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Marlin fishing or billfishing is offshore saltwater game fishing targeting several species of fast-swimming pelagic fish predatory fish with elongated rostrum collectively known as billfish, which include those from the families Istiophoridae (marlin, Tetrapturus and sailfish) and Xiphiidae (swordfish). It is considered by some fishermen to be a pinnacle of big-game fishing, due to the size, speed and power of the billfish and their relative elusiveness.
Of all the billfish species, 10 of them are of the most interest to blue water anglers: Atlantic and Pacific blue marlin, black marlin, white marlin, striped marlin, Atlantic sailfish, Indo-Pacific sailfish, longbill spearfish, shortbill spearfish and the swordfish.
Fishing for marlin captured the imagination of some sport fishermen in the 1930s, when well-known angler/authors Zane Grey, who fished for black, striped and blue marlin in the Pacific, and Ernest Hemingway, who fished the Florida Keys, Bahamas and Cuba for Atlantic blue marlin and white marlin, wrote extensively about their pursuit and enthused about the sporting qualities of their quarry. These days, a lot of resources are committed to the construction of private and charter billfishing boats to participate in the billfishing tournament circuit. These are expensive purpose-built offshore vessels with powerfully driven deep sea hulls. They are often built to luxury standards and equipped with many technologies to ease the life of the deep sea recreational fisherman, including outriggers, flying bridges and fighting chairs, and state of the art and navigation electronics.Janiskee RL (2008) Tourism and recreation in the Carolinas In: DG Bennett and JC Patton, A geography of the Carolinas, pp. 201–202, Parkway Publishers. .
Large blue marlin have traditionally been amongst the most highly prized angling captures, and a fish weighing , a "grander", has historically been regarded by blue and black marlin anglers as the benchmark for a truly outstanding catch. Today, much effort is still directed towards targeting big blue marlin, but smaller blues are also sought by anglers fishing lighter conventional tackle and big-game fly fishing gear.
Blue marlin occur widely in the tropical oceanic waters of the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific, with many fish making seasonal migrations into the temperate waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres to take advantage of feeding opportunities as those waters in spring and summer. Warm currents such as the Gulf Stream in the western Atlantic and the Agulhas Current in the western Indian Ocean serve as oceanic highways for blue marlin migration, and have a major influence on their seasonal distribution. Blue marlin have a limited ability to Thermoregulation, and the lower limit of their temperature tolerance is thought to be in the region of about although individual fish have been caught in cooler temperatures. Larger individuals have the greatest temperature tolerance, and blue marlin encountered at the limits of their range tend to be large fish. This wide distribution brings blue marlin in contact with anglers in many parts of the world.
Blue marlin are eclectic feeders preying on a wide range of prey species and sizes. Scientific examination of blue marlin stomach contents has yielded organisms as small as miniature filefish. Common food items include tuna-like fishes, particularly skipjack tuna and frigate mackerel (also known as frigate tuna), squid, mackerel, and scad. Of more interest to sport fishermen is the upper range of blue marlin prey size. A white marlin has been recorded as being found in the stomach of a blue marlin caught at Walker's Cay in the Bahamas, and more recently, during the 2005 White Marlin Open, a white marlin in the class was found in the stomach of one of the money-winning blues. Shortbill spearfish of have been recorded as feed items by Kona blue marlin fishermen. Yellowfin and bigeye tuna of or more have also been found in the stomachs of large blue marlin.
A typical marlin lure is a small (), medium () to large ( or more) artificial with a shaped plastic or metal head to which a plastic skirt is attached. The design of the lure head, particularly its face, gives the lure its individual action when trolled through the water. Lure actions range from an active side-to-side swimming pattern to pushing water aggressively on the surface to, most commonly, tracking along in a straight line with a regular surface pop and bubble trail. Besides the shape, weight, and size of the lure head, the length and thickness of skirting, the number and size of hooks, and the length and size of the leader used in lure rigging all influence the action of the lure: how actively it will run and how it will respond to different sea conditions. Experienced anglers often fine-tune their lures to get the action they want.
Lures are normally fished at speeds of ; faster speeds in the range are also employed, primarily by boats with slower cruising speeds traveling from spot to spot. These speeds allow quite substantial areas to be effectively worked in a day's fishing. A pattern of four or more lures is trolled at varying distances behind the boat. Lures may be fished either straight from the rod tip ("flat lines"), or from outriggers.
