Need help on Blue Marlin Spread

[Capt. Terry]

Blue Marlin fishing is like deer hunting. There are alot of woods out there but the big bucks aint sitting at the fence waiting for some 12 year old to come along and shoot him. You have to be where he is. All this talk about this lure up close and that lure on the third wave is nonsense. If you arent in the right area, You never will hook one. I dont care if all your lures are Kissed by black bart himself. I have caught blue marlin on a 4 dollar lil stubby in tinsel. You have to be in the right water, with the right bait present. If your not nothing else matters. Then again, a clock that doesnt work tells the right time twice a day, so anything is possible. Forget about what your pulling, and does it smoke, fish for them like hunting trophy bucks. The reason some are more successful thqn others has nothing to do with what they pull, its where they pull it. They recoginize the signs that say.......Fish here. learn that, and you will hook up.

WELL I AGREE WITH YOU TO A POINT HERE - EXCEPT FOR THE FACT ABOUT HUNTING TROPHY BUCKS.......ON THE MERE ANGLE OF ................SOME OF THE BIGGEST TROPHY BUCKS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY SOME OF THE NONE HUNNNNTIIINNNNNESSSSTTTTTTT DUDES I HAVE EVER MET - THAT DID NO BOW HUNTING, NO PRE-SEASON SCOUTING,.....NO HOMEWORK,.....NO SHED HUNTING POST SEASON,.......NO SCRAPE HUNTING,......NO CAMERA POSTING AND FOLLOW UP,......NO RATTLING,,,,........

......JUST WENT INTO THE WOODS SAT AT THE BASE OF A BIG OAK AND HAD A SLOB WALK RIGHT TO 'EM.......LOTS OF SKILL LEVEL THERE.......


SH*T BRO THERE HAVE BEEN MORE BLUE MARLINS CAUGHT INSIDE OF THE 30 FATHOM LINE THIS PAST WEEK OF OUR BEACH THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A STICK AT.......

I PERSONALLY KNOW 3 BOATS UNDER 29 FOOT THAT CAUGHT 3 DIFFERENT BLUE MARLIN - AND THATS GREAT FOR THEM........AND SURE EVEN A BLIND SQUIRREL FINDS A NUT EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE....BUT I THINK AS FAR AS PURELY TARGETING THE BLUE MARLIN - THERE IS A SERIOUS ART TO IT......

I THINK THAT'S WHAT CAPT FRED ARCHER IS BASICALLY TRYING TO STATE HERE - I MEAN THE MAN HAS PROBABLY MORE BLUE RELEASES UNDER HIS CAP THAN MOST COULD FATHOM TO DREAM ABOUT COUNTING..........I TAKE WHAT HE SAYS FOR SERIOUS FOR MY POINT OF VIEW ANYWAY.

THANKS FOR YOUR INSIGHT CAPT FRED. I WILL BE IN TOUCH.

[Over Under]

I guess I gotta through my 1 cents in here. We have caught more blue marlin in the Bahamas on the lure below, than anything else. We've double hooked rigged it with great success and Joe tells me he does as well with stiff single hook rigs (although my experience is that double hook was better).

Run em close, up and tight behind the bridge teasers, 7.5 to 9 knots depending on sea conditions. This is one of those S. Florida Lures that just plain works...a lot of guys use the Bluewater stuff for Wahoo (us too), but this lure for Marlin I think is tough to beat, and we've tried a lot of stuff over the years....purple/black our most consistent color. grenn/yellow is one to have in the aresenal when they are feeding on small schoolie dolphin. the blue/white looks good...but the purple/black is the one that I'd bet on, especially when it's running from the right short rigger on the OU!

Rick's Fancy

[Patudo]

Hubris is dead right about needing to find them. That's where lure fishing comes into its own over bait fishing (IMO) because the higher search speed gives you a tactical advantage. They are fewer compared to the meat fish and working at higher speed gives you a better chance of coming across the signs that if you're lucky will lead you to one. Of course if you are really dialed into the bite and the area you may be able to go straight to a particular location and get a bite (live bait techniques really shine here) but the average private boater likely won't have this level of local knowledge.

Where it's different is that you can point your rifle at a buck once within range and take the shot. But with the marlin you need to actually get him to come up behind your vessel, open up his mouth and take the hook. That's where having the lure smoking on the third wave comes in. Perfecting the illusion that gives you the best possible chance of making him open up and say aah. Now I've had blue marlin bites on an assortment of really unlikely sh1t over the years, witnessed lures that I thought were presented like crap get nailed, and just as Terry says that some of the biggest bucks will at times fall to the dumbest hunter I've seen some really nice fish get caught sometimes so easily, or on such inadequate or poorly maintained gear that it almost seemed like they wanted to get caught. But I can say for certain that over the long haul the harder you work at perfecting the illusion the better your chances are going to be. It doesn't matter if your lures cost $100 or $10. The best designed artificial lure will no more swim right by itself than the perfect ballyhoo bait will rig and fish itself. This is not an aspect of the blue marlin game that can or should be overlooked. Once you have done the hard work of finding the signs, what you're pulling behind the boat is the only means whereby you can bring them up and to get them hooked.

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I think that Rick's Fancy is the same as the Big T Etosha. Good lure that, I know one that this year has caught a bunch of fish to 900 with a real good hookup ratio. Not too big and not too small. Big Ts really are one of the most underrated lure brands out there.

best regards
patudo

[WahooKing]

Good discussion.

I agree location is key...It is a very high % in the entire trolling game...I would say around 70% goes to location...The other 30% consist of preparation, tackle, your system/strategy, your spread and teamwork...Unless your fishing for the one big fish, I take luck out of equation...As a wise Capt. once told me...You can catch em but you can't grow em.

