Kona, Hawaii – April 27, 2014 the largest black marlin was caught and weighed in by the big fish guru and Hobie Fishing Team Member, Devin Hallingstad. The mammoth catch won first place in the Pelagic Pursuit Kayak Fishing Tournament held by Plenty Pupule Kayaks. A 212 lb monster like this challenges the best anglers on a 33’ boat let alone a 13’ kayak. And this real life Old Man and the Sea tale had an even better twist when Hallingstad had to do the unthinkable, dump his rod overboard.
The marlin’s initial run stripped out all of the line of the reel (around 300 yards) and was not going to stop even with the drag locked down. In a last ditch effort not to lose the fish, Hallingstad tied on to another reel behind him and tossed the maxed out rod and reel in the water. Now hold on for a second: One of these rods costs around $600-$1000… he tosses it in the ocean hoping that his connecting line and knot does not break… and he has a 200+ pound black marlin pulling him out to sea… don’t worry we thought the same thing. It is a crazy idea, but what if it worked?
It did work! After establishing some control over the fish, he retrieved the first rod and continued the fight. He soon had the beast right next to his kayak and quickly made a move to land the fish. By using an instrument known as kage, pronounced “Kah-Geh”, he subdued the large fish.
Now far offshore, Hallingstad had to get back to shore safely with his trophy catch. With no help in sight, he had no choice but to pedal back in on his Hobie Revolution 13. By grabbing the bill of the marlin and holding it alongside the kayak he was able to safely get back to shore where he was able to take photographs and think about how he was going to transport this huge fish.
With the help of 3 people loading the behemoth into Hallingstad’s truck, he managed to get his catch to the tournament weigh-in. Jaws dropped as his truck pulled in with the largest fish of the tournament. This turned out to be more than just another big fish story. The fish was processed and will be eaten by many happy Hawaiians.
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