My 17 year old Mark jumped in the chair, set the hook and the fight was on. My two sons and I had agreed it was Mark's turn for the big one on this trip. It was an awsome fight. The big boy showed us his stuff by comming out of the water several times. We knew it was big.  We had him to the wire 4 times in the first 2 hours only to have him turn and strip off several hundreds yards. This fish charged the boat numerous times causing the skipper, Paul, to gun it. Two and one half hours later we finally got the flying gaff in and pulled him through the door of the stern.  This boy (girl) was huge!!!  Once on deck the 9.0 hook feel out. The hook had broken off above the barb. We were lucky!!

On the way back we were proudly flying three flags.   Blue marlin, yellow fin, and mahi mahi.  A large crowd was waiting at the dock along with the press from the Lahaina News. I have never been so proud. Watching your son battle a large fish is really something.  The fish weighed 415 lbs. Not bad for his first billfish!! A couple weeks later his picture was in the newpaper. Needless to say he will never forget this fight. The boat and crew were great. WE are booked with them next month. It's time for the 12 yr. old K.C. to get his first billfish!!

Dave and his 10 year old son Aaron chartered Fish Wish out of Kona in December 1999.  Capt. Kent sent Sportfish Hawaii this photo of Aaron with his 40 lb Spearfish.  Aaron's father Dave tagged and released a spearfish about the same size.  Not bad for a 1/2 day trip.

C.Jay chartered the Judy Ann II with a party of nine from Lahaina, Maui in October 1999 through Sportfish Hawaii.  In the first hour and a half they caught three Wahoo and hooked two more which were not boated.  Then, they caught this 70 lb Sailfish shown in the photo to the right.  He said the captain thought it was a marlin at first, so he had it over the rail before he knew to release it.  They also caught two small Skipjack Tuna.   All this before 11:00 am.  Not a bad outing!

Thanks for the info! Nice Marlins!! Well, FINALLY the monkey is off my back!!! Your not going to believe this day which was this past wednesday. 11:42am a marlin grabs my center rigger...HARD...thought the rigger pole broke!! Almost spools me before I turned the boat and chased him (thought it was a her) and gained half my 80w W/130lb test line back. He broke

water only twice with only his head showing...never saw him again until the leader came up. 40 min. later....could'nt hold him and back out agian peeling line off the reel like he was first hooked! Anyways, I had the leader in my hands on 4 differe'nt occasions, the fifth was at 3:33pm. Sunk the flying gaff in it which rolled the marlin around where i got the chance to see where the hook was....Mike, I still can't believe how we got that fish!!! The hook was only around the peck fin!!! It was'nt inbedded at all in the fish! As soon as the flying gaff was set, the hook just slid off the fin.. Quickly we got a meat hook in......Ok, heres the funny part, the Marlin was only 200lbs (which I'm very very thankful) and it took that long to land!! The marlin kept comming in sidewards like a mahimahi so thats probably why took so long...plus being fowl-hooked. Well, at the end my partner and i were astatic on our catch!!! Took pictures...cut it up and gave most of it away to friends and family. It sure feels good to catch a marlin (my favorite fish) and have the tail and bill outside hanging to remind you of that fabulous day!!!! Hope all is well. Keep a tight line! Aloha, Mike

One day my brothers and I went on a fishing spree. Our fishing spot was on the Molokai. Our plans was to camp there for three nights but just the first night alone we caught 15 Uluas and one Uku and had to head back home. This fishing spree was for a fishing tournament. With all the Uluas we caught we came second place. The biggest one we got was 90lbs. This was the Happiest and the best fishing spree we every had experienced. One we will never forget!!

Too much to list! Left Waianae harbor at 4 a.m. got the scoop on massive bird pile with good size Otaro's (big skip jack tunas)out Kaena Point 25- 30 mi. headed for CO buoy.  No action at the buoy, headed for finger ledges. Starting to think maybe got bogus info. No boats, nothing except birds flying out. Everybody was playing the inside or out BO. Approaching the 30mi. range there was giant bird pile, no boats around! All alone started hooking up double, triple whatever or however you wanted to set up. 9', 7' 300lb. test they were pounding!! Real good fun.  Called some guy's in on action.  We caught 11 Otaro's 15, 16lb. range, 1 Mahimahi(dorado) 32lbs. Could of caught alot more however I like to think of tommorow.  We shared the fish with over 20 people free.  I'm not a commercial fisherman, jus for fun!! No mo fun if you have to buy fish which tastes better for free or you have to pay? That’s just me.  Go get um and hang on to that screeeeemer!! Keith 

Good fishing,

Steve

Rick and Ed with their 146lb Tuna

After an hour on the nearly flat water Dana retired to the top of the fish box for a nap and we settled down to the well known routine of getting there. There was not much action, a few scattered birds, just looking. On the whole trip out the GPS was indicating a speed of only 6-7 knots while the speedo was showing our usual speed of 8-9 knots. Could there really be a two knot current? More likely it was a combination of errors on both devices but I kicked the throttle up to 4100 RPM because I didn't really want to spend three more hours getting to the bouy. An interesting flock of birds appeared astern, I roused Dana and we took a couple of passes before they dissipated. Onward!

