Report


	Cap'n Billy's FISHING REPORT

November 9th - 14th - A few monster mahi were taken along with a few monster rainbow runners. Several tuna in the 20 pound range were boated, but the fishing began to taper off as the holiday weekend progressed.

November 6th & 7th - Large quantities of tuna being taken on both days. No big fish, but a few large rainbow runners have been harvested along with some small mahi.

October 30th & 31st - Finally back in the water again after 3 weeks of typhoons and rough seas. Saturday, fishing was pretty slow all around the island except for the northeast. Large quantities of small tuna and small mahi along with a few rainbow runners were taken, but no large fish. Sunday's fishing improved with larger quantities of tuna (up to 150 per boat) being taken, large quantities of the smaller mahi, and a few large rainbow runners in the 15-20 pound range. (I wonder how many children received a slab of sashimi in their candy bag...) It looks like the seas will remain relatively calm this week, so next weekend's fishing should be picking up.

October 2nd - The boats from Ishikawa were forced to return to port because of high seas. The boats from Awase returned early, but they tied into the monster mahi, large rainbow runners, and big eye tuna. From Ginowan, we had a 45 pound yellowfin tuna taken, lots of skipjack tuna, large rainbow runners, several bigeye tuna and monster mahi.

September 15th - Sep 19th - The MONSTER MAHI are back! Boats are taking over 100 mahi per boat. Wahoo are schooling with several 10-45 pounders being boated. Big eye tuna are moving back in and average 15-20 pounds. No reports of yellow fin tuna. Marlin are still being hooked, but not being boated.

August 10th - Sep 12th - Typhoons every week have stopped the fishing for 5 weeks in a row.

August 7th - 8th - Saturday, fishing was kind of slow. We did pick up a nice 20lb wahoo along with several tuna in the 15-20 pound range. We caught an unusually large amount of trigger fish, lots of small mahi mahi which were released, and several small wahoo were released also. Sunday's fishing improved in the north with an increase of tuna catches in about the same weight range, but a tropical system that popped up out of the blue to the south of Okinawa forced the charters on the south end to return to port early with a small catch of mostly bonito.

July 23rd - 24th - The seas were glassy calm. No wind, no drift, and the fishing was poor. Everyone was still catching fish, but they were scarce. In spite of all this, we still boated a nice 40 pound wahoo trolling along a secret area that we discovered. Night fishing is producing tuna in the 50-90 pound range. The boats are being surrounded by hundreds of 5 inch long mahi at night. A 20 inch marlin was spotted feeding on the 5 inch mahi.

July 19th - 22nd - Ishikawa is producing a tremendous amount of fish daily, up to 20 fish per person! They had 2 marlin hookups, wahoo hookups, but none were boated. Tuna fishing is getting hotter as the weather gets hotter!

July 17th - 18th - The south of the island wasn't producing much, but the northern buoys were yielding 300+ fish per boat. Most were football tuna and bonito. Some "chicken" mahi were taken along with a few rainbow runners. Night fishing in the north was not productive. Several 40-90 pound tuna were boated in the southern trench at night. Again, no reports of billfish being taken.

July 10th - 11th - Finally back on the water again after several close calls from tropical systems. Bigger tuna are moving in, but the pace is still slow. We have been catching a large amount of big rainbow runners on cut bonito. Big mahi are still here, but are few and far between. No reports of billfish being taken. The seas are calming, and I expect the next weekend to be super!

June 12th - 13th - Tuna and bonito fishing is hot. Catches are up to as much as 30 fish per fisherman. Wahoo are hitting in full force. Mahi are thinning out as the water and air temps continue to warm up. Marlin are still being taken, up to 4 per day per boat.

May 29th - 31st - Fishing was hot for some and cold for others. The weather was great, and the large mahi were still hitting pretty well. Wahoo fishing is picking up when trolling at 20 feet down. The big tuna are moving in on the trench, and night fishing is beginning. The marlin are still in, but we are coming to the end of their annual run.

May 15th & 16th - Northern buoys produced lots of large Mahi Mahi, and the southern buoys on the trench produced lots of tuna up to 40 lbs. Marlin are still around in large numbers, hook-ups are frequent, but boating them seems to be more difficult. The west side of the island is having trouble with dolphins on the piles, and therefore are not very productive. The Japanese Coastguard is busy looking for fishing violations. Make sure the boats you charter are legal. Contact us if you have questions about the boats that you are chartering.

May 8th & 9th - Ishikawa buoys were not producing a lot of fish this weekend. Awase buoys were producing a lot of mahi, and the Chinen buoys were producing a lot of tuna, bonito, large mahi, and we even took a nice blue marlin! See the "Gallery"!

May 1st & 2nd - The boats on the southern end of the island made it out and caught several small tuna and bonito. Large mahi mahi were also taken. Wahoo are beginning to move into the area. The boats in northern Okinawa experienced rising seas and were forced to return to port.

April 24th-25th - Sustained winds of 15 knots and greater caused the cancellation of charters for this weekend.

April 17th-18th - Catches are increasing to 50 - 70 fish per boat. Several Yellow Fin Tuna were in the 20-40 pound range, lots of bonito were taken, and a few Large mahi mahi in the 20 to 40 pound range.

