This may be the ultimate of the big game fish – the one Hemingway so often wrote about. Blue marlin of the Palm Beachs average between 200 to 400 pounds. We rig 80 pound class tackle and expect to fight a marlin for 2-4 hours. Our method of catching these gladeators is to first catch live bonito. While the boat is slowly moving forward, we quickly return them to the water alive and rigged with a much larger hook and larger rod. We slow troll the bonitos as we continue to fish for other species. They make great teasers but usually don’t last long before something eats them. Allot of time a marlin will inhale the bonito as your fighting the bonito. So now hold on, your in for the fight of your life hooking one of these monsters on smaller rods.
The prime area to live bait for marlin with bonita is just of the Juno Pier, between 160 and 300 feet of water. In the last 5 years the sharks have gotten so abundant that its almost impossible live bait a bonita without having sharks inhaling then. The best month to marlin fish is June and July and just prior to the full moon.
We also catch white marlin while sailfishing . White marlin average 100 pounds and are crazy acrobatics. Generally we catch them in deeper water of 300 feet plus. The method of catching a white is live baiting or trolling.
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