George Parker

George Parker was a founding father of Kona big game fishing. One of Hawaii's first charter captains, he built one of the earliest trolling lures from a scrap of metal towel rack in 1954, then landed a 1,002-pound blue marlin that became the all-tackle world record and named his son Marlin after it. He helped found the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament and get Honokohau Harbor built. Parker passed away in 2008 at 96. His In The Spread Big Game Legends interview preserves the story of a true pioneer.

Instructor's videos

Every legend has a starting point. For big game fishing in Kona, that starting point was George Parker. He was one of the very first charter captains in Hawaii, one of the inventors of the modern trolling lure, and the man whose world record blue marlin put Kona on the map. The entire Kona sportfishing industry, and generations of captains who became legends themselves, followed in his wake. In The Spread is honored to preserve his story as part of the Big Game Legends series.

Born in San Diego in 1911, Parker was a phenomenal swimmer who left Stanford during the Great Depression, worked as a lifeguard, and followed a friend to Hawaii in 1935. He spent a decade saving for his first boat, the Mona H, and in 1945 opened one of the first charter operations in the islands out of Kewalo Basin. The fishing he found on a trip to Kona pulled him there for good by the late 1940s. When business was slow, Parker fished alone, then hoisted his marlin from a coconut tree in front of the Kona Inn bar to draw a crowd. It worked, and an industry was born.

Then came 1954, one of the most important years in the history of the sport. Parker fashioned his first trolling lure from a scrap of metal towel rack left over from a hotel remodel, beveling it to splash and weighting it with lead. It was one of the first trolling lures ever made. That same November, running solo from Kona to Oahu, he hooked a giant in the rough Kaiwi channel, fought it three and a half hours by himself, and landed a 1,002-pound blue marlin. Most people believed only black marlin swam in Hawaii, so Parker took his case to the IGFA, proved the fish was a blue, and became the all-tackle world record holder. When his son was born three months later, he named him Marlin.

Parker's contributions never stopped. With a young Marlin, he invented the hookless rope lure, a fish-friendly idea that improved hookup rates by tangling a marlin's bill instead of hooking it. He helped found the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament in 1959, still the longest running tournament in Kona. He lobbied for years and chose the site to get Honokohau Harbor built. He even earned a Coast Guard medal for single-handedly rescuing two people from a sailboat breaking up on the rocks in a violent storm.

He never stopped fishing. At 86, he hooked, fought, and gaffed an 836-pound marlin himself. George Parker passed away in 2008 at the age of 96, having lived one of the fullest lives the sport has ever seen.

In his In The Spread Big Game Legends interview, Parker shares the stories and hard-won wisdom of the man who helped invent Kona sportfishing. There is no deeper well of history in this sport to learn from.