Nothing Could Be Grander in Kona

Placed prominently on the wall of King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel, on the Big Island of Hawaii, is a replica mount of a 1,062.5-pound Pacific blue marlin.

This weekend, members of the Laguna Niguel Billfish Club will be paying homage to the marlin, adorning it with leis in hopes it’ll bring them luck.

They’ll be in Kailua-Kona to participate in the 43rd Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, which begins Monday and runs through Friday in the prolific waters off the scenic Kona Coast.

And they’ll be trying to do something no other team has done: win “the granddaddy of fishing tournaments” for a third time.

But perhaps they should find another lucky charm. The last time the Orange County club won the tournament was in 1986, when Gil Kraemer of San Juan Capistrano landed the big blue, the only “grander” ever caught during the competition.

It was a dramatic effort, perhaps the most dramatic in the storied history of the event. The Pajaro Valley Gamefish Club of Northern California had taken a commanding lead by boating a 780-pound marlin on the first day of the four-day competition (Wednesday is an off day).

Points are tallied in several ways--for the biggest marlin each day and overall, for tagging and releasing marlin under 300 pounds, for catching other species, for using lighter line, etc.--but on the final day it was agreed that the only way Pajaro Valley could be beaten was with a 1,000-pound fish.

In other words, it would require a miraculous finish by one of the other teams.

“We had basically taken the largest lead in 20 years into the final day,” recalled Rocky Franich of Watsonville, Calif. “Embarrassingly, people were congratulating us for winning in the morning of the last day, before we even went out.”

That day, aboard the Ihu Nui far off the Kona Coast, there was a strike off the stern and nearly 90 minutes later, Kraemer had the hulking billfish at leader, after which Capt. Bill Rice and crew had their hands full with a behemoth that kept getting bigger and bigger, in their eyes.

“Fortunately, one of our members brought along some libations and by the time we got to the pier the fish grew and grew,” said Bob McIntosh, club president. “News travels fast over there on what they call the Coconut Wireless. We had radioed in that we had a big fish and by the time we had got to the pier there must have been 200 people there waiting for us.”

Kraemer’s catch stood as a line-class world record (for 50-pound monofilament) until 1993, when Balboa Angling Club member Ray Hawkes caught a 1,166-pound fish during the Pro-Am, held each week before the main event.

Said Franich: “It was talked about so widely that my sister, driving in her car that day with her husband to her 15th high school reunion in Pittsburgh, heard about it on the radio that same day.

“She knew we were leading significantly but heard that a huge marlin over 1,000 pounds had been caught in Hawaii by a team from Southern California, beating out a team from [Northern California].”

Civil Wars

Though this year’s tournament features teams from Australia, Japan, Africa, Ireland and the Philippines, along with teams from throughout the United States, it is being billed as a battle between the North and South because Pajaro Valley and Laguna Niguel are the only teams with two victories.

But there is a contest within that contest. Both teams also feature prominent lure manufacturers. On Pajaro Valley’s team is Joe Yee of Honolulu, maker of Joe Yee lures. On Laguna Niguel’s team is Brooks Morris, founder of the club and maker of Doorknob lures.

Both are large and colorful skirted lures designed to mimic the baitfish marlin like to eat--and both are proven. Yee’s lures are said to have caught more granders than any other lure, which is hardly surprising given that Hawaii produces more granders than anywhere else.

A prototype of Morris’ marlin lures was used by the Laguna Niguel team to catch the winning fish during the 1985 tournament. The lures went into production in 1986 and Kraemer used one to catch his grander--which beat out Pajaro Valley’s 780-pounder, caught by Yee on one of his lures.

“Joe makes a great lure,” said Morris, 74, a retired Air Force colonel and fighter pilot. “We’ll see what happens this year.”

That Sinking Feeling

The billfish tournament as recently as the late 1980s hosted more than 75 teams from more than a dozen nations, but participation has since dropped considerably and this year only 22 teams will vie for the prestigious Governors’ Trophy.

