Marlin hits aku near K-Buoy for Start Me Up Das It

From left, Capt. Randy Evans, Landon Klem, Byron Meads, Jordan Rice and Rich Lynch with their 485.1-pound marlin caught on Start Me Up Das It.
LAHAINA — The Start Me Up Das It brought another nice marlin to the scales — this one weighing 485.1 pounds by the tag-team of Byron Meads, Jordan Rice and Landon Klem. They were fishing with Capt. Randy Evans and crewman Rich Lynch.
Randy had been at the MC-Buoy baiting, picking up three mahi in the process. When the bite shut off, he headed to the K-Buoy. As he arrived at the buoy, all the boats that were there were leaving. They worked the area for awhile trying to get a bait. Right at 8 a.m., they had a double-bait bite.
Rich put both aku up in the riggers, one long and one short, as Randy made a pass on the buoy. Randy made a turn on the up-current side of the buoy. As soon as he came out of the turn, the rubber band on the long bait started to stretch and then popped.
The bait was down deep in the turn, and at first, Rich thought the wake snapped the rubber band. The bait started moving and the reel began dumping line real slow. Randy shouted, “Hook-up!” Rich let the fish take the bait for about 20-30 seconds.
As Randy throttled the boat ahead, Rich locked up the reel. The line came tight on the rod, with the fish taking steady line but not real fast. Rich got Byron into the chair and handed him the rod.
Randy reversed after the fish. It stayed down deep for about five minutes, and they thought they might have a shark hooked. The line angle started to change as the fish started to come up off the starboard side about 50 yards away. The fish was taking line a little quicker as Randy backed the boat around after it.
As the line angle increased, the reel picked up speed. About 125 yards away, a marlin started jumping. It made a few good jumps then disappeared. Randy continued to chase after the marlin. About five minutes later, it came back up again making half-body leaps, shaking its head side to side.
The marlin was taking line slowly as it headed down, with Randy steadily reversing after it. It never took more than 300 yards of the 100-test line before it stopped its run. Shortly after that, Byron began to tire, so Rich got Jordan into the chair.
Rich pushed up the drag to the button, with Jordan making some progress. With the line at a down angle, Randy followed after the marlin for about an hour as Jordan slowly gained line until he ran out of juice.
Randy had Rich grab the line to get a feel for the fish. He felt the marlin was still alive and let go. Jordan fought the fish for a few more minutes, and then they switched out anglers with Landon.
With Landon in the chair, Randy had Rich push up the drag over the button, putting 40 pounds of pressure on the fish. The marlin was acting funny, and they knew they had to get it up soon. With the marlin around 200 yards deep, Landon ran into a stalemate. Five minutes later, Randy had Rich begin to hand-line the fish upward.
Rich tried hand-lining standing up, but Landon was having a hard time keeping the rod up. Rich put his chest on the rail, and slowly, hand over hand, pulled up 600-feet of line. He could feel the marlin kick a couple of times as it started to come up relatively easy.
After about 15 minutes, the rubber band on the line came up. The marlin was real close at that point. As the fish came up, Rich kept the line tight. There was no movement from the fish as it floated up the last few feet. It came in tail first, belly up, dead.
Rich held the leader and brought the marlin up the starboard side of the boat backward, like it was tail-wrapped. Once Randy got it secured, they pulled it around to the stern and through the door.
After getting it in the boat, they couldn’t see how the marlin was hooked. There was no hook in its mouth. Finally, Rich looked back at the tail sticking out the door and saw the hook stuck right in the middle of the fork of the tail. It was hooked solid, and Rich had a hard time getting the hook out.