Frenchman hooks
biggest fish in port

Luc Vandewalle brings in
a 323-pounder; Nevada and Moana Kai
share HIBT lead

By Bill Kwon
Star-Bulletin

KAILUA-KONA -- Call it the French Connection.

For the second day in a row in the Hawaiian International Billfsh Tournament, a Frenchman hooked two marlin.

On Monday, Jean Paul Richard personally got a pair for his French Look Fishing Team for a three-way share of the lead with 600 points after tagging and releasing his billfish.

Yesterday, Luc Vandewalle of the Luc Fishing Team from France did Richard one better. One of his two marlin was the sole catch of the day -- a 323-pounder that was the only billfish of the 17 that were caught and not released yesterday. Another was disqualified for being under the 200-pound requirement.

As the biggest -- and, really the only fish of the day -- it also earned the Luc Fishing Team a 100-point bonus. That enabled the French team to be in third place with a two-day total of 831 points.

A big gamefish hunter for 15 years, Vandewalle does all the fishing on his four-man team. His biggest catch ever was a 2,700-pound great white shark off the coast of Africa, following a nine-hour battle.

"I am finally here," he said through his interpreter, Maurice Ducek, a local real estate executive. "I'm finally here and it is everything I expected," he said about the HIBT.

Sharing the lead going into today's third day of 39th annual tournament are the Nevada Billfish Club and the Moana Kai Fishing Club, one of two local teams among the top 10.

Both the Nevadans and Moana Kai with different anglers got two "taggers" yesterday to go with their one T&R billfish on Monday for a total of 900 points. For Nevada, it was a father-son act as Johnny Ribeiro hooked one yesterday after his father, John Ribeiro Sr., got one the day before.

The Mauna Kea Sportsfishing Club of Japan and the Palau Meluis Hookers, which both had a pair of "taggers" Monday, were shut out yesterday. They were joined by four other teams that added another T&R marlin yesterday to move up to 600 points.

One of the four was the defending champion Gamefishing Club of South Australia.

After two days, the marlin count is now 33, with 28 of them being tagged and released, while three didn't meet the weight standard.

The tournament ends Friday.