Marlin Metrics

How to Catch a Blue Marlin from a Center Console.

- Captain Steve Dougherty

FOR SOUTH FLORIDA FISHERMEN HEADING OUT the inlet with high hopes of hooking up on the troll, dolphin, blackfin tuna and wahoo are the most cherished targets, with blue marlin distant afterthoughts. However, the coming months provide the best chance of billfish encounters in the Gulf Stream where a casual day spent icing down slammers quickly changes course when a 200-pound blue makes an unexpected appearance.

It’s the reactive measures taken following the pandemonium that determine the outcome of the battle, with many anglers often ill-prepared for the monumental surprise. For sport fishing’s elite crews traveling the world aboard gleaming game boats with massive towers, catching marlin is a well-versed course. But for the majority of the fishing community plying not-so-distant waters aboard outboard-powered center consoles, hooking a  marlin is a feat in itself that often ends with a story of the one that got away.

Among the many differences between game boats and open fisherman, maneuverability is perhaps the most distinct. Due to their inherent design, center consoles are not suited to back down on fish, a tactic that sport fish captains employ to quickly aid in the retrieval of line. Additionally, open platforms do not provide the heightened vantage point of a 50-foot tower and spotter preparing anglers in the cockpit of approaching fish. Aboard either platform, hooking, fighting and releasing marlin requires an orchestrated effort of perfection to control the anarchy, and a feat that’s becoming increasingly possible with the proliferation of advanced tackle and intuitive fish finding electronic suites.