We were excited going into the last day in second with the chance of possibly winning. If we weighted another fish 403 or better we could win. If we stayed fish for fish with the Ihu Nui we would get second. As the day unfolded the current shifted from good enough north to north and in. The fishing changed for the worse. The bait we were seeing move off shore which I thought would be good for trolling. The fish move off shore sometimes and we hoped to get on them. The bite shut down. We had Brent on board and hoped that we could help him up the leader board and hang on to second. Second went to third at 10:00 when the Ihu Nui went ahead of us again by one point. We all fished hard all day and none of the 5 boats got bit. The Ihu Nui tagged a fish at 3:00 for their second of the day and locking second for the tournament. The Humdinger ended up winning by 200 points. Jeff’s 5th TART win.
Archive for the ‘Kona Fishing Charter’ Category
TART Day 5
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011TART Day 4
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011We had Angelo on day 4 . We stared off trolling and stuck with it. The grounds looked great and the bait raced in and out on the ledge. We trolled through it all day and couldn’t believe we couldn’t get a bite. I slid down to the light and we finally caught a fish. We got a tag in a little guy that put us in second by 199 points. If the Ihu Nui tagged a fish they would go back to second by one point. That one point increased the drama for us. If we could catch another fish we would be better off going into the last day.It was a great tournament going into day 5 22 fish for the 5 boats in the 4 days of fishing.
TART Day One
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
Today we had Ken on board for day one. The day started off with a the Ihu Nui getting off to a fast start tagging one in the first 10 minutes. Before we could catch a bait the Humdinger tagged a fish right away. It was good to see the tournament off to a good start but we had our work cut out for us. We fished for bait the first day for 2 hours. During that time the Ihu Nui caught a second fish and the Humdinger tagged a second. When the Chiripa tagged 2 on a double we changed to lures and trolled lures due to our bait catching problem. We didn’t get any bites trolling. Frustrating for us but good to see the fish biting for the guys.
Steve Cireco Day One
Friday, September 30th, 2011
Steve Cireco Came back to fish with us again this year and his timing on the new moon couldn’t have been better. We started off with a fish that bit and took off getting us in the dacron right away. It was evident that something was wrong when it went down and we could see his tail beat. Unfortunately it came up dead in about 10 minutes. Brysen Ball got in to help Mat and I out is pictured here trying to revive him. It just didn’t make it. Sometimes in fishing a full season this happens. We have 2 or 3 sometimes not make it due to bad hook position. Great for Steve bad for his first fish of the trip.
Steve Cireco Day 3
Friday, September 30th, 2011
Today we had another bang up day with Steve. Our hook percentage went up this week. We really had a tough time for awhile but caught this nice fish along with 2 others. 3-4 today
Blast From the Past
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011Today Terry Ann and I invited Tracy Epstein out with us on the 37. We had 6 great summers fishing together so we got our old team together for a day. This trip we had done most of our fishing on the 40 Gamefisherman and went to the 37 for the last day. It was nice of Tracy to help out and spend a nostalgic day on the old boat that we did so well with all those years. Some of best days Tracy Terry and I spent was with Tracy ‘s dad Steve catching 8 blue Marlin and a tuna in June of 2006. A day later caught 8 Blue Marlin and 3 Big Tuna loosing the go ahead 9th one yards from the leader. We had many other great days together and today was Terry and Ann’s last day. Good to relive those times.
Big Shortbait Bite
Sunday, September 25th, 2011
We had current trouble and found ourselves wondering around looking for current that looked right. We had good looks at the current that was on the surface at times but we felt that the current underneath wasn’t right because the reads we were getting on the top were not right. I looked in shore and saw a boat hooked up so I went in to watch the show. They were a little behind the top corner of the grounds so I came in on the corner and when I hit the ledge the shortbait ended up disappearing into a giant hole. The hole was the size of the cockpit so we had the feeling we had a good one on from the start. The fish settled right away and just pulled hard and didn’t do much. We got clear and got to work on it and got close to the fish in 10 minutes. Terry can wind and the steady heavy pull helped to lift him out of the chair and steady the fight. Sometimes when the line isn’t real tight the fight is actually harder when fishing heavy tackle due to the looseness of everything. When it is tight and you have a good pull to lean against it seems easier for a top notice heavy tackle angler like Terry. We still had not seen the fish so as the mark came in we snuck up on the angle we made a prepared to see what we were up against. From the size of the hole it left it could be anything. 10 minutes into the fight I got to see the dark color of a good fish. As it neared the surface it looked like it was over 400 pounds. Mat reached out and got the leader and pulled her up. It was a good pull for Mat and half way up the fish did what we all hate to see. She shook her head back and forth trying to shake the hook out. Everything stay in and she turned across the transom and made a spectacular jump across the transom. It was only about 5 feet in front of Mat which must have been a rush. At that point the fish settled and we got a tag in it on the opposite side. I wish I could have got the picture I have in mind of that jump right there. I had to drive hard on the fish at that point and didn’t get the picture.In the end I think the fish may have been 500 or better. 
T and Ann Fohey Come Back to Kona
Saturday, September 24th, 2011We were long awaiting the reunion of Terry and Ann Fohey the previous owners of the Northern Lights. The many great times we had over the years were too many to count and we looked forward to making more. The 37 Merritt served as the perfect boat for our mission to fish with our families and fish family style for big fish while we did it. Terry and Ann’s support of the boat and business really built the business as we know it today. The 10 years we fished together were priceless to me and my family so the mounting anticipation killed me and Matt as their trip neared. Did we still have it? We started out on the 1000 and 30 minutes into their first day Terry was in the chair once again. T made short work of the fish and we were back right where we left off!
Nice Fish on the 37 With Capt Mat
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Fuglers Hunt and Fish Kona
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
