Ghana Blue Marlin Video clip

[clt_capt]

She got mighty squeamish when she came up and that hook flapped at her. She was also un-nerved by the whitewash.

Made me think about hook placement near the front of the lure.... Just a thought...

[canyongear]

Makes you think about fishing lures with the drag backed off so she can finish her turn before it gets pulled away.

Bert

Good point! more reason for super sharp hook points.

[Mokarran]

It's ineresting to watch some of the lures completely disappear from view into the propwash.

It's hard to judge from this shorter vid since it is cut up so much but what I see looks like confused and frustrated fish. When they swim up behind the bait and swing their bills nothing happens. The bait doesn't react. I imagine in nature they are used to getting some sort of reaction like speeding up, slowing down or changing directions. It looks like they try a couple of times and then finally get frustrated and actually wack it. Which of course they get a solid thud on their bill if they hit the head or hook of the lure. How many times do they feel that when they hit a normal meal? Or have the meal grab them? I'm thinking a well timed drop-back like, before the fish starts hitting the lure but what do I know i've never caught one.

[Bert Rodgers]

It's ineresting to watch some of the lures completely disappear from view into the propwash.

It's hard to judge from this shorter vid since it is cut up so much but what I see looks like confused and frustrated fish. When they swim up behind the bait and swing their bills nothing happens. The bait doesn't react. I imagine in nature they are used to getting some sort of reaction like speeding up, slowing down or changing directions. It looks like they try a couple of times and then finally get frustrated and actually wack it. Which of course they get a solid thud on their bill if they hit the head or hook of the lure. How many times do they feel that when they hit a normal meal? Or have the meal grab them? I'm thinking a well timed drop-back like, before the fish starts hitting the lure but what do I know i've never caught one.

I'm pretty sure that's the same fish coming back over and over. Obviously she wasn't all that hot but she kept coming any way.

Bert

[Roddy Hays]

Mokarran : for a fella who's never caught one you've spotted some good points there !

There are a great many people in the world who fish for marlin, and a lot of them fish for blue marlin - you have to remember that not all marlin feed or act the same. I could probably put a $million on not one person in the world actually fishing the same as any other - when you take in to account all the variables between boats and gear, tactics and baits, rigging strategies and operating modes. Every one is different.

What I can tell you though is that I have had great success treating my lures as baits. All my trolled lures are fished out of rigger clips. All of them employ drop-back. I personally use Power Gum loops and Aftco Roller Trollers, almost everyone else I know in my circle of contacts uses Blacks and dacron loops. The effect of using either is pretty similiar.

However, using clips like this allows some refinements that might not be readily apparent - the most important of which is that your clip can be set to release at a given poundage. Like your reel-drags, you can set your clips to release as you want - I like mine to pop out at the merest touch, but they will still hold in for the drag of the lure and the surge of a wave or boat. Of course, once your lure has popped out and is in free-fall, you can continue the likeness to a bait by having your reel in free-spool or a very low-drag. You can then tighten up the drag when you want, and many successful fishermen fish just like this. Some don't, using a variety of drag settings ranging from a couple of pounds right up to the full-blooded equivalent of double 64's - that's 40lbs plus of strike.

Of course, to confound the issue, some anglers still fish their corner baits off the rod-tips, on heavy drags, and still do well..... nothing in marlin fishing is simple.

There's a reason why marlin do the wiggle behind a bait, and I'll leave Fred to explain that. He has his reasoning and I think it's a valid line of thought. I don't think blues whack hell out of the bait all of the time, mostly they're using the bill for other reasons, many of which are not apparent to clumsy humans with no experience of chasing bait underwater at 8 knots or more with a pointy nose. I'm pretty sure they expect the bait to do something else when it's been "wiggled", as thousands of previous years worth of evolution has so designed, and if a drop-back works well enough to give me the catch percentages I get, then that's fine by me - I'll carry on doing just that.

