Kevin Hibbard shows what he looks for when trolling for marlin off Kona: porpoise schools carrying ahi, a few birds on a calm sea, and the current pushing fish onto the ledge. He explains the coin toss between going left or right, how he works an area after a bite, and the cinder cone marks he trusts over GPS.
Blue Marlin Trolling Technique with Kevin Hibbard
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Instructor:
Kevin Hibbard
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How do you troll for marlin around porpoise schools?
Trolling for marlin means working the signs of life: birds, bait and porpoise schools carrying tuna. Off Kona, Kevin Hibbard runs a figure eight across the front of a porpoise school, where the yellowfin travel, then wraps around the back, where marlin hang to pick off straggler ahi and even young porpoise.
Tuna busting on the surface are another matter. "We always say it's kind of like barking dogs. They're not going to bite," he says, so he goes the other way. On calm leeward Kona, three, four or five birds in one place means something is going on; off windy Oahu, it can take a couple of hundred.
What should you do after a marlin bite to find the next one?
Stay and work the area. Hibbard's rule: "One fish is there for a reason. Two fish are there, there's something going on." After a bite at 700 fathoms he circles back, then sets up on the 700 with parallel runs or a widening figure eight: "you almost become a bird dog."
When a current that has run for a week or two flips overnight, the fish start repositioning and "it's kind of anybody's game." Until he finds fish, he runs in and out on a straight track with both engines synced, so every lure holds its wave. He also lines up cinder cones to find the ko'a, the rips in the ledge: "I use those marks more than I use my GPS."
Do big blue marlin eat small trolling lures?
The usual rule is a big lure for a big fish. Hibbard has seen the other side in Hawaii: "I've had so many big fish eat little six-inch and nine-inch bullets." Elsewhere, he says, a bullet mostly catches mahi, striped marlin and tuna. In Hawaii, "it's like candy to them."
Kevin puts the number of granders caught in Hawaii at about 60ish and says a lot of them came from skiffs on porpoise schools with light line and little lures.
Inside the video
- The left or right call out of the harbor, and why he likes heading south
- Why satellite maps are only "a guesstimation" in Hawaii
- North and in, south and in: the currents that put fish on the ledge
- The 100 to 200 fathom ledge, with 1,000 fathoms only a couple of miles farther out
Questions About Trolling for Marlin
What water temperature is best for blue marlin?
Hibbard calls 80 to 82 F a really good temperature off Kona, and when it drops below that he starts searching harder. He doesn't lean on satellite maps to find it in Hawaii, because they struggle to judge the island's currents and water temperatures, so his crew finds the water themselves.
What are blind tunas?
Blind tunas are yellowfin getting ready to spawn, feeding aggressively on their own in twos and threes instead of in big schools. Hibbard says the run lasts three or four weeks, usually around May and June, and a little later in a cool year. Working the area where they show up can produce a bite.
Why keep the engines synced while trolling for marlin?
Engines out of sync throw a rhythmic "wa, wa, wa" through the boat. Hibbard thinks it drives the fish crazy, along with the crew and the captain, so he keeps both engines synced and the boat on a straight line. That keeps every lure swimming in its spot on the wave.
The Spread Behind the Search
The four lures Hibbard's crew pulls on those runs, and where each one sits on the wake, are in lure spread setup for marlin fishing, Kona style.
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Captain Kevin Hibbard is a Kona-based marlin captain and wireman who runs the 2nd Offense out of Kona, Hawaii. He learned lure fishing from Kona's best, including Captain Marlin Parker, and has handled granders off Hawaii and Australia, including a reported 1,018-pound black marlin as the mate. He holds the shortbill spearfish world record on 16-pound tackle and is the first captain to win the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament's Henry Chee Memorial Trophy in back-to-back tournaments. A Pelagic Pro Team member, he teaches Kona lure spreads, hook rigging and reading structure for big marlin on In The Spread.
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