During its next tournament July 1, Hilo Trollers will be running a fish drive for those displaced by the Kilauea eruption.
The Trollers will accept donated fish to be processed by the Hawaii Community College culinary arts students, and donated and processed fish will be given to the Pu’u Honua o Puna facility.
According to a release, Hilo Trollers will accept fish from any nontournament boats that are fishing that day as well smaller fish such as aku and ahi, but they need to be whole fish.
For information on the fish drive contact Gil Kuali’i at 747-5064.
The Trollers are halfway through the season and four boats already have three of the four flag fish.
The Fisherman of the Year Award goes to the boat with the highest combined weight of the largest of each of their flag fish.
The Claire II has a slight lead over the Holokai followed by the Kawaipilialoha and the Noe’ula.
During the June 3 tournament, 17 boats entered and 14 caught flag fish.
As a conservation measure, Trollers only weighs two fish per boat per tournament in each flag fish category – one marlin, 17 ahi, seven ono and one mahimahi were officially weighed in.
• The largest marlin was a 124.8-pounder landed on the Claire II by captain Matt Castro and Paul Cabrera. The Claire II also landed two ahi and two ono for a total of 389.7 pounds and the grand champion award.
• The largest ahi was a 207.9-pound fish caught on the Holokai by captain Ricky Torres and Ricky Torres Jr.
• The largest ono was a 41.6-pounder caught on the Honey Girl by captain Gil Kuali’i and Leia DeMello.
• The largest mahimahi, weighing in at 19.7, was caught on the Holokai.
• The second largest fish overall was a 148.1-pound ahi landed on the Karen I by captain Les Inouye and Scotty Paiva.
• The gift certificate donated by S. Tokunaga Store went to the Carla H for the first fish landed in the tournament, an ono weighing 33.4.
• The gift certificate donated by J. Hara Store for the largest aku (9.6) went to the Kai Makani.
For more information on Hilo Trollers, contact President C.J. Lewis 430-7043 or weighmaster Craig Severance (935-1734, 640-1670. severancecc@gmail.com).