used to describe a really really good fish bite happening. On the hook? Yes, many of them. I suppose the fish themselves like the term "off the hook" but anglers only like it when a fish is released "off the hook" on purpose. The blue marlin bite has been as good as any summer month, the time when blue marlin fishing is generally at it's best. I always tell my clients, fish don't know what month it is and, it's a huge ocean. The fish are going to be swimming around somewhere in it. Hawaii is just a little pimple in the big pond. The striped marlin and spearfish showed up also as is typical for this time of year but for the last few years, the numbers haven't been too impressive. It's good to have them back around in decent numbers. On a recent trip we hooked two striped marlin at the same time within the first hour of the trip but they both came "off the hook" in the bad way. Later we had two spearfish on at the same time. One came "off the hook" but we boated the other one. Later in the day we hooked a nice size blue marlin but it also came "off the hook" in the bad way. Just realizing that in today's urban slang, bad sometimes means good but obviously that's not what I talking about. I really would have liked to catch and release that blue. The rest of the day resulted in two more billfish bites. One of them happened so fast that we didn't see what kind it was. The last bite of the day resulted in boating another spearfish. We intended in releasing the second one but the hook mortally wounded it so we took it. The option of taking or releasing the fish varies from boat to boat. Some boats are "kill all" boats and some are "release all" (except food fish and dead billfish) boats. If you plan on fishing Kona and have a problem either way, keeping or releasing, make sure you find out your captains policy first. I'm right up front with my policy on my web site's Frequently Asked Questions page.
The mahi mahi are biting good right now but a little slower than last month. The small yellowfin tuna (5 to 30 lbs.) are on every single FAD (fish aggregation device) and along the ledges. Bait fish like small skipjack tuna and mackerel are here in abundance on the buoys and ledges also.
With the trolling bite being so good I've been spending less time bottom fishing but even that bite has been so good that it's been an easy way to break up the trolling day with some quick shark action. That's what I've been catching most while dropping baits and only a few bites from GT, amberjack and almaco jack.
I know this is a fishing report but one thing I almost never mention in my reports or even on my web site is the awesome whale and dolphin watching opportunities we get on almost every trip. I guess I'm just so use to seeing them all the time that I don't give it much thought. It's usually the guys that are interested in catching fish and the gals are just along for the ride. If your one of those guys having a hard time convincing your gal to let you go fishing, let them know about the whales and dolphins. Promise that you won't try to hook one though. It does happen once in a while and that kind of action is REALLY "off the hook".
See 'ya on the water ,
Capt. Jeff Rogers
FISHinKona.com