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Well, you often here of the ahi biting in Kona, HI, usually in the porpoise school. Fish from 60-200+ lbs are caught in the porpoise school year-round, with more being caught in the summer. The summer usually produces more of the bigger fish as well.
A school of big eye tuna bit in the blind south of town about 10-12 days ago, can't quite remember. But, that was it. They must have stuck around, undetected, and un-caught. They showed themselves on April 8, just in front of the harbor, in 1000-1100 fathoms. First one on the scene was Kevin Hiney, capturing a 223 & 209. Next to find the bite was Kenton Geer (Tough on Tackle, board name) on the High Noon, with deckhand Brett Jamison--some of you know Brett from fishing with Butch Cox on the Prime Time. They captured 2 nice fish as well, 135 & 100. We were next on the scene. Kenton was motioning down, straight down. He was marking the school under the boat, and began to throw handfuls of chunks to keep the fish. Feeding the fish worked. As we circled tight to his boat, we got bit on the inside of our turn. 15 minutes later we had a 117 (gilled-gutted) on the deck. We had another knock down on the troll, but it came off straight away. 2 other boats showed up after we missed that second bite. Knowing that they missed the early action, they went straight to the jigs. Robert on the Camelot hooked up in no time at all. Marlin Parker on the Marlin Magic 2 worked the jig for a bit---but it took the seasoned pro to get the action. I watched as Marlin himself took over the jigging & got the bite on his first drop. Nice work--134 lbs. We had to leave, as our time was fading fast, and we had another trip to run after this one. Otherwise, we could have extended & worked the jigs ourselves.
Pays to have friends....especially friends who are hooked up and chunking to hold the fish for you!!! Thanks Kenton. A few other guys got big eyes that day, but did not see them in the action that day. Not sure if they were there before us or got bit elsewhere. But we were looking straight down the mouth of the harbor while fighting our fish. You really do catch nice fish right out front---that's why we troll starting right out of the harbor.
As luck would have it, I did not have the camera on the boat that day. so no pictures, but you can imagine what a 117 lbs big eye looks like....
tight lines
Jeff
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