A WHOLE NEW BILL GAME
To me, blue marlin fishing is best done from small
trailerboats in the 5 to 8m range. Not only for the fun
factor, but also because these smaller craft offer some
serious advantages that marry up well with the action
plan required once a big blue smashes a lure.
How you handle the blitzkrieg that all blues put on
immediately after hook-up is what makes or breaks
a successful capture. These fish can tear off an
unbelievable length of line on their first uncontrollable
dash, so keeping that line loss to a minimum in these
crazy opening stages is key.
This can be difficult in larger gameboats as their
superstructure makes it awkward to chase the fish
forwards, forcing the boat to manoeuvre backwards,
which it can only do with limited speed. With this
limitation it takes a skilled, experienced skipper and
a switched-on crew to keep the battle from ending up
a drawn-out affair at long-range, with the fish pulling
a heap of line and then often diving to the depths.
However, in a small and uncluttered open trailerboat
you can get after that fish quick smart, driving the
boat forwards towards the fish, keeping close to it and
limiting line loss during those frantic opening stages.TRAILERBOAT PROS AND CONS
Centre-console or walk-around cabin boats allow the
angler to get up the front quickly and easily, enabling
the skipper to then stay right on the bolting blue’s
hammer and really dictate terms. This reduces fight
times considerably and prevents those really big blues
from simply blowing you away in the first few minutes
of the fight.
With the ultra-reliable and much more fuel-efficient
outboards of today, along with highly accurate GPS
charting systems that make navigation a push-buttonjob, taking a small trailerboat out wide to chase blues
has become a very realistic option.
On the flipside, the sole disadvantage to trailerboating
blues is getting access to the offshore grounds where
these fish are found. Blues are true oceanic billfish
that rarely venture far inside the continental shelf,
so distance from shore and bad weather can be
challenging barriers.
That said, there are plenty of locations along both
sides of Australia where the continental shelf pushes in
so close to the shoreline that modest-sized vessels can
easily make it out, even in less than ideal conditions.NARROW-SHELF LOCATIONS
On the New South Wales coast there’s a wealth of
ports where the shelf and prime blue marlin ground
is only a fairly short run from shore. These include
Bermagui (19km/10 nautical miles), South West
Rocks (21km/11NM), Coffs Harbour (28km/15NM) and
Tweed Heads (30km/16NM). Sydney, Port Macquarie,
Coffs Harbour and Queensland’s Gold and Sunshine
Coasts also have excellent blue marlin grounds within
50km from harbour, which is well within range of a
modern trailerboat.
In my home base of Exmouth, Western Australia,
we’re absolutely spoilt to have what are arguably
Australia’s very best blue marlin grounds a mere 12km
straight out from the launch point.
The island nations of the South Pacific and Indian
oceans also offer epic, nearshore drop-offs that bring
blues within virtual spitting distance of terra firma.LOCATE THE BITE FASTER
Being an extremely wide-ranging, oceanic species,
simply finding blue marlin is always the hardest part.
When fishing from a trailerboat with limited fuel
capacity and range, locating the hotspots quickly is
critical to success.
Blue marlin prefer clean, warm water flowing down
from the tropics, and to have them stack up in
numbers generally requires a substantial upwelling,
or a convergence of currents rather than straight-
running flows. Although they can be found in a
straight-running current flow, the blues will then be
dispersed over a wide area, which makes for hit or
miss fishing and a lot of trolling time between action.
To find to the aggregations, focus on temperature
breaks, current lines and eddies. Satellite-imaging sea-
surface temperature charts are invaluable for identifying
these current flow features, so an online subscriptionLure selection
and positioning
is important,
particularly since
small trailerboats
do not generate
the wake waves
found behind
larger cruisers.
Wake waves help
to achieve a better
towing angle when
you position the
lure riding down
the wave face, so in
a small trailerboat
you may need
more height to
compensate.“Smaller
craft offer
some serious
advantages
once a big
blue smashes
a lure.”
Above: When a
hooked blue is up
on the surface and
jumping, keep the
drag setting light to
encourage it to stay
up on top. However,
as soon as it looks
like crash-diving, go
to full fighting drag
and try to prevent it
getting down deep.62 facebook.com/BlueWatermagazine
Trailerboat blues