How to Catch Marlin

Catching marlin is easier than you might think, as multi-world-record holder and gamefishing expert Tim Simpson explains

Marlin are in many ways the ultimate thrill in fishing. They’re spectacularly beautiful, incredibly athletic, jump repeatedly, and they’re a mighty challenge to catch! They are also much more prevalent than most people realise — in fact, I’ve caught them within sight of Sydney Harbour. You don’t need an elaborate cruiser to catch marlin. They are regularly caught from even small trailerboats.

However, marlin are elusive so to have a good chance of success you need to know where to look. They are also masters of escape, so it helps to learn the tricks and tackle that will prevent heartache and shave a great deal of time and expense off your quest.

SHORTCUT TO SUCCESS

When I was a schoolboy obsessed by fish, particularly the big ocean-roaming gamefish, I dreamed of catching my first marlin. I read books and gazed in wonder at the photos of magnificent, streamlined creatures that powered off at blistering speed, tearing up the ocean as they leapt high above the waves in spectacular greyhounding bounds of defiance.

Determined to make the dream a reality, I sought out and joined a local fishing club where I met like-minded enthusiasts who not only shared their knowledge, but occasionally invited me out on their boats to assist in the teamwork required for such fishing. This was my first major breakthrough. I learned that catching such fish really is a team venture, with someone needed to man the helm, and others to assist the angler and facilitate the ‘end-game’ processes. Fishing clubs are full of boat owners who need crew — and if you’re a boat owner and need a crew, a club is a great way to find them.

There are many family-friendly sportfishing clubs affiliated with the Australian National Sportfishing Association (ANSA). They cover all sportfish species and all tackle types, making them a great place to start if you are just getting into the big fish scene. You’ll find them at ansa.com.au

Alternately, there is the Game Fishing Association of Australia (GFAA), whose clubs are devoted specifically to the big ocean-roaming gamefish like marlin and tuna. You’ll find lots about this organisation, and a list of their clubs at gfaa.asn.au

Starting back in the late 1970s, it took me seven years of regular effort before I landed my first marlin, and that was regarded as typical. A school friend who later became one of the world’s most respected marlin charter operators, Capt Bill Billson, had to persevere even longer. In those days they were tricky to find, and extremely good at escaping once you finally hooked one. Thankfully, over the past 50 years, our tackle and techniques have significantly improved.

Using refined procedures and the best of tackle, a skilled boat fishing in a marlin hotspot can reasonably expect to hook at least one marlin every day, often catching two or three, and on extreme occasions releasing ten or more.

WHERE TO FIND YOUR MARLIN

There are three species of marlin found in Australian waters — black, striped, and blue — and they are surprisingly widespread, although each species primarily inhabits a slightly different zone of our offshore waters.

Black marlin

Black marlin are the predominant species in Australia, and we are renowned for them around the world. Blacks are usually found in coastal waters, from shallow coastal reefs out to the edge of the continental shelf drop-off. This is the species I would suggest you target first.

The Cairns region is world famous for the giant females that cross the ocean to breed in October, but smaller blacks are far more plentiful and found from the NSW/Victorian border all the way north and around the Top End, then back down the Western Australian coast to Perth.

Each year there is an inshore migration of baby black marlin, riding the southward push of warm tropical water. It begins north of Cairns in early winter, reaching the Gold Coast before Christmas and as far as the South Coast of NSW by February. The marlin grow rapidly along the journey, initially caught sometimes less than a metre long, but with fish off the Gold Coast often weighing 30kg or more, and the fish off Sydney often 60–80kg. Along their migration, the marlin stop and feed where baitfish are prevalent, which is where you should focus your efforts for fast results.

Following the migration south, these aggregation grounds include hotspots like Cape Bowling Green off Townsville, Hervey Bay and Fraser Island, Barwon Banks off the Sunshine Coast, the coastal reefs off the Gold Coast, South West Rocks in northern NSW, Port Stephens, ‘The Banks’ off Jervis Bay, Bermagui, and any coastal upwellings and significant current edges, which I’ll explain shortly.

