Kevin Hibbard

Captain Kevin Hibbard is a Kona-based marlin captain and wireman who runs the 2nd Offense out of Kona, Hawaii. He learned lure fishing from Kona's best, including Captain Marlin Parker, and has handled granders off Hawaii and Australia, including a reported 1,018-pound black marlin as the mate. He holds the shortbill spearfish world record on 16-pound tackle and is the first captain to win the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament's Henry Chee Memorial Trophy in back-to-back tournaments. A Pelagic Pro Team member, he teaches Kona lure spreads, hook rigging and reading structure for big marlin on In The Spread.

• Blue Marlin Fishing
• Marlin Lures Videos
• Saltwater Fishing Lures

Instructor's videos

When people talk about Kona blue marlin fishing, Kevin Hibbard's name comes up fast. He has done the job from both ends of the boat, running it from the bridge as a captain and standing in the door as a wireman. He has handled grander blue marlin off Hawaii and grander black marlin off Australia, on lures and on bait.

Born in St. Augustine, Florida, Hibbard moved to the Big Island in 1995 to chase blue marlin and never looked back. He earned his Coast Guard captain's license in 1998 and learned the water from some of Kona's best lure fishermen, none more influential than Captain Marlin Parker. Marlin fishing then took him to the Azores, Cape Verde, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Costa Rica. His home water is still Kona, where he runs the 43-foot 2nd Offense and where a grander can show up in the spread on any given day.

The record backs it up. Working as the mate in Australia, he handled a reported 1,018-pound grander black marlin. He holds the world record for shortbill spearfish on 16-pound tackle, has won tournaments in Kona and Maui, and was part of Team Pelagic's win at the 2021 Bisbee's Los Cabos Offshore. At the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, he won the Henry Chee Memorial Trophy, awarded to the charter captain with the most billfish, in 2019. He won it again in 2023, the first captain in the event's history to take it in back-to-back tournaments. He fishes on the Pelagic Pro Team.

What makes Hibbard a good teacher is that he can explain the reasoning behind every decision. He specializes in heavy tackle and lure fishing and is at his best in calm water, where lure choice and spread setup have to match the conditions exactly. His approach is simple: keep it simple, stay focused, and trust the process.

In his In The Spread videos, Hibbard breaks down Kona-style lure spreads for calm water, using Omni sonar to fish smarter, hook selection and rigging for big blue marlin, lure choice and swimming cycles, and how ocean structure concentrates marlin. If you want to understand blue marlin fishing the way top Kona captains practice it, start with him.

Personal website:
https://2ndoffense.com/