Today my dad Kent and my brother-in-law Doug Hopeman went bottom fishing with me in order to catch fish for the New Years holiday. It is tradition for us to eat the fish that we catch bottom fishing for the holiday. It has been slow so we didn’t expect much. It started off slow but …
We finished a 2 week dry dock today. We pulled the boat to clear coat the toe rail and the varnished areas downstairs. Lots of parts and lots of sanding. We have been clear coating the varnished areas so we can get more coats on with less sanding. it is still a ton of sanding …
Today we had a great trip with the Staples. They came from Destin Florida to visit the Big Island and fish with us on the Northern Lights. They operate a charter business in Destin so they were no strangers to catching fish. They brought their luck and skill to us here in Kona filling up …
Had a great start to the day by catching this marlin right out of the gate. It ate the Polu Kai Tube on the short rigger and we caught him quickly. We headed south to the dolphins where we worked them all day. There were a few fish in them but they wouldn’t bite. Right …
The current was good today pushing into a good spot that I like to fish. There were tons of birds and bait all over a spot that usually the fishing is good but there is not always the sign on the surface. I trolled all morning through the bait and birds with no luck. I …
The night bite was on this week so the dolphins were pressure free. The tuna came to the dolphins and the pressure that usually brings from the boats trying to catch them were night fishing so we had a school to ourselves. I was able to make good passes on the fish. They finally bit. …
Mike Wengler and friends were here again for the day. Mike comes over for the Molokai race to be on the medical boat in the race. After living in Hawaii for years it is good to see him back again. We looked for a blue all day on the grounds. It looked really good. Bait …
Cliff came over from Oahu to fish with us. We have a bunch of friends in common so it was great to compare notes.We had a great time at the party last night. We were up late and morning came too soon. It was good to be out riding the wave of the tournament win. …
Pictures to come
I did this painting to celebrate 20 years of TART as a gift to Ken for a great tournament and congratulate Ken on 20 years.
Today we had Dan on board. I owed Dan a fish due to having a slow day with Dan on a hot tournament year. The day started off tough and boats hooked fish and lost them. The Ihu Nui needed 2 fish to beat us and we were aware that a 2 fish lead on …
Today we had the Malahini Peter. The Malahini is the new comer to the tournament. The Malahini usually doesn’t have much experience because it is their first year in the tournament. We trolled in the morning and didn’t get any bites. We switched to bait mid day and worked the middle to the corner all …
Today we had Angelo on board. We trolled up to the grounds on the 500 fathom line and caught a 120 blue on the stinger. It was good to get that bite stuck because it was the only bite we had all day. This was our 5th fish of the tournament and put us in …
Today we had Donny on board. Donny is pretty lucky and has won the Tart 2 times. He is looking for his 3rd win this year. We went North with the other boats and didn’t get any bites trolling up to the grounds so we switched to bait. We raised 4 fish before one finally …