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!