|
Captain Bob Sylva
Owner & Operator
78-6795 Walua Road
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
96740
Call Toll Free:
1 888-823-2232
Local Call:
(808) 322-3261
E-mail
Thrill Seeker
|
More than 35%
of our Customers
are Repeats
|
|
Tournament
Fishing Available
|
|
1st Timers
& Experienced
Anglers
Welcome
|

|
Update
July 30, 2009
Since
July 19th over 180 Blue Marlin and Pacific Shortnose Spearfish
have been reported tagged and released by the Kona charter
boat fleet. This does not come close to representing
the total amount of fish caught. Many boats, particularly
private boats, do not report catches. This also does
not include any catches of Ono (Wahoo), Mahimahi, or Ahi
(Yellowfin Tuna). It's a good time to be out fishing.
Some of the Blue Marlin tagged and released aboard the THRILL
SEEKER are as follows:
7/19/09 Bill Field from Scottsdale, Arizona released
a Pacific Blue Marlin estimated at 230 lbs.
7/24/09 Tyler Scarafiotti from Nagal, New Mexico captured
and released a Pacific Blue Marlin weighing approximately
120 lbs.
7/27/09 Jim Eaton from Carnation, WA captured and
released a Pacific Blue Marlin weighing approximately 150
lbs.
|
7/30/09
13 year old Marcus Bernardino from Diamond
Bar, CA successfully fought a 150 lb. Yellowfin
Tuna with a little help from his grandfather Manuel
Jacobs from Walnut, CA.
These are just highlights of catches aboard the
THRILL SEEKER in the last two weeks as it has been
so busy I have not been able to report everything.
Aloha,
Captain Bob
|

Click for larger |
June/July
Forecast
IIf
you ever wanted to fish Kona, the months of June and
July are some of the best. The fishing for Ono
(Wahoo) has been good since late April. Sea surface
temperatures are now up to 81 degrees F. Along
with the warmer currents have come the Pacific Blue
Marlin Kona is famous for.
Cody Richman of Randoph Utah tagged and released an
estimated 185 lb. Blue Marlin on a half day trip after
a 15 minute fight.
The second half of June has produced some of the best
Marlin fishing I've witnessed in years. Almost
every boat is catching fish. On one 3/4 day trip
we had a double Spearfish strike, tagging and releasing
both fish. Then we headed inside (water less than
600 feet deep) to fish for Ono (Wahoo) and had a double
strike, boating both fish in the 20 to 30 lb. range.
On the way in, 1.85 miles from the harbor at a
depth of 3,000 feet, we had a giant Blue Marlin come
in and grab the short corner lure running only 30 feet
behind the boat. This fish headed for the horizon
like a bullet train, dumping line off the reel so fast
it almost spooled us before we could clear line,
turn the boat and give chase. We were able to
get all our line back and after a 55 minute fight the
fish was brought along side the boat and relased. It
was estimated at over 700 lbs.We are all anxiously awaiting
the arrival of the annual migration of giant Yellow
Fin Tuna (Ahi). They have shown up on Oahu
in large numbers and are expected here any time. There
have been some caught here and there in "the blind"
meaning there was no signs or indication we might get
a strike.
Anytime now!
Aloha,
Captain Bob
March/April
Forecast
The
excellent winter trolling bite tapered off a bit in
March but April is on the upsurge. April is one
of the peak months in Hawaii for Mahi mahi and it looks
like it's going to be good this year. We've boated
Mahi mahi in the 25 to 40 lb. range in the first 10
days of April. The Ono (Wahoo) are also starting
to show up with big numbers expected by the end of April,
peaking in May and remaining steady through July and
into August.
The sea surface temperatures have begun to warm up from
lows of 72.4 to 73.8 degrees in March, the lowest I've
ever seen. I am now recording sea surface temperatures
of 75.3 to 76.4 degrees. As the sea surface temperatures
warm up into spring and summer the fishing will only
get better.
There have been some football sized tuna along the ledges
and around some of the buoys. These are most likely
Big Eye tuna given the low water temperatures. The larger
Yellowfin tuna (ahi) will start showing up towards the
end of April and increase in numbers throughout the
summer months. There has also been an unusual
run of large Big Eye tuna in the last two weeks with
most being caught in the blind while trolling. These
fish have been weighing between 140 to 220 lbs.