Atlantic blue marlin were first consistently caught by sport fishermen in the early 1930s, when anglers from Florida began to explore the Bahamas. Authors such as Ernest Hemingway and S. Kip Farrington did much to attract the attention of big-game anglers to the Bahamian islands of Bimini and Cat Cay. After the Second World War, and especially from the 1960s onwards, anglers began pursuing and finding blue marlin in destinations all over the tropical and subtropical Atlantic.
A series of tournaments attracts many top-notch boats and crews from the United States every summer. Visiting boats and crews join a small but well-equipped and experienced fleet of charter vessels.
The city of Vitória is considered one of the finest locations for blue marlin fishing by many anglers. Fishing is a popular activity in Vitória, attracting fishermen from other states and countries due to the large population of marlin and sailfish off the coast of Espírito Santo. Largest of the many big blue marlin caught at Vitória is the International Game Fish Association all-tackle record, held by Paulo Amorim, who caught a blue marlin that weighed .
The small port of Horta on Faial Island is synonymous with blue marlin fishing in the nine-island chain of the Azores. The season normally begins in late June or early July and continues until weather conditions put an end to the fishery in mid- to late October. Weather conditions can be unpredictable at the end of the season, but in midsummer when the area is dominated by the Azores high, the seas can be very flat.
Although blue marlin can be found close to Faial, boats seeking them often select three banks that serve as productive feeding locations for these fish. The Azores sits in the northern extreme of blue marlin distribution and the fishery is dominated by large fish. Large fish are average here and every year fish of and above are encountered. The Azores is home to Atlantic blue marlin records for, amongst others, IGFA -line classes.
Blue marlin fishing in Madeira was pioneered by local anglers in the 1960s and 1970s, and a number of large blue marlin were caught during the 1980s, but the focus for most visiting anglers tended to be sharks and the prolific schools of bigeye tuna. After the mid-1990s, however, the attention of blue marlin fishermen was drawn to the island after several exceptional captures, including eight fish weighing over in 1994 alone.
Between 1997 and 2000, blue marlin fishing in Madeira, along with the other Atlantic islands, underwent a severe downturn, blamed by many on the strong El Niño event of 1996–1997.http://www.marlinuniversity.com/madeira_fishing.php From 2001 onwards, conditions began to improve, and the seasons of 2005 and 2006 have seen Madeira return to some of its former glory. June and July appear to be the premier months for blue marlin fishing. A small fleet of charter boats operate out of the small marina in the island's largest town, Funchal. The most popular fishing grounds are situated on the south coast of the island, sheltered by the high cliffs from the prevailing northeast trade winds. Fishing generally takes place within a few miles of the island and many great fish are caught well within of the shoreline. Lure fishing is the most successful method with a wide variety of medium to large artificials from various sources being successful.
Sport fishing boats may be chartered from the main islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Tenerife; from the smaller islands of Graciosa and La Gomera; and from Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria on the island of Gran Canaria, which has historically been the main destination for marlin fishing there and still boasts the largest fleet of charter boats in the islands. In recent years, La Gomera has steadily gained attention amongst European and international marlin fishermen with numerous blue marlin catches, including fish over . Blue marlin are caught both offshore and inside the island's shelf, which often holds abundant schools of bait fish, mainly mackerel and scad.
While the average size of a blue marlin is typically , big fish inhabit these waters. North Carolina was home to the former all-tackle world record Atlantic blue marlin, a fish that also stood as the world record for class tackle for over 17 years. The state record, which stood for many years at , was finally exceeded by a blue taken off Nags Head on 15 August 2008. Angler snares 1,200-pound blue marlin.
The island of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands is one of the most renowned blue marlin destinations. Full moons from June to October can accompany some intense blue marlin fishing in the area known as the 'North Drop'. Lure fishing, trolling natural baits, and bait and switch are all popular. The former all-tackle world-record Atlantic blue of was boated there.
Blue marlin have probably been known to Japanese high-seas fishermen for centuries. However, the Pacific blue marlin was not officially considered to be a separate species (though still debated) until 1954; prior to then, Pacific blues were known as "silver marlin" or often confused with black marlin. The capture of a Pacific blue marlin by skipper George Parker of Kona, Hawaii, was instrumental in clearing up the identification of Pacific marlin species. Hawaii has continued to be the major center of blue marlin fishing in the Pacific, and Hawaiian blue marlin techniques have been disseminated throughout the Pacific Basin by travelling anglers and crews, influencing blue marlin fisheries as distant as Japan and Australia.
