First day aboard "Play Time"

Capt. Wayne Knight and I hosted husband and wife return clients from Colorado. They were excited to get back out on the ocean aboard Play Time, hopeing for a little luck too!

We set the lines out, gave a angling refresher course and it didn't take long for a reel to go off! We got lucky catching a 15# Mahi Mahi, just what we needed full-filling there order for something to eat during there stay.

Capt. Wayne continued North coming up to O-tec buoy. We picked up two more resident Mahi Mahi around the buoy and decided to take a look around after that bite slowed.

I just set the lures back in position and the long rigger started screaming! This fish was no Mahi Mahi, it had enough weight on the other end to be a marlin. We quickly got the rod to the chair in time to see a small blue marlin breaking the surface. We fought the fish up to the back of the boat in 10 minutes and released it in great shape.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhoogs.com

New beginning!

For those of you that haven't heard, Kila Kila and I are parting ways. Its owner has sold Kila Kila's slip in the harbor, and I have received the unfortunate news to deliver Kila Kila to Honolulu. The majestic 53' Merritt now sits in the Ala Wai harbor awaiting its future for a new owner.

As all of my faithful clients know, running Kila Kila was a lifetime dream. I took great pride skippering such a special operation for three and a half years. I thank Kila Kila's owner, Jimmy Day, for such a great opportunity and all his support he offered. Our successful run now comes to an end, but when one door closes another opens.

When news echoed of my job and Kila Kila coming to an end, fellow skippers and clients extended their support. I'm very fortunate to have a close community that stands by my side.

I've decided to combine talents with good friend Wayne Knight, and owner of "Play Time". He's been so kind to offer his 38' Buddy Davis for me to skipper. Aboard "Play Time" I'm still able to offer the same first class service and fishing experience that customers have learned to expect. I'm very excited to carry clients over to this new operation, and continue our successes.

We will be updating our website soon with info, pictures and 2011 rates. We're accepting bookings for "Play Time", and the 2011 season is quickly filling up.

Thanks to all for your continued support and I look forward to a successful 2011 aboard the new operation!

Below are a couple shots of Kila Kila delivered to Honolulu, freshly polished inside and out, ready and listed for sale. Bottom picture is the stb. profile of Play Time. It has the beautiful lines and classic Carolina flare Buddy Davis, the boat builder, is known for.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.teddyhogs.com

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

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!

The Scotts! Action wrap up from two weeks of fishing 7/8/10-to-7/21/10

John and Chris Gamrot, father and son fishing enthutisaest, joined up yet another season. This year they booked us for two weeks and two tournaments.

The action started the first day they fished with us, catching two big yellow-fin tuna and missing another. The first tournament (Skins Marlin Derby), produced slow marlin fishing for the fleet. We didn't have any action from a blue marlin but we picked up a short-nose spearfish on day three of the tournament.

The day after the tournament, since marlin fishing was slow, we decided to go for the Ahi to the north. The direction change paid off giving us the best action we have seen in months. We released a 175# blue and went 4 out of 9 hook ups from big Ahi. From about 10:00 am-to-2:00 pm the bite was on.

That day set our luck to change, giving us a great week of fishing, leading up to the next tournament. Maui Jim Series Championship, to crown the top boat of the 2009 season. The top 10 highest scoring boats from last season battle it out to name the champion boat and angler. This weekend we shined, pulling in a 164 lb. Ahi, and boating the winning fish, a 511 pound blue marlin! Our great fish on the third day secured our win as champion boat. We got some great pictures of the winning fish, along with video which will be posted shortly.

The tally for the remainder of their trip: 3 blue marlin (2 released and one captured, 511 lbs.) 4 shortnose spearfish released (25-40 lbs.), 4 Ono (20-32 lbs.), 2 Mahi Mahi (15-35 lbs.), and 8 Ahi (100-164 lbs.).

"The Scotts" are already planning next year!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishig.com

Photos provided by 2nd crewman KJ Robinson, & Carol Lynn shot from Marlin Magic II

Bo Williams 7/6/10

Bo and his wife traveled all the way from North Carolina to fish with a hand full of top captains in the harbor.

We set out to F buoy, knowing bait and small tuna have been hanging around, we picked up a 40# Big eye tuna on the troll near the buoy. We tried live baiting around the buoy for a bit, no luck, then set out trolling again. We didn't have any other action, Bo knows what fishing can be like and was very understanding. He enjoyed the day none the less picking up little tricks of the trade he can take back to his boat he runs in NC.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishng.com

Steven Seger marlin wish 7/1/10

Steven and his wife came back to Kona in hopes of catching Steven his first blue marlin. They chartered my father last year on the "Pamela" with another couple, they had some great action, releasing a couple striped marlin and breaking line on a Grander. But Steven, being so Kind let the other couple get all the action. This year it was his turn...

