Start Me Up Again lands 437.6-pound blue marlin

From left, Burt Yano, deckman Christopher Douglas and Capt. Steve Cravens with their 437.6-pound marlin caught on Start Me Up Again.
LAHAINA – The Start Me Up Again weighed their fourth marlin over 400 pounds for the year – this one weighing 437.6 pounds by Burt Yano. He was fishing with Capt. Steve Cravens and deckman Christopher Douglas.
They were on an afternoon four-hour trip booked at the last minute. Steve headed the boat south down the coast toward Kaho’olawe. As he got to the last cane field off Ukumehame, he turned straight out. They were inside the ledge in 70 fathoms of water when they raised a marlin on the long rigger position. It hit the lure, knocking it out of the clip, but didn’t hook up.
Steve started to make a slow turn to come back around to the area were they had the knockdown. The marlin darted in behind the short corner position, popped up a couple of times and swirled on the lure, checking it out.
Christopher free-spooled the lure several times, trying to tease the fish to strike. The next time it came up, its mouth was wide open. Christopher dropped the lure backward, with the marlin swallowing it.
The marlin made a big run straight through the pattern, smoking the 130-test line for 500 yards, and then jumped back and forth all over the place. They were losing line fast. Once Christopher got a couple of lures out of the way on the port side, Steve was able to back the boat around the long side of the pattern.
For the next 20 minutes, Steve chased after the marlin. Burt was able to keep up the cranking, taking a few breathers along the way, until they had the fish to within a couple hundred yards.
As Steve slowed the boat, the marlin went down briefly. It came back to the surface, “windshield wiping” its bill from side to side, trying to shake itself free. The fish went back down. Christopher put the reel into one-to-one ratio as Steve slowly idled the boat back. Burt kept gaining line, getting the fish to about 100 yards down off the stern in about 15 minutes
The next 15 minutes, Burt was able to get into a nice rhythm. He lifted and dropped and cranked for the remainder of the 100 yards left, hauling his fish up to double line. Burt wrestled the marlin to leader. With the swivel at rod tip, it was down and dirty, swimming from side to side across the transom.
The last ten minutes, the marlin was putting up a bit of a tug of war. It walked Christopher back and forth from corner to corner 6-8 times. Each time it made its turn, Christopher got another wrap on the leader and pulled it closer. He was finally able to get it up to gaff range on the port corner and hauled it around to the side. Steve was waiting to secure their catch and end the fight.