Notable regions to fish for blue marlin in Australia are off Cairns, southern Queensland from Fraser Island to the Gold Coast, Port Stephens and Sydney, the New South Wales south coast region, Rottnest Island off Perth, and Exmouth and Broome in Western Australia. On the east Australian coast, blue marlin are a popular target for anglers fishing from such ports as Port Stephens, Sydney, and the southern ports of Ulladulla, Batemans Bay, and Bermagui. However, the best scores in terms of numbers of fish have come from boats fishing the Gold Coast.
A blue marlin over has been officially recorded in Australian waters, several blue marlin over have been boated or released by Australian anglers; fish larger than a thousand pounds have been hooked, but none so far landed. The Australian record capture (which is also the ladies' all-tackle world record) weighed just under . Its weight, , was caught on tackle whilst fishing from Batemans Bay on the Australian New South Wales south coast. Apparently, it took some time for the fish to be weighed, which almost certainly robbed the angler of a fish reaching . This fish was caught in March 1999 by the then 27-year-old female angler Melanie Kisbee fishing from a boat named Radiant, a Bertram, which was captained by the late Paul Gibson. The fish was caught on a Topgun lure called "Awesome" in blue and pink.
Previous Australian records have been held by a fish also captured from the port of Batemans Bay during the Tollgate Island Classic, a capture which helped to put Batemans Bay on the map for big blue marlin, and a fish of around captured in Bermagui by angler Wayne Cummings. A large marlin washed up on a beach in Western Australia weighing in June 2013.
Larger blue marlin appear to be captured in years when the water temperate is warmer than usual. On the New South Wales coast, water temperatures of brought down the coast by the warmer south east current appear to produce the best blue marlin fishing and the largest blue marlin. The fishing season in Australia for blue marlin is January to May–June.
Lure fishing, live bait and switch-baiting are all used successfully for blue marlin in Australia. Blue marlin are targeted by some anglers and are also encountered whilst fishing for the more abundant striped marlin.
In 1951, a group of mainly American sports fishermen set up the Cabo Blanco Fishing Club at Cabo Blanco in the far north of Peru, close to the border with Ecuador. Some of the greatest marlin fishing in the world took place here until the club closed in the 1960s.
Today, the main centres for fishing this area of the Pacific coast are further north, in Ecuador, and the fishery has shifted from the pioneer fishing locations inshore, where black marlin and swordfish were fished by presenting baits to sighted fish, to further offshore for blue marlin, striped marlin, and tuna. Salinas is the most well-known billfishing location, and seasonally offers good fishing for large striped marlin, as well as blue marlin and other gamefish, such as bigeye tuna. The other popular blue marlin destination in the country is Manta, which is usually in season when Salinas is not. A large fleet of sport-fishing vessels operates from both towns. Blues in this area are known to reach large sizes, with the most notable capture being a fish boated by local angler Jorge Jurado which formerly held the IGFA -class record.
The town of Kona on the lee coast of the island of Hawaii is internationally known for its blue marlin fishing, the skill and experience of its top skippers (many of whom are also skilled lure makers), and its long-standing Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament. A large fleet of sport-fishing vessels operates from Honokohau Harbor. Blue marlin skippers in the Hawaiian Islands employ both lure-fishing and live-baiting techniques.
In 1930, the American angler Zane Grey boated the first blue marlin weighing over , fishing a few miles south of Mataiea, Tahiti. Although damaged by a shark bite, this fish weighed in at , a remarkable capture on the primitive fishing tackle of that era.
Offshore fishing in Tahiti began to develop in earnest in the 1960s, following the establishment of the Haura (marlin) Club of Tahiti in 1962. Today, seven gamefishing clubs exist in the Society Islands. As in Hawaii, the average size of blue marlin in Tahitian waters is in the range, but many larger individuals in the and larger class are boated each year.
The island nation of Vanuatu appears to be the premier destination for blue marlin in the South Pacific and one of the best fisheries for Pacific blues in the world. A ratified fish was landed in August 2007.
The use of live bait is also popular for targeting both large and small black marlin, and under the right circumstances, is extremely effective, although sharks and other nontargeted gamefish can often be a problem with this method. Small live baits such as slimy mackerel and yellowtail scad are highly effective for juvenile black marlin, and are fished both by slow trolling and drifting. Live-bait techniques for larger black marlin are similar to those used for blue marlin, normally employing bridle-rigged live tunas of . The use of a downrigger has proven to be helpful in positioning baits deeper in the water column.
Artificial lures will catch black marlin of all sizes from juveniles to the giant females of and more. The prevalence of lure-damaging bycatch such as wahoo, barracuda, and Spanish (narrowbarred) mackerel in some areas can make lure fishing an expensive proposition. However, the faster pace of lure fishing allows larger areas to be searched effectively, which can be an advantage if the fish seem more dispersed.
