Kona Hawaii Fishing with Capt. Jeff Rogers

Kona Hawaii Fishing Report - November 2022 wrap-up.

Fishing? We'll get to that in a bit but right now, most people want to know, "what's going on with the volcano?" We knew it was going to go off soon and last Sunday night, it did. Facebook was covered with photos taken from Kona with lava coming out of the top of Mauna Loa and headed toward Kona. It was still spewing at first light when planes and helicopters were putting videos on the news. By late Monday, the flows headed toward Kona were over after only flowing about a mile. It's still flowing toward the North but there's no population in its path.

If you want to see what's currently going on, do a search for MLcam Hawaii and go to the nps.gov site "Webcams - Hawaii Volcanoes". There are live cameras set up and regularly updated. But not right now, you have more reading to do.

The Blue marlin bite is still slow but that's expected for this time of the year. Striped marlin season is just starting but I'm not getting too excited about catching many of those. We haven't had a "good" run on those in years and just recently, striped marlin was placed on the "overfished" list. It's not us sport fishermen doing it. It's the many commercial longliners that are killing them. They are considered "bycatch" in that fishery. We should start seeing more spearfish coming in but the season on them really starts next month and hopefully, the longliners will leave some of those for us.

Tuna is another fishery that is hit heavily in the Pacific. As a matter of fact, almost 60% of the world's tuna comes from the Pacific. Most of it (by weight) is bigeye tuna but here close to the islands, Bigeye are a fairly rare catch and we mostly catch yellowfin and skipjack tuna. Here in Kona, we're getting some and the guys on Oahu are still experiencing a good tuna bite. I have heard that the baby tunas that were all around V V buoy are gone now. I'm going out soon to find out for myself.

Mahi mahi season has been treating us pretty well and those baby tunas that are (or were?) on V V buoy were the perfect size bait for them. There were a lot of boats competing for them though. Some days it was just too crowded to try so I would pick up some of those little tunas and head to the bottom fishing grounds.

I knew it was only a matter of time before some Karen was going to complain about me catching sharks because of the new law that went into effect at the beginning of the year. Fisheries law enforcement got a complaint about me flying a shark flag (and a flag that I released it). I don't need to fly the flags but I choose to do so because I always have and, 'I'm not breaking the law'. There was a time when I very rarely encountered sharks while bottom fishing and my catches were amberjack, almaco jack, giant trevally, and occasionally a shark or a snapper. Those same fishing grounds had no fewer than half a dozen and as many as fifty boats bottom fishing every day! That came to an abrupt halt a little over a decade ago when many hundreds of Galapagos sharks moved in and destroyed that fishery. Then came the sandbar sharks. Today, sometimes there are sharks around, and sometimes not. I'd rather be catching huge GT's like the one in the photo or other big jacks but when you go to the bottom, you never know what's going to bite.

See 'ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers,
http://fishinkona.com

It was really nice to have this as my first fish after being off the water for 3 weeks. About 100 lbs. Released.

Kona Hawaii Fishing Report - October 2022 wrap-up.

There wasn't much going on with the marlin bite until just recently. All of the sudden, the marlin bite has turned on. Time to go fishing... only one problem for me. My boat is down and I'm still waiting for parts :( I've been down for almost 2 weeks. There aren't a lot of tourists here but we did have an influx of tourists that came in for the Iron Man competition. Hardly any of those people go out fishing though.

The otaru tuna schools are still popping up all over the place so that's the top bite of the month. Not many big ahi were caught this month. There's been very small ahi and aku (I mean VERY small) on V V buoy. Too small to mess with for eating but they make great bait.

Ono season is over and gone and it's now mahi mahi season and so far, it's been pretty good. Some "floaters" were found this month and they were loaded with small ahi, mahi mahi and even some ono. Just in case you are wondering what a "floater" is, it's any kind of debris that's floating around the ocean. It could be wood, rope, netting, floats, or any other interesting object that floats. The longer it floats around, the more marine growth it collects, and the more fish of all sizes are attracted to it. It's a whole aquatic food chain drifting around the ocean. When you see pictures taken here with multiple catches of mahi mahi, it's usually because they found a floater.

