Club takes first with 697-pound fish

The Kona Game Fishing Club-Kusatsu, on the strength of a 697-pound catch, jumped into first place of the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament on a day that featured big catches.

Billfish weighing 371, 590 and 592 pounds were boated yesterday on the third day of competition.

But the big catch of the day belonged to angler Hiroyuki Murakami, fishing aboard Last Chance, which is captained by Matt LoSasso. Murakami boated his 697-pound Pacific blue marlin in 2 hours, 56 minutes.

Kona Game Fishing Club-Kusatsu now has 1,529 points. Two Japanese teams, Hilton Grand Vacations Fishing Club and the Olympian Dream Fishing Club, are second and third with 1,008 and 998 points, respectively. New Zealand’s Bay of Islands Swordfish Club No. 1 has 989.

Fishing aboard Malolo (Bay of Islands Swordfish Club), captained by Guy Terwilliger, veteran angler Robert Aukett landed the 592-pounder in an astonishing 11 minutes.

The Malibu Marlin Club captain and angler Steve Spina boated a 590-pounder in 2 hours, 26 minutes.

Olympian Dream Fishing Club team captain Yasuhiko Kagabu caught his 371-pound marlin fishing aboard Sundowner, captained by Randy Llanes. Kagabu boated his fish in 38 minutes.

For more information on the tournament, including team listings, IGFA world-record rules and a daily video recap of tournament standings, log on to hibtfishing.com.