Action finds marlin near K-Buoy
LAHAINA — The Action made it into the top marlin stats for the year with a 432.0-pound blue by Rashed Hasan. He was fishing with Captains Patrick Dorn and Brandon McKinley.
Patrick was coming in from the MC-Buoy located 12 miles southwest off Lanai. About two miles west of the K-Buoy, Patrick saw a big hole in the water behind the boat. At first, he thought it was just a swell cresting in the wind. He looked back across the pattern but didn’t see anything else.
He and Brandon continued to check the pattern, and they both spotted the marlin coming up right behind the short corner lure. It stalked the lure for a few seconds, and then its dorsal fin came up. With just a couple flicks of its tail, it came charging right in and swallowed the lure in a big explosion of whitewater.
Brandon jumped down off the bridge and went to the rod. No line was coming off the reel for a few seconds, because the marlin had pushed the line forward on the strike. At first, Brandon thought it had missed the lure.
The marlin turned and took off, steadily pulling 400 yards of 100-test line before it slowed. Brandon started clearing lines as Rashed got up to the fighting post. Once things were cleared, Patrick began the chase. After about 15 minutes into the fight, the marlin started lunging at the boat.
Patrick had the boat full throttle ahead, with the marlin gaining some quick ground. With all the slack in the line, they thought they might have lost the fish. With Rashed cranking as quick as he could, Patrick kept the boat ahead until the line finally came tight on the rod.
They fought the marlin for another 25 minutes, getting it close to the boat. Patrick told Brandon that he might have his hands full at leader, since the fish wasn’t tired yet. The marlin got stubborn on them. It dug in at deep color, just past double line, and stayed there for about 20 minutes swimming strong.
The marlin started circling the boat, slowly pulling off 10-20 yards of line. Patrick kept trying to get its head turned, spinning the boat after the fish in big circles. They finally got the marlin’s head turned at one point, with Patrick backing the boat up on it hard.
As the marlin came up, Brandon started to hand-over-hand pull the marlin to leader. It was just out of reach, and before he could grab leader, the fish took off on a 20- to 30-yard run and he had to let go.
The marlin started swimming with the boat. It was getting tired, with it slowly pulling 15-20 yards of line on each of several runs. All of a sudden, the marlin took off on a 50-plus-yard run, like something was chasing it. It was a different kind of run, mentioned Brandon.
There were pilot whales in the area, and they were worried that a shark or pilot whale had gotten the marlin. Brandon touched the main line and felt the fish shaking its head below. He pushed up the drag as Rashed found his second wind.
Rashed got his fish back up to the boat in about ten minutes. They got a second look at the marlin and saw that it was still in one piece. Brandon was finally able to grab the leader on the port corner.
The marlin turned and went back across to the starboard side, then back to port. Patrick came off the helm as the fish made another turn to starboard. As it crossed the stern, Brandon laid the marlin right out for him to secure.