Family Affair
I had a phone call from one of the Kona's fine hotels, asking if we ever took inexperienced fishermen out. I explained that the majority of our charters were inexperienced fishermen (to big game fishing). We booked the family, a man, his wife and two daughters, for a day's fishing.  It was one of those days when there was bait at every buoy, so I asked the man what they wanted to do. His reply was that they were not fishermen, they came for the boat ride and if he could be able the see his wife and daughters catch some kind of little fish, he would be a very happy man. I told him "no problem". We trolled out to F buoy, but no strikes.
My crew at that time pulled in the trolling tackle and put out the bait rods. It was instant fish on! After they had caught a dozen or so yellowfin tuna and skipjack, I heard my crew, say, "if you want to catch a marlin, we should use one of those skipjacks for bait." I thought that this was really unusual for the crew to say, after all, it was only a half day charter and there was no mention of marlin.
After the bait was set, the deckhand came up on the bridge and told me that on the last pass he had seen a marlin about two hundred yards from where we were. Just like clock work, we pulled that bait up, then, sure as the devil, the marlin was there waiting. He ate the bait and the show was on! This time I don't mean the fish, I have never seem a family affair like the one I was witnessing now. We had the father in the fighting chair, one little girl helping her father crank the reel, the other little girl was rubbing his neck and shoulders. Mom was, in the mean time, bringing water for dad to drink, then pouring the remainder on him to cool him down.      The result of this family outing was a blue marlin, approximately 250 lbs. I really don't remember, as I was so taken with the closeness of this family. They mounted their blue marlin, and I am sure that they will remember the excitement of that day fishing on the Kona Coast. Capt. Bob