‘ Well its all over for Day 1 of the HIBT for me , Sharon Oates, Peter Cox, Bernice Cox, David Cox & Ian.
Fishing on Northern Lights II with skipper Kevin, crew David & Martine(pronounced Martin), we headed Sth after the fleet blessing & shot gun start at 8am.
We had arrived on the jetty at 6:45 and had a bite to eat, catch up with friends and competitors before being called to board or boat.
With introductions completed on board, it wasn't more than 15mins from the Harbour the crew had lures in the water & we were fishing in 3000ft of water, cobalt blue about 28 degrees.
Within 30mins of start fising the first tagged Blue Marlin was called in, then another, then a Shortbill Spearfish & so the repitition went on.
Unfortunately not for us, although we did have 2 Spearfish in the Lure Spread but no hook up.
Mid afternoon & Martine sitting in the crows nest spotted a fish in the water, as we got closer we could see it was a small Blue Marlin barely alive with sharks around having a feed.
We circled around & the crew brought the carrcus on board as the want to search for a tag or satelite tag.
It had been attacked quite viciously with no apparent sign of a tag. They filletted what meat on the fish was considered edible & disposed the carrcus.
We saw lots of bait fish, skipjack tuna, a small fish similar to a Sowrie jumping & small Flying Fish but nothing to put us on the score board.
From the reports in, there was about 25 tagged Blue Marlin ranging from 80lb to 180lb & the spearfish were about 25-30lb.
We arrived back at Kona Harbour pretty exhausted as it was over 30degrees, very humid & very little breeze.
I had been on the Fly Bridge with skipper Kevin all day apart from my turn on the rods so the brain was also a bit exhausted.
We had some nibblies & a drinks at the wharf before going home for a refreshing shower.
Will be out locally for dinner but probably have an early night as we have a 5:30am rise again tomorrow & a 4:30am rise on Wednesday as there is a cruise ship visiting & we have to be out if the place before the tourists arrive.
So some of the other Aussie Teams did OK, Sth Aust GFC got a B/Marlin, GFAA Team 1 got a tagged Spearfish, one if the Fremantle clubs got a Marlin & Spearfish & the tournament leaders who had the scientifeic team on board managed to tag 4 Blue Marlin, awesome effort. The team of 2 from St Helens GFC in Tasmania got 1 with India landing her first for the tournament. Wasn't all that long ago she was a junior angler.
Will see what tomorrow brings.’
Kevin Oats
