Photos and Story by Mike House

The Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) department of the Navy in Pearl Harbor has held a tournament each year for the past several to benefit anglers who enjoy competing with each other at a slightly lower dollar level than some other tournaments in the state.  This, everyone seems to know.

What people don’t seem to realize, however, is that these tournaments are open to the public, and provide a great opportunity for anglers to bring their boats into one of the most famous battlegrounds of World War II.  This, combined with the event only running for a single day, has kept the attendance a little down over the past few years, but that hasn’t stopped the fish from biting.

Seventeen boats entered this year’s MWR tournament, most of them repeat skippers.  Tournament organizer Joe O’Neill entered as usual, on his custom home built Sampan, the Girlie T, and oh, what a weekend he had by boating this year’s largest tournament caught fish to date, a 553 pound Pacific Blue Marlin!

But let’s back up a second.  The skipper’s meeting for this fun event was held on May 25^th at the Rainbow Marina in Pearl Harbor.  It’s a wonderful facility inside the harbor, with all kinds of sailing and fishing activities available for boaters.  Juxtaposing these activities with the ever-present aura of the most recognizable memorial in the world – the USS Arizona - gives us a true sense of the word “freedom” whenever we enter the harbor.

The rules for the tournament are pretty relaxed.  The start is an early-bird 6:00 am, all landings need to be called in (hookups are not required), and the biggest rule of them all is the boat MUST pass the finish line at the 1 and 2 buoys by 4:00 pm.  Regardless of the hookup status of the fish, boats have to be in on time to count.  Going into the tournament, the intent is to pay four prizes, one for each of the largest of Marlin, Mahimahi, Ono, and Ahi.  When a certain species is not caught or one doesn’t meet the minimum, the prizes roll into the others as an even split. 

I had an opportunity to fish on the “Snapper” with Captain Greg Mescan this tournament.  Our day began with a run along the Ono lane at Pine Trees off Ewa Beach, then around the corner towards the newly opened Ko’Olina Marina.  We then shifted out towards the BO Buoy, and along the way, picked up an Ono at 25.5 pounds and a couple of non-qualifying Aku. 

Joe O'Neil with the lure that caught the marlin winner
Look closely at the lead hook in his right hand..it's broken!

As we got to the buoy and found a small school of Mahimahi, we just couldn’t get the critters to bite.  Lures, bait, nothing seemed to work.  Suddenly, Greg dipped deep into his bag of tricks and pulled out a casting rod with a popper lure.  He proceeded to tease the Mahi until it got mad enough to snap at the lure, and hooked up.  A few moments later the fish was on board.

Fishing was a little slow in the tournament, and no Ahi were recorded, but such is the case for fishing sometimes in Hawaii.  But, it’s the shot at a big one that makes people go to sea, and this year wouldn’t disappoint.  On board the Snapper, we got a Marlin strike at about 2:00 and we played it for about 5 minutes before coming off.  But we also heard about what was going on aboard the Girlie T.

It had just become the afternoon, and skipper Joe O’Neill was returning from some Aku schools in Waianae where they had picked up a Mahimahi.  As he passed BO Buoy and prepared to eat his lunch, the Marlin struck.  They radioed in a hookup that a Marlin was on, and the fleet listened intently to see if they would land it and make it back to the harbor in time.

Team Girlie T

After a blistering series of runs and a two hour fight, the team of Gary Canite, Gary Largo and Junior Quemado managed to subdue the great fish and bring it on board.   With just 1 hour and 45 minutes before stop fishing and 17 miles to go, Joe hit the throttle and pushed the ol’ girl as hard as he could.  As the boats converged on the finish line and headed for the bulkhead where the weighins took place, Girlie T just crossed the line in time, with even a few minutes to spare. 

Hoisting the fish up the scale, weighmaster Wayne Shelter read the weight to the crowd at 553 pounds.  Joe later said he thought it would go 500, and called it in as such, but he says he hates to be a sand-bagger and try to upset the competition by reporting it wrong. 

Girlie T caught the fish on an old “softhead” lure that Joe has had for years.  He says he can’t replace it, so he keep repairing it.  The rod was a 130-class Fenwick model outfitted with a 130-class Penn reel.  The same lure actually won the 1996 women’s tournament held out of Keehi lagoon (the Na Wahine O Keehi usually held late September each year), and perhaps the most amazing thing about this lure and story is the lead hook was broken as the fish came on board. 

Most boats caught a fish in the tournament, many of which were not weighed because the skippers knew they wouldn’t qualify or win.  A total of 11 fish were weighed for the 17 boats, and the winners were as follows:

• 1st Place Marlin: Captain Joe O'Neill, Girlie T, 553 lb Marlin $663.00
• 1st Place Ono: Captain Paul Sapla, Kaihoni, 47 lb Ono $433.50
• 1st Place Mahi: Captain Steve Arrechea, Mariko, 33.5 lb Mahimahi $433.50

Paul Kaihoni with his 47 pounder good for 1st in the Ono division