KAILUA-KONA — Julie Mathis was about to take a morning nap at the Huggo’s Wahine Fishing Tournament when the alarms went off.
Quickly, Mathis shook the sleep from her eyes and readied herself for a fight with a big fish.
“I jumped in the chair and it started jumping in the water,” Mathis said. “I thought, is it 300 pounds? Can we bring it in? Then it jumped again and thought it looked a lot bigger. It went down three times, line screaming. It took an hour to bring it in. I cried after we brought it in, I was so exhausted, but had an adrenaline rush.”
The battle was well worth the tears, as the fish — which ended up being a monster 684-pound blue marlin — landed her team aboard the Maggie Joe the title at the 24th year of the largest ladies’ billfish tournament in the Pacific.
Mathis was the top angler and shared the tournament’s top prize with teammates Lynn Sorenson, Kristi Burns and Patty Murphy. The captain of the Maggie Joe was Mike Derego and Derin Goya was crew.
The tournament field included 400 participants on 66 colorfully decorated boats competing for more than $30,000 in cash and prizes. The festivities started last night with a party at Huggo’s on the Rocks and participants started fishing on Saturday morning, zooming out of Kailua Bay.
Second place went to the team releasing the most billfish by time, which was the “Mumma-mias” on board the Marverick. They released two Pacific blue marlin before any other team caught and released two fish. They were caught by anglers Emily Roberts and Alana Adams, with captain Trevor Child at the helm.
Rounding out the finish podium were the Jay Walkers, who released the next two marlin of the tournament. The squad released two blue marlin by 1:52 p.m. The fish were caught by the mother-daughter angler duo of Stephanie Parker and Rachael Parker on the charter boat “2nd Offense,” captained by Kevin Hibbard.
In the ahi division, 10 were caught and weighed, but it was Catherine Molina-Summers who came out the champ. She fought and caught a 132-pound ahi in 20 minutes with captain Rob Ellyn on Lightspeed.
The theme for this year was “Walk like an Egyptian.” Prizes were awarded for best decorated boat and best costumed team. Cash prizes will be awarded to those reeling in the biggest fish in various categories. The tournament wraps up today at Huggo’s on the Rocks with an awards ceremony.
The event leaves a lasting mark on the community. It serves as a benefit for Family Support Hawaii, with $10,000 of the revenue generated being donated to the organization which strives to “support families and communities in providing love and care for our children. In all, $200,000 has been donated to local charities over the tournament’s 24-year existence.
