Jim Walsh with his 469.6-pound blue marlin caught aboard the Die Hard Howiefish. PHOTO BY JIM WALSH.

LAHAINA — Captain Jim Walsh, general manager of Atlantis Submarines, weighed a 469.6-pound blue marlin, the second largest of the year-to-date. He was fishing aboard the Die Hard Howiefish with Captain Fuzzy Alboro and Deckman Andy Payne.

He was on a Holo holo trip with his family, heading to the backside of Lanai, fishing the K-Buoy off the southwest corner. They had a great morning, with everybody picking up 16 mahi-mahi, a big Rainbow Runner and a few nice 40-pound shibi. Everybody was pretty worn out as they headed down the south side of Lanai, trolling the 100-fathom ledge toward Maui.

Jim and his son Jesse were on the back deck watching the lures, talking about the short corner lure being so close to the boat. They couldn’t imagine anything coming up and grabbing it. About three minutes later, as they got to Manele Bay, a marlin came in and hit the short corner lure.

The marlin started screaming out the 100-test line on the 80-class reel in a hurry. It never jumped as it pulled off 500 yards before it finally slowed its run. Fuzzy put the boat into neutral and let it run as Andy got Jim into the chair, and then he and Jesse started clearing lines.

Once everything was in and things settled down, Jim just held on as the fish kept running. Fuzzy put the boat into idle reverse and started slowly backing down after it. Andy got Jim into the harness and put the reel into low gear.

Jim started working the fish and gained about half the spool back over the next 20 minutes. The marlin took off again and headed deep, pulling about 50 yards before it stopped. After a while, with no movement from the fish, Jim got into a give and take stalemate, with it tough to gain any line. They thought it must have died at that point. It was pretty much dead weight.

With the marlin straight down off the stern, over the next half hour, Fuzzy planed the fish upward over a dozen times. Jim started to pump it up, pulling line and cranking, getting a few feet at a time before they finally saw color.

As the marlin came up to double line about 30 feet away, it was barely moving. Fuzzy idle reversed toward the fish as Jim cranked it to leader. Andy grabbed the leader and hand-over-hand pulled it to the boat.

Jesse then grabbed the fly-gaff and secured their catch. Both Fuzzy and Andy mentioned that it was one of the easiest 400-pounders they have had.

After it was all over, Jim was really tired. “It was pretty difficult.” He jokingly said, “What did I get in the chair for?”

He mentioned, “It was a great trip — great captain and crew. Everybody had a blast. Fun day had by all.”