Waikiki Sport Fishing — Local services in Honolulu

Unfortunately would not recommend. TLDR: You’re paying for a boat ride and sea sickness without any actual fishing.

My girlfriend spent $900 for me, her, and her father to fish as a birthday present for myself. A significant amount of money for a rare opportunity as I live in a landlocked state. Now, I have always wanted to do this activity; I freshwater fish and have watched hundreds of hours of footage of deep sea fishing, so I understand that fishing is (mostly) about luck and so I cannot be upset that we did not catch anything. However, the crew did not use all the tools and techniques available to them to ensure that we had the best shot of catching something.

For example, when we arrived at 5:50am to board and to receive our day’s briefing there was no bait on board except a ziploc bag of one small squid. This was used to catch four live bait fish, which I assume was to be used for other charters because they did not use them for us. They rigged their lines with metallic flying fish and squid lures and trolled surface water for four straight hours. No testing depth (adding weights to pull the lures deeper into the water), no jigging (stopping the boat and moving the lures vertically, very effective with squid lures). Their philosophy was to follow the birds, which is a legitimate technique, but I ask, if you fished the same waters all day for years would you know where the fish were at any given time?

On the way back into the harbor we had our first catch! It took me about 20 seconds to reel in a 10in barracuda, which cannot be kept or eaten and so was immediately released. Epic. That was the only action we got all day. I’m disappointed that those I came with were not able to participate (literally did not even touch a reel) and that they payed so much for such a shallow experience. If you read the experiences of other charters online you’ll find that they go above and beyond to get clients onto fish, and they even sometimes provide recourse when there’s no catch. Tough luck. Not at this place. Hawaii is one of the most biodiverse states in the U.S., so I am especially surprised that we were not able to get near any target fish. All in all I think a lot more effort could’ve gone towards making this an educational and rewarding experience. At least we got to see...

Would not recommend, this boat is more concerned with minimizing expenses than getting people onto fish successfully. I go charter fishing every 6-8 weeks and this is the worst charter I've been on by far!!!

Went out in Jan 22- The captain gave the safety briefing then explained that the boat would be keeping all fish over 100 pounds because they need to make money. He stated that whales were close to shore and chase the fish away but that they were being caught about 18 miles offshore. It was a 4 hour charter so we had plenty of time to run out fast, troll, and then run back in quickly. Instead, the captain chose to troll 3 miles out and 3 miles back - with all the whales- for the entire 4 hours. This was not deep sea fishing... The only silverlining is knowing that we minimized our impact on the environment by using as little gas as possible during the trip!

Set up wise, we had 6 lines in the water, all artifical bait. No live bait was tested nor were the types of lures changed at any time during the trip. Not a single bite. (Come on guys! Get the numbers, use the gas, bring some live bait, and get us on the fish.)

The boat itself is horribly maintained- Hatteras built in 68. Granted, it is an old boat but the upkeep hasn't been done to maintain it very well. It accurately reflects the level of commitment this company has to its guests.

Overall, complete waste of money on this charter! We were there only to provide upkeep/profit...

For starters I did a lot of research and reading of reviews before reaching out to any company. I initially contacted another company several times but didn't hear back for a week. My first call to Waikiki Sport fishing was picked up promptly and all my questions were answered. Very easy to communicate with. We had a really great time with these guys. On our way out to fish we had dolphins jumping right next to the boat during the sunrise- so epic!! Marty and Shane were so friendly, knowledgable, and full of great stories and experiences. The fishing was slow, but that was expected for this time of year and we brought in one fish, and had 2 big sharks snap the line which was exciting. Despite the slow fishing, Shane and Marty never stopped hustling, trying to get us on fish for 6 straight hours using different techniques which was very cool to see. I 100% recommend going out with these guys and will be booking again in the future!

For those leaving 1 star reviews because they didn't catch anything... its still called fishing (not catching). These guys hustle very hard to try get you on fish, but fishing depends a lot on the season. Just like you are only going to see whales consistently and surfers riding 20-foot waves during certain months on Oahu. And yes, this is a relatively small boat on the open ocean so you will be rocking back and forth the entire time. Don't leave a 1 star review because you can't keep your...