“What does he know that the other guys don’t?”
It was a comment made in astonishment, and as soon as it was out, the guy shoved fish and chips in his mouth and tried to act like he didn’t say it.
Quinn’s went so quiet you could hear cubes drop in the ice machine and the cook cuss back in the kitchen.
In actual fact, the feat that drove the eavesdropper to blurt out was pretty impressive. Had it been January, this comment might not have been such a surprise. It was likely to have come from one of the many PGA caddies that hang out in Quinn’s during the Mitsubishi Electric PGA tournament at Hualalai. After all, in the last five years, the champion earned $300,000 by only one dramatic stroke. That — and a total purse of $1.8 million — was plenty fodder for sports bar gossip.
But this was mid-September and under discussion was a sleeper sports property held annually in Kona, one that had steadily but quietly become the richest tournaments series around, long ago passing Ironman.
The topic – athletes paychecks – could have been about golfers but the sport under discussion was fishing, and the property was the Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series.
Capt. Teddy Hoogs had led the team on Craig Lindner’s boat “Bwana” to win money in six of the seven tourneys in the 2019 HMT Series. “Bwana” posted scorecards earning three first place wins, one second place finish and day money in two other tournaments.
Lindner was crowned hampion Angler and “Bwana” earned the championship team title of the HMT Series, pocketing a total winners share of $582,126.00 — considerably more than the $300,000 winners share of the PGA tourney at Hualalai.
But what did Teddy know that the other skippers did not? Maybe more than some of the other skippers, but maybe not much more than his nearest competitor — Capt. Marlin Parker.
That’s because Hoogs wasn’t the only winner to top $300,000. In fact, two teams topped the half-million dollar mark — “Bwana” and “Marlin Magic II.”
“Marlin Magic II” earned $515,830.00 with three first place wins of their own. Keith Hilton caught the largest marlin of the 2019 Series, a coveted “grander” weighing in at 1,035.5 pounds at the 33rd Big Island Marlin Tournament. Parker and company finished the season as second place Series Team. Grady Mulberry caught the first “qualifier” of the season to win the Kona Kick Off with a 427-pound blue. “Painless” Paul Douglas won big in the Kona Throw Down with the only qualifier again, tipping the scales at 428.5-pound blue.
In fact, for the third year in a row, the HMT Series purse exceeded that of the PGA Mitsubishi — $1.8-plus million in 2017, $1.9 million in 2018 and a whopping $2,069,470 total in 2019. And two teams earned winners shares of more than $500,000 — not just $300,000.
There is more to this story than just the purse, “the rest of the story” the game itself. Fishing has been excellent, and the competition intense.
In 2019 there were 295 blue marlin caught, of which nine were weighed. That’s a tag and release rate of just under 97% – a conservationists dream. Every tournament winner had tag and release on their score card. Even if they were one of the “lucky 7” to weigh a fish, in many categories the tag points merge with weighed fish points and contributed to a win.
Think about that for a minute. Fishermen have long been known as folks prone to stretching the truth about the one that got away and now here they are earning big checks for purposefully letting them get away!
About 28 years ago, when the proprietors of the HMT Series introduced a cash purse for a tag and release division, people all up and down the Kona Coast scoffed and laughed out loud.
“You telling me you gonna give a bunch of liars a $5,000 reason to lie about the one that got away? HAHAHA! Man, you are some special kind of crazy!”
But now look. It works and it works big. But how? In the early years, Polaroid sponsored the tag and release division and each team got a “Quick Snap” camera. If they wanted to win the jackpot, they had to capture an image of their marlin(s) with a tag streamer in their back, before it was set free. More than one perfectly good image of a potential winner was lost in the wind when the camera spit out the picture too fast for the photographer to catch. As always, some determined soul figured it out when a purse was on the line.
Once the disposable cameras hit the market and Joel Nelson’s 1-hour photo kiosk went up, tag and release for cash hit the mainstream. These days, the HMT Series gives each team a small Go Pro type video camera. Recording the entire tag and release creates much better proof than one lucky still picture.
Imagine the outcry if 295 marlin were killed and stacked up on the dock each summer due to tournament fishing? The sport would never have grown to what it is today without embracing tag and release. Turning lies about the one that got away into the proof that hundreds of marlin are set free each summer was ironically, the catalyst.
Craig Lindner and the crew on “Bwana” caught a total of 34 blue marlin this season. Craig tagged 30 himself, and weighed one at 671.5 pounds. His crew helped with double headers. K.J. Robinson tagged two and Bobby Cherry brought tagged one.
Honorable mention goes to “Last Chance”. This crew went out on Day One of the BIMT and tagged six blue marlin and then went back out on day two and tagged six blue marlin again! Chad Beaudry and Ian Keinath were the tired but happy anglers.
Kona’s reputation for big fish held true this summer. Dave Anderson closed out the season with the largest marlin at the “It’s a Wrap” tournament, a 607.5 pound bruiser. This fish made a blistering run that timed out on the video of 57 straight seconds, almost emptying the spool of line.
At the BIMT, Wahine angler Michelle Amador weighed her largest fish to date, tipping the scales at 579 pounds. Michelle took the lead over Chip Wagner, who weighed a 404-pounder on Day One. Michelle stole the lead from Chip, then Craig Lindner stole the lead from Michelle, only to have Keith Hilton upset the entire show when he landed his grander, all of which upset the lead set early by Beaudry and Keinath and their tag and release fest. Fishing tournament competition just doesn’t get any better than that.
Edgar Artecona caught the first “qualifier” at the Firecracker Open. Ed brought a 488.5-pounder to the scale, only to be upstaged by Andy Diel who captured the win with a 517.5 pound blue the next day.
So what does Capt. Teddy Hoogs know the others don’t? If there is any secret at all, it might be consistency. Fish every single tournament with the same angler and the same crew, and create a professional team that works together like a well oiled machine. Two time Champ Rick Shedore won his 2018 crown this way, fishing the season with Capt. Rob Elly on “Lightspeed”.
In 2019, Champion Craig Lindner outscored his nearest challenger by more than 5,000 points. Most Series Champions win with a total of about 3,000 points, and in slow years even as little as 1,000 points, so this is very, very impressive.
The competition between Skippers and Crews was closer with 3,549 points between “Bwana” and “Marlin Magic II” — closer, but still impressive.
With incentive provided by purses larger than the PGA -— just as Polaroid begat the development of tag and release — fielding a true “team” in every series event is likely the next evolutionary stage in big game tournament fishing, a sport with Kona roots.