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Got a nice stripey today for Randy Lyle and his wife Teri. We missed one on the north and turned around and got him to bite again. It took a bunch of line  with the drag backed off. It turned out to be barely hooked so it was good we didn’t pull the hook. We had a small blue come up on our short rigger but it didn’t bite. It was a beautiful day out there today. Trades are back and the current ripping to the north.

Rob Ellyn is on a roll with the big ones. The big ones are  following the Lightspeed around. Rob and crew caught their 2nd big fish in 2 trips back to back.  Both fish came up on the short outrigger on the same lure a Polu Kai Tubulation. The second fish proved to be more of a challenge. The fish came up jumping and came around in a circle. Rob moved the boat in the way of the circle to pick up the free line the fish was giving them and it turned to the boat and kept coming. With a wild look in its eye it jumped into the transom slamming its bill through the door. Kenny Fogerty a captain here was the angler and said that the fish was wild and went crazy. Rob tried to get out of the way and the fish turned out to be faster. No one was hurt and the repairs not bad. The fish ended up dying from the trauma and weighed 601. Nice going to Rob and the crew on back to back big ones. Keep up the good work.

Pat and Neil dropped low and we went high. Dean and I looked all over and found good rams but couldn’t get close. We ended up 46 yards from a big ram. The rest were all to far. I talked to Pat at 10:oo and he said that they had tons of sheep around them. Neil got a really nice ram at 16 yards. we met for luch and Pat sent us down where he thought the sheep went. We got into them right away and got a nice ram with the re curve at 10 yards. On the way to the truck we saw a nice ram feeding. We got really close and set up on it. We didn’t plan to shoot 2 rams but if we had a good shot at him we would give him a try. While we waited for the shot we saw a really nice ram sleeping. The horn style and stance was unreal. We looked at both rams and the first ram we started calling it the small big ram. We had to stand off with that ram for 40 minutes before he started to move. Both rams got together  and moved within range and we ended up getting the big one. We looked for an uncomfortable amount of time before we found it. It was a great couple of days thanks for a great hunt.

Pat Fisher of Fisher Outfitters and I started a 2 day archery hunt with Neil and Dean.  They were great guys that could really shoot their bows. We started our 2 days hunting goats at Dileco Ranch. Dean and I hunted with a re curve had a great first stalk and ended up with an arrow in the horn of a nice Billy at 15 yards. Our challenge was to get so close to the animals. Pat was guiding 3 days later and out of hundreds of goats to choose from he shot the same goat with the broad head in its horn. Neil got a got early with his compound bow at 60 yards. While he and Pat waited for us to get one they ended up get three nice billys. The last one they got had a great cape. After probably 20 good stalks we got a nice billy at 15 yards in the thick. It was unreal to see Dean in action with his bow. There is no draw and wait. It is a reaction shot that must take a ton of practice.Good fun.

The morning started for me at 3:00 in the morning when my friend Frothy from Hard Play Charters in Tobago called me saying to look out for a tsunami that was headed my way. I was able to call my team and get everyone together to move all of the boats. We moved the Kulia and the Kuka laki to the Melton store parking lot and my family and Tracy Melton of Melton Tackle here on business went out early to get the boat clear of the coastline if the tsunami ended up coming. Rob Ellyn took out the Lightspeed and Geza and Paul Ciege took out the 37. We all went out with the fleet to get clear of the coast and wait for the 11:20 am time of arrival. The entire fleet sat outside the harbor which was a sight from land to see. Rob went south and we went North to look for the Northern dolphin pod. We found the pod about 10:00 and marked some fish. 2 miles away a boat was stopped and turned out he had found them first and got the first bite. We tried for awhile and didn’t have any action so we trolled south and in the where the marlin had been during the week. On the way there a report came that Rob had been hooked up and caught a 800 plus blue on the Lightspeed on his Tsunami cruise. The fish ate a Polu Kai Tube on the short outrigger and the fight was close to the boat most of the battle. Rob wired and Carol drove. After popping the fish up the fish was safely released. Looks like the biggest fish of the year so far. We ended up with a spearfish for the day and over all a good day at sea. The Tsunami did end up coming but wasn’t big enough to cause any damage. The reporting and prep was very well done and the precautions taken were good. If something really big come we would have been well prepared.

