Although the pursuit of black and blue marlin stokes a fire in the bellies of big-game fishermen the world over, most of us only get the chance to target one of these two species on a regular basis. And since black marlin live only in the Pacific, it can be a relatively time-consuming and expensive proposition for anglers living in the states to get a shot at a black — with trips to Ecuador, Cabo San Lucas, Costa Rica or Panama providing the closest real shots.
Consequently, there are many experienced big-game anglers on this side of the world who have never even seen a black marlin, let alone fished for one. Pacific anglers, on the other hand, enjoy the privilege of getting shots at both species and therefore have a leg up on the rest of us when it comes to knowing how to react when either of these fish makes an appearance behind the long rigger.
Even with all of the angling and scientific effort targeting these two species, there is still a tremendous amount that we don't know for sure about either — basic information like maximum size attained, life span, spawning habits and how deep they can dive in search of food.
Since science hasn't yet solved some of the mysteries surrounding these great fish, we've turned to one of the few men who could be called an expert on how both black and blue marlin behave behind a sport-fisher. Splitting time between blue-marlin hot spots in the Atlantic and along Australia's Great Barrier Reef for blacks, Capt. Peter B. Wright has attained a wealth of knowledge about each of these fish. From both his time on the water and his extensive research, Wright manages to extract practical information from what he has learned that can help you b-come a better marlin fisherman — whichever species you choose to pursue.
Different Neighborhoods
Although most people think of blue and black marlin as open-ocean, blue-water game fish, only blue marlin fit that description. "Most scientists consider black marlin a continental shelf species associated with major land masses and not a true oceanic species that can be found "housands of miles from nowhere," Wright says.
On the other hand, blue marlin roam freely throughout the world's oceans. "That's why our best blue-marlin fishing spots are just incidental little fly specks on a chart. These types of places just so happen to allow us access to the open ocean. Places like Hawaii, Bermuda, Madeira, Tahiti, the Azores, Mauritius and even the Virgin Islands are small places with access to very deep water. There are continental shelf areas that have good blue-marlin fishing, but they quite often end up being pretty far offshore and are usually associated with some bathymetric feature that interrupts the current — like the points and hollows along the edge of the continental shelf that can hold bait. But big blue marlin are almost always found in open ocean environments," Wright says.
Being the free-ranging fish that they are, blue marlin represent the only marlin species to be found in both the Atlantic and Pacific. But Wright has found little or no difference in the behaviors of blue marlin ca"ght in one ocean or the other. "The main difference seems to be more of a temperature factor rather than which ocean the fish is caught in. Blue marlin just don't seem to fight as hard when you get into the colder water. We were very surprised at how easily we caught "ome of our big fish in Madeira," Wright says.
Which Gets Bigger?
Although no one knows for sure how big each of these species can get if left unmolested over the course of an entire life span (or even what that life span is), most evidence seems to point to the blue marlin as being the larger of the marlin species.
"There's no doubt in my mind that a blue attains a larger size than a black," Wright says. "All of the truly huge marlin have been blues. I know of at least three fish that have been accurately weighed that topped 1,800 pounds, and all were blue marlin — a couple of fish caught commercially in Tahiti and the famous Cornelious Choy fish is Hawaii caught on rod and reel."
But while blues may get bigger, blacks are more likely to reach grander status. "There's no question that blacks more frequently attain a size of 1,000 pounds. There were 34 1,000-pound blacks caught in Cabo Blanco, Peru, and there have been somewhere in the range of 700 to 800 1,000-pound blacks caught in Australia in the Cairns to Lizard Island area," Wright says. "Of all the 1,000-pound fish that have been weighed in Australia, there have been just two over 1,400 pounds and approximately 50 to 60 over 1,300."
By comparison, Wright says that only a tiny fraction of blue-marlin make it to 1,000 pounds — even in places where a lot of them are caught. "One reason for this may be that black marlin have a much heavier head. The fish are definitely built differently, and the center of gravity is much farther forward in the black. That could be why they-have those fixed pectoral fins — they might act as some sort of support mechanism, but no one really knows for sure."
