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.