March and April are also good months to look for large
Blue Fin Marlin in Kona waters. We have captured
and released four in the last week, with the largest
estimated at over 500 lbs.
If you are serious about big game fishing, as you probably
already know, a full day charter is the way to go. This
gives us the maximum amount of time and the most opportunity
to find the fish you want.
January/February
Forecast
2/9/09
This past week
has been busy. We have caught, tagged and released
numerous Spearfish, Striped Marlin, and two Blue Marlin.
We have also boated several Mahimahi and a large number
of Yellowfin Tuna in the 10 to 20 lb. class. The seawater
temperatures are getting down to 76 degrees F and we are
starting to see more Striped Marlin caught. Humpback
whales are everywhere now. It seems like they showed
up all at once. When we are fishing near shore in
depths of less than 100 fathoms it's almost impossible not
to see them.
1/31/09
Hosted Melvin and Sharon Miller from Billings, Montana for
a half day charter. Back on October 15, 2008, their
son Steve Miller was out with me for a half day (scroll
down through the reports to see what happened then). The
Millers wanted to catch a bigger fish than the 625 plus
pound Blue Marlin Steve and friend Lonnie Walker had caught
in October.
About 45 minutes out of the harbor, the longer rigger went
off with a Blue Marlin jumping all over the ocean. It
was Sharon's turn and she was already in the fighting chair
when the fish hit. After a fifteen minute fight which
I am sure to Sharon must have seemed much longer, a 150
pound Blue Marlin was brought alongside the boat. I
placed a National Marine Fisheries Service tag in the fish
while numerous photos were taken (proof to Steve that his
mom really caught a marlin). The fish was released
in good condition. Although Sharon didn't catch a
bigger fish than son Steve, I think she was very happy she
didn't have to slug it out with a 625 plus pound fish.
Aloha, Captain Bob
January
and February are the best months of the year to fish for
Striped Marlin and Spearfish. Mahi mahi continue
to be plentiful. Big Blue Marlin are always around
as they will hunt down and eat the smaller species of
fish mentioned above. This is also a time when migrating
Humpback whales arrive in large numbers to their winter
breeding grounds in Hawaii. We will often spend
some time whale watching on our trips this time of year.
This is also the time of year you can be fishing
in glass calm seas and 80 degree temperatures in Kona
and look up at snow capped mountains in the distance.
1/8/09
Hosted Dan Martin and his wife Joan for a 3/4 day charter
including whale watching and snorkeling at the Captain
Cook monument, a marine preserve in beautiful Kealakekua
Bay. We headed down to the bay close to shore looking
for Humpback whales. When the Humpbacks are in Hawaii,
they are almost always found close to shore in shallower
water. Half way down to the bay we came upon a pod
of six whales frolicing on the surface. We stayed
and observed the whales until Dan and his wife were satisfied
they had enough photographs, then headed on down to the
bay. There they spent about an hour snorkeling in
the pristine waters fronting the Captain Cook monument.
With the whale watching and snorkeling out of the
way, the rest of the trip was spent fishing in the deeper
water 3 to 4 miles offshore. About 3 miles offshore
we were attacked by a pack of Spearfish. At one
point they simultaneously attacked each one of the 5 lures
being pulled behind the boat. When things settled
down we ended up hooking 2 out of the 5 fish. Each
fish was fought to the boat, photographed, tagged and
released. We also wound up with a nice Mahimahi
for dinner.
1/4/09
Hosted
Stanley Marshall from Illinois for a half day charter.
As we cruised up to a popular fishing area known
as "The Grounds" we started getting some light tugs
on the small lure placed out far away from the boat
on the long rigger. This type of activity was
indicative of a Spearfish or Striped Marlin swatting
the lure with it's tail in an attempt to stun it.
The response to this is to tease the fish into
eating the lure. After 5 minutes of teasing,
we hooked up but it was not the Spearfish we expected.
Out of the water lept a 250 pound Blue Marlin,
greyhounding straight for the boat. Stanley
wound up with the fish fight of a lifetime and brought
the biggest fish he had ever caught to the boat. The
fish was photographed, tagged and released. If
recaptured in another part of the world someday, National
Marine Fisheries Service will let us know.
