KAILUA-KONA — They splished and they splashed, but by the end of the day, the fish proved illusive to catch at the Huggo’s Wahine Fishing Tournament on Saturday.
The morning kicked off at Kailua Bay with a flurry of activity, as 76 teams competing in the 22nd annual edition of the tournament took part in a boat-to-boat water fight.
The wahine anglers — dressed in Disney-themed attire — doused each other with buckets, hoses and water canons until the 8 a.m. announcement of, “start fishing, start fishing, start fishing.”
Then the ladies got down to business, and while the ocean was calm, the fish simply weren’t biting.
“This was the slowest fishing day in the tournament’s 22 year history. There were no weighed marlin,” tournament director Sue Vermillion said.
With the lack of big bites, the tourney became more of a game of tag.
Under tournament rules, marlin under 300 pounds must be tagged and released. If no marlin are weighed, the winner is determined by the time the fish was tagged — the earlier, the better.
For the day, eight marlin in all were tagged. The first caught was an estimated 150 pounds on the Ahi Lani by angler Kendra Wilson. That good fortune brought team Wonderland first place in the tournament.
While there could only be one winner, the thrill of catching a billfish was one of a kind experience for more than a handful of wahine rookies, including Laina Reisenfeld and her teammates on the Aquaholics.
“We did not catch a fish until near the end,” Reisenfeld said. “We had not given up but we did not think it was going to happen. All of a sudden the line started going out and we just looked at each other and were like ‘is this really happening.’”
Fishing on the boat High Noon, Reisenfeld’s teammate, Tiffany Yamaguchi, was first to the chair to reel the fish in. Being the only one in the group who was born and raised on the Big Island, her teammates did not object.
“Tiffany said ‘I’m doing it’ and no one was going to question her,” Reisenfeld said. “It only took nine minutes to reel in, but Tiffany said it was the longest nine minutes of her life. She is only like 90 pounds soaking wet so the fish weighed a lot more than her.”
It was a catch that Yamaguchi, Reisenfeld and the rest of her teammates won’t soon forget.
“We were so excited and Tiffany did not stop freaking about it until we reached the car,” Reisenfeld said with a laugh. “I would have been happy even if we had not caught anything. We don’t get to hang out together much outside of work and it was an awesome experience.”
As for the fish that hit the scales, three ono and one ahi were weighed at Honokohau Harbor.
The first two ono weighed in at 25.5 and 26 pounds. The third was wrangled in by Chelsea Caminiti.
“Do you know the size of the others?” she inquired, waiting nervously to find out the weight of her fish.
Screams could be heard throughout the Fuel Dock when she found out her 28-pound ono was the winning fish in that category.
Angler Michael Ann of team Ruff Catch caught a 124-pound ahi on the High Flier, hooking up 10 minutes before the 4 p.m. stop fishing.
“This is amazing.” Ann said. “We kept the energy up. We don’t give up.”
It just goes to prove — even a slow day fishing is still a good day on the water.
The awards ceremony goes down tonight at Lava Lava Beach Club in Waikoloa. Along with the awards for their catches, prizes will be awarded for best decorated boat and best costumed team.
The event leaves a mark on the community as well, serving as a benefit for Family Support Hawaii. Over the past 22 years, more than $150,000 has been donated to local charities.