Capt. Steve Carroll (left) and Deckman Jeremy Johnson caught this 641.5-pound marlin on Start Me Up Cuz.

LAHAINA — There were two more nice blue marlin weighed during that unexpected 2021 March run.

The Start Me Up Cuz joined the 600-pound marlin club, and caught the third-largest fish, with a 641.5-pound blue with Captain Steve Carroll and Deckman Jeremy Johnson.

They were one mile south, outside Kamaiki, Lanai, on the 100-fathom ledge between Kamaiki and Armchair, when they raised a fish. Jeremy saw the marlin come up on the short corner lure but didn’t eat it.

Jeremy free-spooled the reel, dropping the lure backward in the wake. The marlin grabbed the lure, took a couple of seconds of line off the spool and then let it go. Steve kept the boat ahead for another 15-20 seconds. No fish, no fish…

Steve started a portside circle turn back through the area. He was three-quarters of the way through the turn when the marlin made a U-turn and went after the long rigger lure.

The fish screamed off the 100-test line from the 80-class reel straight down the pattern for 500 yards. It then came up and went ballistic, jumping, doing cartwheels, and running for another 300 yards.

Steve had the boat two engines full reverse for a good 12-15 minutes before he was finally able to slow the run. Steve continued to chase after it for another 20 minutes, trying to gain some line.

In about 30 minutes, they had the marlin up and down off the stern. With them way into the Dacron backing, it took them an hour to finally get the mono main line back on the spool.

With the fish down 150 yards and at an angle, Steve idle reversed in and out of gear in a slow pivot on the marlin. For the next half-hour, the marlin kept swimming away from them. Steve kept working the boat on the marlin.

It was two-and-a-half hours into the fight when they finally got a look at the fish next to the boat. Steve had a good visual on the marlin the last 50 feet as it made a swing to the starboard side. Steve reversed the boat with it. Once he got the fish off the corner, Steve went one engine ahead and straightened out the boat, with it swimming with them.

The marlin was a little stubborn, tussling with Jeremy as he grabbed the leader, but it never went crazy. The fish suddenly turned onto its side, belly up. Steve came down and secured the fish as it just laid there.

Next, The Piper, chartered out of Maalaea Harbor, joined the 600-pound marlin club with the fourth-largest fish for the year, weighing a 611.5-pound blue with Captains Jeff and Marlin Kahl.

After all the rainy weather, there was a lot of green water off the coast. Jeff decided to work a half-mile edge offshore, hoping something would be in the area. He was in 220 fathoms between Manele Bay, Lanai, and the Kahoolawe Shoals when they raised a fish.

The marlin hit the short corner lure once but missed it. It came back around behind the lure and started tracking it. Marlin tried to tease it to strike. He free-spooled the reel and then cranked it back in 5-6 turns. At that point, the dorsal fin popped up as the fish charged the lure.

As soon as Marlin saw the dorsal fin pop up, he locked up the reel. The fish turned and ran straight down the pattern on the surface for several hundred yards and then started jumping.

Even with the drag pushed to the button, the marlin continued to scream off 1,000 yards of 130-test line as Jeff had the boat in full reverse after it.

Jeff shouted to Marlin, “Loosen the rigger; we got to go, we got to go!” Marlin folded up the port side rigger as Jeff spun the boat forward and continued the chase. Jeff was full throttle, at 20 knots, for about a minute as he finally slowed the run.

Jeff saw the line coming close to the bow of the boat, so he didn’t want to keep going and run the line over. He stopped the boat and spun it back around. Jeff had the boat in reverse for about 20 minutes, with them gaining steady line.

Once Jeff caught up to the marlin, they still had 200 yards of Dacron and 400 yards of mono out, with it straight down. Jeff tried everything he could to plane the fish up for an hour As the marlin finally came up to double line, Jeff could see that the fish was hooked in front of the dorsal fin. Jeff told Marlin, “Don’t even grab the leader; I’m backing right up to it.”

Marlin eased the fish to the boat and stuck a stick gaff into its side. Jeff followed up with a fly gaff to secure their catch. The marlin was hooked on the top of the head, with the hook ripping around the head to the other side, finally digging in just above the gill plate.