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Bill Russ and his family had a good half day trip today. We had an unusual double mahi mahi trolling up north. We baited a third that followed the 2 mahis in. i wish we had more time to give it but it all worked out for action but no blues today.

Took the girls out for a quick trip to catch small fish and get out on the ocean.

My wife Elizabete (far right)and her friends, Carrie,Asha, and Deziree fished the 14th annual Wahine tournament on the Northern Lights this year. I came to the conclusion that the girls had more fun planning and getting ready for the event than fishing the actual tournament. It was the first time Elizabete has fished the tournament because the Northern Lights is usually booked. The theme of the tournament was a pirate theme and the entire tournament dressed up themselves and the boats with this in mind. Everyone had a great time even though the fishing was very slow compared to the last couple of days. Of all days to not catch a marlin Elizabete’s day we came out of it with a ono for dinner. It was Deziree’s first fish ever and happens to be the name of the construction company Ono Construction. Perfect!

Famous chef George Faison chartered the boat for his good friend Lucy’s birthday. We checked out the buoy that we had had such good fishing at. The new traveled fast and the traffic had put the fish off a bit. There were still marks there but we had a couple of half hearted bites that didn’t pan out so we went trolling. We found the mother load dolphin pod that turned out the be empty. Looked great but no tuna in them. We ended up working our way back and switched out a nice fish. It looked 400 pounds and got switched off our sam Polu Kai tubulation. After a 40 minute fight we got the fish to leader. The marlin was pulling funny off of it gill plate and when Dingo and Matt went to release the wild fish jumping all over on the leader the worst thing happened. The fish was hooked in the corner of the jaw and the leader was wrapped under its chin and stuck at the top of its gill plate and the leader under its gill plate broke one of the gills and the fish died on the leader. With such a great hook up on the circle in the corner that was the last thing we thought would happen to that fish. Sometimes this happens. Sorry she didn’t make it but our birthday girl Lucy ended up with her first blue marlin.

The David family of Hollywood, Florida had one of the best days of fishing that I have ever seen here or anywhere for that matter. We had a unusually late start 8:30 in the morning. We started south in front of town and saw some boats hook early fish. We worked the area and raised our first fish at 9:00. Due to our bad hook we went to the switch which means we would tease the marlin to the boat and switch them to a bait with a circle hook on it. The fish came to the Polu Kai tube and we switched it to the bait. They  caught the first blue on 50 pound stand up which put up a great fight. The leader got tangled under its belly and made our work tough for awhile. We worked the area and raised a second blue. This blue switched and we were able to get the fish to leader. It was a wild fish on the leader and had everyone safety in mind as we neared the tag. It got more and more wild and the tag at that point in the fight didn’t mean as much as it would later in the day. If I charged bad on the fish aiming at the boat we would have tagged the fish. I took the safe road and the fish turned the right way and jumped a wild jump. Right then the hook ripped out of its mouth. We got great pictures and a good catch but didn’t get the tag in. Everyone was safe which was my main idea at that point. We worked our way north to the ground where we had fished with Masa yesterday and after our hole dried up went for new ground for the tide change. As we worked our way north my neighbor Kevin told me he had good fishing at Otec buoy up north. We trolled our way up there to check out the action and raised a 400 pound fish to the teasers that probably due to the depth it was at probably would have surprised us with its size. It didn’t come to the bait and the north current pushed us up to what would be one of the best afternoon of fishing I have ever seen. We got to the buoy at 2:30 out of regular day due to the timing. We are usually heading home at that time due to the early starts we have. We had a late start which meant our day would shift late so we had enough time to be where we were at that time of day. We went 6 for 7 on blue marlin and 6 for 11 on ahi from 94-165 pounds the marlin were between 140 and 250 and all but one fish were hooked on circle hooks using techniques Dingo has learned in his travels. It was a great afternoon to try new things and try to learn. I once didn’t have much faith in circles for live baiting here in Kona but found some new confidence with those results. It was a day I will never forget and that fish we didn’t tag cost us equalling our record of 8 blue tagged twice in 2005. We caught the 8 we need to tie but didn’t get the tag in that second fish making it an official 7 and 6 tuna. The last bite was exciting to see what would appear on the leader at near dark. Would it be number 9 or a tuna. When the glow of a yellow fin shined in the spreader lights we had to call it a day. The David family has a charter business of their own and the seamanship of their young kids( 7 and 10 years old) and skill in fishing really made the day for us. Thanks for the day and sharing one of the best days of fishing I have ever seen here.