Lets say for the sake of this discussion, your fishing a BM release tournament (quantity not quality format)...We like to think we all make the right call for location...You get to the spot and there are a couple of boats in the general area...70% is out the door...Now, you have 30% to play/compete with...If preparation, tackle and teamwork are relatively the same compared to the other boats in that area, you have small percentages to work with...That is why its so important to capitalize on a perfected system/strategy and spread...A better system/strategy/spread %, can and will give you the winning edge...it should never be overlooked. I've been there...I've seen it happen...I'm a believer.

Reminds me of a Wahoo tournament we won last season...4 biggest fish format...We get to a location, which happened to be the right location...And low and behold my friends/customers are behind us...The only two boats at this particular location...I know he's running virtually the same lures and pretty much everything was equal between us....Our strategy changed to sliding the fish through the doors and not gaffing them...we wanted to save every oz...we won by 4 oz...my buddy came in 2nd with gaffed fish....the little things can make a difference.

Anthony
Ace Fishing Lures

[Captain Fred Archer]

Man, this has turned out to be one of the best threads ever, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Captain Terry, thanks for the props. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while and considering the fact that I caught my first blue ones (two in one day) back when I was only thirteen years old and have been fishing for them for another fifty two-years (man, talk about older than dirt!), for many of those years on a near-daily basis, I was pretty much bound to have bumped into a goodly number of blue ladies and to have made more mistakes than most and, hopefully, come up with some pretty good solutions for them.

I call the captain "the hunter" and the mate "the trapper" in my marlin and other books because I believe that huge parallels exist between the land and the water ones. And the very best hunters and trappers I have had the great privilege to have know and fished with have always been great teams that are damned near breathtaking to watch work when hunting and when a blue girl gets stuck in a trap ("Right rigger, right rigger, right rigger! Blue, blue, blue!" (ever notice that it's bellowed out three times by most of us? Not me, of course, but most of those others who get out of control and shit .)

And that wonderful teamwork literally shines when a fish is hooked up and the trapper first clears the dance floor for the hunter, who suddenly becomes a "fancy dancer" and starts doing his Virginia Blue Lady Reel with that "Devil with the blue dress on".

Then, while the hunter-turned-dancer is hopping away up top, the trapper is now the angler coach and is also dancing, but to a different tune. Soon, or maybe not-so-soon, it comes time to say goodnight to that hot momma and here too, the hunter and the trapper combine to make sure that she stays clear of whirling props and deadly banging of her head on the "wall" of our magic hunting, trapping and dancing machine and that she goes home just a little tired from her "date with the boys".

Ah, damn, fifty-three years of working with some great trappers and those naughty girls with the blue dresses on...there were many, many of them...more than most would probably believe. But that isn't important. The point is, I can never do it again, but would in a heartbeat if the docs and a broken ticker would let me. Perhaps more importantly, I see a terrific group of new dancers and trappers with some old and some new steps and traps here, their souls singing and howling to and at them when they even think of that grand gal that we all love.

Dance and trap on, my friends. But please, tell us about it when it happens. There is at least one old hunter in these parts whose heart and soul will dance right along with you...as best he can nowadays, that is.

Thank you Lord for those many spectacular days and memories and please allow many others to share in the glory of your creation.

May I have this dance?

Until otherwise stated, from here on in, $12.51 from the sale of every marlin book (that's one half of the gross selling price, less one half of the fifteen percent that we donate to Lab Rescue from all of our books) will be donated to the fund for the help and care of another old hunter dear to my heart and in now in great need, Captain Tred Barta. These funds will be sent to Captain Lenny Belcaro for placement wherever they are needed most. And you fight on, you old hunter! Ya hear?

(And no, Tred, this doesn't mean that I forgive you for catching more bigeye than I did back when we were basically kids and caught and sold them. Some things I just can't forgive! )

Website www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com

[Zummie]

Capt. Archer, Your Marlin book is listed "out of stock" on your website. How can an E book be out of stock? Is it sold on DVD disks? I sure wish you sold printed copies. I like the feel and portability of real books.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Zummy,

The new marlin book is up on the site and cooking. It was off temporarily because it was being updated. That's one of the good things about e-books versus ordinary books...they can be, and in our case, are updated regularly as new developments and insights come along. In most cases, we send previous buyers the updated versions free. That's a more than pretty good feature when it comes to books and it leaves the conventional type in the dust.

And remember, half of the proceeds of your purchase and anyone else's, less one half of the contribution that we make to Lab Rescue for every book that we sell (and we make up for the other half of that) goes to a fund for helping with the huge medical costs of Captain Tred Barta.

I hope that you enjoy the book (which is going to shock the hell out of you), but far more importantly, thank you for helping Captain Tred, who is in dire need right now.

[Zummie]

Just bought it, thanks. This is my first E book. Is it sent to me on disks or do I download it somewhere?

[Mokarran]

Z- You will get it as an email attachment. You can print yourself out a copy but it's over 200 pages. If you do print it out I highly recommend you get several colors of highlighters and design a color coded reference system for yourself. You will get a lot of use out of it. The little sticky page tabs in various colors that you can write on work well too. Read the whole thing straight through first, then go back and reread it while implementing the reference system you developed. It will make it very easy to find those tasty little viddles later. Enjoy!

[Captain Fred Archer]

Zummy,

We, the pups and most of all, Tred thank you for your purchase and for putting up with my tinkering and updating. I hope that you enjoy the book. Don't forget to give it reading itself to you a try.

Mokarran,

Good advice. Thank you for that. "Tasty little vittles"...very cool!