The 51st Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament
July 25-29, 2011
The Grandfather of all
Big Game
Fishing Tournaments
Five Days of Fishing in Kona, Hawaii!
| 2010 Final Fishing Day Update! Out of the Blue angler Ted Morikawa and Miss Billfish Sonja Ascino KONA GAME FISHING CLUB-KUSATSU WINS 51ST HAWAIIAN INTERNATIONAL BILLFISH TOURNAMENT BOYD DECOITO TOP SKIPPER KONA, HAWAII—“Stop fishing, stop fishing, stop fishing,” rang out at exactly 4:30pm for the final time this week and with those words the 51st running of the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament came to a close. The final day of this five-day tournament kept ra control on the edge of its radio as captains, crews and highly competitive teams trolled for valuable tournament points. “Mahalo to the entire Big Island community for extending such warmth and aloha to the international fishing community this week,” said HIBT founder Peter Fithian. “Twenty eight teams out of thirty one scored points and we are happy about that. It was certainly another great tournament.” This year’s HIBT Governor’s Trophy and first place goes to Kona Game Fishing Club-Kusatsu. Fishing aboard Kila Kila today, captained by long-time Kona skipper Teddy Hoogs, KGFC earned another 300 points. This team has fished consistently all week putting points on the scoreboard every day. By 8:30 am this morning angler Hiroyuki Murakami had tagged an estimated 200-pound Pacific blue marlin. Kona Game Fishing Club-Kusatsu finished this year’s tournament with 2,129 points! But the story of the tournament goes to HIBT team #8 Out Of The Blue from Waianae, Oahu. Fishing today aboard the Miss Mojo, captained by Tio Kearney, angler Ted Morikawa boated a whopping 779-pound Pacific blue marlin, earning his team second place in this year’s HIBT. “I’ve been fishing in the HIBT for three years and I guess you could say three’s a charm,” said Morikawa. “Captain Kearney encouraged us to fish on live bait. We set up the bait, trolled for a bit and bingo!” As the largest fish of the day and the tournament, Out Of The Blue finished with 1479 points on the scoreboard. Top Captain Boyd DeCoito, captain of the 46’ Foxy Lady, won the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament’s coveted Henry Chee Award. The perpetual Henry Chee Award was established in 1965 to honor the charter boat captain upon whose vessel the most number of billfish points have been scored at HIBT. The award’s namesake, a pioneer marlin fisherman who set an unprecedented number of gamefish catch records, helped establish the Kona coast as a world-famous fishing destination. DeCoito has won two Henry Chee awards as captain and one as crew. “I have been fishing HIBT since I was about twelve years old,” said DeCoito. “So you could say I grew up with this tournament. This week I knew I wanted to fish south in an area called Uniform. It performed for us all week long. We had great teams fishing with us who relied on our experience and knowledge.” Fishing as crew for DeCoito were Sam Choy, Jr. and Russ Nita.
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Future HIBT Dates: 2011 - July 24 - July 30, with fishing days from July 25-29 2012 - August 12 - August 18, with fishing days from August 13-17 --------------------------------------------------------- | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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