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Kona Hawaii fishing report 9/21/01<P>Typically, September and April are the two slowest months of the year for tourism in Hawaii. This September is particularly slow due to the recent terrorist attacks. Most of the fishing boats going out are going on commercial fishing trips because of the lack of charters. There's been a porpoise school South of town producing some yellowfin tuna. A fair number of the guys working the school are using 'green sticks' and there's plenty of skiffs stopping and dropping too. Add in the trollers and you have (by Kona standards anyway) a traffic nightmare. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif" border="0[/img] <P>For the marlin hunters, the catch has slowed since the beginning of the month. There's still some out there but they're a bit on the small side. I think that if there were more charter boats out there trying for 'em the numbers would prove the bite to be fairly good.<P>The fall schoolie dolphin (5-15 lb. mahi mahi) run has started so there's plenty of those little guys around any piece of garbage found floating. Lots of fun on a fly or light tackle. The ono run has just about stopped. There will be some small flurries of action during the winter but for the most part, their season is over.<P>Winter is the best season for bottom fishing here. Is it really fair to call it winter? Fishing flat calm seas in 80 degree weather? Sometimes I forget how spoiled we are here in Kona. Dreams of rods bending and reels screaming all day long with no waiting time in-between bites! That's how it is here fishing the bottom in winter. It's not in full swing yet but there's early signs that it will be starting soon. <P>See ?ya on the water , <BR>Capt. Jeff Rogers , <A HREF="http://FISHinKONA.com" TARGET=_blank>http://FISHinKONA.com</A>

Jeff,<P>What species are ya fishing off the bottom? How far out are you? What is your favorite means of catching alua from a boat? Will be on the big island in Jan., hopefully.<P>John

The most commom catches are Almaco jack and Amberjack averaging in the 30-40 lb. range. Both jacks can get over 100 lbs. Next most common catch are sharks. Dusky, Bronze whaler, Sand bar, Thresher and Tiger.<BR>3rd most common is Ulua, snapper and grouper. The best bottom fishing grounds are just 8 miles from the harbor, 3 miles off shore. There's good ono fishing along the inshore ledge on the way to the grounds or we can fish the deeper ledge for marlin. <P>Capt. Jeff Rogers <A HREF="http://FISHinKONA.com" TARGET=_blank>http://FISHinKONA.com</A>