From left, Kyle Savage, Captain Joel Cota and Deckman Kapono Brown with their 117.2-pound black marlin caught on Reel Hooker. PHOTO BY DONNELL TATE.

LAHAINA — The Reel Hooker landed a very rare catch for the Lahaina Harbor fishing fleet, weighing a 117.2-pound black marlin by Kyle Savage. He was fishing with Captain Joel Cota and Deckman Kapono Brown.

They were coming in on a full-day charter after working the “private projects” off the northwest side of Kahoolawe. They were about 10-15 minutes from the harbor, with Kapono starting to clear the pattern. As he turned around, the long gone reel took off.

The fish pulled several short rips of line and then stopped. They didn’t know what they had on the other end of the line. Suddenly, the reel took off again, with a small marlin showing itself about 200 yards out.

The marlin settled down pretty quick, with it staying on the surface. Joel reversed after the fish for a couple of minutes, keeping an angle on it. It came right in as he backed straight up to it.

When the marlin turned toward the boat, Joel idled forward. It came up real nice, with Joel getting a good look at it. It was all lit-up at leader as it dug down for a few seconds.

Kapono had a hand on the leader off the port side as he walked it in. He secured the marlin with a stick gaff and pulled it aboard in only 15 minutes.

They thought they might have caught a striped marlin, but it didn’t have the dominant “striper” stripes. It didn’t have the body stripes seen on blue and other marlin. The body had a grayish, aqua pink color to it, and the rigid sickled peck fins were the giveaway.

I was called in to verify that it was a black marlin. This is the first black marlin since 2016, when an estimated 175-pounder was released.

The next one was in 2014, when a 161.0-pounder was weighed and verified. The longest non-black marlin catch was from 2003-2013.

This black was the 21st documented in Lahaina Harbor since 1977, when the first Lahaina Jackpot Tournament weighed the winner, a black marlin at 559.5 pounds. The largest black marlin for the harbor was weighed in 1991 at 597 pounds.