From left, Bill McBride, deckman Josh Hammond and Capt. Timster with their 411.2-pound blue marlin caught on Start Me Up. PHOTO BY DONNELL TATE.

LAHAINA – The Start Me Up joined the top marlin stats with a 411.2-pound blue by Bill McBride. He was fishing with Capt. Timster and deckman Josh Hammond.

They were coming in from the K-Buoy, and were in 240 fathoms off the southwest corner of Lanai, when they raised the fish. Josh saw the marlin come in from the starboard side toward the long corner position. He yelled out, “long rigger!”

Timster looked back, and sure enough, there she was. It was all over the long corner Steve Coggin blue-back abalone jet, bill-whacking the lure but missing the hookup. The second pass, the same thing. The third time was the charm, as it grabbed the bait and took off.

The marlin ran out 300 yards and then went berserk, going ballistic all over the ocean. Josh got Bill in the chair and pushed up the drag. Once it settled down, Timster casually reversed the boat after the fish for around ten minutes, regaining about half the line back.

Suddenly, the marlin exploded out of the water heading right for the boat. It pulled a big loop of line across the surface as it got closer. “It was a bit disconcerting,” said Timster. “If it hadn’t of been hooked good, it probably would have come off.”

Timster punched the boat forward to pull out the loop, as Bill cranked on the handle to get the line tight. Once the marlin settled down, Timster continued to back the boat after it to help Bill out. In about 15 minutes, they had it to double line off the port side.

Josh grabbed the double line and started to tug the marlin up. It was quite feisty as it dug down and headed toward the port corner. It came in to about midway across the stern and then turned back out to the port side.

The marlin pulled Josh back and forth in the half-crossing maneuver at least ten times. The fish sat about 20 feet deep, digging down on the corner. Josh was finally able to pull the fish to leader a few minutes later.

Once to leader, Josh grabbed the swivel and held on. It took him a while to get a wrap. The marlin continued the back and forth game, with Josh finally getting one or two wraps on the line to pull it to within ten feet.

The marlin was right there, with Josh slowly getting wraps and pulling it closer a foot at a time. It was extremely exhausting. Once it got a couple of feet from the surface, Timster reached down with the fly-gaff and secured the fish.

“It was one of those one-bite days,” said Timster. “Tomorrow, when someone asks me, ‘How was fishing yesterday?’ I’ll say, ‘We only had one bite, but one heck of a bite, and it turned into a 400-pounder.’ You can go from a zero to a hero just like that.”