One of the best reasons to charter a boat or fish out of Honokohau Harbor is that you never know what you’re going to catch.
One of the best reasons to charter a boat or fish out of Honokohau Harbor is that you never know what you’re going to catch.
A multitude of different fish species patrol the calm, clear blue waters of West Hawaii. On any given day you could catch a fish of a lifetime. Rick Sneed found this out on July 30 when he chartered the Bite Me 4 and hooked into a monster 901-pound black marlin.
A black marlin of this size is extremely rare off Kona, it’s an incredible catch, and it may be the fifth largest black marlin ever weighed in West Hawaii.
Sneed booked the charter boat Bite Me 4 for an eight hour day of fishing. Rick, along with his son and three friends, were excited to have a fun day out on the water.
“Diamond” Dave Bensko was at the helm of the Bite Me 4, a 37-foot Hatteras, with a relatively new crewman Judah Aldorasi working the cockpit.
The full-day charter gave the captain plenty of hours to fish and afforded him the opportunity to cover a larger expanse of ocean.
With flat calm seas, the captain left Honokohau Harbor and pointed the bow south, fishing between the 200 and 1,000-fathom curves. Bensko went approximately twenty miles south to the “C” buoy, experiencing no bites. After finding no action down south, he turned the boat around and headed back north.
Around 1 p.m., just south of the area known as Red Hill, Bensko steered the charter boat into the 100-fathom line. Suddenly the charter shouted there something big behind the boat.
Simultaneously, Bensko observed an enormous dorsal fin pushing water behind his Marlin Magic tube lure. The fish swatted at the lure with its baseball bat sized bill, backed off, then tracked the lure for a moment before it came crashing in for the kill.
The game was on. With the reel screeching like an alley cat, Sneed jumped into the fighting chair, and another epic West Hawaiian marlin battle was underway. The behemoth fish jumped a few times, displaying its size and power, and the charter knew they had a fish of a lifetime — every fishermen’s dream.
After an hour and fifteen minutes, Sneed was physically spent fighting the fish and turned his battle station over to his son. Around 45 minutes later the black marlin came up dead from exhaustion.
The marlin was so big it would not fit through the transom door. It had to be tied up along the side of the boat for its journey to the scale. At Honokohau, the black marlin weighed in at 901 pounds. It also had a perfectly intact striped marlin bill stuck into its side.
While black marlin regularly exceed 1000 pounds off of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the ones typically captured off Kona rarely weigh over 400 pounds.
This summer has been an anomaly for blacks. Oddly enough, another big black marlin weighing 620 pounds was caught last week by the Lightspeed during the 31st Big Island Marlin Invitational.
Bensko’s has fished off Kona for over ten years, and this was the first black marlin he had ever caught. His other biggest fish was a 913-pound blue marlin caught in May of 2009.
“It’s validation for me that hard work pays off and I do know what I’m doing,” Bensko said. “I’d like to think that I’m earning a spot in the lineup with some legends”.
The rookie crew member Aldorasi humbly said: “I’ve never been more scared and excited at the same time.”
Unfortunately, Sneed could not be reached for comment, but congratulations to all involved!
The 4 Largest Black Marlin Ever Weighed in Kona
July 19, 1980: Anglers Bill and Brad Brontseme and Frank Di Donna caught a 1,205-pound black marlin. The biggest black ever weighed in Kona. Capt. Jim Hunter was at the helm of the Lei Aloha. They caught the fish on 80-pound test line after a 12 and 1/2 hour marathon battle.
July 5, 1978: Angler Vaughn Miyauchi caught a 1,088-pound black marlin. The fish was caught after an impressive 1 hour and 20 minute battle on 80-pound test line with Capt. Wayne Ogata at the helm of the vessel Shirlene.
July 22, 1985: Anglers Herman Gomes and John Langsi caught a 1,060-pound black marlin fishing on-board the Pamela with Capt. Peter Hoogs at the helm. The fight time for this fish was 10 and 1/2 hours.
June 13, 1993: Angler Chris Robb caught a 1,051-pound black marlin fishing with Capt. Mike O’Shiro on the 19-foot Krista-O. The marlin won the 1993 Kona Iki Trollers Invitational Tournament. Interestingly, Mike won this year’s Firecracker Open by catching a 533-pound blue marlin on the 19-foot Krista-O.
July 30, 2017: Rick Sneed’s 901-pound fish might be the fifth largest black marlin caught and weighed in West Hawaii.
If anyone knows anything different I’d love to know.