Northern Lights Sportfishing in Kona, Hawaii Book a fishing trip with us!

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.  Read the rest of this entry »

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.  Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »