September 5, 2009 / Stanford Shimizu & Cheryl Mizusawa        It was Saturday, September 5, 2009. Stanford Shimizu and I, Cheryl Mizusawa, planned to go out on the 21’ Glasply boat with no name. When Stanford saw that there would be a full moon, he decided not to go because he thought there would be no fish around. I said, “No, let’s just go.” I had to drag Stanford to get him going.      After launching, I drove the boat out 13 miles. Stanford set up five or six rods with 9-inch lures. He went inside the boat to get some things including a meat hook and a bat. I keep on driving until I felt a vibration from the outrigger pole at 9:30 a.m. I checked the rod. Oh, goodness! The rod was already bent down and his reel was spinning. About 300 yards of line had spun out of the spool.      I alerted Stanford and told him to take a look at the rod action. He didn’t believe me at first place. He said it was too early to capture fish. He had just set everything up 15 minutes ago. He didn’t believe me, but he went ahead and checked on his spinning spool. He was surprised! He began retrieving his lure. The reel had rapidly spun out 800 yards of line. He caught his rod as it slipped off the left side of the gunwale holder. He struggled to switch his rod to the center gunwale holder. Lucky thing he had a secure rope lock on his rod, otherwise he would have lost his $1,600 rod and reel. The marlin continued to speed, running eight times in all that day.      At around 5 p.m., Stanford told me that he wanted to cut off the line and give up. I say, “No,” and told him I would help him pull the line. I gave Stanford a break for a while. I filled the reel while Stanford pulled in the line. I had to watch the boat moving and fill the reel at the same time.      Stan still was not sure what kind of fish we had caught. At first, he figured that must be an ‘ahi. Later he thought it might not be ‘ahi, but a marlin. Finally, Stanford saw a blurred shape of a fish in the deep water. He kept looking at the strange shape of the fish. He kept waiting until he saw it more closely. At 6:35 p.m. Stanford and I finally were able to see what kind of fish we’d had hooked. It was a black marlin weighing 741 lbs.    The marlin floated upside-down, not moving or anything. We were dumbfounded because we had never seen a fish that huge.     Stanford struggled to bring the fish in the boat for half an hour. He ended up securing the fish to the side of boat for the return trip to Poka‘i Bay Harbor.       Before we arrived at the harbor, I sent a text to Stanford’s sister and my friend, Ron Sagucio, and asked them to find three men to help Stanford with the fish at the harbor.      We arrived at the harbor at 10:30 p.m. People saw us and said, “Wow, dat big fish!” One person named Jon helped me and Stanford. Jon and another man named Edward called some people and asked them to help Stanford. Then two men tried to pull the fish in but failed. Jon called a third man to help. They finally did it. Stanford and I didn’t think to use the hoist. We didn’t know that we could use it.      Many people came. They surrounded me and Stanford and took pictures of the marlin. Two people called their friends and reported that Stanford and I were the first deaf people in history to capture a black marlin. People said that if I hadn’t been aboard, Stanford would have cut the line.      Some people told us that we were really crazy because we were the only two people in the boat. We are deaf, so we cannot use the CB radio or VHF radio. But I am able to use my cell phone to E-mail or text message people that I know. My friend Ron Sagucio, who is also deaf, is an expert fisherman.      I know that Stanford hates marlin. I also know that he thought marlin were much easier to capture. His goal was to get his first ‘ahi. We never expected to struggle for many, many hours and end up with a marlin. Stanford worked very hard to capture the marlin, and I want him to be proud of himself and his accomplishment. It was good practice for the Ahi Fever tournament next year. When Ron saw Stanford and me, he thought we looked like zombie people. Ron was impressed that Stanford and I had made history. We finally arrived home around 1 a.m.      Stanford and I would like to thank Stanford’s sister, Iris, her husband, Eric, and his friend for helping cut up the meat. Also, thanks a lot to the marlin that give us the eight-hour battle. Especially thank you Ron Sagucio for taught Stanford everything he had done for him.      Stanford and I had never seen this kind of marlin. Stanford’s lure was 9 inches and rigged with only one 10/0 hook. His rod is a Sabre GS and is able to handle line from 80- to 170-lb test.  Submitted By: Stanford Shimizu and Cheryl Mizusawa