By Alistair McGlashan

When it comes to catching marlin there are four main techniques,
the key is to know when which technique works best.

The hardest part of marlin fishing is finding them. In the open ocean, riding the currents finding marlin can be akin to locating a needle in a haystack. To make matters worse they are always on the move so even when you do find them one day there is a good chance they will be gone the next.
Marlin rarely concentrate in one area for a long time, so the key is to cover the ground as quickly and effectively as possible to find them. To a certain degree you can employ technology like sea surface temperature charts and fishing reports to put you in the right area, but there is still a lot of water out there to locate a solitary fish. The fishing grapevine and all those keyboard captains on the internet can also alert you to a marlin bite but the key to being a good angler is knowing when and which technique works best in any given situation.
There are four main techniques that anglers employ to catch marlin – lure trolling, live baiting, dead baiting and switch baiting. All have their merits but the trick to being a good marlin fisherman is to know when to use which technique. However, to complicate matters further, different species are better suited to specific techniques. Striped marlin are notoriously messy eaters and often miss the hooks on lures and black marlin much prefer natural baits. A good understanding of the species you are targeting, the area you are fishing and the most suitable technique are all critical in the decision making process when it comes to catching marlin.

Once you locate bait or structure it is time to start a skip bait for black marlin

Lure Trolling
Trolling a spread of skirted lures is the most common technique employed worldwide for marlin fishing. There is a lot of water between marlin so lures that can be trolled much quicker than baits allows you to really covers the ground, which in turn means you will cross paths with more fish giving you more opportunities. It is a relatively easy style of fishing and, not surprisingly, accounts for more marlin than any other technique.
Despite looking oddly like squid, skirted marlin lures are designed to imitate a fish splashing along on the surface. Most anglers troll a spread of four or five lures as well as a teaser (hookless lure) to form a ‘bait school’. I prefer to troll a maximum of just four with no teasers to minimise complications – more rods more mess.
Trolled at between 6 and 9 knots these lures create a lot of commotion splashing about on the surface and are irresistible to marlin. Possibly the biggest mistake made by many anglers is to troll the lures too far back. Unlike tuna, which can be very boat shy at times, marlin are fearless and will happily swim right up to the boat. For this reason it is important to run the lures in close behind the boat, especially if you’re running a trailer boat with a four stroke.
From the moment the lures hit the water someone should be watching them. Marlin are easily visible in a spread of lures, especially stripies with their huge dorsal fins, and seeing them before they strike gives you the advantage. Sometimes the fish can appear lethargic and must be coaxed into biting, which is achieved simply by turning so the lures cut through clean water making them more visible.
Lures can catch more fish than baits in the hands of an expert, but it does take time to master. The problem is the hook up rate is poor – you hook up and all too often the fish falls off. The exception to the rule is blue marlin, which are serious apex predators and when they hit a hit lure they rarely miss the hooks.
In some situations when the fish are spread out we have no option but to troll an artificial, so to maximise your hook up rate I suggest that you run the main hook upright at 90 degrees. This will give you the best possible hook up rate.

At the boat it is important for everyone to know what their role is to ensure you catch the fish

