BUZZBAIT [ TOURNAMENTS ]


Big Island, Big Fish T


he AquaHunters.com Makahiki is the premier Hawaiian kayak fishing tourna-


ment. Contested in unforgiving waters over a grueling eight-month span, the competition honors the old ways. Anglers test themselves against powerful blue water game fish such as ono, ulua and shibi. Motors and motherships are kapu—forbidden. For the past three years, there has only


been one Makahiki champion, the Big Is- land’s own Andy “FBI” Cho. In 2010, Cho faced a thumping competi-


tor in Oahu’s Chris “Hammah” Paglinawan. With barely five weeks left, the Hammah was running away with first place. He had nearly twice as many points as his nearest contender, Isaac “Rocket” Brumaghim. Cho was a distant third. He had only one option if he wanted to retain his crown—he had to go BIG. On August 30, 2010, Cho did just that, set-


ting the bar in the kayak fishing world. He paddled out solo, then hooked, fought and landed a 225.5-pound blue marlin. It became the new unofficial paddle-out world record and set the stage for an incredible comeback win in the 2010 Makahiki. Cho sat down with Kayak Angler to relive his history-making, two-hour battle somewhere off Kona. I got out about 7:30 a.m. on my Prowler


Big Game and saw some opelu. I caught one and put it out as live bait. Then I saw a couple big splashes, which I thought might be big ahi. I started cranking in my opelu and five seconds later felt a big hit. It started taking off and I thought, “Ho, what is this?” I set the hook and immediately the mar- lin started tail walking. It came right for


B Y T H E N UM BE R S


KAYAK SAFETY BY RIC BURNLEY


TWO HOURS AND ONE 225-POUND MARLIN LATER, ANDY CHO MAKES HISTORY BY HO’ALA GREEVY


The Makahiki winner


by a pointed nose. PHOTO: COURTESY ANDY CHO


me, so I put the pole in my lap and paddled to the side a bit. It whipped by on the sur- face less than 10 feet away. I grabbed the pole and quickly picked up slack. It took off again, jumping around, towing me. It dragged me two miles out. I was by myself so I called my brother


Steve and asked, “What are you doing? I got a marlin; wanna come cruise out and help me?” So Steve came down to make sure I didn’t get into trouble. When he got out, the marlin was still towing me around. The battle was straight up and down. I’d stop it, gain line, then it would stop me and head back down. I was using 80-pound leader, so I didn’t


want to pull too hard. I had a 7-foot Penn Mariner Standup with a Penn International 16VSX running 80-pound PowerPro as my main line. At one point, 900 feet were out.


» Distance in miles a Scotty Safety Light is


visible at night: 2


» Typical range in miles of a handheld VHF


items for kayakers: 3 (PFD, whistle, white light)


over water: 0.5 radio at max power: 5


» Number of U.S. Coast Guard required safety


» Range in miles of Storm Safety Whistle


» Time delay in minutes between activation


of EPIRB or PLB 16…KAYAK ANGLER SPRING 2011


When I got it up to leader, I said, “Ho, this thing’s kinda big.” I gaffed it when I got it close. Then I used


my brother’s kage to stab its head, which worked pretty well. For good measure, I used a second gaff. I did it by myself. Te fish was too wide. I couldn’t paddle.


So I tied a rope to the side of its bill and wedged it between our two kayaks. We took our paddles apart and each paddled to one side, like a canoe. When we got it in, I took it to Honokohau Harbor for an official weight. Later, we cut it up and smoked it, then shared it with family and friends. I was even more stoked that I got to


shave my beard. I made a deal with my bro that I wasn’t going to shave till I caught a fish over 100 pounds on my ‘yak. Gotta get lucky sometimes!


with GPS and signal received by rescue services: 15


» Minutes to succumb to hypothermia in


air: 3.34 50-degree water: 60


» Rate of body heat loss in water compared to


» Minutes kayak angler Jim Sammons was


held underwater on the Ottawa River: 1


» Top wind speed in mph of the freak storm that


killed kayak angler Serge Lapointe: 56


» Number of days Coast Guard searched for


missing kayak anglers Sean Daniel Fleming (2010) and Russel Yoshinda (2009): 3


» According to U.S. Coast Guard reports, number


of kayak anglers lost from 2006 to 2009: 10


» Record number of days survived in an adrift life


raft, Poon Lim: 133


» Estimated length in feet and weight in


pounds of great white that hit Adam Coca’s kayak: 18; 4,000


PHOTO: U.S. COAST GUARD, BY PETTY OFFICER 3RD CLASS CORY J. MENDENHALL


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