It was the third day of the five day long Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament and so far our boat had zero points. We had seen some fish but were unable to keep any hooked long enough to get a tag in and secure the points. Today the Old South Marlin Club would join Captain Jason Holtz, Brian Toney and I on the forty-three foot "Marlin Magic". The day started off slow as we trolled south down the Kona coast. Then, around mid-morning a boat hooked a nice marlin in front of us. A few minutes later a Pacific Blue Marlin raced up from behind and grabbed the marlin magic lure running closest to the boat. "Short Bait" I yelled from my perch in the tower! No sooner had the words left my mouth then the clip popped open and line started coming off the reel. Our angler Sue Vermilion jumped in the chair and did an excellent job fighting the fish on fifty pound tackle. After a great fight, and a lot of jumps, we were able to tag and release the marlin and we were on the board! After setting back out, I went back to the tower in hopes of seeing another strike. It was then that Captain Jason turned away from our marlin "hotspot" and began trolling back up the coast. I wondered why Jason would just leave like that after we had landed our first blue marlin in three days. A while later the reason started to become more evident to me. On the horizon, at one of Jason's favorite spots (a landmark known as red hill) there were three boats and all three were hooked up! Jason would later tell me that he received a call from a friend telling him about a boat that had six marlin bites including a triple header. From that information, Jason knew there would be a big fish somewhere in that area and big fish are what Jason and Brian specialize in! When we got closer to red hill another marlin grabbed the small lure running on the long outrigger. The fish didn't get hooked, but tried again and again. Finally the marlin grabbed the lure and ripped off some line before coming unhooked. Jason had the angler reel the lure back into position, hoping for one more strike from the hungry fish. Then I spotted the marlin at least a hundred feet behind the lure. The fish had its eye on the lure and was coming in fast! "Get Ready" I yelled from the tower, "He is going to eat it again"! The marlin closed the gap between itself and the lure in seconds and this time when it grabbed ahold it was hooked. The fish did not fight much and we had our second release in only minutes. Now our team was getting excited and things were looking up. Less than ten minutes later another marlin came up and ate the same lure on the short bait that we caught our first fish on. We were on...AGAIN! This fish was wild, jumping all over the place. When the leader came up, Brian Toney (who is the best wireman I have ever seen) took hold. Brian got the leader and did a great job keeping the hook in the wild fish as well as keeping the fish out of the boat! As the feisty blue marlin jumped across the transom and up the side of the Marlin Magic I did my best to stay out of Brians way. "Get In There!!!!" Jason ordered from the bridge, fearing the fish might come off before the tag went in. In this tournament no tag no points. I leaned way out the side and placed the tag while the marlin was in mid air! Now with three releases our team was kicking some tail. Just a short time later I was back in the tower hoping for one more fish. Then under the same lucky lure, I saw the neon blue flash of a big blue marlins tail as she swam by, deep underneath. Before I could say a thing the marlin came from behind in hot pursuit. "Short Bait" I cried again, as the fish swam behind the big marlin magic lure. This time the fish did not get hooked. Instead of giving up, it came to the long corner lure and ate that one. I wasn't sure how big, but I knew this fish was much bigger than the three we released already. Ken Onion was up and worked on the fish for a while. After a half hour the big blue marlin came up jumping and we clearly saw that it was much bigger than the three hundred pound minimum size. Brian got the gaffs ready as this fish would be coming back with us! The fish went out to sea (the big ones usually always do this in Kona) and Jason showed his boat handling skills trying to make the big marlin come back up. Finally after an hour and a half Brian was able to get the leader. With the fish swimming down deep and strait away from us, Brian showed both strength and finesse as he was able to turn the big fish and get her coming alongside the boat. I reached out as far as I could with the big flying gaff and nailed the marlin with a perfect gaff shot. At that moment, the big marlin stuck her head out of the water showing us that it wasn't even hooked. The hook was just stuck on the bill and came flying off! I quickly cleated my gaff rope off and Jason came off the bridge to set the second gaff. Brian got a meat hook in the marlins jaw and the fish was ours!!!!!!! I knew immediately the fish was bigger than the 531 pounder I got with Jason and Brian in this same tournament two years ago. We slid the fish in the boat and with her head sticking inside the cabin, headed for the scales. It was a great experience for me as my family was there to watch us weigh the marlin. It pulled the scale down to 638 pounds! And just like that we went from last place to first! By using fifty pound we got 300 points per release and 1.5 points per pound for the big fish in addition to a 100 point bonus for biggest fish of the day as well as a bonus for most points that day. This would not only be the best few hours of fishing I witnessed in my summer at Kona (not only our fish, but many others caught in the same area as well), but it would propel the Marlin Magic and Old South teams to FIRST PLACE in the 2012 HIBT. Jason, Brian and I would release two more blues and a spearfish during the final two days to secure our victory. Needless to say this was a day to remember!
No comments:
Post a Comment