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A 760-pound Pacific blue marlin was boated in under six minutes by a young lady March 10, 2025, while fishing off Kona, Hawaii. It was an exceptionally violent fish.
“Exceptionally violent” is meaningful, since the Pacific blue marlin can arguably be one of the most violent creatures on earth to begin with. After all, blue marlin are designed for attacking and do little else, besides killing, eating, swimming, and making little marlin.
When a giant marlin wakes from her sleep beneath the thermocline, she may be many miles from her next meal, but she is equipped with a super-sensitive lateral line and blood hound nostrils to detect the slightest chemical clues and triangulate her next prey. Sometimes she wakes up to the drumming of twin diesels, and sometimes she wakes up in a bad mood!
Capt. Jason Hale was skipper on Ms Conduct, a 37’ Bertram running two 5.9 liter BTA 330 diesels, while drumming steady and deep in 1,100 fathoms of crystal blue water, just four miles from Honokohau Harbor, marlin capital of the US. His short rigger bucked hard, and the Shimano 130 bent nearly flat with a good fish. A Marlin Magic purple tube, skirted black/purple and silver, had drawn a vicious, outside-in strike and was now slammed up against the swivel, streaking through the wake like a penny rocket.
Kirsten and Jake Buckee of Medford, Wisconsin, leapt to their feet. Kirsten took the chair with deckhand Ian Stormont skillfully setting her up with the bucking rod as Hale pulled the gears into reverse. They knew this was a big fish!
It was routine at first, with Kirsten hanging on for dear life and Stormont clearing the corners. Hale scrambled down to take the deck controls, and when his feet hit the deck, he shouted “Oh no!” pointing at the wake. The huge fish had turned on them and rocketed out of the water at the port corner! “I am an Alaskan,” Stormont recalls, “and it was exactly like being charged by a grizzly bear. Your body freezes up and you know there is no escape!” The angry marlin slammed into the boat with a terrific bang, and the impact crushed her skull and snapped her circuit breakers.
All four stood in disbelief as the giant rolled over and floated high on the surface. Habit took over, and they cranked in the lines, as the fish floated like an inner tube next to the boat.
Six minutes after the strike, the three men pulled her aboard by her bill and the leader. They then finally realized just how big she was. They speculated she had just woken up in a bad mood 50 fathoms down, rushed the bait, then turned on the boat. Her distended swim bladder, still set for 50 fathoms, had floated her like a water toy.
We always warn our guests of the dangers involved in fishing where blue marlin live, but sometimes I wonder if they believe us.
