Kona Grander, Monkey Bizz II

[Capt Chip]

Hey Boys,

Spring has sprung in Kona a little early this year we got lucky again on the Monkey Biz II with the first grander of the year! 1062lb caught on March 13th. My third here in Kona and my second On the MBII. My charter was my good friend and long time Kona resident Scotty Mezzra with his visiting great nephew Garret who angled his first blue!
Caught 200 fathoms on the middle grounds
fight time was 20 minutes
she bit an Aloha Lures "SMASH" rigged with 11/0 Hays hooks. Short bait!
130lb tackle was used (thankyou very much)
My crew dejour Sean "cobra" Bebeau demolished this thing on the wire, his first, thanks. Garret picked up the technique quick and did an excellent job up on sunset! Congrats man!
And big thanks to Scotty Mezzra for all his help in the pit and just being the all around great guy that he is! Thanks to all of my Crew and

Aloha,

Chip

[Wound Up James]

20 mins......damn Chip.....give us the detailed report........I doubt luck had anything to do with it.....well done and well deserved

[SportFishStaff]

pics....pics......P Lease some pics. Awesome work Capt.

[gottaflylee]

Congrats to you and your crew Chip...yep, we need pictures!!!!

[Agitated88]

I found this picture doing a little googling...I'm sure there are others.




Capt. Chip Van Mols says:
March 17, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Hi Hook,

Thanks for the props man! this was my third Kona Grander, my second was 1064 on June 5th,2009 also on the Monkey Biz II and first was 1165 on the Jun Ken Po on Dec.28th, 1994, I was the crew on that one.

In the photo above, the guy on the left is friend Scotty Mezzra, long time Kona resident who used to crew on boats here back in the day and now charters me a handful of days a year when he has family visiting. Our angler was his great nephew ( sisters grand son) Garret (not pictured) who is headed to boot camp next week so family shipped him off to see uncle Scotty and catch a marlin before his hitch in Navy starts! the grey haired guy in the middle is me and the big Kanaka on the right is Capt. Sean “Cobra” Bebeau who was my decky dejour and runs our sister ship the Marlin Grando. Garret is a big strong Kid as well, picked up the technique quick and had the muscle to handle sunset on a 130 so I had great team with me. Nice when all the stars align!

We were fishing the grounds off the Airport that day and had spectated on few marlin caught by other boats in the morning. Then around 2:00 we spectated again as the Maui Jim caught an 821lb blue that came up DOA. We finally got our turn around 3:15 in 200 fathoms off the middle grounds. Yep, Aloha Lures “Smash” on the short corner, first was a big miss, wow, then here she comes, inside out great bite and I was thinking 800 plus right there. She Ran about 200 yards underwater before making half a dozen massive jumps revealing her location then really burned us for another 200 or so underwater. Her first set of jumps she was up over the ledge inside of us and I figured she would run be back out to the deep and we got back to 100 yards out pretty quick, up went the drag and about 15 minutes of tug o war and we had color and then Cobra had the 28ft 750lb leader. she was black backing, swimming fast but Cobra broke her and she tipped on her side just as her back broke the surface next to the boat. I had no question that she had a good shot at making the mark. We got her before she could recover from that first big run and fight time was 20 minutes. At the dock and up on the hoist by 4:00.

Yeehaaa!

aloha,

Chip

[CaptAnthony]

AHAHAHAHA

CONGRATS - to everybody. Great job getting it DONE!!!!

LOVE THE PICTURE

[LuckyLady]

Very nice! Thats a beauty there! Thanks for sharing!

[Capt Josh]

Way to go CHIP!!!! Man you guys are certainly in the zone lately. I'll bet Ryan was super stoked to see this catch, but I'm sure he cringed a bit and hoped he was there to see it first hand. Post up some more pics when you get some time!

[saltwaterhippie]

F*ck Yea I am stoked for the boys. Got mine already Cobra definitely deserved that one the local boy that he is. Cant wait to get back on the deck of the Monkey Biz this May and catch another one! Hopefully on July 4th! Nice going to Captain Chip and Captain Sean!!!