Hawaii International Billfish Tournament

My son James and I fished the HIBT on two of Kona, Hawaii's top boats, Captain Kevin Nakamaru's Northern Lights and the Marlin Magic with Captain Jason Holtz. James got off to a great start with a blue marlin double header, releasing a 250 pound blue, and boating a 392 lber. The second day was my turn and around 10:00 am a big fish ate a purple lure on the closest line to the boat. Captain Jason did a great job chasing the fish and we had the leader in just over a half hour. When the other mate, Brian Tomey grabbed the leader, the unthinkable happened. The line got wrapped around the top of the rod and our angler (a small man from Japan who spoke no english) had no idea what happened. If Brian were to let go of the leader and the fish ran off our angler would have been pulled overboard. Instead Brian took several wraps on the leader and pulled the big marlin closer as Captain Jason backed down hard to get the fish within gaff range. I reached out as far as I could and gaffed the big Pacific blue marlin in the shoulder. As soon as I sunk the gaff the marlin, it jumped out of the water all the way to the other side of the boat. The gaff rope came tight and again the big marlin jumped out of the water, but this time Jason sunk another gaff while the marlin was in mid air. We quickly secured our prize and slid the fish into the boat. Back at the scales the fish would weigh 531 lbs and on only fifty pound tackle it was a catch I will not soon forget. We finished the day with the tag and release of a shortbill spearfish (my first ever) and ended up winning the daily for that day. James also released a nice blue that day and we were both on our way to a strong finish. James and the Northern Lights team tagged and released a shortbill spearfish the following day. On the final day of the tournament we hooked a nice blue marlin after a spectacular bite on the short outrigger lure. After a tough battle the hook pulled just a few feet from the boat, but thats marlin fishing. It was a great tournament and an unbelievable experience for my son James and I. We will be here in Kona for a couple more weeks and I am sure there is a lot more exciting fishing to come. (1st pic is James with the tag stick, 2nd is the 531lber)