November
and December Forecast
November
is a peak month for Mahimahi. We should continue
to see Mahimahi through November, December and into January.
December will also bring increasing numbers of Spearfish
and Striped Marlin. Though not as plentifull as
in the summer months, big Blue Marlin will continue to
be around.
10/30/08
Hosted Bob Carlson
and his wife Nancy for a full day charter.
The first order
of the day was to catch something good to eat. Since
the month of November is usually one of the better months
of the year to fish for Mahimahi in Kona, this was our
target fish. We set out a spread of seasoned 5 to
7 inch lures covered with the scars from numerous Mahimahi
catches over the years. I also brought along a stash
of dead bait. Sometimes when a Mahimahi is hooked
on a lure and brought into the stern of the boat, it is
followed by the school of Mahimahi it was part of. If
you have bait ready to go you can end up catching a lot
of fish.
We trolled out to the 6,000 foot depth three miles outside
the harbor and headed South. An hour and thirty
minutes later we got our first strike, a 30 pound Mahimahi.
As Bob fought the fish, I cleared lines and dropped
a dead bait back in case there were others. It turned
out to be a loner.
We continued South along the 6,000 foot depth for another
hour before we got our next bite. This turned out
to be a bull Mahimahi that tipped the scales at 37 pounds.
This fish gave Nancy a very hard fight until we
were finally able to subdue it and get it into the brine
box to chill out. It was another lone Mahimahi.
After trolling for another hour we had a big strike. A
Pacific Blue Marlin between 400 to 450 pounds hit the
lure on the long corner rod and stripped about 100 yards
of line off the reel before exploding out of the water
in a series of jumps behind the boat. As I cleared
the lines, Bob jumped into the fighting chair and clipped
the bucket harness to the reel. The fish took about
300 yards of line before settling down. I backed
up after it to make it easier for Bob to regain line and
to get as close to the fish as possible before it could
go deep. Within 15 minutes, Bob had the fish to
within 40 feet behind the boat. What happened next
was one of the most amazing things I've seen in all the
years I've been fishing. A large pod of Pilot Whales
passed by us headed North. We needed to get the
marlin up to leader and tagged and released as soon as
possible. Pilot Whales are toothed whales up to
20 feet in length found year round in Kona waters. While
they could have easily attacked and killed the marlin,
I really wasn't too worried about that happening.
The problem is that pods of Pilot Whales like this are
often accompanied by Oceanic White Tip Sharks. Sure
enough, after the pod of whales passed, two Oceanic White
Tips appeared behind the marlin. Oceanic White Tip
sharks are aggressive. You would not want to be
floating in the ocean with a couple of them around you.
If we were hooked up to a tuna it would have been
all over in seconds and we probably would have ended up
with some shredded leader. But this was a large
malin with a long dangerous bill and the sharks were very
cautious. The large shark, about 8 feet plus, swam
alongside the marlin keeping a distance of about 10 feet
off the marlin's right side. The smaller shark,
about 6 feet plus, trailed about 50 feet behind.
My original intent was to release the marlin, but now
things were complicated. If the marlin was too exhausted,
releasing it meant that the sharks would ultimately track
it down and eat it. I did not feel like feeding
the sharks. I had Bob back off on the reel drag
setting in the event the sharks made a move on the marlin.
This would allow the fish to take line more easily
and possibly escape the jaws of the sharks.
What happened next was incredible and it happened in a
little more than the blink of an eye. Instead of
trying to escape, the marlin charged the large shark on
its right and ran it through with its bill. As it
shook its head violently, it ripped a large hole in the
sharks side. The mortally wounded shark spiraled
into the depths with its insides trailing out of the wound.
The smaller shark had disappeared. The marlin
was all lit up neon blue and still hooked up 30 feet below
the boat. It was senseless to pull her all the way
back to the surface just to put a tag in her. She
had just demonstrated that she had more than enough energy
left to be released. We were able to get the swivel
to the surface and I cut her loose leaving her with the
hook and about 18 feet of leader.
As many years as I've run charters, I've seen numerous
marlin feeding on the surface, and I've had marlin inhale
a live bait right at the back of the boat, but I've never
seen one attack and kill a large fish like this. It
was spectacular!
