Starring Marlin Grando : Hawaii’s Billfish Tournament Features a 1,166-Pound Catch by Torrance Angler

It’s the tournament that has produced enough suspenseful episodes to qualify for an Emmy.

Make that an Oscar.

“Strike!”

One word kicks the adrenaline into high gear as fishing reels scream, the ocean foams and giant marlin take off, hell-bent for Davy Jones’ locker.

That was the scene last week as the 35th annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament got under way, with teams competing from throughout the world. The spectacle featured a cast of hundreds--anglers from Kansas to Kenya.

An Australian team--Sydney’s Port Hacking Game Fish Club--won the five-day contest on total points for fish caught.

Second place went to the Kamakura Bill Fish Club of Japan. The San Raphael Billfish Club of California was third.

Nearly 300 fished in the tournament, with varying degrees of luck.

The winning team’s Mark Stanley struggled for 3 hours 40 minutes with a 731-pound marlin on 50-pound-test line, and the record for a marlin caught on 50-pound line was broken during a pro-am event before the tournament.

One team hooked into a marlin so big it towed the boat.

And one contestant from Japan lost a $1,500 reel when a big blue hit so hard it jerked the rod from the angler’s grip.

One of the week’s big disappointments involved Tyrone Young of Kona Game Fishing Club No. 2. On the second day of the tournament, Young hooked a marlin estimated at 700-1,000 pounds. For the first two hours, Young struggled at the rail before slowly inching his way to the fighting chair.

For a few moments, Young appeared to be winning. But the fish was stubborn. Once, in a surge of power, the marlin towed the boat.

Radio reports of the tug-of-war were relayed to billfish headquarters in the King Kamahameha’s Kona Beach Hotel, where a crowd had gathered. Finally--well after dark and after more than four hours--the fish snapped the leader and was gone.

Among participants, billfishing offers moments of dizzying highs and hours of restless anticipation. While awaiting a hit one morning, Australian Graeme Preston, 52, provided his personal definition of the sport: “Hours and hours of boredom . . . Interrupted by moments of sheer panic and outright chaos when the marlin strikes.”

Ron Smothers of the Marina del Rey Anglers Team remembers vividly how in 1990 he fought and lost a marlin estimated at 1,100 pounds.

It was the last day of the derby when Smothers hooked up with the marlin in a struggle that lasted 23 hours. According to tournament rules, the angler is disqualified if another person assists, so Smothers was on his own the entire time. The marlin hit at 8:30 in the morning and the fight wasn’t over until 7:30 a.m. the next day. At one point, Smothers said, he had the giant marlin close to the boat.

“In the beginning I was winning,” he recalled. “But near dawn, I was running out of energy. My hands were cramped and I was losing control. One of my thumbs was completely numb. Waves were breaking over the boat and I was getting seasick.”

At last, the line snapped and the long fight was over.

Others experienced similar, although far shorter, struggles last week as marlin broke free in a series of hookups. Some anglers complained that they didn’t get a strike.

One year when boredom set in, the late actor Lee Marvin hired a band to come aboard the boat he was on, complete with hula dancers.

Other celebrities who have fished the HIBT include comedians Jonathan Winters and Arte Johnson, and actors William Conrad and Richard Boone.

With his charter boat “Goodbye Charlie,” Boone was a familiar figure from the early days of HIBT until his death. Once when Boone let his boat out for charter during the tournament, serving as skipper, a staid Britisher--failing to recognize the actor--slipped Boone a $10 tip.

Another regular, Hawaii’s Duke Kahanamoku, was disqualified once when his rod broke while boating a record marlin.

Held first as a four-day event in 1959 with barely a handful of anglers, the tournament this year drew 66 teams. The start-up was preceded by an old-fashioned parade, during which fishing teams were carried in a variety of vehicles ranging from pickup trucks to limousines to flashy convertibles to the town’s tow truck. Interspersed were homemade floats, marching bands and a color guard.

Afterward, anthems of the various nations were played, their flags were raised and the tournament was officially under way.

The HIBT is an invitation-only event that was founded by Honolulu businessman Peter Fithian, one-time manager of the old Kona Inn, to spotlight Kona as a visitor destination.

Fithian has seen the tournament evolve into the world’s most prestigious billfish derby.

“Many of us come just for the camaraderie,” said HIBT judge Bob Smith, who traveled from the Philippines.

The Cornhuskers from Lincoln, Neb., arrived wearing red and white-striped bib overalls, red straw hats and cowboy boots to match.

Bob Milton, a 66-year-old restaurateur and the group’s captain, says he comes to Hawaii to fish “because Turkey Creek back home is practically dried up in summer.”

The Cornhuskers joined the billfish competition in 1974. Two years later, they beat out ocean-wise fishermen from Tahiti to Taiwan for first place.

Without argument, the happiest angler in Hawaii last week was Ray Hawkes, 67, a retired fisherman from Torrance, who set a world record when he landed a 1,166-pound blue marlin.

Hawkes became an instant celebrity as crowds sought his autograph and network TV personalities phoned for interviews from the mainland.

“I’m just flabbergasted,” he said.

Fishing with the Balboa Angling Club of California No. 2, Hawkes was aboard the 31-foot charter boat Sea Strike when the marlin hit.

“My reel just started screaming and my heart was pounding in my ears,” Hawkes said. “The fish never jumped. Just went straight down, taking nearly 1,100 yards of 50-pound test line with it. My heart was still in my throat. I took half a dozen deep breaths and started pumping the reel.”

Hawkes got back about a third of the line when the marlin dived again. Later the fish charged the boat.

Team captain Mike Walsh, a senior scientist at Hughes Aircraft, praised Hawkes for his cool head.

“He rose out of the fighting chair and led the line around the stern,” Walsh said. “Otherwise, it clearly could have been cut by the propeller.”

As the fish slammed against the boat, Walsh gaffed it and a deck hand roped the bill while Hawkes was thrown against the railing, his 2-hour 18-minute fight over. Too big to bring aboard the boat, the huge marlin was towed to the pier.

“Little kids wanted to shake my hand. I felt like the Pied Piper,” Hawkes said.

Hawkes broke the record of 1,062 pounds set by Gil Kraemer of the Laguna Niguel Billfish Team No. 1 in Kona in 1986.

A former Navy Seabee, Hawkes was still signing autographs as the tournament ended Saturday. He shook his head and said: “The only other autograph I gave before this was for a traffic ticket.”

Australian Bill Coombs, 84, was among veteran fishermen who returned this year. In 1990, Coombs’ Gamefish Club of South Australia finished first, but only after teammate Johnno Johnston lost a thumb gaffing Coombs’ record marlin.

Johnston, back again with Coombs, came through the derby unscathed this year. But so did the marlin they sought.

The former champions failed to get a single hookup.