Hawaii deep sea fishing

What you fish in Hawaii, and when

Deep sea fishing in Hawaii is a billfish and pelagic troll, and the islands give it one rare advantage: the land drops straight into deep water, so the grounds sit minutes from the harbor instead of a long run offshore. Off Kona, 1,000 fathom water sits only a few miles off Honokohau Harbor. That means a half day here is a real shot at a Pacific blue marlin, the fish the islands are built around.

Blue marlin bite year round in Hawaii, with the biggest fish in summer. The granders, the blue marlin over 1,000 pounds, are most likely from June into September, and Kona has weighed more of them than anywhere in the world, which is why it is called the grander capital. Hawaii sets no closed season and no bag limit on marlin. By island custom a kept marlin generally stays with the boat, to be sold or shared with the crew, so most are tagged and released and you take home a share of the eating fish instead.

Summer is the meat season. Ahi, the yellowfin tuna, run from about May into September, with fish over 100 pounds most common in the warm months, often found under spinner dolphin schools and around the state’s offshore buoys. Ono, the wahoo, is a fast troll fish along the drop offs and color lines, strongest from the April and May full moons through September. Mahi mahi are caught much of the year and fill the cooler when the marlin are quiet, with aku, the skipjack, a year round bread and butter catch and a prime live marlin bait.

Winter turns the billfish lighter. Striped marlin and shortbill spearfish move in with the cooler water, roughly December into April, and Kona is one of the few places in the world to target spearfish, so a winter day can raise blue, striped, and spear on the same trip. Seasons shift year to year, so each island page lists what runs when.

How the islands fish

Every Hawaiian island fishes the same deep water close to shore, but the fleets and the harbors differ. Deep sea fishing in Kona, on the leeward Big Island, is the marquee: the calmest, deepest water of any island sits minutes off Honokohau Harbor, the billfish bite is year round, and the fleet is by far the largest and deepest in the state. It is where anglers come for a grander.

Oahu puts the same fishery within reach of a Waikiki stay. The deep water sits minutes off Kewalo Basin in Honolulu and the leeward harbors at Waianae, so a half day off Oahu is a genuine blue marlin trip, with ahi, ono, and aku filling the box. Maui trolls the marlin and tuna grounds and the drop offs off Lanai, and in 2026 it runs almost entirely out of Maalaea Harbor: the August 2023 Lahaina fire took much of the old West Maui fleet, and Lahaina Harbor is only now reopening. Kauai is the quietest of the four, a small fleet of private boats and a few shared seats working the blue water out of two south shore harbors, Nawiliwili and Port Allen, with bottom fish like ulua and kahala on the longer trips.

How to choose an island

Pick the island for the trip you want. For the best shot at a big blue marlin, and the deepest choice of boats, fish Kona, especially in the summer grander run or the winter spearfish season. For convenience on a Waikiki vacation, Oahu runs the same marlin fishery minutes from town. For a quieter day on a smaller fleet, Maui out of Maalaea and Kauai off the south shore both troll the same blue water with less traffic. Across all four, a shared seat, where a boat offers one, runs from about $120 to $425 per person, and a private charter, booked by the whole boat for up to six anglers, runs from around $825 for a half day to $3,500 for a full or extended day. What a Hawaii charter costs breaks down the per seat and per boat math.

Getting around Hawaii

Each island is its own trip, reached by a short inter island flight, so most anglers fish the island they are staying on rather than island hopping for a day on the water. The harbors are easy to reach once you are there: Honokohau north of Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, Kewalo Basin by Waikiki and the Waianae harbors on Oahu, Maalaea on Maui’s south shore, and Nawiliwili and Port Allen on Kauai. One thing to settle before you go is the license: since May 2, 2024 nonresident visitors 15 and older need a Hawaii marine fishing license to fish the ocean, about $20 for a day, and whether the boat includes it varies. Every island is scored the same way, so the order holds from one to the next. How we score every boat explains the rubric behind the rankings.