Posts

Fellow Fire Fighter Releases His First Striped Marlin

/in /by

Rod and Lisa 7Fellow Fire Fighter Releases His First Striped Marlin.  Rod Bieller and Lisa Yellowlees from Victoria BC  has been fishing in Kona, Hawaii on Fire Hatt for the last Six Years.  He and Lisa have been troopers when it comes to fishing.  Over the years our adventures with Rod and Lisa include many attempts at catching the elusive trophy blue Marlin.  We have not checked that one off his bucket list ….yet!  We left the harbor around 8:00 AM and headed north to where bait had been reported.  We were about about 1400 fa off “Pine Trees” when the stinger line started screaming off line.  We are Hooked Up!  Once lines were cleared, Angler Rod Bieller had the striped Marlin to the boat in just over five minutes.  Crewman Brett Lazenby had a tag in the fish and made a quick release.  Rod’s Stripey was caught on a “Silver Fox Bullet Lure” made by longtime luremaker Al Bento from Honolulu.  Rod and Lisa have caught several food fish here in Kona including Mahi Mahi, Ono and a nice dinner size Big Eye Tuna they took home for shashimi last night.  His real target yesterday was to land a Shortbill Spearfish.  The Spearfish and Striped Marlin are here in numbers now.  We did have a Spearfish come into the pattern and poke the stinger several times but did not take the lure.  this is quite comon with this species.  Sometimes you can tease them into taking the lure… however, not this time.  We look forward to continuing the adventure next year.

Featured in the photo is Lisa Yellowlees and Rod Bieller with their release flags.  Rod is a retired Fire Battalion Chief from Victoria,

AFTCO Logo 2

Fire Hatt is a member of the AFTCO Pro Fishing Team.  You can go to AFTCO.com and read their amazing story.

Family Fishing Adventure Aboard Fire Hatt

/in /by

Family Adventure Aboard Fire Hatt.  Mark Nikkel from Chicago, his father John and his father in law Wilber, both from Michigan joined us last week for a day of family fishing.  Mark has fished with us in the past and he landed a nice 450 pound Blue Marlin.  Now returning with his family, he wanted to give it another try…maybe something bigger?  With that said, we head out.  Reports from the few days prior told us that it was lumpy up north on the “grounds” so I headed south.  It was a pretty quiet morning with no action.  Then mid day, just off Captain Cook  about 1:30 in the afternoon one of the rigger lines came down.  Nothing forcefull, it acted like a rubber band failure.  While Adam was putting that line back up, the stinger came down pretty hard.  I could see a fish still tracking the lure and Adam immediately started to tease it.  We are Hooked Up!  The Marlin took the absolute smallest lure in the pattern.  A small slender bullet made by Al Bento.  The fish was fought on a Ken Matsuura 50 with 130 lb Amalon mono.   With lines cleared and his Father the chair, the battle is on!  John fought the fish for about 45 minutes and then turned the fight over to Wilber.  Wilber fought the fish to the end.  Total fight time was 1 hour 40 minutes.  Both of these fishermen are 75 years old!  Until now, the largest fish for these men was a 40 pound Salmon.  Once Adam got the fish to leader, we gave Mark the honor of setting the first gaff shot.  I placed the second gaff and the three of us pulled the trophy on board.