Fishing tournament season kicked off in earnest recently. Six tournaments ran in June and four more are slated for July. Down south, a 21-footer scaled the largest marlin and ahi in any tourney so far — with a crew of kids. A few weeks later, a team out of Honokohau bested a field of 43 mostly pro teams in a big stakes tourney, with a team of parents and kids.
Down at Milolii village a total of 45 boats — mostly “skiffs” — fished the Go For Broke tournament a couple of weeks back, and they proved that high powered boats and hot dog crewmen are not required to catch big fish.
Capt. Travis Kuahuia brought a 740 pound blue marlin and a 188 pound ahi to the scales on the same day on his boat Pi’imoku. Travis was fishing with his 15-year-old daughter Tasha-Ray, 13-year-old Zeiden Fujihara-Faavesi and college student Situ Bole’.
A 36.5 pound fish took the ono division and was caught by Capt. Junior “Kajune” Llanes on his boat called Don’t Get J. Criag Mitchell fished with Rowan and Albert Taraba and landed the largest mahi mahi, a 24.5 pounder.
Interestingly, the winning aku was larger than the mahi, coming in at an even 25 pounds. David McAsland and Harold Llanes teamed up on that otaru.
The Go For Broke tournament is held in memory of Milolii fisherman Raymond Kuahuia, who was a legendary fisherman in his green boat Ho’olako. His daughter Chelsea was in charge of the seventh annual event, and they raised over $6,000 for the Make A Wish Foundation, sending a 7-year-old from Hilo to Disney’s Aulani Resort on Oahu.
The tournament with the most boats on the Kona Coast is another “local” event. The Wee Guys tourney is limited to boats 21 feet long and under. This was the 40th running of this popular event and they fielded 130 teams off of Kailua Pier, with another 30 on the wait list.
The largest marlin of the event was 524 pounds but was not the winner because it was late to the scale. In the end, Capt. Garrick Yamamoto took the honor with a blue of 272 pounds. Capt. Ryan Sanoria scaled the largest ahi of the tournament, a 169 pounder.
Captain Ricky Torres weighed in a nice ono of 38.5 pounds to win that category. Capt. Darrel Holdbrook took the mahi division with a 26 pounder and Capt. Wendall Paiva took home the prize for largest aku with a 22 pound fatty.
Sharing the ocean on the same weekend as Wee Guys, the Kona Kick Off launched the 2021 Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series with 22 teams competing out of Honokohau. One nice marlin was scaled on each of the two fishing days, and a total of 11 were tagged and released.
Scotty Hilpert caught the larger of the two blues, a 462 pounder from Mauna Kea with Capt. Tony Clark and crewman Carlton Arai. The second blue weighed was 432 pounds and caught from defending HMT Series Champion Angler Guy Arrington. Guy combined his weighed fish with one other blue tagged for a total of 632 points, which helped the team on Wild Hooker take home the lions share of the purse.
The Kona Kick Off is also a Four Flags event and James David on Sweet Sadie caught the largest ahi weighing in at 125.5 pounds. Tony Bender weighed a 35.5 pound ono to snag the win in that division while Frank Lujon eked out the largest mahi division with a 10 pounder fishing from Go Get Em.
Next stop on the tournament trail was Marlin Magic Lure Tournament founded by Capt. Marlin Parker and run collaboratively with the Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club. Twenty teams entered and could only fish with trolling lures for two days out of Honokohau.
The 20 teams did not manage to weigh a marlin over the qualifying weight of 500 pounds, but they did rack up an impressive 21 marlin tagged and released. Capt. Tracy Epstein led his team to win the tag and release division, with 4 marlin tagged. Chad Beaudry did the angling duties from Last Chance.
The 33rd Firecracker Open Big Game Tournament fished this past weekend, and is leg two of the eight stop Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series. Fielding a total of 43 teams, anglers targeted marlin and ahi over two days of fishing.
On the first day a total of 10 marlin were tagged and six ahi were weighed. Of the six ahi weighed, four qualified and Tony Bender was back on the leader board with the largest at 129 pounds, again from Ambush.
Pat Tooley and Paul Douglas teamed up on a blue marlin double header on board Marlin Magic II, posting the most points of the day, with two small blues tagged for a total of 400 points.
John Peterson experienced the agony of defeat when a marlin estimated to be 700 pounds pulled hooked after a 40 minute fight. The fish was in sight of the boat and according to J.P., it was all played out. All they needed was about five more minutes and 40 more feet of line and they would have earned a healthy check, but it was not to be.
The final day started with a flurry of marlin tagged and released but the ahi went into hiding. In tournaments though, it’s not how you start it’s how you finish, and the Wyatt family finished in fine form.
The family owns the 37 foot Rybovich Sea Genie II and hired Captain K.J. Robinson as skipper while they do all the fun stuff on the deck. Mom Kathleen handles all the angling duties while Dad Jamison works the deck. Sons Hudson (7) and Colton (11) are the videographers, documenting the marlin they tag and release. And tag and release they did.
The family on Sea Genie II won the largest tournament in the HMT Series, beating out some of the biggest names in professional fishing with four marlin tagged and released for a total of 800 points. This was Capt. K.J.’s first appearance as skipper in a major tournament as well.
Marlin Magic II and Huntress tied with two tags apiece for second and third place. Tony Bender on Ambush caught the largest ahi of the Firecracker Open, a 129 pound tuna.
There were numerous other winners in the Firecracker Open as there are lots of optional categories. To see the full final results, log on to https://konatournaments.com.