Craig Lindner and his crew on the 46-foot Gamefisherman Bwana capped a strong season in Kona as winners of the Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series Championship for the second year in a row. The competitive nature of Capt. Teddy Hoogs was in high gear all season, matched stride for stride on deck by Lindner and his team of Logan McCollum, Bobby Cherry and Carl Shepard.
As with any series win, consistency is key. They fished every tournament with the same teammates and weighed blue marlin over the qualifying minimum of 400 pounds in four of the eight series events. The championship is scored on cumulative points throughout the season, though, so tags can contribute significantly. Because 95 percent of all HMT series fish are tagged and released, each one counts, and the team did a lot of catching. They