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Can one fish change the trajectory of your life?
For Capt. Nick Durham—a towering yet affable Aussie who runs the charter boat Tantrum out of Kona’s Honokohau Harbor—the answer is a resounding yes.
The fish in question was a 958-pound blue marlin caught by Durham’s wife, Alex, during her second trip to Kona in 2013. Not only did that fish set the 130-pound-class women’s world record at the time, but it also inspired the Durhams to uproot from Australia and start a new life together in Kona some six years later.
“Kona had always been a fascinating place for me, not only because of its fishing, but because of its lure-making history,” Durham says. “Even as a teenager, I had this obsession with making lures, and Kona is where the first trolling lures were formed. After years of dreaming, we finally chartered a couple of boats in 2012 to just experience it for ourselves, and the following year Alex caught that world record you see on the wall behind me, with Capt. Chip Van Mols on the Monkey Biz II. After that fish, there was no going back. Kona became my obsession.”
Prior to that trip, in between completing his university degree and a short but sweet stint in the corporate world, Durham had spent his adult life fishing as crew in Sydney, Port Stephens and the GBR in Australia, as well as in Tonga in the South Pacific. But after just one trip to Kona, he committed to at least one season crewing for any boat in the harbor that would take him. Fortunately, he ended up with one of the Kona greats, Jason Holtz aboard Pursuit. One season turned into two, then three. Ultimately, he crewed six years for Pursuit full time while freelancing on various boats in the harbor before he took the helm of Mike and Jodi Glimpse’s Tantrum in 2023. But it was during his time as a deckie aboard Island Girl a few years earlier that fate stepped in and he met charter angler Jeff Stafford.
The two hit it off instantly.
“We caught a couple of blues that first day, I think, but what I remember more is just enjoying the day with Nick,” Stafford recalls. “We liked the same music, had the same sense of humor. Everything just clicked, you know? By the end of the trip, our wives were making fun of us for our bromance.”
A Special Place
While it was Kona’s lure-making mystique that initially captured Durham’s imagination and a single big fish that started his journey, it was the aura of Kona itself that hooked him for good.
“What appeals to me about Kona is you can fish here all year-round for blue marlin,” Durham says. “And more importantly, you can come home to your family every single night. I value my family time. I want to be a good husband and dad.
“If I wanted to fish for marlin full time in Australia, I’d have to be on the road most of the year—summer in Sydney or Port Stephens, winter on the Gold Coast, spring on the Reef. Here in Kona, I can fish all year and still pick my kid up from school in the afternoon. There’s nowhere else in the world you can do that.”
Stafford got hooked on Hawaii much earlier. Owner of an electrical contracting firm in Las Vegas, he began chartering in Kona in 1986. A 400-pound blue on his first trip hooked him for life, and he’s been back countless times since.
“Yeah, Kona is special,” he agrees. “You don’t need a passport. It’s safe; you can leave your family at a resort or a short-term rental and not worry. The water’s flat 95 percent of the time. And just knowing that the fish of a lifetime is out there swimming around—it’s hard to beat.”
Kona also played a role in shaping Stafford’s family story.
“The first time I took my girlfriend, Kimmy, there in 2017, she cried as we left. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is the spot and this is the girl.’” The two married in 2019, and in 2022, when the flat just below the Durham residence came up for rent, Stafford grabbed it. Friends became neighbors. The two families merged into a cohesive unit, with the Staffords splitting time evenly between Kona and Vegas.
Since 2023, when Durham took the helm of Tantrum—named after his lure and tackle brand—Stafford has become Durham’s best client. Along with mates Lee Findley and Nick Watson, the duo has formed a formidable team, fishing together at least 30 days annually in 2024 and 2025.
Today, just five years since they met, that friendship has become the secret ingredient behind what both men call “a holy shit season” that will be hard to top.
A Season of Domination
Each year in Kona, a boat or two seem to get on a hot streak and separate themselves as the teams to beat. But no streak in recent memory compares to Tantrum’s 2025 campaign, when the team placed in seven of the eight Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series (HMTS) events, winning three. The team weighed three of the series’ four qualifying marlin, including a 715-pounder during the Kona Throw Down.
That 715-pounder also ended up winning the inaugural Marlin Global Challenge (MGC), a yearlong winner-takes-all event with a guaranteed $100,000 purse for the largest tournament-caught blue marlin weighed by a registered team. Stafford registered Tantrum for the MGC the moment it was announced in the spring of 2025—a clear sign of the team’s confidence going into the season.
That confidence was well founded.
At season’s end, Tantrum finished the HMTS with just over 5,628 points—2,228 points ahead of second-place Five Star—and cash winnings totaling just under $1 million.
In between HMTS stops, Tantrum also won top boat in The Pacific Cup, a five-day, 50-pound-tackle event based out of the Royal Kona Resort. And just two days before the Big Island Marlin Tournament in August, while Stafford took a day off to relax with family, tourist charter Chuck Landrum hired the boat for the day and hooked into a monster that tipped the scales at 1,039 pounds. It was Durham’s first grander as a captain—a career-defining moment.
“This is only my third year as captain, so I don’t have a huge amount to compare it to,” Durham said during a celebration at the Papa Kona after the HMTS finale. “I’ve been doing this since I was 16, first as a hobby and then professionally. And even as a crewman, I don’t think I’ve ever been part of such an incredible run.”
