Hawaiian Invitational Billfish Tournament

 
Earlier in 1971 there was another "change of pace." For several years the LA Billfish Club had sent a team to Hawaii to fish in the Hawaiian Invitational Billfish Tournament (HIBT). In fact, had actually won the tournament a few years earlier when Sanbo had a large (580?) fish on 80. Every year they had been sending a team and this summer (1971) they talked me into going along. Frank Hedge and Dennis Gagnon were the other members of the team along with me and Sanbo. For 5 days we trolled and had four bites. Frank caught a nice tuna and both Dennis and Sanbo had marlin bites that didn't stick. I was the lucky one - I managed to hook a fish on 50 pound line and we boated a 295 pound Blue Marlin. This added the "Blue" to my quest for the LA Billfish Grand Slam award.                                           

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