From left, Nate Oeming, Capt. Joel Cote and Deckman Sam Walker with their 473.1-pound blue marlin caught on Reel Hooker. PHOTO BY DONNELL TATE.

LAHAINA — The Reel Hooker brought in another nice blue marlin, this one weighing 473.1 pounds by Nate Oeming. He was fishing with Captain Joel Cota and Deckman Sam Walker.

Joel was fishing off the tip of the 100-fathom dogleg, just south of the LA marks off Olowalu, when they had a prop watcher come up on the short-short position. “The bite was pretty awesome,” mentioned Joel.

Not having a bill, it was seriously trying to inhale the lure, having a hard time keeping it in its mouth, with just a lower jaw sticking out. The lure kept getting pulled out of its mouth without getting hooked.

The marlin came completely out of the water at the short-short position, mouth wide open, as it tried to eat the lure. It missed the lure but came back around tracking it. It then lunged forward one more time after the lure. It barely grabbed the lure and pulled a quit zip off the spool, but it couldn’t hold on to it.

The marlin was up on the lure 3-4 more times, lit up and getting more frustrated. It lost the lure in all the commotion and ended up third wave back at the long corner position. This time, it rushed in full speed, mouth wide open, and swallowed the lure.

It immediately cleared the water, kicking up a lot of whitewater as it landed. It made one more full body lunge and then took off. It put on a great show inside the pattern jumping and tail-walking, and then turned, continuing to greyhound away from them.

As Sam was clearing the pattern, the marlin turned back toward the boat. Once Joel saw what the fish was up to, he throttled the boat forward until he got the line tight and the fish settled down. The marlin stayed up on the surface for at least a minute as it pulled line and then disappeared for several seconds. It came back up greyhounding and tail-walking, back and forth all across the surface, about 150 yards away for several minutes. It was one of the best shows Joel had seen in a long time.

The marlin finally settled down and headed deep, around 200 yards. Joel reversed after the fish for 25-30-minutes, gaining steady line, as Nate worked it in. As the fish came up, it turned toward the boat, swimming off the port side.

Joel maneuvered the boat to the marlin as they slowly gained line, getting the rubber band on the spool. Forty minutes into the fight, and they had double line at the boat. The marlin made a quick turn just before the leader, pulling a few yards, with it getting tail-wrapped in the process.

With Sam at leader, he was mostly tugging it in backwards, with the fish tired and not putting up much of a fight. Once secured, they hauled it aboard.

Having no bill, the marlin got hooked right at the middle tip of the missing upper bill. It looked like the bill had been propped off at least a year ago, a couple of inches in front of the eyes. It had a small two-inch bill growing inside the upper left side of the mouth. There was still an eight-inch lower jaw sticking out undamaged.