Kona, Hawaii is likely one of the greatest locations within the Pacific to focus on large blue marlin, so it was a logical vacation spot for Ian Keinath. The 37-year-old fly fisherman from Montana has been chasing marlin for the previous 16 years, with the final word purpose of touchdown an IGFA world-record blue marlin on the fly.
Keinath lastly obtained his probability on Sept. 11. He and 4 others ran offshore from Honokohau Harbor that morning aboard Keniath’s 40-foot Gamefisherman, Final Probability.
“It was the second day of my six-day journey, and it couldn’t have gone higher,” Keinath tells Outside Life. “We raised seven marlin that day, one was enormous at 700 kilos. I hooked a 175-pounder on fly, however solely had it on for about 30 seconds earlier than shedding it.
“However at about 3:30 p.m., simply earlier than we have been stepping into for the day, Capt. Tracy Epstein noticed a pair of fish on our Omni sonar. He headed towards them to boost them up with trolling lures, then draw them near the boat so I might get a solid to one among them with my fly rod.”
That’s when an aggressive marlin rose up from the depths and trailed a protracted trolling lure. Boat mate Kyle Vannatta teased the fish shut, and when the marlin charged the lure, Capt. Epstein put their boat into impartial so Keinath might solid an 8-inch, streamer to the fired-up fish.
The marlin struck. The fly line got here tight. However then the hook pulled freed from the blue. Keinath stripped in fly line quick to make one other solid to the fish. That triggered the marlin to show once more, cost the fly, and take it a second time.
The second hookset was higher, and it kicked off a dogged three-hour battle between the billfish and Keinath, who was utilizing a 12-weight Hardy Marksman fly rod and a Mako 9700 reel.
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“The blue went wild, making a sequence of 5 leaping jumps in the course of the first half-hour I had it hooked,” says Keinath, who lives in Kalispel, Montana. “Then it went deep.”
Over the subsequent hour, the fish would rise once more, make just a few extra jumps, after which dive again to the depths. Lastly, with Keinath placing most stress on the fish with a lightweight, 12-pound take a look at tippet, he obtained the marlin near the boat, the place his boat crew tried gaffing it. However all three males missed the fish with their eight-foot-long gaffs. They only glanced the marlin’s tail and despatched it diving deep once more.
“I’m shocked the chief didn’t break after the gaffs missed their mark,” Keinath says. “I actually didn’t assume we’d get the blue after that, as a result of the solar was beginning to go down.”
And at that time, Keinath explains, the battle had reached a stalemate. He’d pushed his reel drag to most stress however couldn’t get the fish to come back again up. To assist increase the fish to the floor, the captain eased their boat away from the marlin. When the fish obtained to the floor, Keinath labored it near the transom for one more probability at gaffing it.
“However close to the boat the fish went forwards and backwards on the stern, and I couldn’t get it positioned excellent for gaffing,” Keinath explains. “It saved switching ends. However it was fairly drained, and I lastly obtained its head up. That’s when Jarad Boshammer obtained the primary gaff into its aspect.”
Immediately, Kyle Vannatta and Chip Van Mols hit the fish with two extra gaffs. Then the three males hauled the Pacific blue marlin up and into the boat.
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“All of us began screaming and slapping fingers and backs,” says Keinath. “Then we headed again in as a result of the solar was setting, and we wished to get the fish weighed on licensed scales.”
Again on shore, the marlin weighed 106 kilos 8 ounces. This tops the present IGFA 12-pound take a look at tippet file for Pacific blue marlin, and it’s at the moment listed within the file e book as “pending.” (The IGFA acknowledges each “line-class” data for typical deal with and “tippet-class” data for fly deal with.) The standing file, out of Costa Rica, weighed 104 kilos 2 ounces, and was caught in 2007 by Enrico Capozzi.
“I’ve now caught the Hawaiian billfish slam on fly,” says Keinath, who’s retired and spends most of his yr touring the world chasing fish. “It was a very long time coming, and it was a protracted, 3-hour combat I received’t overlook.”