You hear of big marlins caught off the Kona Coast, but a fisherman today landed a six-hundred-pounder in the relatively shallow waters off Hawaii Kai.

First-time deep-sea fisherman Mike Bumberger of Los Cruces, New Mexico hauled in the marlin.

Bumberger left Kewalo Basin this morning on an Island Charters Sport Fishing boat and it didn’t take long. At 8:30 a.m., he hooked the marlin off an area called Hawaii Kai Ledge in about 69 fathoms of water. That’s four-hundred feet deep.

“It was a shock. He saw it jump out. My father saw it jump out of the water, and then we saw it jumping in front of the boat after it was hooked and we just started reeling it in. It was just a battle from there,” Bumberger said. “Fought it for about 50 minutes then it was a battle trying to pull it into the boat ’cause it’s so big as you can see. So it was awesome.”

Boat owner Tony Mathis says this is only the 4th fish in eight years caught in relatively shallow water, and so close to land, from his charter.

Mathis said the marlin weighed-in at six-hundred-six pounds, but the scale didn’t get all the marlin weighed, because it was too big. Mathis thinks it’s closer to seven-hundred pounds.

They’ll find out for sure tomorrow when it’s cut up and goes to the fish auction.