Lawrence, who previously wrote about his first kagami ulua he caught on a Duo jig, shares the long battle he had with a 100 plus marlin he hooked on a spinning setup. @DSfishingHI is his YouTube channel.

Lawrence:

I met Elliott at the harbor at around 3:30am and out of the blue he said “let’s go buoy?” Looked at my poles and said to him “I only have 40# and 50# test but I can take a chance”.

Akule was slow but managed to pickup about 10 pieces. Rigged up 3 top (surface) lines with akule (1 long, 1 medium, and 1 downrigger.)

Off we go into the deep, sun at this point has risen but still behind the mountains. At 5:35am, only quarter way to the buoy, my medium-distant pole gets active as my bait gets nervous. 

Looking back, I see a splash, then a silhouette of a Marlin. I radio to Elliott “We got action, It’s a Marlin!”

This Marlin starts doing some aerial acrobatic maneuvers at this point, while skipping on the water straight towards me, and I felt like I was in danger with its long sharp bill heading my direction. Although thankfully, it veered off looking like a giant rock that I would skip on the oceans surface as a kid. It also made a sudden direction change which gave me some exciting adrenaline. First visual contact, I estimated this fish to be approximately 100 pounds on my 40 pound fluorocarbon shock leader with 43 pound test wire leader paired with a Penn Spinfisher 8500 LL. It then dives into the depths where we battle it out. 40 pound test against a 100+ pound fish, I only could baby it, let it tire out, and set my mind for the long haul ahead of me.

The first hour was filled with consistently playing a game of tug or war. I then managed to get it within 20 feet of the kayak 4 times. Thinking it was tiring out and this game could come to an end. However it suddenly starts taking line and doing more somersaults. This is the type of action I crave for as a fisherman.

Furthermore, this fight continues now at hours 2 to 3 as this marlin would pull line down to 150′, plateau then I could turn its head and gain roughly 100 feet back. We would do this about 35 times. Marlin is putting up a good fight and I’m showing persistence.

Just after the 3 hour mark I noticed a trend where the Marlin would dive deep. It’s here I was able to get it closer to the kayak. A few more dives and reel ups I got it up next to the kayak, grabbed my kage and speared it, thinking I had the Marlin secured. Oh no not yet, it decides to do some last kicks and slips off my kage. A minute or 2 of it barely swinging and bleeding out profusely I managed to get a holding kage stab. 

In my 1.5 years of kayak fishing I carried a short baseball bad and finally for the first time I used it to hit against the Marlin’s head and put it out of it’s misery.

Also for the first time I used my custom gaff matching with my kage, made from Reef Candy Lures. I gaffed the bottom jaw and secured it to the front rail of my kayak with 550 paracord and also tied the tail to back rail.

At this moment I realized I landed a 112 pound striped Marlin on 40 pound test, enduring a 3.5hr fight. I can glady say I caught a Marlin, a fish of a lifetime from a kayak. Check that off the bucket list.