Dana checked the active fuel tank and said that it was nearly empty. What? No Way! Between starting less than full and the higher rpms, there was just no way we would make the bouy, spend any time there, and make it home with any sort of reserve. Ok, lets run it dry and see where we end up.

After another 20 minutes, at about 10:30 and about 5 miles off the Kahuku Golf Course, the tank was dry and Dana moved aft to switch. I looked back to once again check the lures. What's that? A broomstick? Yup, there it is! A marlin is following the lure on the highline. I hate this part! A pass and a miss, a pass and a miss, again, again. Dana look! But she's still switching tanks and can't look. Finally, as if its had enough of the silly looking green and pink lure, the fish explodes in a shower of white water. My eyes move from the wake of the boat to the tip of the outrigger as the line goes taut and the rubber band holding the fishing line aloft breaks. Looking aft I see the big (it is big!) pacific blue marlin start greyhounding across the water, lit up like a neon sign. Dana shrieks, I say take it, she says no, I say OK take the wheel, she says eek! The next 5 minutes are chaos. The big Penn Senator 12/0 reel is roaring, Dana is hollering, the fish is flying, I'm trying to figure out how to bring in the four other lines and do something about slowing the fish down as the spool of 80 lb test line is rapidly getting smaller and smaller. Finally we're set and the real battle begins. Dana has never been on a boat with a big fish being fought so I am doing my best to instill confidence, the last thing we need now is more pandemonium. Slow down, a little more, a little more, head straight to the Hilton, perfect, now come to starboard, good. On and on. The fish has stopped taking line but won't give anything back. This is unbelievable. What are we doing in our little boat, underequipped, with this thing on the other end of the line! I'm going to need everything I've learned since childhood to pull this off and even then just one mistake will end it. I'm apprehensive about backing down much, the seas have risen a bit and we would be backing into a quartering following sea, I don't relish the idea of the Pacific Ocean ending up over our transom. But there is nothing else to do. We get into the routine.

Wait a minute, what happens if we get it to the boat? We've got a little gaff which works fine for ono and mahimahi but would be like a crochet hook on this monster. No flying gaff. Should we release it? Well, just in case, get a line ready to loop around the bill. Great, it might work. We share a beer, some water, a dose of sunscreen.

After an hour and a half we've gained little, the fish hasn't run again and is staying deep, this seems odd. I remember when I was a teenager, crewing for my dad on a charter in the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament in Kona. We had a big marlin that went deep and died. Is that what's happened? I tell Dana to do what my Dad had told me to do; ahead slow to plane the fish up, then, once the fish gets higher, back down slow and pick up slack before the fish sinks again. It's working! We're gaining lots of line now. My right arm feels like lead but we keep at it for another hour. Finally the spool refills, there's the rubber band, still wrapped around the line, we're really close now.

Suddenly, after a two and a half hour struggle, twenty yards back, I see color in the water. A lot of color. This fish is really big! The fish rolls over, showing its pectoral fins. It's dead. Well we can't release it but everything is going to be a lot easier. I very carefully retrieve the last few yards of line, bringing the fish to the stern. Now what? Let's try get it in the boat. The two of us grab the rope which I've tied around the bill and heave. Nothing happens. OK, let's try tie it alongside like Hemingway would have done. The tip of the bill is at the bow and the tail is only a couple of feet short of the propellor. OK, we're underway. Where's the fish? Under the boat. Plan C, we move the beast to the stern, pull as much of it as we can (about to the tip of the lower jaw) over the transom, and secure it. This seems to work.

At 4.5 knots it takes us the better part of 4 hours to get in. We spend the time frantically making cell phone calls, trying to arrange a pickup. Finally we get a hold of my nephew Brook who calls the Kaneohe Yacht Club to see if we can use their hoist. They say it's all right, my brother and father being long standing members. As we pull into the harbor we see that a fairly large crowd has gathered, word had travelled and it just so happens that this was the night of the awards banquet for a tournament a couple of weeks ago.

As the fish was slowly raised from the water my first estimate of the weight (350#) flew out the window. We watched amazed as the scale went from 400 to 450 to 500 to 512! Five hundred twelve pounds. It is by far the biggest fish I've caught and the largest Dana has seen. Slowly the whole experience sinks in. Although we were very lucky, the two of us could never have accomplished this without close team work and confidence. Rather than focusing on the end (what would we do with a thrashing marlin next to our small boat) we concentrated on the moment. I found that stored somewhere deep within my mind were all the lessons I had ever learned. They had been lying there, waiting for a moment like this to be called into play. Dana, though scared out of her skin, had the confidence to carefully listen to and follow my instructions. This was an experience we will carry with us forever. Maybe next time we'll make it to X-Bouy.

Shibumi, Captained by Sean Cleaver. I went out on a 1/2 day fishing trip and I caught a 641 Lb. Pacific Blue Marlin. Thought I would e-mail you back with the attached pictures.

....and his reply:

I would be proud to have my photos on your site. Thanks for replying to my e-mail and you are right, It Was A Trip of A Lifetime! I am probably nuts but Gray Taxidermy will have my mount done by Sept. 13. Can't wait!