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Our Black Polu Kai Tubulation Is hot right now. Here he is after a good ride.

Bruce came out today for more acceptable water and conditions. It was a true Kona day today. We started out with a bang hooking our first bite. We hooked the fish and it jumped and jumped through the pattern then jumped up the side a bunch of times. I got him in the lens but had the wrong lens on and got some shots but they were a little far out. We trolled south to see what it look like after the south wind came through and had a big explosion bite on the stinger. The reel was screaming and in seconds we had 400 yards of line out. The fish doubled back and jumped right where it bit. it was a nice fish -Over 400 for sure and in one jup it was gone. It took the boys a long time to reel in we had so much line out.We checked out C buoy and there was some bait there so we put one out for an hour. No bites so we trolled back up to where we had the big bite. Would you believe we had a giant explosion on the black Polu Kai tube on the long corner. It didn’t even touch it but lined up on it and started to try to eat the lure and would back off. It came up to the lure and tried and tried the lure and knocked it out and left. It looked about 400 or so  when it was out of the water trying the lure but I thought to myself maybe bigger. I turned the boat around a gave it another try and the fish exploded the stinger and we were on. The fish got 300 yards on us really fast so I turned and chased and left a big belly in the line to keep it tight. Bruce picked up the belly as we eased our way to the fish that was jumping all over behind us now showing us it was closer to 500 pounds. Bruce started to get tired so we stopped backing a pulled tight on the belly to get a breath and the fish eased its way down to the depths for a rest as well. I kept the angle good and we put the drag up a little no that we were settled down. The hard part was over. We were inside the stinger mark and due to our chasing early in the fight the fish was close. The fish felt the drag and had settled down nicely but once we thought we were in there the fish started head shaking. The tip bounced up and down as Bruce backed the drag off slowly. Right then the hook pulled. Everything went well it was probably not hooked. It would have been 2 nice fish for Bruce this trip. We got the best part of that one and will have to see what happens tomorrow.

Today the rain came. We met Bruce in the morning and it was starting to come down pretty good. We weren’t sure how much rain we were going to get a but in Kona it is rare to rain all day on the ocean. The weather reports were calling for nice weather so we were ready to go. Bruce decided to stay in and we kind of had the plan to have that option due to the weather starting early. We were surprised due to the timing of his trip- the fishing was so goo yesterday. We couldn’t stand it so Matt and I went out for a few hours before we did our maintenance we had planned for the day in. We ended up going 2 for 4 before 11:00 am. Matt caught them and I wired. It was fun to get to pull on them again. They were both about 120 but with an engine ahead they pulled pretty good. We got in to fix our stays on our outrigger and changed out a sticky shift cable and cleaned the hull and changed a couple of hoses on the starboard motor. We made use of our rain day then met Bruce and Dana for a nice dinner at Kenichi. Rain day was a good day. My camera was fogged out by the rain so sorry for the soggy pictures today.

Kellie Gunberling and family came out with us a day early due to the Fireman’s tournament being canceled today due to the threat of a hurricane. The idea is for our fire deptment to rescue people not be rescued so the tournament was postponed to another date. Our team for the tournament won the event last year so they were in charge of setting up for this years tournament. This will give our team a little more toime to get ready. Kellie and family made use of the date getting 2 blues before 10:00. We had a couple more shots in the afternoon but ended up with 2 for the day. The boys were great anglers. For first timers they really looked like they had been doing it for a long time.

Bill Wolf and sons met us early and we high speed trolled to the Otec buoy and put baits out. I was sad to see that the current was dead. The birds and bait were there and it was hard to tell where to look for the big fish so we put baits out and trolled them around the buoy. We got a shark bite first and reeled in a leader with no hook on it. We got 2 more baits and this time we got the right kind. I saw the marlin eat the bait off of the surface and soon after Bill was hook to the first fish of the day. After a challenging fight we got a tag in the 200 pound fish. The reason it was a challenge was because I need to go forward while Matt had the leader and there was a vertical float line off of our bow and I couldn’t move. The fish was in back and the buoy was in the front. We tip toed out of it and got the fish released. Soon the bad porpoise came into the buoy and began stealing everyone’s baits. Once the porpoise come it is the end of live baiting because they eat the meat off of the tuna and leave us the heads. We had marked and missed 2 big tuna on the baits before they got there and put our tuna stick out to see if we could catch a tuna. Our first pass we got a double strike on two 30 pound fish and landed one. Perfect for dinner and our neighbors. We left the buoy hoping that the boats and porpoise would leave so we could come back and try to live  bait again. No such luck. The porpoise didn’t leave and so we worked our way to the harbor. Right before we went in we got a mercy bite on a marlin and after we got the lines clear we pulled the hook.

Vince and Patti Carr long time Northern Lights anglers bought the Northern Lights trip in the IGFA Auction held during the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament. I was glad they called to take me up on the trip while the fish are here. We started out the day at the grounds where other boats were having good action this week. We trolled up the 500 fathom curve and got to the middle grounds and had a nice fish come up on the tubulation on the short rigger. It missed it 3 times and we turned around to try to raise him again. No luck. I worked the area and it being so early I wanted to check the corner so I began to leave when we raised another one. This one came up on our Joe Yee bullet and got stuck and took off! After an exciting fight and a bunch of wild jumps and pictures we got the fish tagged. Soon after we caught 10 mahi mahi at a small floater before we went back to trolling. My thanks go out to the Carrs for supporting the IGFA by buying the boat in the auction.

Gary and Patrick Furness came for an overnight trip. Our plan was to troll all day and set up for the night where the night action is and chum for albacore and ahi. We trolled to Milolii in beautiful calm weather. The trolling was beautiful down at the old lava flow area and the village. We checked a couple of buoys and didn’t see much until 10:00. We saw a little blue feeding on the surface and didn’t get him to bite. I made a few passes but no luck. Soon after we had a screamer on the jet long and pulled the hook. It was a big ahi and I have to tell you we were sick to see that get away. We had a nice fish come up to the short rigger and not bite. We spent most of the day down south and the only fish we saw hooked were behind other boats. Finally at 2:30 we had a great bite on the short rigger on our Polu Kai tubulation. The fish jumped all over the ocean and settled in. Patrick got to work and fought him for about 5 minutes and we pulled the hook. After all that jumping.We enjoyed a rare evening at sea trolling into the sunset. Near dark we caught a long awaited blue that gave us a charge going into the night. After dinner we started fishing Matt fished the night shift chumming and checking the lines all night. He caught squid with Gary and Patrick that we used for bait and we brought home to eat. The hard work paid off when Gary caught this nice albacore.

John Booth and his boys had a great day with us and actually really helped our hook up ratio. We have struggled with out hook up rate all season due to the way the fish are eating the lures. The 2 fish we caught ate small jets that really should catch more for us than they have been. We lucked into a good bunch of Mahis in the middle of the marlin action. Got dinner and a couple of blues to boot.

A RARE CLEAR DAY

Will James good friend and our Keanon sunglasses rep caught this marlin on his jet ski trolling off of Red Hill the other day. Unreal! Must be good on fuel to troll all day. Nice catch Will!