Big Island Hawaii?

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gwpolo5
Fisher
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 2:49 pm

Big Island Hawaii?

Post by gwpolo5 »

Hey Guys,

I'm making a trip out to Kona in a week, and while I do have plans to get on a charter boat after some marlin, I am planning on doing some shore fishing. I wanted to see if anyone had any experience fishing out there from shore. I'm bringing quite a few lures I can tie up to my medium spinner with 15# mono.

Anyone have any tips? Hopefully I'll get lucky and post up a report!

Thanks.

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Floridahogfish
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Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2011 4:19 pm
Location: Dania/Juno/The Rick

Re: Big Island Hawaii?

Post by Floridahogfish »

gwpolo5 wrote:Hey Guys,

I'm making a trip out to Kona in a week, and while I do have plans to get on a charter boat after some marlin, I am planning on doing some shore fishing. I wanted to see if anyone had any experience fishing out there from shore. I'm bringing quite a few lures I can tie up to my medium spinner with 15# mono.

Anyone have any tips? Hopefully I'll get lucky and post up a report!

Thanks.
i used to live there back in my younger days with my father, the best boat is the marlin magic lol thats what i used to fish when i lived over there and i heard of people throwing lures just outside of the marina there and catching dolphin and tuna
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gwpolo5
Fisher
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 2:49 pm

Re: Big Island Hawaii?

Post by gwpolo5 »

Haha, what a coincidence, the boat I have booked is Marlin Magic. I figure I'll take a variety of lures, and see what works. Might be worthwhile grabbing a sabiki to see if I can rope in some live bait also.

If the waters are clam enough, I'll probably take a kayak out 100 yards or so to see if that will help.

Ken+
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Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:39 am
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: Big Island Hawaii?

Post by Ken+ »

Here are a few tips...

1) You can also cast other lures (called "whipping" locally) off the beach or shore. Lures like topwater (Kaku lures, Mark Whites, or other poppers), Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow or similar crankbaits, and gold or silver Kastmasters retrieve as fast as you can possibly crank, with a few twitches in between...great for trevally (called "papio" if under 10lbs, or "ulua" if over 10lbs) or ladyfish (awa'awa) or great barracuda (kaku).

2) Clear floating bubble threaded on like you would for an egg sinker for a carolina rig, then a bead, then tie on a swivel. To the other end of the swivel, tie on a 6-7' long leader with 6-10lb fluorocarbon, and to the end of that leader, tie on a smaller hook...gold hooks are sometimes great. You can either have just air in the floating bubble so it just floats on top, or you can fill it with freshwater either halfway or completely depending on how much you want the bubble to suspend. This is so you can fish your rig on top of the reefs. You can use plastic grubs from 1-3". Hawaiians like to hook their plastic grubs on the nose rather than threaded on. It gives the grub more action. Clear/silver flake, gold/ gold flake, motor oil/red flake, green/glitter, firecracker, and even a colour called "obake purple" (a pearly purple) works great.

3) Instead of the plastic grub, substitute with strips of squid or tuna belly, chunk of shrimp or bread. You can salt the squid, tuna belly or shrimp to firm up the flesh so they stay on the hook longer. Lots of wrasse (hinalea) and sergeant major (mamo, kupipi) that can strip you clean quickly. You can fish the "meat" baits on the retrieve, or cast out and let it sway in the waves. You can catch papio, kaku, goatfish species (weke, moano, kumu, manu...etc), triggerfish (hage / humu) and many more reef fish. For the bread, fish it as natural as you can either on the surface or on a slow, natural sink. You can catch some bigger wrasse, Hawaiian chub (enunue), unicornfish (kala)...etc on bread. It's great fun...but also frustrating since they are very crafty in eating around the hook.

4) You can bring a heavy surf rod and a large conventional reel and fish the surf or off the rocks. I would suggest at least 30lb mono mainline (40-50lb better) or 50lb braid (80lb better). Tie on a rub 20' leader of 50-100lb mono (or fluoro) with one of the slim knots and tie on a 3-way swivel at the end of the leader. To one ear of the swivel, tie on the same 50-100lb mono (or even wire leader) of about 18-24" long, then tie on a large circle hook (start at about a 6/0 circle for big game, or 1/0 circle if you want smaller game). To the other ear, tie on a lighter line, say 20lb if your main line is 30lb, or 30lb if your main line is 50lb. This is a leader for your sinker. Depending on the bottom structure, you can either use 24" or even longer of this sinker line. Tied a loop knot at the end of your sinker line and attach a bank sinker for rocky areas (or spunik is even better), or a pyramid if it is mostly sandy areas. You can fish a large strip of squid (ika), a whole leg of octopus (tako), or any fresh small reef fish you can catch. Eel (puhi or tohei) is also good for ulua.

5) You can do 1-3 in a kayak. You can also jig a sabiki tipped with a bit of squid or shrimp from a kayak for reef fish.

That is shorefishing Hawaii in a nut shell. :D

It's fun to go holoholo in Hawai'i. Hanapa'a brah!

ikaika
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Re: Big Island Hawaii?

Post by ikaika »

Good Luck!

I fished with Bite Me the last two times I was there. Wife scored 175lb YFT!

Surf or Shore fishing was tough along Kailua-Kona; the lava shelf made things difficult and I donated a few lures before I figured out that top water was my only strategy.
I spent many hours fishing the shore from Kona Village past the Four Seasons. Almost unfishable because of Lava, Law, or Green Turles... God forbid you hook or harm one of those - they'd proabably hang you!

If you head north to the public beach you might have a better shot.

Fishing around the harbor is forbidden, but you can stealth it. I know you can rent a yak in the harbor and paddle out and fish anywhere. There are a pair of large Tiger Sharks that patrol in and around the harbor - so be careful dipping your toes.

Across the Highway from the harbor is Melton International - stop in their and pick up a few Pili Lures for your box...

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