Kona Hawaii fishing report – December wrap-up .
The blue marlin bite picked up a bit in the last couple of weeks even though this is the slow season for them. The striped marlin should be here already but they haven't really shown up yet. There has been a few caught but not like it should be for December. Another animal (not a fish) that should be here in numbers are the humpback whales. I've only seen a couple so far this year where usually, they are a daily sight in December. Hopefully when more whales do show up, they`ll bring in the striped marlin with them.
The bottom bite has been slow. I'm seeing plenty of fish on the sonar but they`re just not biting much. Live bait is usually the best method for catching a variety of bottom fish but lately the baits are either not taken at all or just crushed and killed but not eaten. Catching with jigs has been fair but it`s a lot of hard work deep jigging. Another down side to jigging is that fish caught on jigs are generally smaller on average than the fish caught on bait. So, what are the up sides to jigging? For one, that hard work is a good workout. I love to jig for at least an hour a few times a week just to stay in shape. Most of my customers only last 20 to 30 minutes of hard jigging before whimping out. Because I`m usually the one that hooks up (the faster you jig, the more likely you hook up), I get to feel most of the hits and the first pull of the fish. Most charter captains rarely "fish" themselves, they just drive the boat. I think in many cases, I`m just as excited (if not more) about hooking up fish as my customers are. They can have the big fish fights though. IMHO, there can come a time where a workout becomes more like grueling work.
See ‘ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers ,
FISHinKONA.com