Charlie Yancey 11/18/10

Charlie fished with me while I crewed on a boat in Cairns, Australia in 2006. He was coming to Kona with his wife and looked me up a few weeks ago to go fishing. He understood the fishing lately has been slow, but also knows, while fishing, you never know your luck.

We searched high and low, found lots of great floaters that should be loaded with mahi this time of the year, but nothing. We did manage to catch one mahi mahi trolling along a current slick, so a least we weren't skunked!

Charlie also had a rare find, one of the sea's treasures, a glass ball. Glass balls were made mainly by Japanese long line vessels while at sea. They would blow them right on the ship to save on deck space. They preferred glass floats because they wouldn't implode under pressure, when fish would drag them under the sea surface. A rare find, considering some of these floats have been floating around the sea for 50-to-80 years!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhoogs.com

1/2 day 11/18/10

The Chang family, booked us from a recommendation, they had two young kids, and just wanted some action.

We went to the grounds, and caught a nice skipjack right away. After we caught one, the skipjack decided to shut off. So we switched tactics, and went offshore. Shortly after setting the lures back out we ran across a nice size floater. Some fishy marks came on the sounder telling me mahi mahi were under it. The fish were spooked for some reason, and were very hard to course into biting. We tried all the tricks to get them up with no success.

Time was running out and we needed to head back to port. Putting the lures back in the wate the short rigger went off! We caught a 24 # mahi mahi for Jay's son departing the floater!

The family's first fishing experience was a success, they had a lot of fun and can't wait to try there luck with us again!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhoogs.com

Evan Rappoport bachelor party 11/10/10

Evan Rappoport is getting married this Saturday. All his buddies hooked him up with a fishing trip with us to relax and hang out on the water. They lined the trip up earlier in the year and were very excited to get out on the water and try there luck.

We worked a porpoise school most of the day, marking tuna on the sounder; watching them feed from time to time on the surface. Couple moments I thought for sure we would get blasted, seems to be the way the fishing is for everyone at the moment.

Heading back to the dock late in the afternoon, when all hope pretty much left us, a mark appeared on the sounder at 40 fathoms. Evan asked me if we ever get bites out of fish we mark deep like that? I said, normally in the summer when a bunch of fish are around, I would say yes! But given the fishing has been so slow, and the fish just aren't in the mood to feed, I don't have much faith this one will come up... I was proven wrong as the stinger started ripping out as soon as those words left my mouth! Unfortunately, the fish didn't stick, but everyone got the excitement of the hook up!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhoogs.com

Biggest Skipjack of the year! 11/6/10

Fishing's extremely slow this past month, so seeing a fish is a bonus right now. We set out with one of our local clients and some of his good friends. They just wanted to spend the day on the water, if we catch that's a bonus.

We set out heading South, and found a porpoise school. Couple marks appeared on the sounder, but the school was pretty spread out. There where already a couple boats working the school, so odds weren't with us for getting a shot out of a big tuna. But we got another kind of tuna that sometimes travel with the school: a skipjack tuna. Not really a rare catch, we mainly use skipjacks for live bait during the summer season, but this one was a dozer! It was in contention for biggest of the year!

Later that afternoon on the scale, it weighed in at 24.5 lbs. Enough to beat the second biggest by half a pound!:)

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhoogs.com

Kelly Cowlishaw 10/20/10

Repeat client, Mr. Cowlishaw and his wife joined us again this month. There thinking of moving to Kona, and are searching for a house during there visit as well. We took him out hunting for his marlin, his last trip was in the spring, we caught him a bunch of Ono.

We didn't have any luck from a marlin but scored a nice deep sea Ono! Cutting the fish back at the dock, there was plenty fish to go around. Kelly and his wife were able to prepare the catch at a condo they rented during their stay. Both of them couldn't stop raving about how good eating it was!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhoogs.com

September, Wedding time!

Amy (my fiancee) and I left early September to begin our three weeks of wedding travels. First leg began arriving in Elmira, NY, to visit Amy's family and attend a send off party for our next phase of the trip to Ireland. About 75, close family, relatives and one of my long time clients gathered to celebrate our future together. They all gave us their best wishes and the next morning we were off to Ireland.

We arrived about a week before our wedding date to arrange all the last minute details; meet with our photographer, florist, food details, list goes on! Our guests started filtering in during the week, and slowly but surely we all started meeting up, and traveling the sights. We travelled to Dublin, Blarney, Bunratty castle for a mid evil dinner, Cliffs of Moher, Aran Islands, Adare, Golf with the boys at Castletroy golf club, and ending at Kilshane House in Tipperary for the wedding celebration.

Kilshane house was unbelievable, staff and grounds were magnificent, couldn't ask for a better venue! We had a wonderful rehearsal dinner in the grand dinning room, then hung out downstairs in the "mens lair" as I called it, awesome snooker and game room. We prayed for blue skies the next day and called it a night.

