By Dave McKenzie
I set myself a target this summer to get a marlin from my 5.1m edgewater trailer boat. I’ve never really had any interest in marlin fishing, mainly because I associated it with charter boats, heavy gear, no sight of land and many hours between hits.
South East Qld is spoilt with opportunities to target juvenile Black Marlin in shallow water from small trailer boats, particularly in late spring and into summer. Several reports of recent captures were all I needed to get out and try my luck at catching my first marlin. My first trip was a real eye opener, with three complete novices on board all hoping to catch their first marlin, but none of us really expecting anything to come of it. Trolling skirted lures in the 5-6 inch size range behind the boat at around 6 knots, we raised 3 fish with several hits, but luck was not on our side and we went home excited, but with no photos. What we couldn’t believe was how visual this fishing was. We saw marlin coming out of the water for our lures, as well as a free swimming fish of around 40kg sunning himself on the surface. The trip left me dying to get back out there, and on Saturday a week later I was out with a good mate with skirts in tow. A far less successful day with no marlin sighted had me scratching my head, but not quite defeated.
The next day was my last chance to target marlin for a couple of weeks, and despite my confidence being way down, I still hadn’t tried a very reliable way (apparently) of catching marlin, livebaiting. With two Frogleys Offshore ProStaffers, Rob March and Joey Allen, we hit the ramp early and had a heap of live yakkas and slimy mackerel about an hour later, caught vertically jigging a Gamakatsu live bait jig over some nice reef. We then headed back into 30m of water, and bridle-rigged three livies using rubber bands onto 8/0 Gamakatsu Octopus circle hooks. If you’re unsure how to rig a bridled livie,
Two of the lines had small ball sinkers to the hook, the other was unweighted. With the motor just in gear, we slow trolled the livies at around 1-3 knots depending on wind direction. An important thing we learnt was that you need the drag set JUST high enough for line not to pull out when trolling, but no higher than that. That way, the marlin can grab the bait feeling minimal resistance. You then need to let the fish run for a while, maybe 10-20 seconds before slowly increasing the drag pressure. There’s no need to strike with circle hooks, just a slow increase in pressure will hook the fish nicely. Once hooked the circles rarely let go.
So did we get any? We sure did!!! Robbo hooked and got the first marlin boat-side, a beautiful 15kg Black, his first ever, and it was high-fives all round, despite the fish jumping off right next to the boat at the last minute. The second run was from a larger fish of around 25-30kg. This fish took the yakka on the Samurai Reaction Jig 10, paired with a Saltiga 5000 reel. 62lb Unitika Power Jigging Braid, 80lb Flurocarbon leader around 3m in length was enough.
We were treated to a great aerobatic display, and after around 10 minutes we had the fish boat-side. Maybe not the largest marlin you’ll ever see, but a memorable catch for me and a goal reached.
Fingers crossed this will help you on your mission to catch your first Black too, and you can see what got us all so excited. Happy fishing!!