In February 1913, Mark Lidwill, fishing off Port Stephens, brought in the first black marlin ever caught on rod and reel. This fish, which weighed around , was the first marlin caught by a sport fisherman in Australia, and is also thought to be the first marlin of any species caught on rod and reel.
Today, the Australian town of Cairns is considered the world capital of black marlin fishing. The Great Barrier Reef is the only confirmed breeding ground for black marlin, as they synchronize their breeding with the myctophid breeding aggregations and coral spawns of September, October, and November. The majority of sport-fishing effort for black marlin off the Great Barrier Reef takes place from Lizard Island to Cairns.
The region is unquestionably the best place in the world to catch a black marlin over . Many domestic and international anglers visit the region during the September to November period in the hope of catching the "fish of a lifetime". Black marlin can be caught to a size of in this area.
Black marlin travel south along the east Australian coast during the Southern Hemisphere summer, and are fished for by many anglers along the Queensland and New South Wales coasts. Juvenile black marlin are often found in as shallow as or even less, and are available to anglers fishing from small outboard-powered boats. Port Stephens, the site of the first black marlin capture on rod and reel, is one of the most popular fishing areas for black marlin today, and is the site of the Southern Hemisphere's largest billfish tournament, the Port Stephens Interclub.
Costa Rica
Quepos in Costa Rica is known for its production of trophy billfish. Anglers from all over have traveled and caught all three species of Marlin, in these exceptional fishing conditions. It has been known that anglers have caught Black Marlin in excess of 1,500 pounds and 16 feet in length. One of the most common tactics to catch the Black Marlin is with live large Bonita or big ballyhoo on a slow troll. In fact, Ernest Hemingway caught an exceptionally large Marlin in Quepos, reaching a length of 18 feet, adding to the reputation for these legendary waters.
In particular, one reason Quepos is known for the high numbers of Marlin caught is the FAD’s that are offshore. The FAD’s are Fish Aggregating Devices that essentially attracts open ocean fish such as the Marlin to a buoy located offshore. This increases the fish in one area and allows for anglers to have record setting numbers on single day trips offshore. But this does not only attract big Black Marlin, the area is also known for some of the world’s best Sailfish and Blue Marlin fishing. In a single day tournament in 2015, there were 940 sailfish released in the waters off of Quepos. Home to many fly fishing world records, Quepos is a place in the history books, whether it is the trophy size to the Pacific Ocean billfish or the way they have been caught throughout history, the fishing here does not look to be slowing down anytime soon.
Black marlin are still found in Peruvian waters, but the main sport-fishing destination in the region nowadays is further north in Salinas, Ecuador. Black marlin are normally outnumbered in catch reports by the more prolific striped and blue marlin, but some big fish continue to be caught. The traditional method of sport fishing is trolling with natural baits, large ballyhoo being commonly used, while searching for finning fish.
The Bisbee's Black & Blue Marlin Jackpot Tournament from bisbees.com At present, the offshore structures such as Corbetana Rock and "El Banco" off Puerto Vallarta appear to offer the best fishing for black marlin in Mexican waters.
The large vessels of the San Diego Long Range fleet have also caught some hefty blacks in the -plus range while fishing for yellowfin tuna at the Revillagigedos Islands. Black marlin in Mexican waters, as in most other parts of their range, tend to associate with reefs, banks, and similar offshore structures. Slow-trolling live baits such as skipjack tuna over these structures tends to be the most effective way to target black marlin. Downriggers are sometimes used to fish baits deeper.
Today, the productive reef areas in Piñas Bay, and the many other reefs and islands along the Pacific coast of Panama, particularly Coiba Island in the Gulf of Chiriqui, still have probably the best fishing for black marlin in the Western Hemisphere. Piñas Bay plays home to Tropic Star Lodge, and their renowned fleet dating back to 1961. Black marlin averaging hunt schools of rainbow runners, black skipjack, and other prey over these structures along with large Pacific sailfish and dorado. Occasional specimens will reach well over . Slow trolling with bridle-rigged live skipjack is the predominant technique used to target black marlin by the Tropic Star fleet. At Coiba Island, the Hannibal Banks is among most productive areas where trolling lures is employed successfully.
Conventional live-bait trolling at slow speeds is also highly effective when concentrations of marlin can be located. Experienced skippers fishing from ports such as Bermagui on the south coast of New South Wales have in the recent past racked up scores of over 100 striped marlin per season fishing this relatively simple technique at the right time at the right place. Larger baits such as kahawai and skipjack tuna are often used for the large striped marlin of New Zealand.
