From left, Captain Billy Burnett, Deckman Dave Wright and Jacob Dille with their 476-pound blue marlin caught on Die Hard Howefish. PHOTO BY DONNELL TATE.

LAHAINA — The Die Hard Howefish weighed the first marlin into the top billfish stats for 2022 with a 476.0-pound blue by Jacob Dille. He was fishing with Captain Billy Burnett and Deckman Dave Wright.

Billy had been fishing off the southwest corner of Kahoolawe, at the SO-Buoy, first thing in the morning without much luck. He deciding to head out to deeper waters to a “private: buoy.

Billy had just changed out the long rigger and long corner positions, as they were about halfway in-between the two buoys. Suddenly, one of the charters mentioned that they saw something back there. Billy looked back and saw a marlin behind the long rigger position.

The marlin came in and hit the lure but came off. Billy free-spooled the reel a few times to tease the fish to strike. It came back in and hit the long gone lure, hooking up.

The marlin took off on a run, taking them about 600 yards deep into the Dacron backing, but never showed itself.

Dave got the pattern cleared just as Billy started to back down hard after the fish, trying to slow the spool. He stayed on it for 3-4 minutes before they got the spool stopped. Billy kept up the chase, with Jacob gaining some line, as they had some good momentum going. About 30 minutes into the fight, they had the marlin down off the stern but still had an angle on the line.

Billy was still able to back on it in idle reverse as Jacob continued to gain line. As they got the marlin close, Dave could just see deep color.

At that point, the fish made a 100-yard run down and then stopped. They worked the marlin back up to about the same depth, with it digging in for a few minutes before it made another 100-yard dive.

An hour into the fight, they still didn’t know how big it was. As the marlin came up to the rubber band distance, they anxiously waited for the double line to show. Billy had the boat two engines idle ahead to work the fish upward.

At double line, Dave was standing at the stern pulling hand over hand, helping Jacob to gain line and keep pressure on the fish. When Dave got it to leader, he wrapped and pulled, but the marlin wasn’t ready yet.

The fish took off on another short run down and out, with Dave dumping the line.

As they worked the fish back to the boat, Billy kept one engine idle ahead, trying to keep the fish swimming with the boat. He didn’t want to let it turn its head and take off again.

As Dave pulled the marlin to leader on the starboard side, it rolled over, showing its white belly. Just before he had it to gaff range, it rolled back upright, giving Billy a shoulder shot to secure their catch.

This is the first marlin for Billy and Dave aboard the new Die Hard Howefish. The icing on the cake for them.