Friend or Client?
When asked what fueled their 2025 success, both Durham and Stafford play the humble card like pros: any boat on any given day, just ran into the right fish, made the most of their shots. Boilerplate stuff, really.
“A lot of people like to think there’s some secret,” Durham says. “For us, it comes down to the number of days we fish. A lot of this fleet splits time between owners and charters. We’re a busy charter operation, so we’re out there a lot. The amount of time we have on the water, especially leading up to tournament season, gives us momentum.”
They both credit their time together in 2024 for setting up 2025. That year, Tantrum caught more than 350 blue marlin during Kona’s historic run of small fish, winning two HMTS events along the way.
“The previous year was really good,” Stafford says. “We committed to fishing all the tournaments together that year, got our system dialed, and we caught some people’s attention. That momentum carried right into 2025.”
So, at this point, is Stafford a friend or a client?
Durham just laughs.
“The coolest thing about this team is it feels like you’re just going fishing with your mates,” he says. “It doesn’t feel like you’ve got a client on board. I run a strategy by Jeff in the morning, and he’s always like: ‘Don’t worry about me. You just do what feels right.’
“As a captain, that’s huge. In tournaments, there is a lot of pressure to perform, but the last thing you want to worry about is whether the client is happy, or if you need to entertain him, or whether he is ready for the bite. With Jeff, none of that ever enters my mind, which is a huge weight off my shoulders.”
Keys to Victory
When pressed for specifics, both men cite the boat itself, a G&S 41, as a competitive advantage.
Durham notes that Kona’s conditions—calm water, short runs—make smaller dayboats a valid option for serious charter operations.
“G&S makes a robust fishing machine,” he says. “Look at all the famous record fishing operations through history: The Madam and The Hooker, the Hookin’ Bull, the French Look. They’ve all opted for G&S. This hull did a lot of record fishing in its previous life as Spirit of Pilar for Enrico Capozzi. There’s a reason record chasers go for these boats: maneuverability. I like driving like a lunatic on big fish. I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.”
Durham also finds joy in constantly tinkering with his methods, adjusting drag settings, rpm for sound, lure selection, and every other aspect of preparing for a bite.
“I don’t necessarily think we got way more shots than everyone else,” he says, “but I do think we were pretty good at making them count. That’s just been a case of refinement on the back of lots of hours on the water.”
No Replacement for Teamwork
Durham is quick to credit his team for his successful run.
Findley, his first mate, is quiet but razor-sharp in the cockpit. Watson, who joins during tournaments as the gaff and tag man, also brings strong mechanical skills, adding muscle and experience when it matters most.
“I’d much rather have a great team than a team of greats,” Durham says. “As talented as these guys are, the real magic is how well they blend together as a great team.”
And, of course, none of it happens without Stafford in the chair.
“I try to be the best weak link I can be,” he laughs, in his typical self-deprecating fashion.
An extrovert with a quick smile and a disarming charm, Stafford nonetheless carries a competitive chip on his shoulder. “We have some serious fun, but we take our fun seriously,” he says, as if citing a personal ethos. He carries a strong competitive drive into everything he does, from business to coaching his son’s little league team and now to tournament fishing.
“This all really started in Cabo San Lucas,” he says. “It was only a two-hour flight from Vegas. I’d fly down Friday afternoon, fish for stripeys all day Saturday and Sunday morning, and be home for work on Monday. After that, I started doing the Central America thing and stumbled onto a really good team in Costa Rica.”
That team was the ACY 63 Stephanie Lee, captained by Tony Carrizosa. He happened to hire one of the sport’s best, Capt. John LaGrone, as a freelance mate the same year that Stafford arrived.
“Standing next to Johnny in the cockpit for 10, 12 hours a day, day after day—you can’t help but learn,” he says. “We swept the dailies in the Los Sueños Signature Triple Crown back when they were two-day tournaments. It wasn’t the same thrill as feeling 65 pounds of drag on a 130 like we fish in Hawaii, but getting 50 or 60 shots a day provides a lot of practice and perspective. You get over the missed ones quick and focus on execution. That experience made me a better fisherman.”
Stafford chose a different path than his peers.
“I’ve been tempted to buy my own boat and settle somewhere,” he says. “But I decided to spend my money chartering the best teams at the best places instead, getting a strong education along the way. Dead bait, bait-and-switch, lure-fishing for blues, live-baiting for blacks—that diversity of experience has made me a more well-rounded angler.”
Late in 2025, Stafford paid homage to LaGrone by inviting him to fish as a guest aboard Tantrum during the HMTS finale—the It’s a Wrap Tournament in September—which, right on cue, Tantrum won. LaGrone joined the crew, family and friends when tournament director, Lacey Hagler, presented their trophies on the Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club stage.
Stafford’s path to victory has been long and winding, but it also showcases that in Kona, the winner’s circle is open to anyone. Find a crew that you click with and put in your time on the water. Success just might follow.
And as for the bromance? It’s not slowing down anytime soon.
With his share of the 2025 winnings, Stafford put a down payment on a home just down the street from Durham. The renter is now a resident, and after a season packed with big fish and bigger moments, Tantrum enters 2026 as the team to beat in Kona.
How will they follow up this year’s success?
“The plan is to not let victory defeat us,” Durham says. “We’ll come back hungry as ever next year.”
