NAWILIWILI — “You should have seen the one that got away!” said Louie Gonzales, Tuesday afternoon. Gonzales had just gotten through the task of stringing up a large marlin he snared aboard his 27-foot “Kaleiluhilani” using the winch at the
NAWILIWILI — “You should have seen the one that got away!” said Louie Gonzales, Tuesday afternoon.
Gonzales had just gotten through the task of stringing up a large marlin he snared aboard his 27-foot “Kaleiluhilani” using the winch at the Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor.
Using 80-pound test line, Gonzales said he snagged the marlin just after 1 p.m. about nine miles off Kaua‘i.
“It took us over an hour to land this big boy,” Gonzales said. “He spooled the reel six times.”
Gonzales said each time they got the fish near the boat, it would see the boat and spook, stripping the line. This happened six times before he was successful in getting the large fish into the small boat.
“We would get him close, he would see the boat and take off,” Gonzales said.
On reaching harbor, Gonzales said he checked with a charter skipper who estimated the fish at between 900-1,000 pounds.
“It’s gotta be at least 15 feet in length,” Gonzales, who was met by his ecstatic family, said. “We’re going to send the measurements to ‘Hawai‘i Fishing News’ where they have ways of coming up with a weight. We don’t have a scale to weigh this big guy.”
