Pat Fisher of Fisher outfitters and his groups found fantastic Axis deer hunting on Molokai this season. These nice bucks were some of the first ones of the season. The groups saw good numbers of deer and in the early hunts the deer had growing to do being in velvet. The second group saw most of the deer out of velvet and horns fully grown. Some of the biggest ones slipped away but I guess that is how they get so big. The great hunting and friendship along with the great accommodations made for good times on the friendly isle. For more info contact us regarding hunting within the state.

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After a few hard days of fishing in the southern porpoise school, we were given some inside scoop about the northern pile holding a lot of fish.  Though we had the next day off from charter fishing, myself, Tracy my mate and a good friend and deck hand on the Huntress Mitch, loaded up the Northern Lights for commercial day of tuna fishing.  We headed north early in the morning in search of the North porpoise school.  On the way up to the zone where the school had been hanging out we came across two striped marlin tailing along the surface.  We made a few passes around the stripes but they wanted nothing to do with our lures.  We continued on our way but not before spotting a blue marlin floating on the top.  It is pretty unusual in Kona to see blues or any other type of billfish on the surface.  We drug our lure pattern right by the floating blue but she too wanted nothing to do with us and sunk out quickly as we came by.

Staying on course we made our way to the area where we figured the school might be.  I spotted a huge pile of shear water birds and as we made our way closer we could see the porpoise school underneath the birds.  We were hoping for a first pass strike trolling but the school we had found wasn’t holding any tuna underneath.  Another school of porpoise was making its way north with a few other charter boats already in it.  As the schools neared closer we could see tuna busting out in front of the on coming school.  Tracy and Mitch quickly got the lures out of the water and within minutes we had the tuna stick out and a perfect pass lined up.  As soon as we came across the head of the school we were bit.  Mitch took the rod to the chair and dusted of the first tuna in minutes.  With one in the boat the pressure was off but the boys hurried to get us set back up.  There was already 6 boats in the school along with 3 other tuna sticks in use.  The tuna were pushing bait way in the front of the school and the porpoise were moving really fast.  Most boats couldn’t keep up with the pile but we were able to set out right into another perfect pass.  Tuna were busting all over the front and minutes later we were bit again.  The first fish was 120 pounder but the next one was close to 180.  With two ahi in the box we were feeling great but the boys hussled and we were able to set out and get good position to catch 4 more within an hour of the first strike.  The fourth fish was by far the biggest though at the time we weren’t sure just how big.  With the box full and the fish bag stuffed with close to a thousand pounds of ahi we decided to head in.  By 1:00 we had caught 6 big yellow fin one of them topping the scale at 207 and a half pounds taking back the biggest of the year spot.  A day to remember with just the boys.

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It seemed the entire island had heard about our catch and everyone wanted in on the action.  Hal Westbrook and his family joined us for the day in hopes of getting in on the tunas before the bit the bite was over.  We made our way out to where we thought the school would be.  With a hunch the school would be in a different area we stayed clear of most of the boats searching for them.  The Long Ranger a good friend of ours had the same hunch and searched the same area we were in.  Within a mile of us the Long Ranger found the school.  We ran over to them and both of us set up as quickly as we could knowing the crowd of boats looking would find us soon.  Within 20 minutes of setting up we could see boats running full speed towards us.  With a little bit of luck and good positioning we got bit just in the nick of time.  As we pulled the 184 pound ahi over the side 10 boats made there way into the school.  Only moments before it was just us and the Long Ranger, now we could see 6 other boats setting their tuna sticks out.  We had a bait tank full of live Opelu (cigar minnows) so we opted to try and catch us them.  At the peek of crowdedness we could see 7 sticks and 10 other boats trolling or using live bait.  With so much pressure on the school only one other fish would get caught this day.  Though it was a frustrating day we still managed to catch a nice one.

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The first good day in the porpoise school with angler Gene Pence. We found the school running to the tsunami buoy with a friend of ours. We didn’t see the porpoise right away but the birds and the ahi jumping helped us zero in on the pod. We caught one trolling on our second pass on our Polu Kai rocket man jet.We trolled for a couple of hours and switched to the tuna stick when they came together. After a number of great passes we caught 2 of 3 on the stick and ended up with our first good tuna day of the season with hope of many more to come.

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We headed back to the same area we caught the blue the day before.  The fish have moved out to the thousand fathom depth instead of being inside on the ledge.  The morning started off with catching  a 24 pound Mahi mahi.  Soon after catching the Mahi a small blue grabbed our Polu kai jet on the long rigger.  Our angler though very seasoned in many other types of fishing had yet to catch a blue marlin.  The release of the estimated 120 pound blue would be john does first blue marlin.  With a day starting off with a nice mahi and blue you can’t really ask for much more, but today luck was on our side.  Only minutes after catching the blue we hooked into a nice sized stripped marlin.  Catching a billfish for both of our anglers is more than you can ask for in marlin fishing.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, but the three fish from the morning kept a smile on everyones face.

