White Marlin Fly Rod Setup

[hobie2]

I recently saw either an article or a post about catch sailfish or marlin on the fly and am putting together my setup. anyone either know the line/leader/tippet/fly combo or know the article/post i am talking about?

[2dogs1949]

I don't know the article you refer to but Trey Combs has written a book on Bluewater Fly Fishing. Very informative and has all the info you are looking for. He recommends 2 rods for all his bluewater and 10 and a 13.
I took a 12 to Cabo but never hooked up. Did some dorado on my 9 though.

[controlled chaos]

Never got a white marlin but my brother and I have been pretty successful getting sails up to about 75-80lbs on a 9 and a 9 wt down here in south florida. Haven't had any bigger ones come up to eat. We don't troll up the fish though. We live chum with pilchards and cast to the sails with a similar pattern fly. I haven't had real trouble getting them to the boat with the 9 wt. It just takes a few minutes. The setup I am using is pretty basic. About 300yds of spectra 20lb backing, then the fly line, then my leader is a 4 ft section of 40 > 2 ft section of 30 > 2 ft section of 20 to the fly.

If the leader is wearing through on the 20 then I just lengthen the 40lb to 6 ft > a 3 ft section of 30 to the fly. I never use more than 30 with these sails down here.

We are casting from 15 to about 40 feet to get to these fish and we usually see 10-12 sails during a whole day come around and we always seem to hook one on fly when they come around in schools of 2-3. Haven't gotten more than 2 on fly in a day yet but we are working on it.

I haven't read the book mentioned above yet but I am sure it couldn't hurt. I might pick it up from amazon today and check it out!

Cheers