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No Problem finds marlin near NASA-Buoy

By Staff | May 19, 2011

From left, Jacque and Steve Janke, Capt. Mason Jarve and Capt. Steve Lambert with their 369.5-pound marlin caught aboard the No Problem.

LAHAINA — The No Problem brought in a nice blue marlin weighing 369.5 pounds by Steve Janke. He was fishing with Captains Steve Lambert and Mason Jarvi.       

They arrived at the NASA-Buoy on the 1000-fathom ledge off the backside of Lanai before first light. As they tried to live bait the buoy, the porpoise were there messing with them, eating their bait. Lambert decided to troll north over to the CC-Buoy located five miles away on the 500-fathom ledge off the west end of Lanai. After working it for a while, they head back to NASA hoping the porpoise would be gone.

They had three lines out on a high-speed troll when they had a strike on the short corner lure about two miles from the buoy. It was a solid hook-up, with the marlin taking 100 yards of 130 test line in a hurry, greyhounding 3-4 times to the starboard side. They got a good look at it and knew they had a nice fish in the 300-pound range.

They got Steve settled in the chair. With two lines still out, Lambert couldn’t back the boat after the fish. He kept the boat in neutral as Mason got things cleared. The marlin made a steady run of 400 yards, getting them into the Dacron backing.

The marlin stayed near the surface, so Lambert put the boat two engines in idle reverse to begin the chase. Steve gained steady line for about 15 minutes, getting the fish almost back to the rubberband. Lambert saw the line starting to rise, with the marlin coming up off the starboard side.

The marlin made a couple of nice surface-clearing jumps about 50 yards away, then disappeared. Lambert continued after the fish as Steve kept cranking in line. It came back up on the starboard corner swimming away from them, and then made another 3-4 full body lunges.

The marlin was getting tired from all its activity and stayed near the surface. Lambert had an angle on the fish and followed after it, with Steve getting it to double line about ten minutes later.

As the marlin came up, Mason followed it across the stern from one side to the other before he grabbed the double line on the port corner. As the fish swam to the starboard corner, Mason leadered it up, taking single wraps as he pulled it closer.

When the marlin started to dig down, just a couple of feet below the surface, Mason took double wraps, held on and pulled it up. Steve was waiting to secure their catch to end the 30-minute fight.