THE BATTLE TEAM
There’s a system to fighting blues from a trailerboat.
Given the amount of line these things can rip from
a reel in the early stages, there’s a real danger of
getting locked into a long, drawn-out battle with loads
of line out, which could result in the fish diving down
deep and possibly dying.
For peak effectiveness you ideally want three crew
members: one on the wheel, one on the rod and
another to clear gear and leader the fish. If everyone
knows their role and executes it well, you may be
surprised at just how quickly you can get the tag in –
even on quite big blues.
It helps if the angler wears the full gimbal belt and
harness before the strike as they’re then able to grab
the rod and clip themselves in as soon as a fish jumps
on. When that big hook-up comes, the crew will have
more important things to do than fitting a harness to
the angler.
HOOK-UP & EARLY STAGES
As blues usually crash-strike a lure with conviction,
they tend to be easier to hook on skirted lures than
most other billfish species. This hit-and-run strike
style means that even when using heavy-tackle, a
lighter strike drag of 4 to 6kg will often improve hook-
up rates. As long as the hook point is sharp and slimly
tapered, with the barb filed down to a small size, the
hook will set with this drag pressure.
While the blue is rampaging across the surface in the
early stages of the encounter, it’s the skipper’s job to
chase down the fish while the angler winds flat out to
eliminate slack line and keep the line pointing straight
to the fish. At the same time, the leaderman should
be clearing the rest of the gear. If you’re shorthanded
then clearing the spread in these early stages isn’t
as important as driving the boat into a position that
keeps a straight line behind the fish, minimising belly
and water friction. Keeping the angle of pull straight
behind the fish will also help stop the hook from
pulling off a bill-wrapped or lightly-hooked fish.
Using the boat to aggressively chase the fish from
behind is more likely to keep the fish up on the surface
where the angler has more control over the battle.
The game plan is slightly different in a cabin boat
where the angler is forced to remain aft of the helm.
In this situation the skipper will need to quarter the
line at a slight angle while chasing the fish so as to
avoid running over it. The angler is still in a forward-
facing position, standing directly behind the helm.
Clearing the outrigger on that side, and moving gear
out of the way to minimise obstruction, must be done
immediately by the third crewman so the angler and
skipper can get to work.
AFTER THE INITIAL BLITZ
Once things have calmed down and the skipper has a
nice straight line to the fish, the angler should push
the drag up to at least 12kg (assuming use of 37kg
tackle) and go hard on the fish to prevent it from
diving. If it jumps, then back the drag down to the 4
to 6kg setting once more and chase it with the boat,
again staying behind the fish at all times to help keep
that hook in.
As explosive and spectacular as blue marlin are
at the very beginning of a fight, they don’t tend to
jump much during the latter stages. Instead, they
are more likely to dive deep and slug it out. Even as
the fish nears the boat, it’s important that the skipper
drive aggressively, running down the line whenever
possible. Whenever the fish is down and sulking, it
can help to motor off the fish to achieve a flatter line
angle, which will often coax it back to the surface.
With their energy drained, blues are usually placid
by the time they come to the boat. This means the
wireman can pull hard on the fish with little risk of
stirring it up and having it go berserk again.CAUTION!
However, don’t let this all-round ‘aggressive’ approach
to landing blues from trailerboats get out of hand. Yes,
the whole crew should be proactive in getting that fish
to the tagpole as quickly as possible, but if they’re
not also calm, controlled and cautious throughout the
battle then things are bound to go wrong – and in a
small trailerboat that can be very serious.
Of course, what I’ve outlined here is not the be-all
and end-all method of fighting blue marlin as there are
many ways to go about it, but it is a small boat system
that has proven to work very effectively.
Blue marlin are the largest billfish that most game
anglers have easy access to, and a well set up,
offshore-capable trailerboat makes an affordable and
effective platform from which to chase them. If you’re
up to the challenge, trailerboating blues in Aussie
waters is a very attainable goal.Cathy Godfrey scored
her first blue marlin
off Exmouth, which
was caught from a
small trailerboat.“If you’re
up to the
challenge,
trailerboating
blues in
Aussie waters
is a very
attainable
goal.”
bluewatermag.com.au 65Trailerboat blues