Masa’s second day we spent on the grounds off of the airport. We got word that outside the grounds was really shaping up. A number of boats had good luck late in the afternoon so we went up to have a look. After 15 minutes trolling we caught our first fish of the day. We had 2 more bites right away and jumped them off. We slowly had more and more boats come into the area and our day turned into a spectator sport. Every time a new boat came to the area they hooked up. It was crazy. We changed over to bait and caught a nice fish right away.  The Lightspeed run by Rob Ellyn had a great afternoon. He and Dingo came out and tagged a small blue to begin with and had a very unusual thing happen to them outside of us. They were trolling teasers and one jet out long. They got blown up on a double strike of some kind. Not knowing what it was right away they started to clear the teasers. The teaser on one finally pulled out of ones mouth and they were hooked to what appeared to be a big ahi. Right as they took that one to the chair a marlin appeared on the right teaser. Rob called out to dingo that there was a marlin on the right and Dingo pitched the bait to it. The fish sipped the bait off of the surface and they were hooked to a double. A marlin and a tuna. The ahi was on 130 and the marlin on 50. They fought the ahi to gaff and got it in the boat. They pulled in and went to work on what looked like a 500 pound marlin. After a 30 minute fight they neared the fish. As it neared the surface it got bigger and bigger. Dingo got the leader and a fish 750 appeared out of the foam standing straight up. They were able to get the leader 3 more times and every time were able to stand the fish up. On the last jump Dingo held on to the leader to break the fish off to its freedom. On 50 the fish could have died by the fight it was looking to endure. The boys decided to make sure the fish lived and she swam off with a hook in the corner of its jaw. Congrats to the boys on the Lightspeed on that unusual double!

One of Japan’s top anglers Masaharu Masushita fished with us. He was here for the HIBT and fished on the Kona Game Fishing Cub- Miake. Masa kept a streak of fish going catching 1 of 4 fish we saw early in the day. Right off the bat we had our second marlin we saw of the day tagged. The early fishing this summer really paid off.

Day 2 of Chris and Callie’s trip started with the smell of bananas. I smelled it and as if I was shot in the chest I said,”You know bananas are bad luck.” Chris almost choked on his third bite and quickly ran the peals to the dumpster. With the 3 bites down the hatch we had to see if the old Hawaiian superstition was true. We got down south to the area we caught our fish on day 1 and caught Callie a fish right away. What a fish. A small blue that jumped and jumped and jumped. Chris got some great pictures of it in the calm Kona waters. It was back to Chris’s turn right away and I had already forgotten about the bananas. We lost 6 fish from a 150 to 500 plus pounds the rest of the day every way known to man. About the time the 5 th one jumped off I remembered not to mess with that one. Bananas stay home next time. Even though it really doesn’t matter weather you bring bananas I wouldn’t chance it. Great to fish with Chris and Callie again.The photos they took with their D 700 Nikon are incredible.

Chris and Callie Sheilds came back to fish with us at a better time of year. They fished with us this spring and although the fishing was good we only could give it one day and didn’t catch a fish. I felt good coming off a good tournament and having the idea of less boats fishing today we headed south again. Carlton on the 5 Star was south of us early and reported to me that he had caught 2 fish early in the day. We headed down to the area and tagged on for Chris right away about a 150 pounds on the Polu Kai blue rocket man jet. Over the course of the day we had a number of shots and missed them all. We had tomorrow to catch Kale her fish. Running in we got word that the 5 Star had set the new trolling record by tagging 7 blues for 9 bites. The previous record was 5 trolling. It was amazing to see that happen. Congrats to the crew of the 5 Star on setting a new mark to reach for.

The Richard Boone Award is to be awarded to the Captain and Crew of the charter boat receiving the highest scores rated by the teams during the week. The Northern Lights was chosen by the teams that fished on it to have the honor of being chosen the third. We thank all the teams for coming to the 50th anniversary HIBT tournament and for rating us so highly. The award means a lot to us and congratulations to all the teams that won awards.