Aloha, Captain Bob
September
and October Forecast
n
September
and October are some of the best months of the year to fish
for Blue Marlin in Kona. On the first half of September
over 90% of all fish captured and released or brought in and
weighed were Blue Marlin between 120 to over 700 pounds! Eighty
five percent were tagged and released. There were also
Yellow Fin Tuna (Ahi) between 115 and 155 pounds weighed.
As we move into October, we will see increasing numbers
of Mahimahi caught as November is one of the best months for
catching Mahimahi.
People often ask "How far do we have to go to catch fish?"
The answer: About 100 yards to the harbor entrance
buoy. Just past the buoy the bottom drops off precipitously
to over 6,000 feet three miles from shore. We put our
lines in the water just past the buoy and bring them in there
at the end of the trip so there is no run to the fishing grounds.
The Kona coast has some of the calmest seas you will find
anywhere in the world. In a normal year, I may only
have to cancel 2 to 3 trips due to bad weather.
October 14, 2008
Hosted
John Joren and his wife from Las Vegas, Nevada for an afternoon
half day trip. After trolling the inside and then bombing
the bottom with bait with no luck, I decided to put out a
spread of lures and fish the deep water (6,000 feet) outside
a popular Kona fishing area known as "The Grounds".
The pattern of lures consisted of two smaller lures on the
long lines designed to catch Mahimahi, Spearfish, and Tuna.
The lures on the corner rods were larger (up to 13 inches)
and run close to the boat to catch Blue Marlin.
Sometimes the fish just don't play by the "rules". After
trolling south along the 6,000 foot depth for 30 minutes,
the two long lines went off. The first fish to strike
was a big female Pacific Blue Marlin in excess of 600 pounds.
She came up jumping straight for the stern of the boat.
A split second later, a male of about 175 pounds hit
the other long line and took off leapfrogging in the opposite
direction away from the boat. As a captain this is an
impossible situation to deal with as the manuevers necessary
to deal with one fish are the opposite required to deal with
the other fish.
In the end, it didn't matter. The female jumped off
and the male which by now had burned about 600 yards of a
total of 800 yards of line off the reel, broke off. It
was all over in 15 seconds. Even though John didn't
get his fish, he got to feel the enormous power and witness
the incredible speed of a Pacific Blue Marlin. Sometimes
you're just fishing and not catching.
October 15, 2008
Hosted Steve Miller and Lonnie Walker and family from Billings,
Montana for a morning half day trip. After briefing
them at the dock and explaining the previous days events,
we headed out of the marina and up North where we had action
the day before. We never made it. One of the small
lures running on the long lines the day before got whacked
by a fish. Line peeled off the reel at a steady but
not alarming rate for about 100 yards and then slowed to almost
a stop. There was not a strong indication as to exactly
what species of fish it was. All the lines were cleared
and I backed the boat up towards the fish so Lonnie, the angler
could easily regain line. Once we had retrieved almost
all the line, I fully expected to see a large Spearfish or
small Blue Marlin behind the boat. Instead what appeared
was a large dark sinister looking shape. Within second,
an enormous Blue Marlin in excess of 625 pounds exploded out
of the water and took off away from the boat rampaging across
the surface of the ocean like a runaway train. Within
seconds, the reel packed with 800 yards of 100 pound test
line was down to 400 yards and line was rapidly disappearing
off the reel.
With both engines in reverse I backed up after the fish as
fast as I could get the boat to go stern first, but it quickly
became apparent this was not going to work. We could
not go after the fish fast enough. I raced down off
the flybridge, released the brake on the fighting chair and
had Lonnie's partner Steve turn the chair towards the port
(left) side of the boat. I spun the boat around and
raced after the fish in forward. Now we had a chance
to get some line back.
When you have to run down a big fish, it helps to have your
reel packed with high visability line. We got about
half the line back when it began slicing through the water
across the port bow. I could see it looping around to
the starboard side. The fish had doubled back on us.
I executed a 180 degree turn to starboard and continued
to follow the fish until we were within 100 yards. We
were now able to back up on the fish and begin an hour long
battle of tug o' war.
When fighting large Marlin, it's imperative that you do not
allow the fish to get too far away from the boat for too long.
