1/15/10 Party of six for the day

Today's charter came from a fellow captain that works as a bartender at Waikoloa, when he's not fishing. He called me up last night around 8:30 p.m., with a potential charter for the morning. He put me on the phone with one of the guy's, and he booked right away. Originally he arranged a 1/2 day, but with some persuading in the morning, he changed his mind to fish a full day to increase our chances.

With my options open as captain, and all of us aboard, we departed Honokohau harbor around 7:00 a.m. Looking to the North, we trolled, searching for the porpoise school that we've been having good luck in lately.

The stretch along the 1500 fathom curve looked good, about 5 miles from shore. A mark on the fish finder appeared at 25 fathoms, telling us we ran over one. Shortly there after, appeared a whipped up blue marlin chasing the white super plunger on the short rigger. The fish was all over the lure and finally ate it, catching the hooks. The estimated 275 pound blue put on a great show right off the bat. After a 15 minute fight it was close enough to tag, giving us a few photo opts.

The boy's we're excited, biggest fish they have ever seen, even after spending a few seasons in Cabo, Mexico. They were very pleased to get that blue, anything after that fish would be a bonus for us.

The rest of the morning proved uneventful, but about mid afternoon, we came across a fishy area offshore. We picked off a beautiful 22 pound Mahi Mahi, and shortly after hooked a estimated 65 pound striped marlin, we released as well.

Few good pictures below taken from my iPhone, unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the blue. I'll see if I can get a picture or two from the boys and post them later.

Great January bite! This past week has been pretty good, most of the fleet has seen some good action.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com