Dead Baits
Rigged to either to skip or swim, baits such as a mackerel or a small tuna are deadly. Australia’s legendary giant black marlin off North Queensland, which produces some of the biggest marlin in the world, is almost exclusively a dead bait fishery.
Skip baits have come back into vogue in recent years and in many areas anglers are now selecting natural bait rather than lures. The big advantage of dead baits is that they offer a good hook up rate, especially if you use circle hooks. Unlike lures that have a high miss rate, a good angler employing dead baits can expect near 100 per cent hook up, but on the downside because you are covering less water you will encounter fewer fish.
Trolling dead baits is really the halfway point between livies and lures. You get the better hook up rate of livies, but you also get to travel a lot faster and so cover more ground effectively. At 3–5 knots you’re still not as fast as lures, but it’s a lot quicker than towing livies.
It’s hard to rig swim baits correctly so that they swim right, but skip baits are easy to stitch up with a bit of waxed thread. All you need to do is stitch the gill plates in place against the body and then form a loop so the hook sits an inch off the nose.
I like to run a pair of skip baits, especially small tuna when I am fishing around bait schools that are spread out. If the bait was stacked up and tight then I would swap over to livies, but when it is spread out and there is no concentration skip baits are perfect. I should also add that skip baits work best in calmer conditions, in rough weather they get smashed to pieces quickly.
Blacks and stripies absolutely adore skip baits. If you are working over specific spots like ledges or offshore reefs then skip baiting is a great way to initially locate bait concentrations. With most of us fishing out of trailer boats these days you need to go a bit slower to get a good reading on the sounder, which isn’t possible at lure trolling speed, alternatively when skip baiting you will get a much clearer picture on the fish finder.
Live Baiting
Lures and skip baits work best when there is a lot of ground to cover, however when the marlin are concentrating on bait balls or over a specific reef then it is time to use live baits. The big advantage live baits offer is that they are worked slowly so they stay in the strike zone for much longer. This is the key you need to be right in the strike zone or you’re wasting your time!
Live baiting is the easiest of the four to master. Unlike lures that need to be tuned or skip baits that must be rigged, the livies do all the work themselves and all the angler has to do is to keep them close to the bait school. The bait school is like a takeaway shop, and if you keep your baits right at the counter you will be served.
On the downside, live baits can only be towed very slowly, just a knot or two. This translates to very little ground being covered, which is a huge disadvantage unless you are right on top of the fish. This is why live baiting should only ever been employed right over a concentration of fish. It should never be used as a technique to locate fish. The best place to use baits is around bait schools or, to a lesser extent, around structure like reefs, islands and drop-offs that the marlin are frequenting. Dragging baits out in no-mans-land is a complete waste if time and any fish you catch is nothing more than a fluke.
The big advantage of live baiting is that it is easy; the bait does all the work. The method entails bridling live bait with a Dacron loop to the circle hook and then towing it around at walking pace. Be sure to use a large Dacron loop so that the hook is loose and not tight against the bait’s head. If the hook is tight against the head then it will restrict the hook up.
Small baits need to be trolled with the boat just in gear otherwise the bait will tire quickly. Larger baits like striped tuna can be towed slightly faster but it is still painfully slow. One advantage of live baiting is that you can drift when you are right over the fish and if you mark one on the fish finder you can send a bait down to it. Live baiting is the only technique that allows you to fish deeper in the water column, but unless you are right on top of the fish it is wasted.
One final hint I can offer is when you do hook up don’t bring the other baits in because chances are there will be other marlin around as well. This is the only technique that allows you to keep fishing after hooking up, the chance of a double or even triple hook up are very real if you’re game!

Switch Baiting
The newest technique for marlin fishing is switch baiting, which really is a combination of lure trolling and natural baits. It combines the best of both techniques, giving you the speed of lure tolling and the better hook up rate of baits. The technique entails trolling hookless lures around and when the fish attacks you pull the hookless lure away and replace it with a natural bait complete with a circle hook. It is a highly effective method but it requires a lot of teamwork to be successful and is only really effective with a switched-on crew.
Switch baiting isn’t simply a matter of trolling around, waiting for a rod to go off. Instead the crew needs to be alert, watching the hookless lures at all times. The minute a fish is raised, the crew must act quickly because, just like men, marlin have short attention spans. The key to making a successful switch is to get the teaser off the fish and then replace it with the natural bait without the fish noticing.
Personally I have done a lot better with dead baits rather than livies for this job. The problem with livies is that the moment they hit the water they bolt and the marlin, which has been focused on the teaser, often misses the live bait. Alternatively, a dead bait skipping on the surface is easy to home in on. As with all natural baits, circle hooks are the best option and will give you the best hook up rate.
Switching works well on all species of marlin but it excels for striped marlin or, if your crew is really quick, you will get some fast and furious blue marlin action as well!

Live baiting is deadly on blacks and stripes but only where there are concentrations of bait.

Marlin Masters
Marlin aren’t hard to catch, but they are bloody difficult to find and the key to being a good marlin angler is to know which technique to use in the circumstances. You need to maximise your time on the water and if that means travelling a lot to find marlin then troll, but if you locate a bait ball down deep and can’t draw strikes then you need to deploy live baits quickly. Alternately, if there are striped marlin in the area and you are suffering a low conversion rate you need to decide whether to swap to skip baits or switch them.
If you want to catch a few marlin then you need to be flexible and change techniques to suit the scenario. Being a master at all four techniques will great improve your odds and see you hook up tight more often.