Photo above from the other day of one of Sharon’s 900lb-ers on Think Big with Capt. Laurie Wright.
As I mentioned yesterday, fishing starts quite early today on the final day so I’ll get a quick update in now.
26 tags! That makes a total of 121 tags thus far. One day to go.
Day 6 was an amazing day on the water. Its been a long time since I’ve seen so many fish. Fish tailing in groups of smaller males around one big female again and again. Lots of fish up, lots also not interested in feeding/other things on their mind. Big school of yellowfin feeding on the surface. Even a school (pod ?) of 10 or so manta rays on the surface. Was really great to be seeing the reef edge like this again after a while.
Capt. Ross Finalyson on Top Shot took advantage of the hot bite and converted fish after fish ending the day with 5 tags to take the lead on 15 overall. Including another couple of big ones – one that he called 999lb+ and another at 750lbs – again for Tominori. And while other boats had good fishing, Top Shot just lead from the front all day.
Capt. Bill Billson on Viking II self disqualified a nice fish early in the day and then added two more official tags later. Iceman hooked up and was seen chasing another big fish that Capt. Bobby Jones put at 950lbs for angler Andrew Wells. And the private boat team on Althaldo had another cracker making good gains on the leaderbaord with four tags for the day including two late back-to-back tags for angler Paul Axisa that Capt. Tiger put at 600 (sat tagged) and 1000+!
Sharon on Think Big continued her big marlin workout with a fish of 700lbs that Capt. Laurie Wright chased right in towards the breakers and Capt. Dean Beech on Onsite also tagged another nice one that he put 850lbs for angler Graham. Birthday boy Capt. Kim Andersen added to his team on Duyfken’s tally also with a fish of 850lbs for owner angler Reg Moore.
On KEKOA we added another two including a smaller fish for Alex on the stand up early in the day, and another good one that Capt. Luke Fallon put at 800lbs for Brian in the afternoon (pictured). And Amokura also kept in the title hunt adding another two smaller fish for Frank.
And Capt. Dan McCarthy’s Moana III also added another big fish on Day 6 with a 900lb-er tagged in the last half hour of fishing.
There were some unlucky losses including team on Bite Me who fought a fish for almost 4 hours before calling in lost fish. And the team Hellraiser who were hooked up and fighting at cease fishing only to lose the fish later. That was their second missed for the day with two converted (one each for Sue and Sarah) which made for plenty of action on board for them as well.
The leaderboard sits at:
Top Shot is on 15 tags from Little Audrey on 12. Althaldo is on 10 from Amokura and Hellraiser on 9. Kalira is on 8. Castille leads the group on 5 which includes Think Big, Viking II, Kekoa, Moana and Duyfken. Iona II (one sked was 5-4-0) is on 4 with Iceman and Kaizen (who tagged one after cease fishing). On three tags are Bite Me, Illusion, Onsite and The Joker. On two are Reel Easy and Defiant. And Game Over is on one.
Outside the tournament again, competitors on Reel Easy sat tagged a 750lb black marlin after cease fishing. While I also heard from Capt. James “Jimbo” Bladin on Black Magic who released a real good one with a 950lb black marlin at The Bank yesterday.
