From left, Zack Rose, Capt. Randy Evans and crewman John French with their 385.6-pound blue marlin. Photo by Donnell Tate.

LAHAINA — The Start Me Up Das It picked up a nice marlin on an afternoon four-hour charter, with Zack Rose hauling in a 385.6-pound blue in just 35 minutes. He was fishing with Capt. Randy Evans and crewman John French.

Randy had a nice tuna up on the morning trip off the Palaoa Point Lighthouse on the south corner of Lanai, and he headed back to the same spot.

He was on the 200-fathom ledge when they had a strike on the short corner lure. The rubber band snapped off the rigger, with the marlin missing the lure.

The marlin came up behind the lure and started swimming in, shaking its head from side to side. It grabbed the lure and dropped back to the long gone position, and then started charging toward the boat. Randy throttled the boat forward.

The marlin turned and started taking line straight down the pattern. It jumped for about 200 yards before it settled down and disappeared. The fish turned and came back around, jumping up the port side of the boat another 100 yards.

The marlin turned away from the boat. John had the pattern cleared as Randy reversed the boat around after the line until he had it straight and tight on the fish. It didn’t jump any more as Randy continued chasing after it.

The marlin went down for a while. Zack ran into a bit of a stalemate for a few minutes before it came back up taking a little more line. Randy kept reversing the boat aggressively on the fish. They had it close to the boat in about 15 minutes.

With the marlin about 40 yards away, it began circling the boat counterclockwise as Randy motored the boat around after it for about ten minutes. It came up to double line swimming away from them.

As the double line braid came out of the water, Randy put the boat into forward. He maneuvered up along side the marlin, getting its head turned their way. The fish changed directions. Randy stopped the boat and let Zack fight the fish.

The double line was in and out of the water several times, as Randy idled the boat in and out of gear. When the marlin came up, Randy put the boat back in gear as the swivel came out of the water.

The double line was just out of John’s reach. As Zack cranked the double line in, John reached out and grabbed the leader off the port corner. The marlin was up on its side and tried to go under the corner.

John got the fish’s head turned and pulled it away from the edge. It tried to go the other way, but John was able to hold it right there. It was hand-over-hand on the leader. A couple of more pulls by John, and a few more wraps on the leader, and the fish popped up.

John took one more wrap, and Randy was right there with the gaff. As soon as Randy stuck the gaff, the leader went slack and the hook fell out of the marlin’s mouth. John watched the lure skipping on the surface next to the dorsal fin.

It was hooked in the top of the jaw, just a quarter-of-an-inch on the edge of the soft part of the jaw. Only the barb of the hook was in the fish. Zack was a great angler, manhandling his fish, keeping the line tight and gaining line the entire time.