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Start Me Up Das It finds marlin off Olowalu

By Staff | Jul 23, 2009

From left, crewman Rich Lynch, Capt. Randy Evans and Mike Miner with their 418.7-pound blue marlin caught on Start Me Up Das It.

LAHAINA — The Start Me Up Das It put another marlin on the leader board with a 418.7-pound blue by Mike Miner. He was fishing with Capt. Randy Evans and crewman Rich Lynch.

Randy headed south, out of the harbor, on his morning trip. He went below to check out some lures to run, with Rich on the helm. Just as they reached the 100-fathom ledge off Olowalu, they had a strike on the short rigger position. Rich shouted out, “Number two, number two, fish on!”

Mike was number two, so he got into the chair. Randy heard a rod starting to sing and returned to the helm. Rich hit the deck, handed Mike the rod and started clearing lines.

The fish took the Lee Aoki Jr. Flashlight lure on a 300-yard run. At first, they thought they might have a big ahi hooked, since it never jumped and headed down. Once Rich got everything cleared, Randy reversed the boat straight after the fish, still thinking they had a tuna.

They gained a lot of line back quick, getting it to the rigger rubber band position in about 15 minutes. That’s when a marlin exploded in a wall of whitewater right behind the boat, charging straight for them.

Randy had the boat full throttle ahead and turned to the port side to get away from the fish. The marlin got there in a hurry, jumping more than a dozen times along and past the starboard side, no more than 50 feet away. They got a good look at the fish and called it 400.

Randy spun the boat around, went into reverse and followed after the marlin. It disappeared and ran another 200 yards before slowing down. They had a good angle on the fish, so they got on it.

They had the marlin close to the boat in about 30 minutes. That’s when it settled into its zone. They had it within 50 feet of the boat for 35-40-minutes, with it swimming side-to-side right behind the boat.

Randy had the boat idling ahead, with Mike getting it to double line a couple of times, with it digging back down to its spot. Mike ran into a give-and-take stalemate for about 20 minutes, with the double line in and out of the water over a dozen times, but he just couldn’t get it up to leader.

The marlin continued taking line as it swam from side to side. Rich didn’t want to push the drag up too much on the 100-test line, but eased the lever up slightly. This slowed the line loss each time the marlin changed directions. Randy maneuvered the boat back and forth down wind, in and out of gear, with the fish.

On one of the marlin’s side-to-side moves, Randy spun the boat around in front of the fish as it swam to one side. This was just enough of a change in action that Mike was finally able to get the swivel up off the port corner.

Rich got hold of the swivel and grabbed the leader. He took a couple of good pulls on the line, then double wraps, as he hauled the marlin up. Randy came off the helm and got a fly-gaff into the fish to secure their catch.