Two or three times a year you also hear reports from some remote jungle outpost of some monster blue or black topping the 2,000-pound mark. But these reports are rarely documented or verified. "A lot of size reports for both species are rubbish," Wright says. "If a fish hasn't been weighed, you don't know what the damn thing weighs, and that doesn't matter if it's been released or caught.
Somebody will go on a foreign longlining boat, or they'll go to some local artisinal fisherman in Bora Bora and ask the guy how big the biggest marlin was that he ever caught. And he'll say,"From here to the coconut tree." And they'll measure that, and it will be 18 feet. Then they'll ask, "How big around was it?" And the guy will put his arms in a circle, and they'll measure that and come up with 8 1/2 feet. They'll put the formula to it, and lo-and-behold you have a 2,300-pound marlin. But all fishermen are liars except for you and me, and I'm not sure about you. So most of that stuff is total BS."
Wright says that inexperience with truly big fish also leads to exaggerated size reports. "When you combine the huge increase in tag-and-release with the large number of skippers who have never caught more than one or two granders, I would say the average "1,000-pound marlin" these days weighs under 900 pounds. In fact, this is still borne out in places where they bring fish in. There was one guy in Australia last year who reportedly tagged a dozen fish over 900 and released three or four over a thousand — and then he caught what he thought was a monster. He brought it in, and it weighed under 900. So I tend to cast a very jaundiced eye on the majority of the so-called granders that have been released."
One thing we do know is that the biggest blue marlin will live farther away from the equator in a bit colder water. "Both your larger swordfish and marlin are found in colder water where there is more food. Fish are definitely fatter the farther you get from the equator. You see a lot of long, skinny blue marlin around the Ivory Coast and in St. Thomas. But you get these absolute tubs in the colder water around places like Madeira and the Canary Islands," Wright says.
"Black marlin are a much more tropical species. They will get into the subtropics, but you don't really find them as far away from the equator. That could be another reason that blue" attain a greater maximum size," he says.
Wright says the main reason for this is that bigger fish can bet"er withstand the colder water. "Large fish have a smaller ratio of surface area to volume so they lose heat less rapidly in cold water. Retaining their body heat is important because as apex predators, marlin have to be able to move quickly, and have good eye coordination and brain function to capture the "hings that they are feeding on."
On the Rod
Pure speed seems to be one of the major differences that separates the two species when it comes to their reaction to the hookup. "Throughout their size range, a blue is more like a thoroughbred racehorse, and a black is more like a Clydesdale. Obviously, you can poke a draft horse with a cattle prod to get it up to a pretty good head of steam, but they are nowhere near as fast as a thoroughbred," Wright says. He first became aware of this difference while trying to set world records for both blacks and blues on 6-pound-test in Hawaii and Australia.
"We had enormous difficulty on both species, but blue marlin were an even greater challenge. Even when using extremely agile and quick boats, using the same tactics — instantly turning and chasing the fish as fast as we could — with the blue marlin we could very rarely survive the initial run. If the fish took off on a fast run and started greyhounding — even with as little line out as possible and the reel in complete free-spool to try to minimize the drag — the drag of the line through the water was so great that we'd consistently break off in the first two or three minutes," Wright says. "With blacks, we could almost always survive until such time as the fish settled "own and began to swim steadily."
Besides the speed difference, Wright also observed that blues and blacks use the water column in a such different way when hooked. "Black marlin do not tend to sound as much as a blue — particularly in the early stages of the fight. In fact, it's extremely rare for a black to go down to an extreme depth — say over 150 to 200 yards — and stay down for any length of time. A black will occasionally go down 300 or 400 yards, but you don't have to pull him all the way back up from down there. If you just kind of hang around with medium drag - not even a lot of drag on him — he'll eventually come back up to within 100 or 150 yards of the surface, and that's when your trouble really begins," Wright says.
Even though blacks will very conveniently come up to within a couple hundred yards of the surface, that doesn't make them a pushover. "Once a black gets to a comfortable cruising depth it becomes a much more difficult fish to catch than a blue — simply because it's just a more powerful fish. My black-marlin rods are significantly heavier on the same class (130) than they are for blue marlin, mainly because if you survive the first bits and pieces where a blue is hot and running around like crazy, then you really don't need anywhere near the amount of drag to subdue it as you would a black. With a black, if you don't apply all the drag that 130-pound line can stand, you are going to be there forever," Wright says.