Among reasons: economic troubles around the world and an increase in tournaments luring participants away with big cash prizes. Also a factor was the cancellation of the 1999 tournament for “restructuring.” That’s the official line, but in-fighting among organizers is the unofficial and more likely reason for a hiatus that led some to seek other tournaments.

Now organizers are trying to lure the fishermen back, but it hasn’t been easy. Not when they’re asking $3,800 for a team of four and an additional $2,600 per team for charter boat fees. No prize money is awarded the winners, which is actually appreciated by many of the well-to-do participants as it keeps the atmosphere fun and lessens the likelihood of cheating, which is so prevalent in big-money tournaments.

Instead, entry fees are spent on awards, administrative and marketing costs, but also on lavish Hawaiian-style parties held during the week.

As the late actor Lee Marvin once commented, “You need a two-week vacation after this tournament.”

Sparkling Prospects

Last year’s tournament produced an exceptional 56 blue marlin, most of which were released. Pajaro Valley won with 1,350 points earned by catching and releasing five small blues. Every team logged at least one marlin and a 617-pounder was the biggest.

This year ought to produce just as much action. Already there have been two granders and nearly 100 “beasts,” or marlin topping 500 pounds, caught off Kona.

News and Notes

* Bass fishing: Aaron Martens of Castaic liked his chances of winning last week’s Citgo Bassmasters Classic at Lay Lake near Birmingham, Ala. And he came close, finishing second to Texas pro Jay Yelas. Yelas, 36, won with a total weight of 45 pounds 13 ounces for 15 fish. The top honor was worth $203,000. Martens, 29, weighed 15 fish at 39-9 and took home $55,000.... The television audience for the three-day tournament, on ESPN and ESPN2, was 32% larger than last year’s. The three-day average was 296,000 households, compared to 224,000 in 2001. The ESPN telecast of the final weigh-in ceremony last Saturday was seen in an average of 431,000 homes, up 46% from last year’s audience of 296,000 homes tuned to ESPN2.

* Saltwater report: The jumbo squid (the landings report them as giant squid) that have made such a big splash from Oceanside to Long Beach during the past several days appear to have moved out and things have returned to normal. Sand bass, no longer terrorized by the voracious mollusks, are again biting like mad at Huntington Flats and areas south.... The local albacore bite is back on. Newport Landing’s Amigo returned Tuesday with 125 fish caught at the Butterfly Bank east of San Clemente Island. Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach sent the Aztec on a two-day trip Tuesday night and the vessel returned with 280 albacore weighing 14-20 pounds. The Toronado skipper reported “lots of action” Thursday morning but didn’t elaborate.... The season’s first dorado--only a few fish taken from beneath kelp paddies--were caught this week by San Diego overnight boats. Yellowfin tuna might not be far behind.

* Hunting: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in its annual report on breeding ducks and spring habitat conditions across the north-central U.S. and south-central Canada, announced that breeding duck populations declined 14% from last year, to 31.2 million birds. Droughtlike conditions are the main reason. As a result, upcoming hunting seasons figure to be more restrictive.

* Skiing: Mammoth Mountain is in the middle of a summer improvement project totaling $24 million. Top priority is construction of the Village Gondola, a 15-passenger vehicle that will transport visitors from the Village at Mammoth to Canyon Lodge. The gondola can accommodate 3,000 riders per hour.... Mountain High in Wrightwood will sell season passes at a reduced rate Aug. 31 through Oct. 31. The first 5,000 sold will cost $249 and the next 5,000 will cost $299. After that they’ll cost $499, $199 for children 7-12. Details: (760) 249-5808.

Winding Up

Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Fish Talk Radio have begun a “Fish for Blood” drive in hopes of raising 1,000 pints by Sept. 6.

Anyone donating a pint will be awarded a free pass for a half-day trip aboard the Native Sun out of Long Beach Sportfishing at Berth 55. The medical center’s blood donor center can be reached at (562) 933-0808.