Personally, I think Mrs Marlin expects the bait to freeze in panic, stop as the water is pulled away from its tail, or spin out with a scale or two missing from the lateral line. One thing I do know is this - a marlin does not carry the bait or lure in its mouth for any great length of time before swallowing - and neither does it spit it out instantaneously. They've never felt a hook, so a hard object in the mouth is just another bone at first - I suspect they drop baits or baits get pulled out of their mouths because the boat is creating drag. As a fish grabs a bait, and then settles back in the water, it will many times try to adjust the bait's position in its mouth (just as in real life) and this is where I think the lure gets dropped half the time - this is especially true if the fish, lure, line and disappearing boat are all still in a line. The use of a clip and drop-back will often create enough of an angle before the line comes tight to overcome some of these problems.

Hope some of this makes sense.....

I met Gerard in Faial, Azores, in 1999. He showed me a great deal on his films, and my over riding impression of his activities was mostly of how many fish come to the wake but never show and fade away. He could see them on the monitor in the saloon, but they wouldn't always appear to the rest of the crew, even after he'd run out shouting "MARLIN !!" at the top of his voice and pointing to some spot in the wake. Crazy, but true. Gerard no longer bill-fishes but lazes away his life on a bonefish beach somewhere in South America, lucky fella !

[Squidnation]

I met Gerard in Faial, Azores, in 1999. He showed me a great deal on his films, and my over riding impression of his activities was mostly of how many fish come to the wake but never show and fade away. He could see them on the monitor in the saloon, but they wouldn't always appear to the rest of the crew, even after he'd run out shouting "MARLIN !!" at the top of his voice and pointing to some spot in the wake. Crazy, but true. Gerard no longer bill-fishes but lazes away his life on a bonefish beach somewhere in South America, lucky fella !

Roddy this very thing has had me wondering ever since my first goose hunting trip a few years ago. I would watch geese come into a field of decoys and all of a sudden peel off because of the slightest flaw in our presentation. It got me thinking of how many marlin and tuna come into a spread just to peel away because something didn't feel right. Well all know fish don't think they react. So something isn't allowing them to react.

On another note my son and I were having a similar conversation a few days ago and I remembered a statement that Guy Harvey made when he dove on a raised white marlin in Venezuela. He jumped in to get a closer look at the double that was raised to the teasers. He then decided to dive down about 15 or 20 feet and said for every billfish in the pattern he counted 6 or 7 below them.

[tom@marlinstar]

Underwater video is the future .......So much can be learned over time regarding the feeding characteristics of these magnificent fish. I have this video cassette and it is an excellent reference in viewing the pursuit,strike and hook-up of very large Blue Marlin. There have been some very keen observations made, the same ones I came up with when I first created the Tomahawk Lure.

Having fish in the pattern sink out after a few seconds of being in the pattern can be extremely frustrating,,,doubled if you happen to be fishing a money tournament. What happened? She was interested enough to check out the rattle and hum and the few baitfish in its wake. She swam close enough to eye-ball the baits,watch them swim, and wait for them to react. Every fish enters the spread in a different "state of mind"...some are just hot...jumping over lures to get to another...some check out each bait and after she is satisfied she finally strikes. Others enter the pattern, take a look and disappear into the depths with nothing more than a graceful kick of her tail. That is why I started making lures!

Fish Psychology Advanced Placement......

To keep this post Britannica-less....I will just say this. I prefer making lures that swim. Lures that act like a bait fish with the action being construed from a playful feeding mode to an all out escape mode. A big marlin is a smart creature. She didn't get to be 900 lbs by accident and she has seen her fare share of meals and the dynamics involved while spotting,chasing, and catching bait fish. Instinctively they can feel real bait panic and I believe a good lure can fool her into the same mode. Don't get me wrong here as I am not bashing or putting down any other products. There are pros and cons to every lure and I believe a varied mix of lure/lure types is vital to a successful spread.

Here is an underwater clip that I know some have seen but it is a good illustration of some of my talking points.

Video Player

[FAT CAT MX]

This is a great thread. I have this video (VHS) and I got it from Meltons last year. I can't stop watching it, as I notice something else every time I look.

Thanks to Capt Roddy and Marlin Star Mike (your lures look awesome) for their insight and where the hells Fred?

My current fishing addiction is the blue girls and I needed this fix!