612 lb Kona Blue from a Jet Ski

[tom@marlinstar]

Stay tuned for story and pics.........Jet Ski, Blue Marlin,Tiger Shark and more! I will have the story posted around 4:30 Cali time.

[tiggere]

I don't doubt it one bit...we were out in Maui and it was pretty snotty with 5' to 6' waves...here comes a jet ski trolling what looked to be two 80's off the back...hell we were a couple miles offshore if memory serves...

[tom@marlinstar]

Hey guys, just got off of the phone with Greg George the angler. I will have the story with his full account up a little later with plenty of pics. Hold tight!!

[tough on tackle]

I have seen Several blues weighed in Kona off Jet Ski's...Two of which went just under 500lbs, There was a 400 something off Oahu too.

[tom@marlinstar]

Stay tuned for story and pics.........Jet Ski, Blue Marlin,Tiger Shark and more! I will have the story posted around 4:30 Cali time.

About two months ago I received a call from a fisherman named Greg George in Kona, Hawaii. He left me a message stating that he fishes Kona from his Jet Ski for marlin,tuna and most anything big and asked if we were willing to lend some support in his quest to "do something really special". My instinct was right about Greg....his passion and dedication to big game fishing from a Jet Ski was genuine and I felt he was going to really open some eyes and possibly a new market especially as diesel was pushing $4.00 a gallon.

I received a call from Greg yesterday as he was hooked up. The message was calm and said "hey bro, got a nice size fish on the line...he went nuts...big fish..sittin' straight down right now with about 3/4 of the lineout....fish hasn't moved in 35 minutes on full drag...anyways..it's hotter than $hit,salty,hungry..havin' a good time... talk to ya later". The funny thing about that phone call was that Greg had to get online to Marlinstar to retrieve our # while he was hooked up to a fatty on his Ski....pretty funny.

Here is Greg's personal account........enjoy.



So at 7am I headed out of Honokohau headed to F Bouy aproxiamately 10 miles SSW from the harbour. I trolled in that area for about 1 hour with no action. I pulled up my rig and headed for VV Bouy trolled that area for 15 minutes or so with no action as well, from there I continued due north towards The Grounds at 11mph 45 minutes or so later aproximately 10:00am I came upon a sportsfishing boat coming towards me, I decided I would swing around, change directions and tuck in behind the boat that just had passed. After the boat had passed and my line tightened up I got Nailed on a Marlin Majic Ahi P Teardrop with a pink skirt and a bird, a single 9/0 stainless hook on a shimano tiagra 80 with 100lb test and a 400lb leader. At that point I accellerated for 5 seconds or so then cut the engine, turned around on the seat and began to fight this fish. It tore off about 1/2 my reel, than I looked out and saw a good sized marlin greyhounding from left to right about 3-400yrds out. At that point it looked to me to be 3-400lbs. The blue settled down for a moment, so I was able to gather back about 100 yards of my line with about 3/4 drag cranked down. Than the blue turned towards me and made a run right at me about 200 yards out, then took a real hard dive, I let him go, without tightening the drag , for it was a whole lot of pressure being applied to the back end of my Honda P.W.C. jetski protruding it into the water.It turned out I was forced into cranking the drag down for it appeared it might keep running into the depths of no return , especially if she died on me down there! After I locked the blue down and stopped the run it started to tow me around , backwards of course due to my shotgun set-up on my jetski, while doing so water started to gather up in the foot wells due to the back end of the jetski digging into the water at this point all the way up to my knees. It became a struggle in itself to stay upright on the P.W.C. The blue slowed down after awhile and I hunkered down on her and in 1st gear was able to get back to 1/2 reel of line, however the angle on my rod was starting to go straight down. I struggled to gain line for the fear of the blue dying deep. The immense pressure on my P.W.C. became a very serious issue of posibly capsizing!

Things appeared to stabilize a bit so I made a few phone calls one of them being to Tim Robertson and Wes Lindsie over at Melton International Tackle, letting them know what I was dealing with as well as my location, and to get any added information that might be helpful with my fight! All of a sudden I noticed my rod tip bounce a few times then stay pinned down as my reel with almost full drag began to run, so strong that my P.W.C. began to tombstone it was all I could do to stay onboard as it seemed as I was riding a mechanical bull. Urgently I had to climb onto my handlebars and bear hug the nose of my jetski savagely trying to stay aboard.The last thing I wanted to was to be in the water with this marlin and her new found friend, a Tiger shark which are very common and are seen quite often sized up to 15 to 18 feet in this particular area!

