Kona Hawaii Fishing Report

October has always been one of my favorite months to fish because of the variety of fish to be had. Last year was the first October in memory that was bad. I'm glad to see that it's back to normal this year. The blue marlin bite has been pretty good this month! Probably out doing the so-called "peak season" of the summer months. I use the word "probably" because there is a major factor to be considered.

In the summer, there are simply more boats being chartered because summer is when most people take vacation. October is slower for business but those that are getting charters and going out are having good action. Other billfish that have been showing up are spearfish and striped marlin. It's late in the season for spearfish and early for Striped marlin. That's one of the things that makes October so interesting. Yesterday a boat caught a sailfish. That's a rare catch in Hawaii and I'm sure glad he boated it. Luckily he's a generous captain and I got a fillet. I ate it sashimi style (raw) and it sure was tasty stuff!

The mahi mahi have arrived on time this year. The Fall season mahi are usually bigger in size than the Spring chickens but at the beginning of the month we were only seeing small ones come in. That has now switched and the big ones are here! Another decent bite has been with yellowfin tuna in the porpoise schools. Not too many schools around but the ones that do show up are holding fish.

The bottom bite has been slow for October. It's usually a lot better. I see lots of small fish marks on the fish finder screen but a severe lack of bigger marks. The commercial bottom fishermen are complaining that they're not getting the numbers of fish (snapper and grouper) that they normally get this time of year. Hmmmmm, consider this. The best bottom fishing grounds in Kona were also the epicenter of the big earthquake that hit Hawaii on October 15th.

Maybe, like many of us land based critters that live near the epicenter (like me), they're still busy cleaning up and rebuilding. Habitat is essential for fish populations and almost nothing destroys fish habitats (or human ones) like natural disasters do. A reef that took hundreds of years to build can be gone in a moment of time. I'll stop short of agreeing to give the fish disaster relief funds though.

See `ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers