GT Masters Cup

The question came up: How does a shoreline fishing tournament help educate the fishermen? The GT Masters tournament was a way to directly educate the fishermen who entered, so we set a goal to raise the bar on this fishing tournament by incorporating education with the tournament. With the help of Izuo Brothers Ltd. and Atlapac fishing club we really feel the goal was accomplished. We would like to turn fishing tournaments into being viewed as a “Sport,” rather than just a weekend leisure activity, in which we could increase awareness with the fishermen. Our motivation in a water sport that has accomplished this goal is surfing, and we used surfing and golfing as our outline on how we promoted and ran the tournament. All entries of the fishing tournament received quick informative information on fishing in their participant packets. This approach put education and information that they might not have known prior to the tournament right in their lap. In addition, the GT Masters tournament did not have a papio category but instead included an “Omilu” category, which was decided after speaking with Kurt Kawamoto from NOAA fisheries services. He informed us that the “Omilu” reproduces at a younger age and smaller fork length size. So by limiting it to the “Omilu” it would encourage the entrants to release the other types of papios to fight another day, and the fish would have another chance to grow bigger so they can continue to reproduce. This in turn would benefit our kid’s future recreational fishing. This category in the tournament gave us the opportunity to share what we learned about the growth cycle of the papios every time someone asked why there was NO “Papio” category.

We hope one day all the fishing clubs can come together to make the “Fishermen’s Voice” be heard, so that when issues on fishing rules and regulations come up we as fishermen have a unified say. By doing so, the fishermen would have a voice that is organized, professional, and respected by the people and politicians who are making the rules that directly affect the fishing we love to do.

GT MASTERS CUP LARGEST ULUA
Francis Ganitano 67.9 lbs
Des Matsuno 55.7
Greg Fritz 23.2
Del Saldajeno 20.3
Stanley Bennett Jr. 17.6

LARGEST OIO
Miles Madijanon 7.8 lbs
James Inouye 7.5
Harvey Shima 7.4