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Time for the part we love. Varnish. It looks good but sure is a ton of work to keep up. Mat and I found that there was a problem with the varnish. Our varnish that we used didn’t hold up to the summer like it has in the past. It was splitting in cracks down to the wood. It needed to get fixed right away or we would loose it. Got 3 coats on in the 3 days we had off.

Today we got an early start and ran up to the grounds and started live baiting right away. Andy and Bill caught baits and we started the grounds live bait chess game. Every think has looked so good on the grounds that I have had to go there everyday. The fish have been acting funny. They chase the baits all over but won’t bite. Finally today we got a couple. Great shows on both fish. This one had a long line hook in the corner of his mouth. You can see the ring on the shiny hook.

Mat’s parents Susie and Andy came to fish with us along with their friend Bill. The first day we had planned we would fish a half day and then go up to our bosses house for a beach barbecue. We trolled up to the grounds and checked the current and where the bait was. The current has been switching so much lately we weren’t sure if it would be the same. I trolled between 2 boats hooked up on the top corner and knew things were right. We changed over to bait and hooked a fish right away. It took the bait and took off right away so I knew we had a funny hook up. The foul hooked the fish went into the shallow waters of the grounds ledge. The sharks started to chase the marlin as Mat’s mom fought her first marlin. We inched up the drag so the shark’s wouldn’t get it and we pulled the hook. Possibly if we soaked it we would have caught it but I think it would have been eaten. We fished until 12:00 and left a good looking ledge to have an afternoon off.

Today we had the Paradise Fishing Club out for their 2nd day we had planned this summer. We went up to the grounds and trolled the ledge that looked so good the day before. It still looked great and we saw a few fish hooked and caught. We caught a nice ono and just couldn’t get a marlin bite. From so hot to so cold all at once. Funny how the luck of fishing rolls. We had a nice day again and look forward to fishing with everyone again soon.

The 4th day of the TART the fish moved away from the spot we were fishing the day before. I tried to stay in the area but a few boats that weren’t in the tournament would not lay off of us. They cut in front and in back which made it really hard to concentrate. I saw fish getting hooked around us but just couldn’t get a bite. Mike our angler wasn’t feeling well and we all just plain came out flat. The Ihu Nui crept up 2 fish closer to us and were going to make the last day of the tournament very interesting.

Day 3 we had Rick. AKA Malahini. Malahini is the name given to the newcomer to the tournament. Rick has been trying to come the the TART tournament for 15 years and been invited to fish with Ken but never could get away to fish it. We started off the morning with a bang and it seemed like it would never end. We went 4 for 7 on Blues all around 120 pounds on all the lures in the pattern. We had a great day with Rick and really enjoyed talking to him in between bites. The 4 fish put both of us out in front by a good margin with the Ihu Nui on our tail. We really would need to catch another fish to have a chance.

Today we had Donny on board for the 2nd day of the TART tournament. The weather was different with winds out of the west. It was sloppy and choppy. The lures were having a hard time. I heard through the grape vine that the current was good and that it was moving inside again. We had a shot right away outside of the harbor on our way to the spot that we caught our fish yesterday. The fish jumped all over and we pulled the hook. I had found a place to fish. We pounded the spot and eventually caught a fish that jumped all over the ocean. Check out the jump shot we got! It gave Donny his first fish of the tournament and got us our 2nd. At 3:00 we had a fish come to the short rigger on the Polu Kai blue tube and I missed the bite. Mat saw the fish and kept saying “its a nice one” The fish jumped once but through all the white water I couldn’t tell how big it was. It went down deep and pulled and all we could do was wait. I made a few moves on the fish and tried to get it stopped and couldn’t. It got 400 yards of line out and we neared the dacron as it swam out to sea. Donny inched up the drag and inched up the drag and it still didn’t stop. Finally the hook pulled. We had put to much drag on it. It was at that point of the fight where we had to get aggressive with the drag and pulled the hook that was probably fowled. Day 2- we are still in first.

Today was the first day of the Tag And Release Tournament.We had the host of the event Ken Corday on board. Ken took off from his busy schedule producing the show Day of Our Lives to fish with 4 of his friends here in Kona. He and 4 of his buddies switch boats everyday for the 5 day tournament. The Northern Lights, the Humdinger, the Ihu Nui, the Pacific Blue and the Chiripa rounded out the field of boats the anglers will fish on this week. It was good to see Ken again this year. We talked about the 2 granders we had caught in Madeira the hay day of fishing we had there and cught Mat up to date on our history together. I told Mat to get the grander tube that Ken caught his second grander on in his honor and put it out. No more that 30 minutes passed and I couldn’t believe it we hooked a great fish. After a tough fight we took the fish in due to the 300 pound minimum. It would be close but it made the mark and gave us 334 points for the first day. Good start!