Northern Light’s 800 lb blue before release.
As if on cue for the summer tournament season exceptional fishing took place in June off the Big Island. Charter boats had excellent action catching both big and small blue marlin, ahi, shortnose spearfish, ono and mahi-mahi. Notable blue marlin catches include – 800 lb. blues tagged by the Northern Lights and Sea Genie II, along with 9 other tagged or caught blue marlin over 500 lbs. During the month’s full moon, 63 ‘known” blue marlin were tagged or caught from June 14 to 19th, and many boats do not even report their catches! As for the new moon at the end of the month, 21 “known” blues were caught June 28 and 29th. Ahi fishing has been hot too. Notable ahi catches include- Lepika with a monster day while targeting ahi catching 8 ranging from 104-176 lbs. And big ahi are getting into the marlin spread too, Ihu Nui caught a 197 lb and Bwana had a 194 lb during the Kona Kick Off Tournament. Monkey Biz II caught Kona’s biggest mahi mahi of the year catching a 56 lb. Two tournaments took place in June. Captain Marlin Parker on the Marlin Magic II, won the Kona Big Game Fishing Club’s Rock & Reel Tournament held June 14-15 by catching 5 blues during the two day event. Overall 41 blues were caught out of 28 boats.Captain Chip Van Mols on the Luna won the Kona Kick Off held June 28-29 by boating a 663.5 lb blue and then tagging a smaller blue on the last day of the tournament, surpassing the Raptor which had tagged 4 blues during the 2 day event. Overall, 2 blues were caught and 19 tagged out of 30 boats. Worth noting – the Kona Kick Off was the fish sanctioned event for InTheBite’s Captain of the Year Cup Hawaiian Division. A reminder Kona has the calmest waters found anywhere 2,400 miles offshore- the fishing there is excellent ! Traveling there is easy! The ocean is magical! See for yourself – fish a tournament or charter a boat, you won’t regret it. For more tournament information visit http://konatournaments.com/
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