Working a South Shore Oahu Currentline 01-20

[Tightlines667]

Conditions looked good, great weather report, nice south-side temperature break, and 3-day window around full moon, Sunday, so I invited Josh, my NMFS friend, fueled, iced, baited up and pushed off from Iroquois Point at 0600hrs. I rigged 3 dozen dinks, and we headed towards the temp break where it crossed the 500fa (2.5nm SSW of BO's last position). We set a 7 bait spread (3 long naked dinks, 2 short rigger popper/ballyhoo, planer islander/ballyhoo, 24 bait dredge on downrigfer under wake, and a naked dink fished just behind dredge.

We found a nice slick/debris line when we hit the 250. Worked it WSW for several miles and took a triple knockdown on the long baits. I managed a good hookset on one, and landed a 16lb Mahi. Several more passes around scattered White Terns and we missed another 2 bites on long baits.

Worked down to the end of the slick and picked up another 8lb Mahi on a short rigger (moldcraft/ballyhoo combo). Missed another Mahi, and worked back towards BO.

Around 1100 while approaching an inside bend on the break we got attached by a rat pack of nice Striped Marlin. All 6 baits got bit. Total choes in the pit with 2 of us scrambling to try to drop back on bites, and clear lines/dredge/planer. We only managed one good dropback (deep hooked fish), but hooked 3 others (presumably in the hard mouthparts) with the tiny 7/0 Mustad hooks. There were 4 fish jumping and spooling the reelsas we cleared gear, but one-by-one they threw the hooks. The second to last one came unbuttoned about 5 minutes after the bite. Hooked Josh up with a belt and he went to work on the fish standup style on 50WLRS spooled with JB holo, 80lb topshot, and 100lb leader. The fish put on quite a show but proved stuborn, dogging deep when brought within 100' of boat. We took our time and after 80minutes I sunk the gaff and boarded the 100lb+fish. Dressed and packed the fish before resetting the spread.

The currentline fell apart and the scattered debris was a PITA as we kept hooking it, tangling lines while setting and rerigging baits. It took 3 hours to finally get everything sorted. We lost another few Mahi bites while we were up in the bridge, and trolled back to the headbouys.

One the day, we went 2 for 7 on Mahi, and 1 for 6 on Striped Marlin bites. 3 for 13 is a pretty terrible hookup ratio, but I keep telling myself these dinks are getting bit 3-5Xs more than artificials. When you are on the dropbacks hookups go up to 40-80% and we are still learning how to fish these rigs.

We cut up one Mahi for dinner, the 17lb fish brought $4/lb and the 75lb (headed/taled/gutted) Striper brought$2.40/lb on the block. All in all a fun action-packed day on the water.

John

[Tightlines667]

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[swill88]

Great report!  Great results!

Thanks for the education John.

Steve

[Benni3]

Looks like a fantastic time,,,   and a great fight,,,

[Jim Fujitani]

Thanks, John.  I always look forward to reading your reports.