When this happens, the fish will invariably dive down
to depths too great to survive. The enormous pressure
at those depths will kill the fish within minutes. Now
what you're stuck with is a whole lot of dead weight on the
end of the line and that's a lot less cooperative that a large
stubborn live fish. Even though it's sometimes possible
to plane a dead fish up to the surface, my policy is to always
tag and release billfish whenever possible.
After fighting the fish for 45 minutes Lonnie decided to let
his buddy Steve finish the fight. With a fresh angler
in the fighting chair we were able to increase pressure on
the fish and she slowly came up to the surface. It took
several attempts at leadering the fish before I was able to
place a National Marine Fisheries Service tag into it. She
reacted to the tag by pulling 30 feet of line off the reel
and sulking beneath the boat for the next five minutes. It
took three more failed leader attemps before I could retrieve
my lure and cut the 500 pound test leader.
This was an extraordinarily strong fish. She swam away
upright and in very good condition with five feet of leader
and the hook which will fall out on its own eventually.
Marlin are oceanic nomads. They follow the warm ocean
currents and you never know where they will show up next.
Lonnie, Steve and I put our names and addresses on the
tag. Even though we let her go in the world's largest
ocean, in the remote possiblity this fish is recaptured in
another part of the woeld and the NMFS is contacted, they
will let us know the date, time, location and weight of the
fish.
We left the harbor at 7:00 AM and returned at 11:00 AM. The
fish struck 3 miles north of the harbor and 2 miles straight
offshore in 3,000 feet of water. Surface water temerature
was 80.3 degrees F. Kona, Hawaii is one of the few places
in the world where you can book a half day fishing charter
and enjoy this type of action. But you don't have to
fish for Marlin, afterall, I put that small lure out for Mahimahi.
It's just that sometimes the fish don't play by the
"rules".
Aloha,
Captain Bob
July/August
2008
July
and August are generally the best months of the year to be fishing
in Kona. The surface ocean temperature is normally
above 80 degrees F. The warm currents bring in Blue Marlin,
Yellow Fin Tuna, Mahimahi, and Ono (Wahoo). We will also
see an occasional Black Marlin caught. There are also
lots of smaller Skipjack and Yellow Fin Tuna around the fish
aggregation bouys. Averaging 2 to 6 pounds, these make
for great sport on light tackle, especially for kids.
July 2008
Hosted the George and Levi
Dieruf families from Bozeman, Montana for a full day of fishing.
After pulling a pair of live Skipjack tuna around in the
morning with no success, we trolled lures out to the 1,000 fathom
(6,000 feet) depths four miles from shore where a 150 lb. Pacific
Blue Marlin grabbed the short corner lure. George brought
the fish to the boat in about five minutes in very fresh condition.
After being photographed and tagged with a National Marine
Fisheries Services tag the fish decided it had not shown off
enough. It took off away from the boat in a series of
eight to ten jumps, screaming line off the reel. Ten minutes
later, we were finally able to get it back boatside where the
hook was removed. George's son Levi cought a 25 lb. Pacific
Shortnose Spearfish. A rare fish in all the world's oceans.
If you want to catch one of these, you need to come to
Kona where the chances are the best. This fish was also
tagged and released. The tags were mailed in to the National
Marine Fisheries Service. In the event either fish is
recaptured in another part of the world and the information
submitted to NNFS, they will notify both the angler and myself
of the date, time and size of the fish.
Hosted the Lance Sherwood families
from New Mexico for 2 half day trips. It was most important
to the Sherwoods that everyone on board (6 passengers each day)
caught a fish. Catching a real big fish was not a priority.
We headed out to one of the offshore buoys which was loaded
with small Skipjack and Yellowfin tuna. These three to
eight pound fish are great sport on the light tackle we were
using. We fished until each person caught one, then another,
and another. When you're used to catching trout, fish
that we tend to think of as live bait can be a pretty big deal.
June 2008
Today we started off fishing inshore
on a morning half day trip and caught two nice Ono (Wahoo) right
in front of the harbor for Stan Lovell from San Diego, CA. We then
headed two miles offshore looking for Ahi (Yellow Fin Tuna) and
managed to capture, tag and release two Shortnose Spearfish estimated
at 25 lbs. each on our tuna lures. We try to tag and release all
billfish whenever possible. The Ono are a great eating fish, and
they were filleted for all to enjoy.
Aloha
Captain Bob
|