July 2022

Kimi Werner always felt a connection with the creatures that dwelled in the ocean. As a young child, she lived in shack in a rural part of Maui, Hawaii. Since there was little extra money for a babysitter, her father would bring her along when he went spearfishing for their dinner if her mother was busy waitressing. At first, he would tow his daughter on a boogie board in the hopes she would just sit tight as he free dove. “But I’d always jump off and swim,” Werner says, laughing. “So, we ditched the boogie board, and my job became just keeping up with him.”

How Kona, Hawaii’s, Wild Hooker, one of the youngest and most winning professional fishing teams in the world, is now giving back.

Spend any time with the Wild Hooker crew and you’re bound to hand over at least $100 on some side bet—probably on a wager like what kind of fish was hooked and called in on the radio before ever seeing it with absolutely no basis whatsoever, for example. That summarizes this crew—incredibly competitive on every level, obsessed with fish, and an appetite for betting and winning, whether it be millions at the Bisbee’s (the world’s richest marlin fishing tournament in Cabo) or $100 bucks on some side bet. It doesn’t matter to these guys, and for good reason. They win. A lot.