Devins 2nd record (kayak) catch in less than a year

caught from his Hobie Mirage Revolution....

     This was our 13th Big Island Kayak Fishing Tournament "The Pelagic Pursuit" that we've hosted. We had 40 entrants competing for 2 Hobie Quest Angler Kayaks as well as $600 in cash and additional prizes..

In the Inshore species:

1st was Jim Thomas who landed a 40.5 lb Ulua which won him one of the Hobie Quest Angler Kayaks

2nd place was Troy Sakihara with his 27.4 lb Ulua ($200 prize)

3rd place was Patrick Torres with a 20.0 lb Barricuda($100 prize)

4th place was Greg Rideout with a 16.7 lb Ulua

5th place was Matt Reed with a 14.3 lb Aha

6th place was Jimmy Rock with a 5.3 lb Aha

7th place was Aliiloa Gilan with a 3.8 lb Aha

8th place was George Bonne with a 3.5 lb Hog Fish

9th place was Tom Britton with a 1.7 lb Kawelia

Results In the offshore Category:

1st was Devin Hallingstad who landed a 112.5 lb Sailfish which won him one of the Hobie Quest Angler Kayaks

2nd place was Robert Wong Yuen with his 69.6 lb Ahi ($200 prize)

3rd place was Lance Moe with a 52.5 lb Ahi ($100 prize)

4th place was Patrick Torres with a 15.4 lb Ahi

5th place was Paul Ishikuro with a 8.8 lb Mahi

6th place was Robert Ventura Jr with a 5.5 lb Mahi

And Winners in the Drawing for a free flight to Kauai for the

June tournament (in Kelly's Cessna 172, weather permitting)

Patrick Torres

Robert Wong Yuen

Lance Moe

(1st Alternate) Sean Jenson

(2nd Alternate) Troy Sakihara

(3rd alternate) Paul Ishikura

(4th Alternate) Victor Haanio

     With 40 entrants we're back to reasonable numbers giving us a better shot at one of our anglers locating a larger catch.

   Earlier in the week there were many fish being caught but it seemed that, over the weekend, they became much more difficult to locate with many of our anglers putting in the long hours with nothing to show for their efforts.

   Starting with some smaller weigh ins, soon the larger Ulua and Ahi started showing up. Then Devin drove in with a massive tail sticking out of his tailgate. Besides his 112 lb Sailfish he had two Ono as well, one in the 40+ lb range and the larger one around 70lb.

Was there a bigger Pelagic landed that might have knocked Devin's Sailfish from the top spot?

     One strange occurance, after 5pm, as were getting closer to the weigh in cut-off.... A phone call came in to one of our Anglers and he said friend, Mike Marchetti (also a contestant) had just made it into Keauhou Bay with a monster Marlin.

   A month earlier Mike had purchased a Hobie Tandem Island and had been on a kayak/sailing mission to land big fish. It sounded like the Marlin he landed was likely hundreds of pounds. As 5:30 came and went, the huge catch had missed the weigh-in and was not going to count for awards even if it did show up.

   But we heard Mike was on his way so I made mention that people might want to hang around a bit to see if this huge marlin was going to show up.

   And Mike did show up but not with his Blue Marlin. He was adamant that he actually landed it, estimated the weight at 380lbs, and had a really detailed story about being pulled out near F Bouy, something like 15-16 miles out, (maybe another 9 miles after hooking up) before landing the Marlin and making his way back in.

   Only one 80 year old witness happened to be at Keauhou Bay when he arrived that was able to help him load his Tandem Island on top his truck racks. He called his buddy with a flat bed truck to transport the Blue Marlin along with another 2 fish that he'd landed prior to the monster. He was saying that his buddy took his fish to the fish market. I told him that we needed to get a photo, not for the tournament but because it was likely a world record kayak catch. By that time, the fish market was closed but I told him that if that fish got put on ice, he better try and get a photo in the morning.

    So the next day he says that he finds that his buddy with the flat bed decided to keep the fish for a family luau instead of taking it to the fish market. And Mike says that he's pretty sure that (ater the Marlin left his care) someone did get a photo and it was weighed, weighing in at 388lbs.

   So it's one hell of a story. I certainly can't validate the authenticity of the story. I have known a few people over my lifetime that could fabricate that yarn with a straight face expecting it to be believed. But after you've heard the same person spin a similar, nearly impossible to believe yarn, the 2nd, 3rd or 4th time in a row... at that point you pretty well know you can discount the majority of stories that they come up with.

   But I don't know Mike that well (as yet), to have an opinion either way. I really don't see how his story, if false, could be benefitting him in any way. In fact I would see the negative impact to his reputation, if his story was found out to be false (or even believed to be false), to keep most anglers from weaving that yarn to begin with.

   I mean really.... We've all heard... I hooked up to a monster, fought it hard and it got away. Good story but (like most Bigfoot sightings) not much to worry about proving, or disproving, either way.

   But to say I landed the beast, brought it to land, got my buddy to transport it, it went on ice for a family luau.... Now you're adding witnesses where the story might be disproved or validated to some degree. Which kind of makes me lean toward... most anglers, if they were relating that story would probably be telling the truth....

   So last I heard, Mike was going to try and track down the photo that someone apparently took.

   Believe it or not as you will. Discuss the details with Mike Marchetti yourself and you can assess the probablity that his Blue Marlin was actually landed.

   As always, we welcome any comments or suggestions to improve the tournament.

     Email comments or suggestions to Kelly (P and P Kayaks)

And thanks to our Sponsors:

Hobie and Plenty Pupule.com

Catch Big, Get Towed and join us again in fall of 2012!

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