1999 Big Island Invitational Marlin Tournament Report

By Jody Bright, tournament producer, President of Tropidilla Productions and the Hawaii Conservation Association

It looked for a while to be a repeat performance of last year when only one marlin showed up on the first fishing day of the 13th Big Island Invitational Marlin Tournament. Luckily, some big ones appeared over the next two days to spread the purse out among five of the thirty-three boats entered in the event worth just under $140,000.

Starting the first day with the only tagged and released marlin of the entire fleet, Walter Hester's team "Maui Jim" got the luck running their way off the bat on day two. At 8:41 am, just outside VV Buoy, "Maui Jim" took advantage of their momentum by boating a 550.5 pound marlin for a quick lead. With Capt. Tom Casey at the wheel making his first appearance at the BIIMT in a few years, Mike Durbin took a couple of hours to bring the fish to the boat, careful not to go too fast and create a mistake. Then at 11:31, "Illusion" with defending champion skipper Tim Hicks at the helm, angler Al Sullivan hooked into a good fish, and in 34 minutes, they had boated a 348 lb. Black Marlin which put them in second place for the moment. So with only these two fish landed for the first two days, it look as if every single fish could be a potentially big winner.

Overall, the second day would prove to be better than the first though, with Steve Schumacher tagging a Marlin from his "Kila Kila" and Jeff Smith tagging another from his "Pamela" as the day went on. At the end of day two, some prize money finally changed hands as the "Maui Jim" earned $20,340.00 in daily prize money and team "Illusions" received $19,800.00 in daily money for their catch.

On the third day, the bite came on a little stronger. Ross Kraemer on board "Layla" started the morning off with a tag and release but later "Kila Kila's" Jason Holtz tagged their second marlin of the tournament, thus locking up the $5,000.00 cash prize for the most Marlin tagged and released in the tournament.

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Anticipation of the early start outside of Honokohau Harbor

More nice fish came up during the final day as Mike House of Sportfish Hawaii reeled in a 423.5 pound blue marlin from Maui's "Start Me Up" with owner/skipper Doug Armfield at the helm. After landing the fish in about 30 minutes from an 11:30 am hookup, the team spent the rest of the day "on the bubble," knowing at any moment another fish could knock them out of the standings. In the end, however, this fish held on to third place, and Start Me Up received $17,190.00 in daily money as well.

Before the day was out, refusing to be outdone by skippers from out of town, the world famous, and often immortal, Capt. Jeff Fay pulled a lunker out from hiding that was to rearrange the leader board for the final landed Marlin. Washington angler Joe Sewell wrestled with a 634 pound Marlin in nineteen minutes after hooking up at 1:22 to bring the leader within grasp of veteran wireman Henry "Butch" Chee to ice the largest marlin of the tournament, dropping "Maui Jim" and "Start Me Up" to second and third, respectively. As a side note, "Start Me Up" also boated a real nice 156 pound Ahi (yellowfin) later on day three that added to the excitement.

The final tally for the event was four Marlin weighed and approximately another dozen released, making for a roughly 75% release ratio. The Big Island Invitational features and entry format that allows for the base entry fee proceed to support prize money for the top three points tallying boats (based on total weight for all species of Marlin weighing over 200 pounds), as well as $5,000.00 for both the top tag and release boat and the team with the largest Marlin of the event.

Prize money for the largest Marlin of each day, and additional cash awarded for the largest Marlin of the tournament is generated from optional entry levels. "Humdinger" won first place in points overall, worth $23,700.00 and also picked up $5,000.00 for the largest marlin of the event - both from the base entry fee category. In addition, Capt.Fay's team earned daily money from the optional entry levels totalling $5,400.00 for a total take of $34,100.00.

Oddly enough, the total amount won by the second place team was more than that won for first and the total for third ended up more than second or first as it varied according to who was entered in which optional entry level. "Maui Jim" took second place overall - worth $14,190.00 and picked up the unclaimed daily money from Day One to add to their take from Day Two for a grand total of $34,530.00.

Third place overall went to "Start Me Up" but their take in optional categories propelled their earnings to a total of $43,770.00. "Illusions" earned a total of $19,800.00, all from optional categories and "Kila Kila" was awarded $5,000.00 for tagging the most Marlin of the three day event.

The 13th BIIMT was the second competition in the 5 stop tour making up the Kona Marlin Tournament Series. Still unclaimed at this point of the season is a special prize guaranteed by Pacific Machinery of Honolulu, a pair of brand new Caterpillar diesel engines reserved for the the team catching the largest Marlin of the series weighing better than 898 pounds.

The Kona Marlin Tournament Series awarded better than $340,000.00 in prize money in 1998 and since the first two events of the 1998 have enjoyed increased participation and purses, organizers feel it safe to expect more than $400,000.00 in total awards in 1999. Next event on the circuit will be the 12th Annual Firecracker Open on the Fourth of July Weekend, followed immediately by the 7th Skins Marlin Derby in back to back weekends.

All events are open to all interested anglers, and the tournament schedule posted on the pages of Sportfish Hawaii’s website contains additional information. For still more information contact Tropidilla Productions at (808) 325-7300 or (808) 331-1191 or email tropdil@aloha.net.