From left, Mitch Shepley, Bill Forsyth and Capt. Rod Quam with their 428.3-pound blue marlin. PHOTO BY DONNELL TATE.

LAHAINA – The Island Time recently brought in a 428.3-pound blue marlin by Mitch Shepley. He was fishing with Capt. Rod Quam and Bill Forsyth. They started off at the NASA-Buoy off the backside of Lanai, picking up a couple of mahi.

Rod headed south down the 500-fathom ledge in the direction of the MC-Buoy, turning in toward the K-Buoy. About two miles from the buoy, they got a strike on the long gone position.

The marlin ripped out 400 yards of 100-test line before they saw it. It started dancing across the surface for another 100 yards, away from the boat, putting on a great show. Once it settled down, it disappeared.

Rod started reversing the boat after the fish, chasing it down for 25-30 minutes as Mitch gained back line. The marlin surfaced off their starboard side a hundred yards away, putting a big loop in the line.

Rod followed the loop back around for about five minutes, as the fish veered away from them, and they got it behind the boat.

The marlin started jumping again about 150 yards away. It made another dive around 50 yards and then came back up jumping five minutes later.

It stayed near the surface after that. As Rod reversed the boat after the fish, it kept pulling off short spurts of line.

Rod was working the marlin from the lower helm station, getting right up on it in about 15 minutes. Once Mitch got his fish to leader, Rod left the helm, grabbed the leader and pulled it up without any problems.

Bill grabbed the fly-gaff and got their catch secured, ending the hour fight.

Did you know?

The word “angler” is derived from the ancient Aryan root “ank,” which means a bend or hook.

Humans began fishing in the Paleolithic period, which began over 40,000 years ago.

Fishing scenes were prominently illustrated in ancient Egyptian culture.

Some of the earliest recorded fish hooks come from Palestine around 7000 B.C.

Forbes has ranked the fishhook the 19th most important tool of all time.