Deckman Tony Nunez (left) and Capt. Josh Hammond with their 674.9-pound blue marlin. PHOTO BY CAPT. JOSH HAMMOND.

LAHAINA — The Automatic joined the 600-pound marlin club with a 674.9-pound blue by Captain Josh Hammond and Deckman Tony Nunez. They were coming back from the MC-Buoy off the southwest corner of Lanai, and were in 300 fathoms just outside “Magic Mountain,” when Josh spotted some birds. As he headed in that direction, he told Tony to put out a small lure to catch an aku.

As soon as Josh got into the bird pile, the long rigger went off. At first, Josh thought it was a big aku. The fish was just sitting there, about the sixth wave distance, but wasn’t pulling any line off the 130-class reel.

Tony started to slowly crank the fish back in. As he got it to about the fourth wave, the fish started to just quarter away, slowly pulling line, inching off the spool, as it casually swam away. The fish didn’t know it was hooked for the first minute or so.

Josh told Tony to push up the drag because they were losing line. As soon as he did that, the fish realized it was hooked and lit up.

The marlin started jumping down the pattern, taking 250-300 yards of line pretty aggressively, putting on a great show for a couple of minutes.

That’s when they realized it was a big fish, with Josh initially calling it 300-plus. The marlin finally calmed down and sounded, around 500 yards, before it stopped. Josh backed after the fish, going with the swell in and out of gear, with Tony keeping the line tight. They got most of the line back in about 30 minutes, getting straight up and down on it.

Tony started to “Portuguese pull” and crank on the fish for another 20 minutes. It was give and take for him. As he pulled in line, trying to turn the marlin, it would take out quick rips of 15-20 feet every time. The big swell didn’t help matters, pulling off line, losing more than they were gaining.

They finally got the fish up close enough to get their first look at it, about 100 feet behind the boat. Once they got a better look, they realized how big it was. Josh was now calling at least 500.

The marlin was really stubborn at that point. It stayed down in its 100-foot spot and dug in, swimming with the boat. It wouldn’t budge, so Josh just “walked” the fish for awhile.

They could only put the drag at 25-30 pounds of pressure, as Tony continued to pull and crank what he could, getting into a ten-minute stalemate at 100 feet.

Josh came on deck to give Tony a break as he went up to the helm. With them straight up and down on the fish, Tony started maneuvering on it to change things up. Josh began to slowly handline the marlin from the starboard corner for the next 15 minutes.

He finally got the fish to double line once, but it wouldn’t budge. It pulled off some line, with Josh wrestling it back to double line. This time, he tugged a little harder, getting it to leader.

From that point, the fish came up pretty easily. The marlin took one good pull on Josh at leader, and he almost dumped the line, but he held on. He hauled it up to the starboard corner, with Tony coming down to secure their catch.