Striped marlin

Stripies are perhaps the most spectacular of our marlin species. They are very acrobatic, and their vivid colours and physical proportions are simply glorious. Just seeing one alive is an experience worth chasing. In our waters they are typically between 70–120kg in weight, so require slightly more powerful tackle than the baby blacks.

Striped marlin will roam in to the shallow coastal reefs, but they are an ocean-roaming species that will be more commonly found in concentrations where schools of baitfish like blue mackerel aggregate on the edge of the East Australian Current. This is particularly likely where upwellings are generated by the current slamming into significant bottom structure, such as the cliff edge that is the continental shelf drop-off.

Blue marlin

Often regarded as the grand prize by marlin anglers, blues are true ocean roamers that aggregate over seamounts and other significant structure but are rarely found shallower than the continental shelf drop-off. They are generally larger than the black and striped marlin found in our waters, with blues typically between 120–200kg in weight, but sometimes more than double that.

Blue marlin are a significant challenge, making radical direction changes and long runs at blistering speed that require advanced battle tactics and heavier tackle to control. These fish are not recommended for beginners.

Sailfish

While not a marlin, sailfish are billfish and so are very similar in habits and appearance. Sails are the lightweights of the group, typically weighing between 20–40kg, but they are a slim missile, so even a 40kg fish can be 2.5m in length!

Sailfish are not heavy-set power athletes like the black and blue marlin, but they are built for speed, and are the most acrobatic of the troupe, making for a spectacular battle if hooked on appropriately light line, say, 10kg tackle or lighter.

Sails roam the shallow inshore reef waters of the tropics, often hunting in packs around schools of baitfish such as herring, garfish, longtom, yellowtail and others. They can be caught throughout the top of Australia, extending at least as far south as the Gold Coast in the east, and Geraldton in the west.

TACKLE REQUIREMENTS

Marlin can be caught on almost any type of tackle — occasionally if you’re lucky — but for consistent results and a pleasurable experience it really does pay to invest in high-quality gamefishing tackle.

Catching marlin is spectacle in which you enjoy an up-close encounter with one of the most magnificent creatures in the marine world. It’s also a challenge in which you pit your skills as an angler against a powerful and difficult adversary, and one of the first things for you to consider is how challenging you want to make it.

You don’t want your marlin to get away, but you also don’t want to overpower it and drag it to the boat without enjoying the battle and the spectacle. Anglers with even modest skills should be able to land a marlin weighing at least four times the strength of their tackle without too much trouble. So for small black marlin of 40–60kg I suggest an 8kg or 10kg IGFA line class gamefishing tackle. For slightly larger black marlin and also striped marlin of 60–100kg (such as found off Sydney), I suggest 15kg tackle. For blue marlin and larger blacks, you’ll probably need 24kg or 37kg tackle.

Source your tackle from a store with staff personally experienced in gamefishing. If there is not a local option, shop online or call a remote specialist and have your goods sent to you. Expert guidance will save you a lot of pain and money otherwise spent on unsuitable goods.

The reel should be a heavy-duty lever-drag game reel capable of holding around 1000m of line. The rod should have roller guides to prevent line wear due to heat friction.

You’ll also need a large, padded rod bucket, one broad enough to cover your thighs, and for 15kg tackle and above you’ll appreciate a good harness. Both are available from leading brands such as Black Magic, AFTCO and Braid.

FINDING THE HOTSPOTS

Marlin are spread very thinly throughout the ocean, so to have a good chance of catching one you need to be very targeted in where you go fishing.

Marlin accumulate where roaming schools of baitfish accumulate, and these schools are influenced by reefs and other structures, as well as water conditions. Most baitfish feed on plankton, and upwellings of nutrient-rich water brought to the surface by ocean currents will lead to an explosion of plankton growth at the surface.

