From left, Brian Shepherd and Captains Sal Tarantino and Brian Ciskoski with their 421.3-pound blue marlin caught on the Exact.

LAHAINA — The Exact, with Capt. Sal Tarantino at the helm, added another nice marlin to their stats: a 421.3-pound blue by Brian Shepherd.

Capt. Brian Ciskoski was working the deck as they headed out to the LA-Buoy area located ten miles off Olowalu. Sal was about a mile south of the buoy marks, when Brian saw the fish come in on the long corner lure.

The marlin made a run straight down the pattern for 300 yards then started jumping. They knew it was a nice-sized fish. Ciskoski got Brian in the chair, handed him the 80-class rod and clipped him into the harness.

The marlin settled down — but was still taking the 100-pound test line — as Sal began to reverse the boat after it.

The marlin didn’t go deep but stayed near the surface. Sal was very aggressive on the fish, with the boat in full reverse as fast as they could chase after it.

Brian was able to crank in a couple hundred yards of line pretty quick. The fish was swimming with them as Sal headed down-swell.

Ciskoski put the two-speed reel into low gear and set the drag to 30-35 pounds. The last 100 yards, Sal idled the boat forward in and out of gear to plane the fish upward. Brian hauled his fish to double line in about 20 minutes.

The marlin came in peck fins spread like a B-52 bomber, not lit-up at all, just its dark blue back blending into the 100-fathom water.

Sal had the boat one engine ahead as the fish swam from corner to corner. Ciskoski reachd over, grabbed the leader and took a pull. The fish felt big.

Ciskoski hauled the marlin in one wrap at a time. After six pulls on the 400-pound leader, the fish came to the surface off the starboard corner. It rolled onto its side and made a couple of half body side lunges, with Ciskoski holding on.

Sal jumped off the helm to secure their catch, ending the 30-minute fight.