Lepika Sportfishing, Kailua Kona, HI 96740 • 808-960-0068

Scott and Valerie have fish with me for several years and caught some big ahi, blue marlin as well as a short nose spearfish to complete his IGFA Billfish Slam.  On this trip to Kona, he wanted to catch a tiger shark to check off his list of shark species for his IGFA Shark Slam.  I rarely target sharks, especially tiger sharks because they are believed to be spiritual ancestors of the Hawaiian people.  We rarely see “small” tiger sharks (under 10 feet) and they are truly a magnificent fish.  Scott really wanted to catch one and since we were going to release it I decided to try and get him one.  We fished 2 days and on the first day we were shocked to not raise a single tiger shark.  On our second and last day the pressure was on!  My good friend Kevin joined me and brought along several garbage cans full of tuna and miscellaneous bottomfish including several amberjack which these tiger sharks love to eat.  The plan was pretty simple…start down current and pump bloody water out as we traveled up current starting a big slick.  Kevin threw chunks of bottomfish and tuna as we made our way to our drift point.  We then tied a large carcass to a float and dropped it a few yards away from us.  Kevin rigged a 30lb amberjack on the Fin Nor 130 and got it ready to pitch to a shark.  As I watched the float a big brown shadow appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the carcass hanging below.  I yelled to Kevin that we had a shark eating the float and he threw the rigged amberjack into the water as I motored closer to the float.  I watched as the tiger made another pass on the float and this time he grabbed the carcass and took the whole float and bait down for about 20 seconds!  We lost him for a minute and then he came in pretty fast on our bait.  We were trying to get some good video footage so we teased him to within 30 feet of the boat but he refused the bait at the last second.  Kevin sunk the boat and the tiger came around and ate the bait a few yards under the boat!  Scott got himself clipped into the chair and got to work.  He is a really experienced angler and got his first tiger to the boat in about 40 minutes!  As Kevin leadered the tiger we were amazed as it rolled over and showed us just how thick she was!  I don’t think that anyone could have put their arms even half way around this sharks belly!  It looked like she had been feeding on a baby whale!  After a few pictures we released her unharmed with a nice hook set in the corner of her mouth.  Since it was still early we decided to try for another and it didn’t take long!  Our slick was working!  We reset the float and sunk an amberjack as we waited.  The deep bait fired off and we were on again.  This time the shark made a blistering run!  Scott worked the shark up to the boat and apparently we had tail wrapped her.  This shark was even bigger maybe 14 feet but not as fat as the first one.  Kevin leadered her up and got her unwrapped from the leader when she kicked a few times and broke the main line.  What a day!  Two big tigers and one that was definitely over 1000lbs!

Today, I hosted Marshella, Alison and their boyfriends Chris and Chris for a 3/4 day charter.  This time of year I would highly recommend a full day but we decided to give it a try on a little shorter trip.  I started right in front the harbor and worked my way straight out towards a nearby buoy.  Nothing was at the buoy and we had some hard wind out of the northeast.  I ventured way offshore to look for current and debris that might be holding mahimahi.  As I continued out to the deep I angled down swell to make the ride more comfortable.  About 15 minutes later I saw a porpoise jump about 200 yards away.  It was hard to see in the swell if they were spotted dolphins so I continued on trying not to lose sight of them.  The pile was massive, probably one of the biggest pods I have seen in a long time.  I made my first pass without a bite and no fish showed on my sounder.  The pod was just too big to not be holding fish so I switched my pattern to more ahi type lures.  I came back into the school and made 5 passes without marking a fish or getting a bite.  I started back in when the stinger position fired off!  Line was dumping off the Fin Nor 80 as I buckled Marshella into the fighting chair.  We were almost at half a spool before the fish settled down.  Marshella got to work fighting her first fish ever!  She did a great job and stuck with it the whole way.  In about 40 minutes she finally got the fish to leader!  Her biggest ahi and her first fish ever would scale out at 191lbs!  After a few pictures we reset lines and found the pod surfing its way south.  We made pass after pass without a bite and still no fish were on my sounder.  I was just about to give up when the long rigger came down hard!  This time Alison was in the chair and fought her fish on a larger Fin Nor 130.  We pushed the drag up and Alison got to work in low gear.  We laughed as I told them this is Alison’s Allison (Allison yellowfin tuna)…Alison made quick work of her first ahi in about 15 minutes!  Her ahi would hit the scales at 129lbs!  We lost the pile in the swell and headed back to the harbor.  We went into ono lane and worked from Keauhou to the airport without another bite.

