You know things are getting back to “normal” when the fishing tournaments return to the Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club, especially those raising funds for local nonprofits. Although the Ccub has been running one day a month tourneys to try and keep people fishing, it was a sign of good things to come when Hospice of Kona held their Love 2 Fish tournament last weekend. Fishermen love good signs.
Twenty six teams turned out for the Hospice event. Marlin Magic won the marlin division, Miss Mojo took the ahi prize and Keoni P earned the largest mahi award. Miss Mojo also won the Couples Division and walked off with some airline seats on Alaska Airlines.
After fishing, Hospice hosted a get together at the HBGFC clubhouse, and organizer Adriana DeGress offered this comment, “It was a full house at the club, great food, drinks, music and silent auction. Fun was had by all! It was nice to be able to get together there in person. Great to see our returning fisherman and lots of new faces! Can’t wait to do it again next year!”
On Saturday the Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club held its monthly one-day Club House Shootout tournament. Not one but two marlin over 500 pounds were landed and when weighed, came in just 3 pounds different from each other. I guess that’s why they call it a Shootout.
After radioing in an estimated weight of a little better than 500 pounds, Miss Mojo scaled the first one at 702 pounds. Brandon Dereis caught the fish. Mojo Skipper Kenny Kam may have been having a little “fun” with Maggie Joe Capt. Mike Derego because Mike called a fish in earlier at 575. Derego did not just fall fresh off a turnip truck, however. He’s been around the block alright, he drives an Edsel. He has one of, if not the last, pet brontosaurus on earth. So he knows it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. At the finish, Derego weighed in a 705-pound blue, and in the end, he and angler Rocky Franich had the most fun.
Not many places can host a wee little nine-boat club tournament and produce two marlin over 700 pounds, much less on the same day. This is another really good sign because the Lazy Marlin Hunt is coming up this weekend and it targets big marlin like these.
This result is also much better than in the February Shootout when there were no qualifying fish caught, of any species. In November, December and January small marlin were tagged and released, but this past weekend is the first time in months that the Club House Shootout has seen qualifying marlin come in, much less two over 500. It was also the first time a qualifying ono was weighed in a while. Grant Johnson won the ono division with a 28.5 pounder caught on T.L.C.
The Lazy Marlin Hunt is the first “major” tournament of 2022 and will be fishing this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Lazy Marlin hunt is growing into one of the most popular events in Kona because of its Big Marlin format. In recent years the concept of “winner take all to the single largest marlin” formats have really taken off. Other than Kona, there are very few fishing holes on earth with the caliber of fishing to even host events like this, because the target is marlin 500 pounds, or larger.
Walk up entries will be taken at the Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club on Thursday at about 5 p.m. The HMT Series also has an office open in the afternoons, located in the Fuel Dock at Honokohau.
Teams can register in advance through the Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series website konatournaments.com.
Spring is known for producing large marlin in Kona, and March has not let anyone down with big ones encountered daily. All of these big marlin are, collectively, another good sign, but only time will tell if they hold and cooperate for the Lazy Marlin Hunt.
The big fish arrived long before spring though. Since November, it seems like at least one marlin 500 pounds or larger has been caught daily, on the Kona Coast. It “seems like it” because there is no central data base or clearing point for catch data here any longer. However, we do have it documented that six marlin between 501 and 798 pounds were caught in just one day this March, so it would not be hard to average out one over 500 pounds each day in the past couple of months.
Although in many ways the internet has been a boon for small independent businesses like charter fishing operators, tech changes have created a disjoint fish catch data collection system, resulting in a dearth of solid catch data. If there are any app builders here on the Big Island, this is a big opportunity to create a simple catch report app that will pop up on the smartphones of charter captains each day, and remind them to fill it out.
The club will hold two more Club House Shootouts after the Lazy Marlin, and before the “major” tournaments kick in starting June. For information or to enter the club events, visit hbgfc.org