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Fishing has slowed quite a bit since the mad rush of blues and stripes we had in February.  We headed out with a good return client of our john doe on a full day of fishing.  We trolled most of the day in a good area that had been producing for us, but we couldn’t seem to find any fish in the area.  Around 2:30 in the afternoon I made a last tack through the area and a blue exploded on the short rigger PoluKai tube.  The bite seemed as if everything went normal but the fish started jumping before she had taken the line out of the rigger.  The line came tight and we were off to the races.  We chased her on the surface for about 10 minutes and we were certain she was foul hooked somewhere.  She made a last and final dive and that would be the end of her.  We planed her up and as we expected she was hooked right in the middle of the tail.  After 5 minutes of trying to revive her we agreed that she wasn’t going to survive.  Our policies are simple, we try and release 99 percent of our marlin but we will not waste fish .  Instead of sinking out a dead marlin we brought her aboard to later be sold at market.  Unfortunate things do happen but 257 pounds of marlin meat feed a lot of mouths.

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Finally the weather in Kona settled down a notch.  For the past few weeks our wind pattern has been out of the NE and its been making for rough fishing conditions.  The wind switched to a more easterly direction today and we were able to get up to an area called the grounds.  The bite started early today, while Tracy was giving the run down to our 5 doctors a nice fish dozered in behind the long rigger bait.After a few good attempts we finally got the fish stuck.  20 minutes later, we tagged and released our first marlin of the day.  The bites kept coming, just not for us.  A friend of ours had nine blue bites today only catching one of them.  A few other boats had a handful of shots with at least half a dozen big fish seen.  Our next bite didn’t come till 2 in the afternoon, when we hooked another decent sized blue on our long corner.  This fish gave us a nice show at the boat and I was able to get a few jump shots on film.  After a quick fight we released our second blue of the day.  With a few guys feeling sea sick we made our way towards home, but not before missing one last blue that gave us a few tries before swimming off.

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The Weather has been getting worse and our charter for yesterday canceled.  The weather today made for bumpy seas but noting that wasn’t fish able.  Mark and Lynn joined us for their last day and we headed south to find calmer waters.  The trolling was slow in the morning but that all changed around noon.  As we made our way back north from C buoy Mark noticed a spearfish speeding its way into the lure pattern.The short rigger came slamming down and Mark hopped into the chair.  The fight was over soon and Mark had now caught one of the rarest and hardest billfish species to get, the short nose spearfish.  Tracy set the lures back out and soon after, there was a huge explosion on the long rigger.  A blue close to 250 jumped the little Polu Kai bullet from the side.  Line started screaming off the reel and Mark quickly got strapped in.  We got the rest of the lures cleared and turned to chase down the hot fish.  Mark did a great job keeping up with blazing speed of the blue and soon enough Tracy had the leader in hand.  He wrapped the fish off on the port side and gave us some great photos.  Mark finished off his Kona fishing trip by catching the Hawaiian slam, a blue,stripe, and spearfish.  An accomplishment most anglers only dream of doing.

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This time Mark and his wife joined us by themselves for a fullday of fishing.  We had warned them that the last day they had with us was something extraordinary.  Mark wasn’t worried and as a great fishermen would say ” well if we don’t catch anything we’ll still have had a great day on the ocean”.  For captain and crew having a charter with the right attitude goes a long way, and Mark and his wife couldn’t have had a better outlook on things.  Our day started off early and before we knew it Mark was back in the fighting chair.  It was another Stripped marlin and this time we asked if we could take it in to eat.  Normally we release 99 percent of our billfish but for us taking a fish to eat once in awhile is still sustainable fishing.  Mark had no problems with it and we landed about a 65 pound stripy.  The weather remained rough to the north so we ventured our way south hoping to find a blue.  Outside of captain cook we hooked into another stripped marlin, and this time Marks wife Lynn got into the chair.  We released this fish since we already had more than enough to eat.  Lynn had caught a 150 pound blue their first day out and now she had a stripped marlin to add to her billfish list.  We trolled out the rest of the day hoping to get Mark his blue, but no blues would be seen this day.  Mark and Lynn will join us again on saturday and hopefully we can find a blue for them.

(Originally posted on February 26, 2009)

Its not very often in Kona that the weather limits where we can fish, but Hawaii’s weather pattern for the last week has been very unstable.  As we started our morning run up to the grounds the seas started to grow as well as the wind.  Hal Westbrook a good return client joined us for the day, unknowing we would be taking him into Kona’s version of the Bering sea.  A few other boats followed us up to the fishing grounds but the message came loud and clear that the ocean wanted no part of us this morning.  Our 37′ Merritt was definably not built to handle rough water, so we were forced to make the decision to high tail south into the calm.  On our way out of the grounds we watched marlin tail down sea and marked at least five others on our depth recorder.  We made in effort to catch a bait but with all the blues around the bait just wouldn’t bite.We trolled our way south with the rest of the fleet hoping our number would get called and a fish would strike.  It took pretty much the whole day to finally get bit.  A decent size blue made a few efforts to eat our long corner Polu Kai tube before switching over and getting stuck on the short rigger.  She didn’t do much at first and mostly just paddled on the surface not taking much line.  We chased her down, and within minutes Tracy had the leader.  She was swimming away from the boat and as Tracy pulled her closer she spurted out for a jump.  She made a quick leap and Tracy dumped the leader and her next jump was almost 90 degrees the other direction.  She just kept jumping and in the blink of an eye she was heading up the port side and around the bow.  I quickly pivoted the boat in a tight circle and we were able to come out of what could have been another bad situation. The fish settled back down and within moments Tracy had the leader again.  This time he was able to settle her down along the side.  After taking some good photos from the bridge the blue took off for another squirt and Tracy was forced to let her take off again.  After all was said and done we estimated her at close to 400 pounds, a long day for one bite but what a show.

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