My worst fear arrived I was thrown off balance off my jetski into the water!! while I was in mid conversation to the guys at Melton I had stated (im in!!!! im in the water!!!) to the utter shock of the guys at Melton listeneing on the other end. The thoughts racing thru my mind were absolutely traumatizing to say the least, this has escalated to a survival situation and I rapidly embrassed survival mode!!! with my P.W.C. tombstoning and appearing to submerged due to the Tiger grabbing the marlin like a dog with a bone. The thought of me swimming 4 miles out , did not appeal to me whatsoever!! I quickly I realized I needed to release the drag or I would soon be without a jetski, I reached down into the water and was able to back the drag off!!!, the reel exploded with a massive ratsnest I looked at the nest and new I was in trouble once the peeling line hit a knot! luckily I watched with amazement the line just run clear very fast past the ratsnest and amazingly stopped until there was maybe 80 yards left on my real! My jetski popped up and erected itself, I reached up still being in the water and cranked down the drag, to save the loss of the marlin and climbed back aboard! at that point I thanked god and got back on the radio and clearly stated to Tim Robertson and the Melton Crew make no mistake I definetly need help!! Tims response was were coming we will be there in 15 minutes or so hang on!!

A few minutes after that I tried to wave down a passing boat with no avail however it definetly appeared that they could see me but failed to help! 5 minutes went by and another boat appeared the horizon , I flagged them down and told them I have a big blue and a tiger shark situation, they agreed to help I passed my rod over to one of the guys, they tied me off and I came aboard put the rod in the holster and clipped it in. Kevin the Capt. offered me a water and I gathered my thoughts for a moment and reflected on what in a few hours had gotten completely out of control!!! 10 minutes went by and the Sea Genie 2 Captained by Gene Vanderhook, Boyd Decoito,Wes Lindsie,and Tim Robertson were onboard and circled the boat i was on.I then unclipped the rod and passed it over to Boyd, who manned up and with the help of Wes and Tim harnessed him up and put him in the chair where Boyd and Captain Gene Vanderhook began to plain the dead big blue up.As I was passing my gear over to the Sea Genie the boys stated it appeared that my jetski was taking on water, I too felt that was the case we decided I needed to get the jetski back to shore, so I headed back to Honokohau only at a top speed of 5mph due the major sputtering of my engine. A few minutes into the trip I was able to blow out the engine and was back up to full speed, I was able to displace all the extra water stored in my footwells by reaching a high speed . I shut the motor down, pulled the seat and inspected the inner hull and decided I was not taking on a significant amount of water. I then turned around and headed back to the Sea Genie 2 where Capt Gene and Boyd masterfully continued to raise the dead blue,we finally boated the blue at 4:00pm and was headed back to the harbour, to get an official way in at 612lbs with what appeared to possibly be a 50-80lb snack taken from it by the quite large Tiger shark.


That's one hell of an adventure and I have to admit that I am jealous as hell. First, having an extended battle is no better way to test your skill,stamina, desire and discipline as a fisherman.Secondly, there is now a new fuel or desire to top that previous catch. As maddening as it can be, it's an addiction that I am proud to have and I know Greg is already gearing up for tomorrow.To those interested in more details or interested in contacting Greg. He can be reached at gghawaii@gmail.com

[tom@marlinstar]

[tom@marlinstar]

[tom@marlinstar]

[Satans_Chariot]

My brand of Lunatic!!
I am sure tons of people are gonna say this guy is an idiot and he has no business doing this, etc etc etc. I think its badass and hope to see him land another one. Is it for everyone? No. Is it dangerous? Hell yes, but its a calculated risk. Did he take every precaution necessary? Probably not, but the ones he did take, kept him alive and still ended up with the fish at the end of the day.

[tom@marlinstar]

My brand of Lunatic!!
I am sure tons of people are gonna say this guy is an idiot and he has no business doing this, etc etc etc. I think its badass and hope to see him land another one. Is it for everyone? No. Is it dangerous? Hell yes, but its a calculated risk. Did he take every precaution necessary? Probably not, but the ones he did take, kept him alive and still ended up with the fish at the end of the day.

Amen brother, most guys wouldn't even venture out to the grounds and we know 99% would have cut the line once things got out of control. Shit, I would rather die fighting a big blue with a tiger shark on my ass than sitting in a retirement home watching re-runs of married with children spouting off nonsense.