ALMOST 30 YEARS AGO, Kevin Nakamaru found himself amid one of the hottest blue marlin bites in sportfishing history. But the Kona, Hawaii, native wasn’t trolling his home waters of the Pacific; he was targeting a ledge off Madeira, a small island in the Atlantic, 600 miles southwest of Lisbon, Portugal. Every 10th marlin he saw was larger than 1,000 pounds.
It was 1995, and Nakamaru, just 27, was at the helm of the 30-foot Pesca Grossa, fishing alongside some of the best big-game captains and anglers to ever target marlin. Heady stuff for a young skipper, but Nakamaru grew up among the pioneers of big-game fishing in Hawaii, including George Parker, the first man to catch a 1,000-pound blue marlin under IGFA rules; lure innovator Henry Chee; and captains Freddy…