Day One, departure time 6:30 am. Rolf shows up right on schedule. I think we probably should have left at 6, it was already very light out. Rolf, O.B, Joe and I have high hopes it's a beautiful day. We untie and the boys are readying all the tackle while I am turning on all the electronics. Still trying to get familiar with everything. The boat still feels foreign to me. Everything I do is mechanical, thought out, nothing is automatic yet.
 We set out the pattern after a long 15 minute run. O.B looks up "We gonna start fishing or what?" Engines barely made tempertature. It takes about 2 minutes to position everything as Rolf comes up on the bridge to chat. I am explaining the differences of fishing here and how much different it is from Mexico. About 10 minutes into my talk the stinger goes off, reel is absolutely screaming, I look at Rolf and go "hmmmm....I gues we got one". He goes off the bridge and gets in the chair it takes about 250 yards of line and falls off. I forgot the blinding speed of these fish. That Blue was under 300#'s and it  took a load of line before coming undone, in a hurry.


We beat it up for about 20 minutes for nothing and took off. Hitting all the structure that looked like it would hold fish in the down and in current. Much of the structure that is on the charts is really there unlike Mexico. Still, some is not. I found a couple of edges that are on the charts aren't really there. Anywhere.
We get down around C Buoy and catch and release a small Blue around 220#. Spend about an hour there and raise a fairly nice fish. It didn't want to bite and just chased the lure several times. I barely swore, honest. We worked further South and found nothing. I went back up to C and beat it up for nothing, then all the Skipjack left the buoy and headed offshore. I made a swing through there to see if they got chased off or if it was just some condition. It was just condition. Went back up to where we had our first bite, got close and let go a Blue about 160# with a busted off bill.


We barely got the lures set and hooked our third and final Blue of the day. It was the biggest of the day, maybe 270#. Boat handles fine, still not used to it. These smaller Blues are so hot when they come in on the leader because of the heavy tackle. Wild, insanely wild. Forgot to turn on the cameras.

Day two, departure 6 am. Rolf wanted to try for a Wahoo. We gave it about 45 minutes and got one around 40#'s a real nice one by Kona standards. Sonar fish. We looked all over the zones from the day before for nothing. Nothing. A few guys got bit in front of us, behind us, before us....frustration I heard about. Welcome to Kona. Finally around 3:30 we get a quadruple jig on Ahi, all look like 100# +. They all fall off but one. Rolf does a great job on the heavy tackle and now we got him the Ahi he wanted, I think it was the only one of the day. Just about time to call it a day and the stinger goes off again. Shortbill Spearfish, to be on our team you have to pronounce it...THHHORRRNT MILL SMEEEEAAARFISH , say it like you have a cold. These things look they have been chasin parked cars. What Bill?


Anyway, fun couple days. Rolf is a good guy. Loves to fish. He is the kind of guy just as happy catching bait as Blue Marlin. Just loves the Ocean, fishing and boats. I am looking forward to more trips with him. Next time he comes we will be trying some new stuff down here, just to see if it works. Kites and stuff.

Thats it, next trip is tomorrow, stay tuned.

Steve