The bottom bite was quite productive because of all those small tunas that were easy to catch around V V buoy. I just picked up half a dozen or so and headed to the bottom fishing grounds. On most trips, it was fast action with a variety of fish biting. It was nice catching more than just sharks this month but the sharks were also around and trying to eat anything on the line that wasn't already a shark. Almost everything we brought up that wasn't a shark, got attacked by a shark on the way up. Sharks are fun to catch but as the saying goes, "variety is the spice of life".

See 'ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers,
http://fishinkona.com

Kona Hawaii Fishing Report - September 2022 wrap-up.

It's always hard to report on the September bite because there aren't many boats going out because September is the slowest month of the year for tourism. From what I gather, the marlin bite stayed about the same as last month. Not really good, but not bad either but the catch sizes are all over the place. We have some very small ones coming in, some medium sizes, and some monsters. I lost two good lures to monster marlin this month. There's some striped marlin mixed in and even though it's typically the slowest season for them and there are still some spearfish being caught.

The ahi bite has slowed but I think overall, there's still a bit of a bite. There are skipjack tuna schools popping up all over the Kona coast. The smaller "aku" are schooling together and the bigger "otaru" tunas are doing the same. Sometimes you see them mixed in together busting the surface but the otaru tunas are very fast movers so the smaller aku just can't keep up with them.

The ono bite was pretty good this month as the season for them comes to an end. I've been spending the first hour or so of my trips in ono lane. I'm getting bites on most trips but not having much luck getting them to stay on the line long enough to get them into the boat. It's the beginning of mahi mahi season and so far, it's looking good! It will only get better from here.

The bottom bite was all sharks. Galapagos, sandbar, and oceanic blacktip. There are so many sharks along the ledge that anything I hook up that isn't a shark is instantly eaten by sharks. It went into effect on January 1st that it is illegal to fish for sharks because dumb politicians fell for the lie that all sharks are endangered. I'm not "fishing for sharks" but the fact is, any bottom fishing here is likely to end up being a shark encounter. It wasn't that way a dozen years ago but now days, there are way too many sharks here in Kona.

See 'ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers,
http://fishinkona.com

Kona Hawaii Fishing Report - August 2022 wrap-up.

I didn't fish for almost all of August so I've been compiling info from some of the guys. From what I gathered, there were a lot of "bald heads" this month. What?? Bald head? Let me explain. I have no idea how far back the term goes but at the end of your fishing day, you reel in your lines and then put up fish flags (brag flags) to indicate what you caught during the day. If you're not flying any fish flags, it's called coming in "bald headed". A conversation might go like this; "You went out Saturday?". "Yea, got bald head." Enough said, we know what happened. One smaller detail is that there isn't a fish flag for every fish that might be caught and some unwritten rules determine if you should raise your flag for a smaller-sized fish.

The marlin bite wasn't too bad this month. There wasn't an abundance of marlin this month but certainly had some nice size ones. I didn't hear about any more striped marlin caught this month but there were a few spearfish brought in.

We're still getting some "blind strike" ahi and the otaru schools can still be found racing around the Kona coast. I fished 3 days at the end of the month and on one day, I saw tuna of all sizes along the ledge. I fished them for almost an hour but couldn't get a bite. Then, as soon as they appeared, they were gone. Bald head.

The ono run is done even though I heard of some stragglers being caught. Mahi mahi season isn't quite here yet but some are starting to show up already.

I caught a couple of oioi on one trip so I dropped them to the bottom. The first one hooked up a shark but it came off. On the next drop, I hooked a jack but as soon as I did, the sharks started taking it apart. Done.

So I went to Honolulu right after writing last month's report for cancer surgery but I failed the pre-surgery Covid test and got sent back to Kona. This was my first time with Covid but it was pretty minor. I had cancer surgery the next week and then 2 weeks off the water. I'm still healing and not 100% yet but it was nice to be back on the water.

See 'ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers,
http://fishinkona.com

Kona Hawaii Fishing Report - July 2022 wrap-up.

There was certainly a lot of marlin tournament action going on this month. At the beginning of the month, the big female marlin just weren't around but some did move in by the middle of the month. There are more tournaments coming in August and I expect some more BIG girls will be caught and weighed in. Some people are claiming foul play in the tournaments. Well, it's not foul play if it's currently legal. What I'm referring to is a possible unfair advantage in electronics. Some of the boats now have Omnidirectional sonar that lets them see any fish, anywhere around their boat. Regular sonar only shows you what's under your boat. Unfair? There's a marlin tournament coming up in a little over a week and only "non-omni" boats are allowed to participate. There's also talk of making separate categories in future tournaments for omni and non-omni boats. This could get interesting. Standby.