The morning was very slow for everybody, but we didn't give up, we stuck to working the good marlin grounds. Our hard work paid off, just after lunch, when a wave of white water engulfed the short bait, and Steve was looking at his first blue marlin. The fish gave us a great show, and a good fight. We got it up to the boat for some pictures and released it in fine shape to fight another day.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com

Family Fun 3/4 day 6/30/10

A family of 5 chartered the Kila Kila for a 3/4 day, they were looking to have a good time. We trolled ono lane along the shore in hopes of catching a wahoo for the table. This morning turned out to be slow, so plan B came into play and we set our course for F buoy, 10 miles offshore.

Along the way we set our pattern of lures out just in case we ran over something big. Dad's wish almost came true, when a blue about 400 blew up on the long corner! A short zip from the reel and it was gone unfortunately.

Fifteen minutes later we arrived at F buoy and it was game on for the whole family. Hook up after hook up from small skip jack and big eye tuna. The action wore there little arms out and it was time to call it a day.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com

Timmerman Family 1/2/ day 6/29/10

Timmerman's, guests of our owner, joined us on a half day trip. Beautiful morning off the coast, and luck came our way first thing. Young angler got a chance at his first blue, and did it in fine form releasing an estimated at 180 lb blue marlin. Dreams came true for this little guy, safe to say he's hook on fishing for life. After our blue, we switched over for Ono along the shoreline for the rest of the morning. No luck, but a fun day none the less.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com

1st Place Winning Team (Kona Classic Tournament) 6/26/10 -to- 6/27/10

56 boats blasted off at the starting line this weekend, all hoping luck would go there way. Marlin Magic released the only blue on day one, leaving options to win wide open. Going into Sunday, everyone one was optimistic, fishing was extremely slow, with no paticular area better then the next. I opted to fish close to home, figuring its as good a spot as any.

After the first round up in the morning, a nice mark appeared on the recorder. It didn't take long before the fish was spotted under the long corner. A couple looks at the black lunger and it switched to the short-rigger wasting no time to eat it.

The battle began, and our adrenaline flowed, knowing we had the winning marlin on! Twenty minutes later we had the fish secured along side. We hung on for the remaining hours ahead waiting for somebody to hook up and knock us out of position. But, luck was in our favor, our blue gave us the title of first place weighing in at 473.5 lbs.

Lucky first time angler and tournament team were ecstatic, catching a fish of a life time and having memories to smile about for years to come.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com

Honeymooners Mixed bag 6/23/10

We started off the morning looking offshore for the north tuna school. In the search, we released a small blue, giving us a good start to the day. We found ourselves pretty far offshore making the quest to find more fish bring us to a buoy 28 miles offshore. The choice turned out to be a good move, the buoy offered a bunch of life, getting us action from a variety of pelagics. We caught a 25# Ono, three Mahi Mahi, and a couple 30-40# tuna, not to mention a few sharks!

Our newly married honeymooners fulfilled there expectations and more big game fishing with us.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com

Rock-n-Reel Tournament 6/19/10-to-6/20/10

First tournament of the season started off well. We released a small blue a few hours into the day to put us on the leader board. Fishing was slow, our release was one of two for the day, along with a 300 pounder weighed from the whole fleet. Second day we caught a 176 pound Ahi to give us a total of 630 points, good enough to secure 3rd place.

Not a bad start to the season.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com

6/18/10 Big eye tuna and Mahi Mahi

We checked an offshore buoy, 28 miles out. Not really a place that gets visited to often so we thought it was a god gamble. Reaching the buoy around 11:00 a.m. signs were showing. Good size explosions, and marks on the fish finder told us tuna were abound. We rigged up a live bait and began to make crew man Josh, work for his money today. Anglers, Laura & Aaron got there fair share of reel time, loving the non stop action. We caught about ten, 30-40# big eye tuna, and a couple mahi mahi!

Not a bad day!

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com

6/17/10 Back in action

We started off looking offshore for the tuna school, we found them but they weren't coming together. We opted to get our family some action on the grounds with some skipjack tuna. The ledge was alive with bait, and our guests wore there arms out catching them. After letting everyone catch a fish, we all decided to try our luck after something bigger. Josh rigged one of the skipjack up and it didn't take long to get a bite. A good size mahi mahi jumped on, but we couldn't get a hook in it. Shortly after, we got another bite on our live bait, this time it was a marlin. We successfully tagged a 150# blue marlin for our junior angler.

Dad was next. The bite was on, as soon as we tossed another live bait in, it was eaten! Another blue marlin about 200#s, we fought it near the boat for some good photo's and pulled hook almost to leader.

Slow day turned into a great day, all from being at the right place for the tide change.

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com

6/7/10-6/15/10 Dry dock update

Scheduled dry dock for Kila Kila this year, Josh and I have been putting in some hours this week. Were getting a lot done and the boat is looking great, just in time for summer.

Here's the list of projects we have completed or are in the process of completing:

~Sprayed new non skid for walk way on fore deck

~Refinished teak deck, epoxied, re-caulk, and finish sand

~Aft rail along water line, repainted

~Deck hatches repainted

~Live well, minor fiberglass work and repainted

~Transom sprayed with high gloss clear Emron paint

~Green stick mounted on tower

~New temp and speed gauge for Furuno sounder

~New set of propellers

Aloha, Capt. Teddy Hoogs

www.kilakilasportfishing.com