Well I had the chance to go to Kaua’i on a business trip and of course had to get offshore while I was there. It definitely has a different meaning there.
We left Port Allen at 6:15 AM and we had lines out in 15 minutes trolling:stuck_out_tongue: man they have it easy. There was a cold rain that we fished in and out of all day. Within 15 minutes we started knocking Dolphin down and a few tuna. After about 2 hrs we probably had 15 fish in the boat and the bite slowed. We headed out further, still within view of land, in search of billfish. We trolled around for about an hour with no luck. Spotted some birds but no fish. Then we got a call on the radio from another boat we were close to earlier. There was a cargo net floating where we had been earlier but we never spotted it. We headed back. Cargo net spotted and immediately reels started screaming. We had all 6 (5X80’s and a 130) go off at the same time. It was on after that for quite awhile and we switched over to some smaller reels too.
We took 50 fish back to the dock and turned at least 15+ back to grow more. We may have let more than that go but we were catching fish so much that we didn’t even try to keep count. Had to keep a few smaller than we would have liked because they liked the hooks too much. We caught Mahi, Yellowfin (Ahi), Big eye’s, and a few skippies. The biggest Yellowfin was a little over 30 lbs. Not a bad day considering we left the dock at 6:15 AM and we were back at Noon.
As usual I repel the billfish but I am a magnet for volume. Oh well, I guess that’s not so bad. We took some yellowfin filets back to the Grand Hyatt and had the chef make shashimi and poke platters for lunch and dinner. It sure is good going down when it was on the deck 2 hrs prior.
I attached a few pics but I am still waiting on some from a couple others that were with me. All my pics were shot with my BB and we were so busy catching them that I didn’t take many.
If you guys ever get to go to Kaua’i I would HIGHLY suggest fishing with Captain J,
As usual I repel the billfish but I am a magnet for volume.
Are you sure that you were targeting them? What you have there is a dock full of marlin bait. Seems like if you were really targeting marlin, you would have bridled up a couple of them and drug them around the net for a few hours...
Most of the fish were sold at the market by the crew as additional money for them. We took what we wanted to eat. My comment on the billfish was kind of joking. You are correct though had we been on them we had all kind of bait flailing out there for them. We spent very little time targeting them as we were just trying to catch fish and mostly targeting large Yellowfin. We had some large YFT marked but we could not get on them when they were at a good depth. They were hanging down 360’+ and would come up to feed and drop right back down. You had to be in the right place at the right time to get the big ones.
Good old captain Jude. This is the boat that took my 10 years first ever uno, both ahi’s over 180lbs (sold everything decent)and gave us a cut of one infant tuna in a half gallon sized bag. They sell everything and will leave you dry but not disclose it till you hit the dock. I would easily take a swing at this mut if I ever got the chance.
The boats is the most unorganized thing float’n as well. Its a darn shame the fishing is so good there ! Nice report
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience David. I knew heading there that it is customary in Hawaii for charters to keep the fish unless negotiated before you leave the dock. I’ve also been on enough of them to know to ask if I want the fish. Many of them will let you keep all the fish but they will charge you more money and you may not fish the best spots. I believe he actually has it on his website too but didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. Kind of like going to NC and taking a charter boat during the big Tuna runs, almost all of them have stipulations on what they keep. It’s also $1000 to charter a boat for the entire day which is about 11 hrs+ of fishing versus $2400 here and you spend 12 hrs on the water but only troll for 6-7. It’s a bargain in my book and I’m glad I got to catch a lot of fish and help them make some money. They are not getting rich off fishing by any means but on the good days they make a good living. I enjoyed it enough there that we changed our flights and stayed for 10 nights instead of 7. I get enough fish here and enjoyed what I ate there.
I stayed in Honolulu for 10 days last year in May for my Honeymoon. I was dying to get Offshore, but I didn’t wanna leave the Wifey for the day while I fished. I had heard and looked up about a lot of boats, some good, some bad. I see that it would have been worth it! Excellent post! Glad you guys had a good time!
Its a game there that is supposed to be restricted. I was told by NOAA they prohibit the selling of game fish while under rec. charter.
This boats says " share the catch". I think most people would think 50/50 or at least one loin off one of the 2 180lb ahi’s we caught that day. I had 17 people staying with us that week and had to buy fish for dinner that night. FYI, There is instant mutany if they tried keeping any locals catch. Skinne, the bill fish are not a prority for the customer when you get on a boat with this type of captain. Its all about meat for sale, they get the billfish by accident.
How many gallons do you think he burned that day? My guess is 5 when we went, we never went on plane ! I know this sounds crazy but you get up to 6k feet in less than a mile out in some spots.
Glad to see you had a constant rod bend, neat place !