Striped marlin season is in the winter time but every once in a while, there is an oddball or two caught in the summer. Recently, there have been several striped marlin caught. Last winter, the striped marlin bite kind of sucked so it's a head-scratcher trying to figure out what's going on with them showing up now. I guess they need to swim somewhere, right? The spearfish season is pretty much over but there are still a few showing up.

The ahi bite hasn't been that good to us day-time trollers this season but the night-time commercial guys are still enjoying a pretty good bite with them. I usually rely on catching tunas along the ledges, especially this time of the year but the currents have been wishy-washy so the ledges have been fairly bare.

The ono bite slowed down and when that big surf arrived, you know, the waves that hit Kona and made national news? I thought that the ono would disappear because they hate big surf but they are still around. It's not as good of a bite as it was in June but not bad. There have been some mahi mahi around too.

I didn't do much bottom fishing this month for a couple of reasons. One was the wishy-washy currents and lack of bait. The other was that I couldn't fish for half of the month. I figure that if you're still reading this report this far in, you're either really bored or you're one of my regular readers that like my reports. Back in April, I had cancer surgery that took me out of the action for half of the month. Then I had more cancer surgery near the end of June that took me out for half of July. I'm going back to Honolulu Monday for more cancer surgery and again will be out of action for half a month. I should be finished with the surgeries after this one. Then shortly down the road, the chemo starts. I've fished through chemo (and radiation) before but this next chemo will be a new one for me so I have no idea if I'll be able to keep fishing. I think so, I'm going to try because even a bad day fishing is better than......

Go catch some fish,
Capt. Jeff Rogers,
http://fishinkona.com

Kona Hawaii Fishing Report - June 2022 wrap-up.

It's summer, blue marlin season, and that means tournament season. There have already been a couple of tournaments. The "wee guys" and the Kona Kick Off tournaments are going on right now. The 4th of July weekend will have several overlapping tournaments and a lot of boats. That should relate to a lot of fish caught. The marlin bite right now has been decent and the BIG girls are in town. More lures in the water usually equates to more marlin being caught. There's also been a pretty good spearfish bite going on. In some tournaments, these count, and in others, they don't. Each tournament has its own set of rules. Even if you don't get any points for your spearfish, at least you have some good eating fish for the table.

The ahi bite picked up quite well this month. In most tournaments, ahi count. The night-time small boat guys are catching plenty. The Oahu ahi bite is still on fire! That means there's a lot of ahi on the market. That means the price is down. Not something our fishermen need as the price of fuel and ice continues to skyrocket. The otaru tuna bite slowed down a lot. Not many aku are around either.

The ono bite was pretty good for most of June but it slowed down recently. Since I'm the captain that openly advertises that I routinely cut up fish for my customers, I mostly get people who are looking to eat some fresh fish while they're here. Because of that, I've been mostly targeting (and catching) ono. Sorry, no photos of the fish caught this month. I had a technical glitch and now I don't have any. We still are seeing the occasional mahi mahi flag flying in the harbor.

Since there haven't been any small tunas around, I haven't been doing any bottom fishing. Fresh tuna and mackerel are the key to catching the big game bottom fish. They are picky eaters and believe it or not, even sharks are picky eaters. We have several types of small bottom fish here that don't even get above 2 pounds and sometimes they accidentally hook themselves on my large hook while picking at my tuna. I call them "pe**ers". Sometimes there are so many of them pecking on my bait it's like being in a school of piranha. Most times, I know when a pe**er is stuck on the hook but it does no good to leave it down there. Not even the sharks will eat those pe**ers.

Go catch some fish,
Capt. Jeff Rogers,
http://fishinkona.com

But this only happens in California.

Child Playing In Meadow Stung By Fish YOSEMITE VALLEY, CA - A young child was stung by a fish Tuesday while frolicking through a meadow in Yosemite National Park. The three-year-old girl, daughter of George and Shelly Quicken, allegedly provoked the wild fish when she began picking flowers for her mother.The Quicken family was surprised...

In California, anything can 'identify' as ANYTHING. Even if the ones being re-identified don't even know it.

California court rules bees are now fish It reversed a lower court’s ruling in favor of agricultural interests who argued the state’s Endangered Species Act protected only “birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and plants” – n…