From left, Thai Nguyen, Capt. Jukka Hyytia and deckman Rob Cosgrove with their 553.3-pound blue marlin caught on the Action. PHOTO BY DONNELL TATE.

LAHAINA – The Action placed another marlin into the top blue stats for the year, with this one weighing 553.3 pounds by Thai Nguyen. He was fishing with Capt. Jukka Hyytia and deckman Rob Cosgrove.

They were coming back from fishing the NASA-Buoy off the backside of Lanai and were running toward the Palaoa Point Lighthouse. As they crossed the 300-fathom marks off the light, Rob saw a fish come up behind the long rigger lure checking things out. He shouted out, “Long rigger!”

Jukka turned around as Rob moved to the rod, looking back to see the marlin eat the lure. It came up to the surface and started thrashing around as it ran out of the pattern about 75 yards, then turned to the port side.

The marlin started tail-walking across the surface in a wall of whitewater for 30-40 yards and then went down. It resurfaced, tail-walking back in the other direction, kicking up a lot of water and putting on a good show.

Once it settled down, it turned and ran straight back at a pretty good speed, greyhounding into the distance. It took them at least 200 yards into the Dacron backing, about 600 yards away, before it slowed down. Jukka throttled the boat ahead a couple of times to make sure no slack was in the line.

Rob got help clearing the lines, as Jukka put the boat into full reverse for 3-4 minutes before they were able to slow the line loss. Thai started cranking and was gaining some line. Rob got Thai hooked into the harness with Jukka slowing the attack as they continued to gain line.

The marlin stayed on the surface until they had all the Dacron backing on the spool, and then it started to slowly go down about 250-300 yards away.

Rob pushed up the drag lever to the button for a while, then over the top a couple of clicks.

Rob put the reel into low gear and got Thai to start “Portuguese pulling” on the line as he worked his fish. As it got closer, Rob put the reel back into high gear as Thai pumped the rod and pulled line. About 15 minutes into the fight, Jukka started to plane the marlin up.

The fish allowed Jukka to plane it upward as he motored the boat forward on it, and then he got pretty aggressive as he quickly backed up on it. He worked this maneuver 6-8 times over the next 15-20 minutes. The marlin kept coming in slow.

As they finally got the rubber band back on the spool, Jukka continued to plane the marlin, getting 5-6 yards at a time. A couple of times, Thai was able to get some good line on the spool. Once they got the marlin turned, it was straight up and down under the boat. It started slowly coming up, with Thai inching it upward.

Rob put the reel back into low gear. Eventually, he saw double line coming to the surface. When he finally saw the fish at deep color, he knew it was a nice one. Rob grabbed the double but couldn’t budge the fish. He kept pulling but couldn’t get any wraps.

The marlin walked Rob back and forth across the stern a couple of times. He was finally able to get some wraps and pulled the fish to leader. He took a few more wraps and pulls as the fish walked him back and forth several more times.

Rob pulled hard, heave ho, with it coming up on the starboard side. The marlin was tired and showing little movement as Jukka got it secured.

For catching a marlin over 500 pounds, Start Me Up Sportfishing gave Thai his trip for free. They also donated $300 to the Upcountry Baseball Club as part of their charity donation program for a marlin caught over 500 pounds on one of their boats.