The “Moose” Crowned Champ of Maui Jim Marlin Series

Kailua-Kona, HI - The sport of Big Game Fishing has long been perceived as a sport of the very rich, or for people who were lucky enough to have been born into a boating family living near the ocean. James Karamouzis, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona is neither, proving that marlin fishing and marlin tournaments can be enjoyed by people from all walks of life in the 21^st Century.

“The Moose” as James is called by his new found fishing friends, was recently crowned champion of the Maui Jim Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series held across the state of Hawaii. Tournaments in the Series ran from May through December in 2000, and were held on three islands – Oahu, Maui and the Big Island. The Moose entered the first marlin tournament of his life in July when he and Capt. Brian Wargo and deckie Pau Sculley anted up to join the Skins Marlin Derby held off the Kona Coast.

The Moose and the crew on Capt. Wargo’s charter boat “Bite Me”  further cinched a berth at the Maui Jim Series championship by winning the Tag and Release Division of the Okoe Bay Rendezvous in September. The Moose tagged and released three blue marlin in one day - during the course of only one hour!

The "Moose" and team "Bite Me"

South Point is at the end of a dead end road, half way between Kona and Hilo. A mile long sheer cliff just out into the deep Pacific Ocean and creates an anchorage safe from the stiff winds that are common in the area. Boats hide in the lee of the cliff at night and then fish down the face of the cliff by day as the land continues to fall straight away into the deep. This scenario creates a combination of deep ocean and dry land in such close proximity that tuna, wahoo, mahi mahi and marlin can actually be hooked from shore.

Operators of the Maui Jim Series staged the Championship in this remote and hostile environment to create the most challenging set of conditions possible for the teams, and to test the mettle of the camera crew filming for ESPN 2’s “X-treme sports” programming. In addition, the tournament had to be held in December because the final qualifying event – the Lahaina Jack Pot -  finished in late October.  Although marlin are caught year round in Hawaii, and a grander (marlin over 1,000 pounds) has been caught in every calendar month – December is not normally considered a hot time for marlin fishing, as the concentrations tend to migrate south at this time of year. Fishing from the southern most point in the United States seemed like a logical place to start, and being away from the crowd trolling off of Kona pretty much insured that if there were marlin to be caught off South Point, only the competing boats would catch them since no one else was around!

Softening up the edges of this “roughing it” wilderness event, the restaurant chain Outback Steak House had provided team with filet mignon, New York strips and sirloin steaks to eat each night while at anchor. A reception cocktail party was presented the first night at South Point on the mother ship “Sunseeker”. The mother ship crew presented a lavish buffet featuring shrimp and other Outback Steak House cuts of meat.

Aside from the teams and the ESPN crew, Dr. Rich Brill, a scientist from National Marine Fisheries Service and biologist Andrew West from the University of the Nations were on hand with three pop up archival tags that they hoped to place on marlin before being set free. The scientists were working in partnership with the Hawaii Conservation Association (HCA), a Big Island based non-profit organization that had launched a program called “Lure an Angler to Research” at the Big Island Marlin tournament, the second Series competition held last June.

The Moose came from behind on the final day of fishing to win the championship by tagging and releasing a blue marlin while fishing back from South Point. While at the Point, The Moose had only tallied 10 points by catching a 30 pound mahi mahi. After tagging the marlin, team “Bite Me” scored again with 8 points from a 28 pound mahi mahi.

Leading the tournament since the first day, Steve Keinath of Parachute, Colorado had jumped in front by tagging and releasing a blue marlin on the way down to South Point. Keinath was fishing on board “Kila Kila” with Captains Randy and Marlin Parker.

On the second day, while fishing from South Point, Hugh Foster hooked into a monster marlin on board “Dojo” with his brother Ryan at the wheel. The Foster family fought the fish for seven and a half hours in high winds and pitching seas, only to break the line just short of the marlin. During the first few minutes of the battle, the great fish had jumped wildly out of the ocean, crossing back and forth and actually landing on the fishing line during the process. As a result, the line was nicked and frayed in a number of places, and it was incredible that it held together at all, much less for seven and a half hours. A heart breaking way to lose the champion fish!

