China Sea Wolf Club Wins 55th Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament

Not three days ago, we congratulated Mari Arakawa of Japan’s Olympian Dream Fishing Club for bringing a record-setting 622.6-pound Pacific blue marlin to the scales on the second day of the 55th Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament. At the time, Arakawa’s marlin was not only the largest fish ever taken at the HIBT tournament on 50-pound test by a woman angler (which it still is), but it also put Japan’s Olympian Dream Fishing Club atop the HIBT leaderboard. But as is often the case in great tournaments, that lead would not hold.

Yesterday afternoon, at the official 4:30 pm end of the tournament, it was China Sea Wolf Club sitting in first place. The club took the 2014 HIBT Governor’s Trophy with an impressive 1,986 points. China Sea Wolf also took the largest fish of the tournament, a 664.8 Pacific blue marlin taken by angler Ji Xinhua. Team angler Liu Ming released an estimated 250-pound Pacific blue marlin on 50-pound test on the last day of the tournament to secure the team’s win. This was the team’s first year in the tournament.

Team Friends of Kenya took second place after moving up from third place when team captain Mark Allen tagged and released an estimated 250-pound Pacific blue marlin.

Japan’s Olympian Dream Fishing Club dropped to third place overall after holding the top spot on the leaderboard on the second day of the tournament.