Kona Hawaii Fishing Report - January 2022 wrap-up.
If you're a professional fisherman, bleeding is just part of the job. Getting poked by fish spines and hooks happens. It takes a special talent to get hooked like this though. On my last fishing trip, the ceramic tip insert came out of one of my jigging rods. I always JB Weld these guys in but sometimes it needs to be done again. I took it home and was smoothing in the JB Weld while holding the rod upside down and my grip slipped. I really should have been paying more attention but luckily my kids were home downstairs so I could get help cutting the hook. It looks worse than it is.
There's been a pretty good blue marlin bite going on but the striped marlin haven't come in yet. The peak of spearfish season starts now and although some were caught this month, I really was expected a better bite because they started showing up even before the season started.
I've seen some ahi flags flying in the harbor but I don't know any details. Usually, the only way to get ahi in the winter time is to work a porpoise school. I ran across some fast-moving otaru tuna schools this month and while I got some, mostly they were hard to catch up to and sometimes not biting at all. It's off season for mahi mahi and ono but there's always a chance of finding a straggler.
Bottom fishing with fresh bait like mackerel and tuna is the most productive. After that comes frozen baits when I'm able to catch extra and take some home and stick it in the freezer. My third choice is speed jigging but it's hard work. Now there's a new method gaining in popularity called "slow pitch" jigging. I've already had a few inquiries to see if I offer that. Not only would I need to buy a couple new rods, reels, and several jigs, I would also need to find whole new areas to fish in. I'm normally fishing 400+ feet deep and speed jigs are designed to sink fast. Slow pitch jigs sink slowly so if I went to slow pith jigs, I would be forced into fishing shallower waters and need to learn whole new areas that hold fish. I like trying new techniques but slow pitch jigging might just be a bridge too far.
See 'ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers,
http://fishinkona.com
