Kona Hawaii fishing report – April wrap-up.

It’s beginning to look a lot like …… Summer!? If I didn’t have a calendar, the ocean would be telling me that it’s summer already. One summer indicator is the birds. Shearwaters are the most common sea bird we have here but in the winter, they are pretty scarce. We normally only see big piles of shearwaters along with terns and frigates feeding in the summer months. In the later summer months we also see the really big skipjack tunas called “otado” or “otaru” feeding with them. That’s exactly what’s been going on for over a week now. Another summer indicator is an increased blue marlin bite. It’s usually the smaller 150 to 200 pounders that show up in the early summer first and they’re biting right now too. Yet another summer indicator is a good ono bite. The ono bite has been as good as any summer month since the middle of April. It’s supposed to be mahi mahi season right now but there haven’t been a whole lot of those around. The spearfish bite should be outnumbering the marlin bite this time of year but it’s the other way around recently. And just to top it off, yellowfin tuna in the “koa(s)”. Certain near shore spots where the bottom terrain and abundance of food attract the medium size yellowfin tunas have been producing.

I did mention in last month’s report that the striped marlin bite would probably remain pretty good for April because they showed up late in the season and it was. The ahi bite in the porpoise schools remained about the same. Now I’m wondering about the “blind strike” yellowfin bite. It usually starts around the middle of May and lasts through the summer. I’ve written about the “blind strike” yellowfin before so if you’re one of my regular readers (more than 10,000 of you) you know that just a couple of years ago, blind strike yellowfin became a year-round event. It hasn’t been as common this year so I’m figuring that during this next month, we’ll probably start seeing more blind strikes happening.

The beginning of the month was pretty good for bottom fishing but with the ono and otaru bite being so good for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been spending most of my hours on the water targeting those instead. Summer tends to get a little slow for the bottom bite anyway and even though it’s not really summer yet, as long as the ocean conditions say it is, I’ll pretend it is too.

See ‘ya on the water soon ,
Capt. Jeff Rogers ,
http://FISHinKONA.com

And to RockyRabb and dvdegeorge, See how many readers? At last count using just the boards that show how many people read my report, it’s over 10,000 readers a month. Most boards also have email notification when someone replies to a thread so I know when a reply happens. This one doesn’t. I’ve had many replies to my reports over the years but this is the first time I’ve encountered replies the likes of yours.

Capt. Jeff

maybe if you actually participated here rather solicit and advertise you would see that members respond to your post. If you come here once a month just to promote your business I guess you find out the next month
Enjoy your 10,000 readers

You call it soliciting and advertising but I call it providing a service. Here's a reply to my report on Swordfishing Central yesterday "Great report. Not sure which rock I've been living under, but I'll be sure to keep up with you from now on. Insanely helpful." Add one more regular reader. I also get phone calls from the local fishermen asking what the conditions are and what's biting, where. The amount of business that I get that is directly linked to my monthly fishing reports is miniscule. It's not really about that.

Capt. Jeff

dvdegeorge is right. I would guess many, like myself, come here to see if you've gotten flamed yet for your continued free advertising and never contributing anything other than your shameless self-promotion.
Read up on your reviews a couple months ago, just in case. Seems most people who do your charters don't care for you. As a seasoned fisherman myself (and there are plenty of us here), reading exactly what reviewers are writing, I don't think I'd care much for your attitude and practices, either.

So, start contributing and pack the self-promotion. You might find this a friendlier place.

I honestly don't care if he is promoting a business. It's Ricks site and I ain't about to start policing it for him.

I enjoy reading about fishing and seeing pics from other locales.

Capt Jeff, the Summer of 2013 my family and I were headed to Hawaii for a family vacation during the the month of August,

I sent you a p.m. asking for info in the spring of 2013, in the late fall of 2013 I finally deleted the p.m. as you never responded at all.

This is what a few here are saying, you're very selective in what and when you appear here.

You're gonna have to wait until next months report for a reply.

I was in Kona last week. I asked around a bit and few people had ever heard of Capt Jeff Rogers. The few who did gave me raised eyebrows as answers.

Take that at face value.

So you want me to be a regular participant? You guys that are commenting here are soooo welcoming. How am I supposed to respond to lies like “Seems most people who do your charters don't care for you”? Ever hear of TripAdvisor? 33 “Excellent” reviews and only 6 “terrible” reviews and 4 of those “terrible” reviews were from just 2 trips along with one guy who never even fished with me. Seems there’s nothing more gratifying than ganging up on someone.

I’ll state is again, most boards give email notifications of thread replies (and even PM’s). If this one does either, I haven’t figured it out. I also live a pretty active lifestyle and don’t like sitting on my butt in front of a computer much.

Where’s the pics of the fish you caught RockyRaab? My eyebrows are raised waiting to hear about the fish you caught.

Capt. Jeff

Sheesh!

He forgot all about me again!

Sorry for not answering your PM. We all good now?

It's your professionalism that really impresses me,

All I wanted to know was where to send the check.