The fourth day of fishing at the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament ended with a bang as Australia’s Gold Coast Game Fish Club hooked up with a big ahi with only moments to spare Thursday evening.
The fourth day of fishing at the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament ended with a bang as Australia’s Gold Coast Game Fish Club hooked up with a big ahi with only moments to spare Thursday evening.
Sailing aboard the boat Vixen, Gold Coast Game Fishing Club was wrapping up a slow day when all of a sudden the line started rolling out with 20 minutes to go before stop fishing. After a 38 minute fight, angler Claire Dukes reeled in the only weighed fish of the day, tipping the scales at Kailua Pier at 191 pounds.
“It was 4:10 in the afternoon and it just hit and never jumped so we didn’t know what it was,” Dukes said. “It was incredibly hard. It was the biggest yellow fin I have ever caught.”
Before the big one bit down, the day had not been going as hoped for the team, captain and crew, as well as most of the people out on the water Thursday.
“We had only turned the reel once at around lunchtime but it was nothing,” Dukes said. “It was very slow but the wait was worth it and it changed the whole day.”
Despite the big catch, the haul of the day was not enough to put Gold Coast GFC in the top five. After the fourth day of the tournament, Team Likeke Club still holds a narrow lead over Sunshine Coast Game Fishing Club, 2,195 to 1,988.
In third place is the New Britain Game Fishing Club from Papua New Guinea with 1,700 points. The team has slowly been making its way up the leaderboard, moving from fifth to third after Thursday’s catch.
Richard Wong tagged and released a blue marlin on a 50-pound test line and teammate Vaughn Schultz did the same, but with 80-pound test line aboard the boat Kona Seafari.
“We had a really good day, had a lot of activity, and got lucky with a couple,” Wong said. “I had a tag and release and it was in very quickly — about 14 minutes. The boat was really experienced and did a good job.”
Sitting nearly 500 points back, New Britain GFC knows it will need a good day on Friday to pull out a victory.
“We have our work cut out for us,” Schultz said, “Three or four fish (Friday) might seal the deal but we will see what happens.”
Wrapping up the top five in the team standings are Kona Game Fishing Club-Kusatsu (1,614) and Nanhai Lang Tao Club (1,600).
In the boat competition, Hooked up had a excellent day on the water Thursday, jumping from fourth to first with 1,658 points. Illusions dropped to second (1,645). Northern Lights II moved up one spot and currently sits third at 1,600. Ihu Nui fell one spot with 1,567 points. Kona Blue (1,550) wraps up the top five.
The fourth day concluded with 16 blue marlin and one spearfish tagged and released. Duke’s 191-pound ahi is the largest of the tournament so far. All but one of the 31 teams has posted points on the scoreboard.
“The fish have been hungry all week and who knows what Friday will bring,” said HIBT founder Peter Fithian. “HIBT anglers and the highly skilled captains of Kona’s fishing fleet will tackle the final day of fishing with everything they’ve got.“
Fishing wraps up at 4:30 p.m. with weigh-ins at Kailua Pier.
For more information on the tournament, including daily fishing video recaps, IGFA world records, rules, and entry information, log onto hibtfishing.com.