April 10th-11th - Catches are averaging between 30 and 40 fish per boat. Yellow Fin Tuna are are moving back in, and average in the 5 to 10 pound range, nice rainbow runners in the 5 to 15 pound range are being taken as well. Large mahi mahi in the 20 to 40 pound range are in being taken.

April 3rd-4th - This weekend brought some cold rain, but we still brought in a lot of fish. Several large mahi mahi were taken along with good sized rainbow runners. The tuna and bonito fishing is starting to heat up, and we landed a nice 300 lb blue marlin on one of our charters. Check the "Gallery" for pictures!

March 27th-28th - High seas (again).

March 20th-21st - High seas (again).

March 12th-13th - Mahi Mahi are moving back in and catches are increasing. Big eye tuna and bonito catches are also increasing. Larger rainbow runners are being taken, and reports of large marlin are coming in from off the south end of the island.

March 6th-7th - High winds and high seas (again).

February 28th-29th - It looks like the fishing is starting to pick up again. We averaged 5 fish per fisherman. We landed large mahi mahi, several big eye tuna, and a few rainbow runners. The catch of the day was when Barnacle Bill's brand new SFO Gear hat blew into the ocean while trolling. One of his own custom made lures snagged his hat and it was recovered safely.

February 21st-22nd - High winds and high seas (again).

February 13th-16th - Friday brought in a nice 420 pound swordfish off the east side, Saturday had no winds, no swells, no drift, and almost no fish. We did hook up with a marlin, but weren't able to boat it. Sunday and Monday reports were poor fishing all around the island. Small big eye tuna and a few bonito were all that was taken. Typical winter fishing around Okinawa.

February 7th-8th - High winds and high seas (again).

January 31st-Feb 1st - Several small big eye tuna were taken. We lost several medium sized tuna, we took about 10 Mahimahi, and lost a couple of really big bulls. We landed one nice black marlin while trolling between piles. It is still a bad time of year for fishing, but in Okinawa, even the bad times are pretty good. Join us for a day of fishing on the open seas!

January 24th-25th - High winds and high seas (again).

January 17th-18th - High winds and high seas (again).

January 10th-11th - It was a beautiful day on the 10th. Many boats were reporting very poor catches, but we were testing some new equipment, and caught nearly 20 fish per fisherman. We caught Mahi Mahi up to 40 pounds, Big Eye Tuna up to 25 pounds, Rainbow Runners up to 10 pounds and a couple of small Bonito. All in all, we had an extremely successful charter in the worst time of the year for fishing!

January 1st-4th - The Skippers were off for the New Year Holiday.

2003

December 25th, 26th, 27th & 28th - Winds picked up a little early and the charters were cancelled. I was still able to get out for about an hour and picked up 3 big eye tuna on the SE side of the main island, 22 lbs, 18 lbs, and 10 lbs.

December 20th & 21st - High seas again

December 13th & 14th - High seas again, however, inshore fishing produced an abundance of gurukun and grouper.

December 6th & 7th - Rains and shifting seas kept us off the ocean again

November 27th-30th - High seas...again...over 6 meters!

November 22nd & 23rd - High seas...again...

November 15th & 16th - After a valiant attempt, seas were too high to continue once we hit the 10 knot mark. We were forced to turn around and come back.

November 8th & 9th - As expected, the fishing on the west side of Okinawa wasn't so good. The tropical low that passed by the west side along with the appearance of dolphins on the piles has scattered the fish. The east side of the island is picking up. We were averaging about 10 fish per fisherman. Catches included yellow fin tuna from 5 to 15 pounds, large bonito, mahi mahi, and rainbow runners.

November 1st & 2nd - Fishing was pretty slow all around the island. Small tuna, mahi mahi, and rainbow runners were about all that were taken. Buoy number 11 on the west side, and number 5 on the east were producing about the same. The commercial fishermen have been reporting good catches of large tuna by night fishing at 50 meters depth. Large numbers of grouper in the 10 - 40 pound range are being taken out of Kin bay.

October 25th & 26th - Seas were too high to get out

October 18th & 19th - Seas were too high to get out...went out on a glass bottom boat to inspect the reef on the SE end of the main island. Plenty of activity around the reef for gurukun, and large pin fish. The large coral beds seem to be recovering nicely. If any of you are visiting the parks down south, be sure to stop by the glass bottom boat on O Shima (a small island connected to Okinawa by bridge.) and get a look at the colorful coral. They also have a very nice collection of sea shells for sale. Make sure to tell them that we sent you!

October 11th & 12th - Seas were too high to get out

October 3rd & 4th...Finally back in the water after a 4 week layoff due to typhoons. The 2 meters + waves made this trip more like combat than fishing. Most of the fishermen were in choir practice, singing the familiar chorus over and over again to the fish below from over the side of the boat.

Where's the Tuna? Not one. Not even a bite. No bonito at all. Mahi Mahi were hitting anything that moved, including anchovies, hot dogs, ice cream and etc.... The Mahi Mahi are larger than 4 weeks ago, and some very large specimens were seen mixed in with the bunch. Average was 10 lbs per fish.