Deep-dropping live baits with the aid of sinkers can bring live baits deeper to feeding fish. This tactic is frequently used in Mexico and Australia. It is considered somewhat lowbrow (it has been described as "snapper fishing for marlin"), but is nonetheless highly effective when deep-feeding activity occurs.
Striped marlin are also fished from the Ecuadorian mainland. Salinas in the southern part of the country and Manta further north are the main sport-fishing bases in Ecuador. The cold Humboldt Current from the south meets the equatorial current along the Ecuadorian coastline, and when conditions are right, the combination of current, colour, and temperature breaks amass concentrations of baitfish that attract large striped marlin, as well as larger blue and black marlin, yellowfin, and bigeye tuna.
The "hatchet marlin", long thought to be a variant of the white marlin distinguished by dorsal and anal fins with a chopped-off rather than rounded appearance, has recently been confirmed as a separate species in the genus Tetrapturus, the roundscale spearfish.See Mahmood, S. et al, Validity, identification, and distribution of the roundscale spearfish, Tetrapturus georgii (Teleostei: Istiophoridae ): morphological and molecular evidence, Bulletin of Marine Science, Volume 79, Number 3, November 2006, pp. 483-491(9), available at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/umrsmas/bullmar/2006/00000079/00000003/art00005 Nearly indistinguishable from white marlin, most tournaments treat hatchet marlin catches as white marlin. Both species are fished for in the same way.
White marlin feed on a variety of schooling baitfish, including sardine, herring, and other clupeoids; squid; mackerel; scad; saury; and smaller tuna-like fishes, such as frigate and bullet tuna. Like their close relatives the striped marlin, and sailfish, white marlin will often group together to corral schooling baitfish into a tight group for feeding purposes, a phenomenon commonly referred to as "balling bait". When this occurs, it is common for two or more fish to be raised to the baits or hooked up simultaneously.
Brazil is home to most of the largest white marlin in the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) record books. The IGFA all-tackle record is held by a Brazilian fish of . Areas such as the Charlotte Bank have large numbers of white marlin, as well as blue marlin, sailfish, and other blue-water gamefish such as tuna and dorado.
Cape Hatteras, Oregon Inlet, and other fishing areas along the coast of North Carolina benefit from the close proximity of the Gulf Stream. White marlin are often targeted by the skilled charter crews and recreational sport fisherman who fish this area, with August and September often providing some exceptional fishing.
From around mid-July onwards, white marlin, as well as the other species of Gulf Stream gamefish such as dolphinfish, yellowfin, and bigeye tuna, start showing up in the continental shelf canyons offshore of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. The Jack Spot, an area of bottom structure south of Ocean City, Maryland, was for many years the most famed white marlin location in the United States. White marlin were first caught here as early as 1934, and in 1939, 171 whites were caught in a single day (29 July). The years 1969-1971 had some exceptional white marlin fishing with over 2,000 fish being caught or released per year.
The La Guaira Bank off the coast of Venezuela hosts great concentrations of white marlin in season. White marlin can be encountered year-round, but autumn is considered the best time to target them in Venezuelan waters. Venezuelan anglers such as Aquiles Garcia, Rafael Arnal, Ronnie Morrison, and Ruben Jaen honed their techniques and tackle in these fish-rich waters, and their experiences have contributed to many light-tackle billfishing techniques commonly used today.
Another major threat to marlin are recreational competitions that run using "catch anything" practices, such as Longline fishing fishing, Drift netting fishing and other indiscriminate methods. There is also insufficient regulation to ensure that fisheries comply with rules.
Hypoxia may also be a threat to billfish populations due to the widespread decrease in life-supporting oxygen levels in more and more large areas of our oceans.
In 2010, Greenpeace International added the striped marlin, white marlin, Atlantic blue marlin, black marlin, and Indo-pacific blue marlin to its "seafood red list".
Conservation
Founded in 1986 by Winthrop P. Rockefeller, The Billfish Foundation (TBF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving billfish and associated species worldwide which helps ensure healthy oceans and strong coastal economies. TBF website TBF's signature research project is the traditional tag and release program that uses the efforts of anglers to provide data and research to scientists and fisheries managers. Awareness of the need to conserve billfish stocks worldwide has led to an increasing trend for recreational anglers and skippers to release their catches in as healthy a condition as possible. In some areas of the world, commercial fishing for striped, black and blue marlin has been banned.
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