The edges of current will also aggregate baitfish and predators, particularly when there is a temperature difference of at least one-degree between one side and the other, so a water temperature gauge is a great asset for your search!

The ideal situation is where a current edge with a significant temperature difference (say 2 degrees) is found over a major structure on the bottom, such as the continental shelf edge, a major reef, or a seamount. However, for the small coastal blacks it could also be the edge where dirty water is running out of a river mouth and intersecting with clear blue ocean current.

This information can be seen on daily ocean current charts available on the internet. Free charts can be viewed on Australia’s BOM website. More advanced charts, that help you pinpoint much more accurately where the baitfish and gamefish will be found, are available on subscription at RipCharts (ripcharts.com). Investing in this app will save you a fortune in wasted fuel and effort.

USE THE BEST TECHNIQUE

Finding your marlin involves covering ground, even after you’ve researched where the productive vicinity will be. This is best done by trolling either lures or natural baits, and each of these options has a specific advantage.

Natural baits — either livebaits or dead-baits skilfully rigged to appear alive when trolled — are the ultimate offering since they look real, taste real and smell real. However, they can only be trolled at less than half the speed that lures operate, so with natural bait you can’t cover as much territory in your search.

Natural baits are generally used only when you know exactly where the fish are, for example, once you’ve found a school of baitfish corralled at the surface by predators. In this situation, a bridle-rigged live mackerel trolled at two knots around the edge of the school is a deadly offering.

On the other hand, skirted trolling lures are your best option for general prospecting. They are trolled at speeds from six to ten knots, depending on sea conditions, lures selected, and species targeted. In an eight-hour fishing day, this lets you search 50–80km of ocean.

As with your rod and reel, get expert advise before buying your lures. They may all look similar, but subtle and micro design differences can have a huge effect on your success, and they are not all created equal. A good option is to buy from Peter Pakula’s website ‘Pakula Tackle Australia’ (pakula.com). Peter’s lures are among the world’s best, and particularly easy to run. His website also provides excellent training articles with illustrations and video covering lure selection, rigging, trolling techniques and more. Peter is also available for Live Chat guidance through the website.

Another source of great trolling lures is Dave Venn at JB Lures Australia. Call him on 0422 429 385, or visit jbmarlinlures.com.

YOU’RE NEARLY THERE

The advice above should get you hooked-up to a marlin before too long, but then what? Well, that’s the exciting part! There’s a whole lot more I can teach you to maximise your results, but that journey takes a little more time.

You’ll gradually learn how to increase your hook-up rate, manage your drag settings, get better action from your lures, prevent tangles, sharpen hooks, refine the selection and rigging of your leaders, and develop battle tactics and learn how to remain in control during the crucial end-game. That’s an exciting learning curve, however, those topics are going to have to wait for another day. In the meantime, here are a few more pointers to help you on the road to success, faster.

When setting your trolling spread, keep it manageable. We generally troll four to six skirted trolling lures, or alternately two to four rigged dead-baits, or alternately one or two livebaits.

Your rodholders must be positioned so the lines don’t rub on each other, and the lures or baits must be staggered at different lengths behind the boat so as the boat turns, one line passes beneath or over the top of the adjoining line, so they don’t tangle.

THE FINISH LINE

Your marlin may run off a lot of line after the strike, or it may simply jump and not travel far. Either way, drive the boat to prevent the fish getting too far away, always ensuring the line is kept tight. Ideally the fish should be kept within 100m.

Very experienced teams have the skills to catch and release marlin within minutes of hook-up, however, while you’re learning the game, stay cautious. An active fish beside the boat can be trouble, and is likely to escape. Take your time, edging closer as you dare, until one of the team can take hold of the heavy leader and guide the fish alongside for either securing or release. Be wary and alert for sudden movements — they have a spear on their front end, and they move fast, and they jump!

Along the middle stretch on both sides of Australia, right now is prime marlin season, so go catch one! It’s a visual and challenging experience that will blow your mind!

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