The main problem with blues, says Wright, is that they will very often make a power dive down 400 or 500 yards and stay there. "If you don't position the boat up-sea of the fish to allow it to come to surface and try to get a free ride by surfing down-sea, then there's no reason for a blue to come up, and he won't. You'll end up having to try to actually pull the fish up from 500 yards straight down."
What They Eat
Both blue and black marlin are considered opportunistic feeders, which means that they will eat just about an"thing that crosses their path. "The University of Miami did a study back in the '50s of the stomach contents of blue marlin, and the conclusion was that a blue will eat the most of whatever is most abundant in an area. They found everything from spiny rock lobsters to bottom fish and, obviously, large amounts of tuna, squid and Atlantic mackerel," Wright says.
As would be expected, yellowfin tuna represent one of the blue marlin's favorite food sources, and Wright says that "there have probably been more grander blue marlin caught by mistake by guys fishing for yellowfin tuna than by any other way. In fact, in the Pacific where we fish for yellowfin tuna around porpoise schools, there are many times when the porpoises will start showering like ballyhoos in the Keys when the sailfish are after them. If you can quickly make a pass behind the school of porpoises – either with live bait or lures — a high percentage of the time you are going to hook a blue marlin. And he'll almost always be a nice one because anything big enough to eat a porpoise is obviously going to be a decent-sized marlin.
"I've never seen it occur, but there's no doubt in my mind that a blue marlin would quite handily eat a porpoise. I know for sure that both blue and black marlin can easily eat fish in excess of 10 percent of their body weight. A 100-pound marlin can eat a 10-pound bonito, and a 1,000-pound marlin has no problem whatsoever eating a tuna in excess of 100 pounds. And I know of one case in particular where a blue marlin in Hawaii attacked a yellowfin tuna that eventually weighed out to 212 pounds," Wright says.
"Black marlin, being a continental-shelf species,"tend to eat a lot of reef fish," says Wright. "They have a surprising large number of things like snappers, jacks and groupers that wind up inside them. While both species will feed on bottom fish, blues tend to have more squid, mackerel and tuna in them than all the reef stuff because they live in the open ocean.
"I think, however, that if you could only use one bait for both species, the bait of choice would be a skipjack tuna. A blue or black marlin isn't going to refuse any species of tuna, but a skipjack has a reflectivity that is amazing. If you've ever done any live baiting with skipjack, you'll notice this incredible shine that comes off their body in pretty blue oceanic water. When they turn over on their sides and flash, it will scare you half to death because you think you have a blue marlin back there. Obviously a bait that can attract a fish from a hundred yards off is going to bring in more fish than a bait that they can only spot from 50 yards off," Wright says.
The Need for Speed
"There's no question whatsoever that when you are trying to cover ground, for blue marlin in particular, your are better off using lures. Blacks, on the other hand, are much slower moving and more deliberate feeders. A black is more like a 1,000-pound sailfish than he is a blue marlin. Dead bait is a much better go for blacks," says Wright.
But don't think that you can't catch blacks on lures. This year in Cairns — and I didn't have a good year, by the way — we wound up almost even on lures, dead bait and live bait. And anyone who wants to be a successful marlin fisherman needs to be able to use all three. Dead bait comes into its own when you have huge numbers of fish and you are getting multiple strikes. When you slow down to turn around and chase or fight a fish your lures aren't doing much good for you — they have to be moving to get a bite. A blue or a black marlin will definitely eat a dead bait that's not moving or just barely moving up and down in the water — that's why longliners catch so many of them. So if you are going to try to catch big numbers of sailfish, white marlin, striped marlin or even more rarely big bunches of blue marlin, you are better off having a lot of bait so you can get your double, triple and quadruple hookups," Wright says.
It's good to know there are captains like Wright out there who are willing to share their insight into a world few of us get to experience as often or in as much widely varied locales as a traveling big-game captain. I, for one, am grateful.
