Billfish tournament

A group of bridge players go out to dinner after bridge on Thursday.  Today we went to Shivalik Indian restaurant overlooking the Kailua pier where the boats come in for the Billfish tournament.  We had a birdseye view of the boats and the weighing of the fish.

This tournament started on Sunday, July 24th with a parade.   The tournament consists of 34 international teams of fishermen who will fish for five days.  You win by accumulating points for catching all sorts of things.  Most fish are catch and release.  Each team pays around $5,000 to enter, plus charter fees, etc.  This is not for amateurs.  They stop fishing at 4:00pm and the boat has to be back at the pier at 5:00pm.  

We had our dinner early, so we saw the arrival of all the boats from our second floor ocean view table.  If a boat had a fish on board, it ran a blue or red flag.  Out of about 30 boats, maybe half had flags.  Each boat came up to the pier to check in.  If they had a fish to weigh, it was strung up onto this tall platform which could suspend huge fish with very long bills, such as marlin or swordfish (or, as they say, billfish).   All the boats came up to the pier and discharged their team members who then went to this huge tent set up at the end of the pier looking like a place for cocktails, fish stories and dinner.

While we watched, only three fish were strung up this tower and weighed.  One was 540lbs, and one about 450.  I didn't get a chance to see a fish up close and get a photo, however.  We had to wait too long for our bill (so to speak).


This billfish winner photo is from the tournament website.  Doesn't it make you want to fish in this tournament?  You get your photo with an Hawaiian beauty!