From left, Dad John and John Ivan, Deckman Jeff Tesiny and Capt. Ryno Fiedorowicz with their 493.8-pound marlin. PHOTO BY DONNELL TATE

LAHAINA – The Reel Hooker joined the top blue marlin stats with a 493.8-pound fish by 18-year-old John Ivan. He was fishing with his dad, John, Capt. Ryno Fiedorowicz and Deckman Jeff Tesiny.

Ryno was in the middle of the “Factory” between Kamaiki Point, Lanai, and the LA-Buoy marks in 140 fathoms outside the Olowalu Ledge. John saw the bite and shouted out. Ryno looked back immediately but didn’t see anything.

The fish never jumped on the strike. It ran out 30-40 yards of 100-test line and then dropped the lure. At that time, Ryno stopped the boat and could see that the fish had come off.

John started to wind in the lure. He cranked it in to about 15 yards behind the boat. Ryno saw the marlin actually come up underneath the lure, all lit up bright blue like it was Christmas. It was hanging with them under the lure.

Ryno had the boat dead in the water as the lure started to sink. He put the boat in gear to get it moving. As soon as Ryno idled the boat forward, the colors faded immediately on the marlin. Ryno could see a dark shadow in the pattern back there. He yelled down to Jeff, “Tease it up; tease it up! Drop it back; drop it back!”

As Jeff free-spooled the reel, the lure started fading back to about the long corner position. Jeff cranked in the lure, teasing the marlin to about the short corner position. The fish was a gorgeous blue when it popped up behind the boat, mentioned Ryno. He could tell that the fish was agitated.

When it struck, it turned and came in from the side just like an angry marlin. The fish started jumping right away. It did a couple of pirouette jumps inside the long gone position, crashing back into the water. It then sat there, head out of the water, slashing its bill from side to side, kicking up a bunch of whitewater.

The marlin came up jumping again, going ballistic. It started doing circles, tail-walking inside the pattern, not taking any line off the spool. It was about 50-60 yards away when it started jumping back toward the boat, getting to within 20 yards. “It was right there in our face,” said Ryno. “It was awesome.”

John had the line tight to the fish as Ryno throttled the boat up to trolling speed. He turned the boat away from the direction the marlin was going. Jeff was still clearing lures out of the water as the fish made one more huge circle of jumps and pirouettes 100 yards away.

They still didn’t have much line out, maybe 125 yards. Once the marlin settled down, it went straight down on a death dive. Ryno got on top of the fish, with the line slowly rolling off the spool for several minutes; then it suddenly stopped.

John found himself in a stalemate, gaining and losing short pulls of line. Ryno looked at the depth finder and noticed that they were only in 900 feet of water. They had just over 200 yards of line out. After about ten minutes into the stalemate, Ryno knew the fish was dead.

Ryno had the boat in neutral as Jeff began to hand-line the marlin slowly upward. He and Ryno took turns, took their time and had it to the boat within a half hour.

They had the fly gaffs set up but didn’t need them. The marlin came up tail first, tail-wrapped and dead. Ryno stuck it with a stick gaff and they pulled it through the door. Once I checked out the marlin on the dock, I noticed that it had mud on its dorsal and peck fins from hitting the bottom.

Almost to the day and weight, on March 27, 2014, John was fishing aboard the Exact, landing a 491.5-pound blue marlin.