Black Marlin Fishing - A Journey To Remember

In the first place, black marlin is a magnificent fish. They are huge and strong and beautiful. Black marlin fishing could very well be the ultimate experience in sport fishing. Their dorsal side, also known as the top, is dark blue in color yet the dorsal fin is actually black. The underside is silvery white.

Speed

Blacks are very fast. They have been clocked at over eighty miles an hour. That's how fast they can unwind your line off your reel once you have hooked one. This fish has a streamlined design. The upper jaw tapers out into a long sharp point like the nose cone of a rocket. They are powered by an incredibly strong crescent-shaped tail.

Body Shape

The body is nearly flat on the sides. It bears a slight resemblance to the shape of a dog designed for high-speed chase such as a Borzoi or a Greyhound. Black marlin that have been tagged have been known to travel thousands of miles in remarkably short times. Blacks are not easy fish to catch. They seem to have a lot of sales resistance. Experienced sport fishers tell of spending long hours waiting for the first nibble.

Catching Black Marlin

Black marlin fishing is tricky because just getting one on the line is no guarantee you will take it home. They are fighters. Their muscular high-speed swimming has broken more than one line. There are various ways to attract a black marlin. One of the more effective is the use of live bait. The down side of this method is that it also attracts sharks. It isn't unknown to see a shark tear a thousand-pound fish to bits before it can be hauled into the boat.

Challenging

Even without competition from sharks, it isn't easy to haul one of these magnificent creatures into a boat. Even a good sized male can weigh three hundred pounds. But that's nothing compared to his sisters.

Record Breaking Marlin

Female black marlin can tip the scales at over a thousand pounds. Weights of eight or nine hundred pounds are not uncommon. The world record is held by one that weighed over fifteen hundred pounds.

Dangerous

If you don't think these fish are tough, use some imagination. Imagine a thousand pound female coming at you at 80 miles an hour with PMS and a bayonet. Lucky for you, they are more inclined to play hard-to-get.

Location

Fishing for these magnificent sea creatures can be an expensive hobby unless you happen to live in one of the locations where they abound. They make their habitat in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A trip to Africa, South America, Costa Rica, Mexico, Australia or New Zealand will provide a unique opportunity to catch one of these monster fish.

Habitat

The blacks tend to prefer life on a continental shelf rather than out in the deep water. They like the shallow water of archipelagos and reefs. The Great Barrier Reef off the Coast of Australia is a favorite destination for marlin seekers.

The record for the largest black marlin fishing catch with a rod and reel was set in 1953 off the coast of Peru. It weighed 1560 pounds. The captor donated it to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. You can also try blue marlin fishing.