Debbie, John and their son Dan fished a full day on the Lepika!  Dan fishes quite a bit in Colorado and this was his first experience in the deep blue.  We ran far offshore in hopes of finding some nice current lines and trash that might be holding mahimahi.  As we worked our way farther out we ran into a few boats working a pod of porpoise.  The porpoise haven’t had much ahi in them so I wasn’t anticipating much action, but…you never know until you try!  We made a trolling pass with the lures and I didn’t see a single mark on the sounder.  I spoke to a guy on one of the other boats and he had not seen or caught a fish either.  I continued to work the pod and on my second pass I thought I might have marked a fish at 55fathoms, far to deep to get a bite on lures.  I turned to make my third pass and didn’t see the fish again on the screen.  It was a quick decsion but I decided to leave the pod and look farther offshore.  As I made my turn the short rigger came down hard and the Fin Nor 130 screamed as the ahi dove for the deep!  Debbie had asked me earlier, “how do you know when you get a bite?” and trust me…she knew!  Dan got in the chair and the ahi cleared almost half the spool by the time it stopped it’s first run!  He fought the fish hard for about 20 minutes before he got the leader to me.  At first glance I thought the fish would scale out at 140lbs but when we got to the scales it went 180lbs!  I ran back to the porpoise and looked on the sounder for more fish but didn’t see any other marks.  I continued farther south and ended up at one of the buoys that was holding some small tuna.  On my trolling pass I saw some small mahimahi cruising around so we went to live baiting.  The mahi were hard to catch but eventually we managed to catch one for each of them, perfect for a few nights worth of dinner!

Tough fishing has plagued the fleet for the past few days.  Fishing Kona can usually yield some nice fish consistently but the past few weeks the fishing has consisted of mostly mahimahi and smaller yellowfin tuna.  All of these are great for the grill and that’s pretty much what we’ve been catching…dinner!  On the 26th, Mike and Jeff fished a full day with me.  There had been some small skipjack tuna and yellowfin tuna at one of the nearby buoys so we headed there first.  We arrived early and there weren’t many boats in the area so I decided to catch a small tuna and rig it live for some bigger fish.  Mike caught a perfect size yellowfin tuna about 2lbs and I sent it back about a hundred yards.  We made a few passes on the buoy and more boats arrived including two dive boats.  Typically, divers in the water put the fish down but as we pulled our baits near one of the boats a big mahimahi grabbed our bait.  Jeff was first in the chair and this was his first mahimahi he had ever caught and it was a nice one!  The average mahimahi in Kona ranges from 15-20lbs and Jeff’s mahimahi scaled out at 35lbs!

The following day, Laning, Liz and their parents joined me for a full day.  Laning and Liz have fished with me a few times in the past few years and this time they brought along Laning’s parents. After trying for big fish without success we ended up at VV buoy and caught a few small tunas for Liz to take home and cook for dinner.  Liz has been growing organic ginger and had a chance to make some sashimi to go along with it!

Tom fished with me almost five years ago!  On that trip he remembered catching ahi pushing 120lbs!  Today, he was back with his friends Scott and Joe to fish Kona once again.  Not many Kona charter boats have been fishing so we had the ocean pretty much to ourselves.  Sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s bad.  When more boats fish it’s easier to find fish by relying on friends and finding fish with a group as opposed to just out on your own.  We’ve had really good luck the past three days seeing quality fish so I had hoped today we could do it again.  Tom wasn’t sure how his friends would do in rough water so I ventured south where the ocean is typically calmer because of the volcanoes that block the normal trade-winds.  We trolled south for a few hours without a bite before stumbling onto a porpoise school that was fairly spread out.  There was one other boat that joined us and I marked two nice tunas down at 40 fathoms.  No bite trolling so I deployed the greenstick.  The pod was pretty big and spread out so I wasn’t expecting much until they came tighter.  We made our third pass on a nice group of porpoise when a nice ahi balsted 8 feet out of the water and inhaled one of our squids!  The guys were too busy checking out the porpoise swimming all around our boat and missed the ahi bite.  They definitely heard it as line screamed from the Fin Nor 130.  Tom was up and worked his fish to the boat in about 15 minutes!  Tom’s ahi would scale out at 134 1/2lbs!