A 1,368-pound blue marlin was caught Tuesday by Guy Kitaoka off Kailua-Kona on the the big island of Hawaii.

It’s believed to be the largest blue marlin caught off Kona in 23 years, and falls short of the world record–a 1,376-pound blue caught off Kona in 1982–by only eight pounds.



Kitaoka was fishing with Capt. Darrell Omori aboard a 21-foot boat, Dayna, in an area where large tuna were teeming. He used a skipjack tuna to bait the monster billfish, and had it alongside his boat after an hour-long fight.

Capt. Bomboy Llanes, fishing nearby aboard another boat, helped deliver the massive grander back to the dock.



According to longtime Hawaii fishing writer Jim Rizzuto, the last blue marlin topping 1,300 pounds was a 1,356-pounder caught aboard Spellbound on June 6, 1992.



A 1,400-pound blue was caught aboard Marlin Magic in 1990, but that fish was not caught in accordance with International Game Fish Assn. rules, and did not qualify as a world record.

Kitaoka was using an electric reel, which helps to explain why the fight only lasted an hour, so it could not qualified as a world record, had it been heavy enough.

–Image shows Guy Kitaoka with his giant blue marlin. Courtesy of Bryan Toney