Jim Shockey of “Jim Shockey Outdoors” Hunted with Pat Fisher of Fisher Outfitters and got these nice animals on camera. They filmed Jim and Pat in action while I was in Florida finishing off the Hawaiian Slam the day I got back. They were done hunting early and we were able to get them out fishing. We had a nice day with Jim’s wife Louise and cameraman Todd. We tried for a big one but didn’t have any bites all day. They are coming back on their way back to Canada so we are going to try to give it another try. Look for Jim show on the Outdoor channel and on Versus. I will post when the shows will air. They had great hunting should be a great show to watch.

I was able to finally fish for the last billfish species that I needed to have caught all of the billfish that can be caught in the world and got it! We have been finishing all of these slams for our guests, catching the spearfish here in Kona and I realized that all I needed was to catch an Atlantic sail to get the slam done myself. I figured out that there are 12 to catch in the world Some are the same just in different oceans. There are some strange ones that we have caught for clients like the hatchet and the round scale spear that we caught while fishing Madeira. I had a Pacific Blue, Atlantic Blue,a striped marlin,white marlin,atlantic swordfish,Pacific swordfish,long billed spearfish,shortbilled spearfish,Pacific sailfish,hatchet marlin,round scale spearfish. All I needed was a Atlantic sail. I had never fished for them before and this was the trip I was able to make it out with the David family and Capt Jimmy and his family Debbie,James and Laurel, and mate Wes got one for me. We kite fished for them with 6 lines and it was really cool to see how it was was done. The action on all of the other game was fun as well. We caught Mahi Mahi, Mackeral,snappers and skip jacks as well as 2 more sails. For action packed fishing near Miami you have to see Jimmy and Wes on the Land H. If you have been following the posts Jimmy and his family caught Rob and I 2 swords in one night on our last trip to Florida. With the records in the IGFA book so big and hard to get the slam club is something interesting to participate in. If you are looking for an Atlantic sail and a sword Jimmy and Wes are you guys. Land H sportfishing(954)966-2317 Thanks a lot Jimmy, Debbie,James and Laurel.

Kona Tournament still available. Go to our inquiry section and email me to see what is still open.

Great to see everyone at the show. I wish my camera shot better pictures in the dark. My flash wasn’t working so I didn’t get to take many pictures. This one was taken of Capt John Kelmer and I by Tracy Melton. Johnboy runs the Grander for Tracy in Madeira Portugal. I took the Grander over to Madeira for Tracy in 2007. Johnboy fished with me at the end of season and was chosen to run the boat. He has run the boat for Tracy the last 2 seasons and has had really good fishing. My crew Tracy Epstein teamed up with Johnboy last season and did very well. The Grander is the Melton International Tackle company boat and has fished mostly in Maderia so far. To follow Johnboy and the Grander go to Melton Tackle.com and see the big ones they caught last summer as well as follow them day to day as they post their fishing next season.

The first Billfish Expo was organized by Capt Skip Smith who put together a group of captains from around the world to speak on the different species of Billfish and the techniques used to catch them. I found that it was really interesting to hear the other captains and boats builders speak about their specialty area. One of the hightlights for me was to see the top boat builders standing next to each other on stage. Roy Merritt,Paul Spencer and John Bayliss along with the builders of Viking and Tribute all there together at once. Really interesting to have the opportunity to see everyone there in the same room. Some of the pros that were featured came and went throughout the day due to other speaking they were doing that day. For me the most well presented was done by Steve Lassley and Pete Grosbeck of Team Bad Company. Their presentation on Striped Marlin was very well done and showed the differences of the West Coast style works for them. Steve’s presentation on electronics  was also very well done. The pictures of what to look for on the screens was good for everyone to see. Karl Anderson’s input helped to validate the info.Even though it is common to us it was good for the audience to see what the manuals and speaking is try to show.Professor Arthur Mariano did a very interesting talk on Billfish science that opened my eyes on a few things as well as point out that there is no way to get some of the data that is out there. We have paid for the research with our tax dollars and it needs to be shown to us. For now it is held for a number of years before it is made public. He encouraged everyone to try to make an effort to make this info public sooner. All the areas were well covered and Skip did a great job hosting the event asking good questions to the featured speakers. Over all a success. It was flattering to be included this year. Great to see old friends and be around the buzz of the boat show. For more info on the Billfish Expo go to www.Billfishexpo.com.