From left, Deckman Kyle Barnes, Trevor Thoele and Capt. Chris Cole with their 530.2-pound blue marlin caught on Hinatea. PHOTO BY DONNELL TATE.

LAHAINA — The Hinatea joined the 500-pound marlin club with a 530.2-pound blue by Trevor Thoele. He was fishing with Capt. Chris Cole and Deckman Kyle Barnes.

Chris was fishing the MC Buoy in 540 fathoms, 13 miles off the southwest corner of Lanai, looking for a marlin. The area looked really good with lots of birds and bait. Chris made a couple of close passes by the buoy, picking up a 30-pound mahi mahi.

Chris continued to work the perimeter 4-5 times when suddenly the marlin came up on the long gone position. It whacked the lure 2-3 times but didn’t hook up. Chris started to tease the marlin, trying to get it to strike.

The marlin came back around, grabbed the lure and took off. The rod was bent over like a rainbow, ripping the 50-pound test line off the 100-class reel in a hurry. The marlin jumped away from the boat trying to shake the hook.

They had just passed the buoy, with Chris keeping the boat ahead while Kyle cleared the lines and got Trevor into the chair. Chris was worried about getting wrapped on the buoy, so he maneuvered the boat to keep the fish clear.

Once they had everything situated, Kyle came up to the helm while Chris went to the deck. Kyle aggressively reversed after the marlin as it took them 600 yards into the Dacron backing. Once it slowed its run, it looked like they still had about 300 yards left on the spool.

The marlin stayed on the surface, with Kyle continuing to get on it. They had the fish close to the boat in about 15 minutes. With it not liking the situation, it took off on another run of 200 yards.

The marlin went down but wasn’t digging deep. Chris pushed up the drag lever to the button. They still had an angle on it, with Chris helping to pull the line as Trevor cranked, a half-a-turn at a time, for the next 30 minutes.

As the marlin got closer, Chris shouted up to Kyle how to maneuver the boat on the fish. It was swimming with the boat from side to side, digging down for a while but pulling little line, and then finally gave up. Kyle backed the boat right up to it.

As the double line came up, Chris grabbed the line and pulled the fish in.

Once he got it to leader, Chris thought the marlin was going to light up and go off as it tried to swim away.

Chris took a couple of solid wraps on the leader and pulled the fish up the starboard side. They got it secured and pulled it through the stern door.