HIBT Leader Board 2011
Fish SponsorDistance

"West Marie"

8

West Marine 2188 nm
7 Laguna Niguel Billfish Club #1&2 1752 nm
5 Kona Game Fishing Club - Taiyo 1053 nm
4 Louisiana Hot Sauce Club 1028 nm

"Merlin"

 10 

Patricia Steele and Sherry Vann 522 nm
2 Bay of Islands Swordfish Club #1&2, and Stephen Chow 515 nm
Great Marlin Race Blog
  • IGFA Great Marlin Race Gets Off to a Roaring Start
    Today marks the opening day of the 55th Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. It is also the sixth year for the Great...
  • A Busy New Year
    The past several months have witnessed some amazing outcomes for the Great Marlin Race (GMR) program, and 2012 is getting off to a fantastic start...
  • Back Home - and the Race Nears Full-Swing
    The 2011 HIBT was a fantastic success, and the 2011 HIBT Great Marlin Race has also gotten off to a great start!  When fishing started...

Eight Tags Out

Just to quickly recap: as of the end of fishing on the last day of the tournament, five of the ten sponsored tags had been deployed on marlin.  As we have done in years past, arrangements were made with anglers and boat captains to continue putting out the tags in the days following the tournament.  So far, three of the five remainging tags have been deployed!

The top flag indicates a marlin, and the bottom flag that it has been tagged and released.

On Monday, August 1, the Fish 6 tag, sponsored by the Balboa Angling Club, was placed on a marlin caught by HIBT judge Bob O'Dea, fishing on board Sea Baby III.

On Tuesday the Fish 7 tag, sponsored by the Laguna Niguel Angling Clubs #1 & 2 went out on a 300-pound marlin caught on 16 lb. test by Bob Kurz, fishing on board the Ihu Nui.

And on Wednesday, the Fish 8 tag, sponsored by West Marine, was placed on a 175-pound marlin caught on Marlin Parker's Marlin Magic II.

I'm still waiting for more details to come in on each of these fish, the locations where they were caught, the anglers who caught them and the folks who tagged them - but a big thanks goes out to everyone for their willingness to help!