The next day was great, more guests arrived and the anticipation of seeing my soon to be, was a great feeling! Everything went without a snag, all the planning from so many miles away payed off with some fantastic help and recommendations from our wedding planner. The weather was grand and we got our outdoor wedding we hoped for! About 30 close friends and family attended, which made it an ideal setting for a intimate day. We got some beautiful pictures of the special day, and will cherish the experience for the rest of our years.

We ended the three week marathon in Santorini, a little island in the Aegean sea off Greece for our honeymoon. Crazy beautiful place, very romantic, and peaceful setting. Most of the island is built right on the edge of shear cliffs, which gives it a very dramatic feel, and makes for some awesome pictures. Looking forward to getting home, but I could get used to this!

Gary Simmons and family 8/29/10

Gary and his family come fishing with us usually once or twice a year, this time we had some good luck!

Beside the morning being slow, just missing one, and marking a few, I knew, the afternoon tide change might change our luck.

Sure enough, the extra hours paid off, catching a nice 350 pound blue to end the day on a high. Crewman Joe Thrasher got some great shots, and one of the guys got some awesome video footage, I'll try and get that for you soon!

The Simmons can't wait till their next fishing trip with us!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhoogs.com

Rodger Bourget 8/27/10

Motorcycle builder Rodger Bourget, looked us up again. I've known Rodger for quite a few years now, and used to work for him about 8 years ago, back when he owned a 54' Bertram here in Kona. Rodger is a great guy and has made a big name in the motorcycle world for his world class bikes, Bourget bike works.

He doesn't mind a fish while he's in town, together we have had some great catches over the years. This year the fishing was slow, we came close to catching one, raising a small blue about mid day, but it didn't stick! We had fun, none the less, and its always nice to catch up with old friends.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhoogs.com

Barry Alty 8/16/10-to-8/19/10

Barry Alty, I met years ago when I fished in Australia, he owned a beautiful custom sportfisher in Australia, called the "Mistress". He contacted me a few months ago, telling me he was coming to Kona and wanted to fish with us. So we organized 4 days of fishing in August, that time has come, and were now fishing together.

Day one we caught and released two spearfish, marked a couple marlin but they didn't want to bite for us. We watched three other 500# plus blue marlin get caught right near us in the same area. That's the luck of the draw!

Day two, we tagged two blues, 200, and a 150, in the morning, off to a good start.

Day three, we lost a little better one, 300 plus, and found an area to the North that we want to fish tomorrow. Plenty of bait and all signs look good.

Day four, North grounds here we come, we tagged two from 4 shots out of blues, good action for Barry's last day of fishing. He was very happy with his luck, and wants to book a week next year, maybe catch his big Kona blue!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

Big Island Marlin Tournament (8/13/10-to-8/15/10)

Two brothers from California chartered us for four days of fishing, three of which were for the Big Island Marlin Tournament (BIMT). Day one was fun fishing, get our brothers warmed up for the tournament this weekend.

Good first day of fishing, we caught & released two marlin on lures, and a couple sharks on live bait. We were feeling good going into the weekend, with a little luck hopefully we can win some money.

Day one of the tournament, fishing switched around, most of the action we were seeing was to the North, but it seems the fish moved South. The chatter on the radio was telling us most of the action was South, given that we didn't see any action to the North we changed tactics.

Day two, we found a couple marlin, we lost a winning marlin after a 10 min. fight, 300# plus. Later in the afternoon we released a blue around 265 pounds, right in the same spot we hooked the one we lost.

Day three, fishing took a turn for the worst, radio was quit all day. We tagged a non qualifying short-nose spearfish, other then that we didn't have anymore luck. Couple big fish seen South of us, right around the moon set. But most of the fleet had a pretty slow weekend. We were glad we had a chance at the money, our brothers are already planning next year, to try there luck again.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

8/9/10 Slow action packed day

Fishing has become incredible slow, very few blues are even seen at the moment. We patrolled the North grounds, current was swirling, strange wind direction, wasn't looking good. Around 1:00 pm, our gang was just about ready to call it quits, when the long rigger took off zinging! To our surprise, we hooked a small blue! After a good fight our angler brought the feisty blue to leader for crewman Joe Thrasher for the tag, est. 100#s.

The mood switched to a low roar, and the gang was fired up for another shot at a big blue. We put the lures out and minutes later another marlin jumped on, this one a little bigger, 250# range. I think its safe to say, we found a little honey hole. Our second blue fell off after a 10 minute fight, we got to see plenty of good jumps, and the angler was fine with that, as sweat rolled off his face!

Later that afternoon we had a couple more shots from blues, they just weren't eating the lures properly, big crash bites, but weren't sticking. We had a lot of fun hearing the reels take off multiple times, and seeing everyone jump.

The charter group was ecstatic, experienced fishing friends, but they had never seen that much marlin action before today!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs