Morning 1/2 day Mark Rubinski and family 8/7/10

Right out of the gate this morning we put this happy family on a fish of a lifetime for their son. Didn't even get all the lines in when the black lunger, positioned on the long corner started screaming! Crewman Joe Thrasher had to give our young angler on the job training, giving him lessons while hooked up to the real deal! He quickly picked up the angling technique and made short work of this 300+ pound blue marlin. A dream come true for our young fisherman, something he's wanted since he could remember!

We later had a couple more marlin hooked ups for the family before getting back in to the harbor.

They were ecstatic, and can't wait to fish again with us.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

51st Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament 8/2/10-8/6/10

Another fantastic week for the H.I.B.T., plenty of action to go around for everyone. Teams from all around the world come to Kona to compete. Five days of fishing, with a new team each morning fishing 50 & 80 pound test; points collected go towards the team standings and a separate boat division.

We had a great week of fishing, with a little more luck we would've had an even better week.

Day one, we released a spearfish, and missed a blue.

Day two, we tagged a striped marlin

Day three, we got spooled on 50 pound test on a fish est. over 650, tagged a 275 later that afternoon, and had two more strikes from blues, one over 700 pounds!

Day four, we missed a spearfish and had a strike from a blue.

Day five, tagged a blue first thing to lock the winning team from Japan win! Missed two more that day as well.

All and all, great fishing for the fleet, lots of big fish this year, to make the standings exciting. With a little more luck we would of had a chance to be one of the top boats for the week, but that's fishin! We had fun with all the teams, most of which I have fished with in previous years, always fun to see them back for another year.

If you would like to learn more on the week, go to http://bluewaterjon.blogspot.com Jon Schwartz photographer and journalist has all the highlights from the week, and a lot of other cool pictures and blogs from his travels. The picture below is taken by him, Jon Schwartz

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

2010 Summer Action Video, Enjoy!