Day three proved to be a bit quieter for the marlin action, but Charles Helscel of Owasso, Oklahoma entertained himself for an hour or so by going mano y mano with a tiger shark that was estimated to weigh about 1,600 pounds and be about 16 feet long. Capt. McGrew Rice figured that he and his crewman Jason Holtz could have fit side by side in the cavernous mouth.

By the time that the call was made to stop fishing on day three, South Point was proving to supply the teams and camera crew with as much “X-treme fishing” as organizer Capt. Jody Bright had hoped for. Three of the five camera men spent most of their day hanging over the side of the game boats, retching and trying to find one last morsel of breakfast to chuck up from their aching bellies.  When a large wave crashed into the cockpit of “Dojo” crewman Charles DunBan tried to save a cameraman from being crushed by a sliding igloo cooler, and wound up being dragged into the tip of a flying gaff. As a result of his valiant efforts, Charles had to be evacuated from South Point, as the nearest hospital was 50 miles away. He ended up winning 23 stitches inside his arm and 17 outside.

The shuttle boat that was used to transfer the crews back and forth from each boat and the mother ship “Sunseeker” received a puncture wound on the first day that started out as a 2 inch hole. This little irritation ended up as a 36 inch gash in the bottom before the boat could be taken to the launch ramp and repaired.  Although organizers had back up gear on top of back up gear in anticipation of challenges such as this, a four foot patch was just not something that was thought of in advance.

Had the “Dojo” or “Kila Kila” caught either big marlin, the final results would have been quite different, but that is why they call it fishing and not catching. “Kila Kila” could have set their fish free with a PAT tag on its back and still handily won the tournament, but it was not to be. Even an attempt by Capt. Parker to protect their 300 tag point score came up shy, as their 2 ono’s scored a total of 14 points.

The final score of 318 to 314 tipped the crown toward team “Bite Me” and The Moose, while leaving team “Kila Kila” and “Dojo” frustrated by the one that got away. Rick Chaponot had fished just about every tournament in the 8 month Series on board Bruce Matson’s “Cormorant”, and finished as the top angler in the Team Division of the whole Series with an impressive 1904 Series points. In an uncommon fashion, team “Cormorant” finished scoreless at the end of four days. A large ocean swell generated from a storm far to the north and west of Hawaii combined with winds swirling around the anchorage on the first night, and “Cormorant” had left the anchorage at 3:00 AM choosing to idle down sea for the rest of the night in an effort to get some sleep. While the other boats slept peacefully, “Cormorant” fell victim to abnormal winds curling over the cliff, and rising surf that threatened to grasp the boat. Finding these conditions contrary to those needed for peaceful slumber, Capt. BC “Uncle Buck” urged his team to pull out and go down wind, lest they be faced with a sleepless and ornery “Uncle Buck” in the morning. The choice was easy to make, but perhaps is was too late as the team never got their groove going, and ended up fishless as well as sleepless.

Charles Helscel wound up fourth in the Angler Division at the end of the Series with a total of 1349.5 points, just behind third place angler, The Moose, with 1773.5 points. Electing not to fish the championship was second place Series angler Mike Vidal who tallied a total of  1866 Series points.

Steve Keinath earned his position in the Championship “fish off” by placing with 600 Series points, and the Foster family scored 259 points to snag their place in the event.

At the end of eight  months of fishing, the Maui Jim Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series had catered to 328 teams, about 1475 team members and untold thousands of spectators.  Out of eight qualifying tournaments in the Series, four featured marlin caught over 700 pounds and six events saw marlin over 600 pounds, proving for the umpteenth time that Hawaii is the place to go fishing if you want BIG marlin. The total cash purse awarded for the entire Maui Jim Series was just under $600,000.00 and with sponsored prizes and goodies from Maui Jim Sunglasses, Caterpillar/Pacific Machinery, Outback Steak House, Kimura Fishing Rods of Hawaii, Greenwell Farms Kona Coffee, Yanmar, Mate Saver, SeaLand, Coors Light, Heineken, Budweiser and others, the value of all Series awards would be over $700,000.00.

For more information, such as a list of the tournaments and dates in the 2001 Series, log on to the official web site of the Maui Jim Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series at www.konatournaments.com or contact Tropidilla Productions LLC at tropdil@aloha.net. Phone calls can be directed to 808-327-1440 and the fax is 808-325-5039.