Blue Marlin

The blue marlin is a real ocean wanderer, ranging widely through all the worlds great oceans. These fish grow very big, the atlantic record being about 1400lbs. A true apex predator, they follow the bait fish around the worlds currents.

Blue Marlin Blue Marlin

Fishing Method

Heavy tackle and fast trolled marlin lures are the normal method, although some anglers have success with trolled live and deadbaits. Fish over 1000lbs have been taken on the Algarve coast, we hooked up and fought an estimated 800lb fish for four hours, within a few weeks of Reefcat being launched.  Whilst it is possible to fish stand up for blue marlin, the fish here can run very big, so most of the time we would recommend 80lb tackle designed to be used from a fighting chair. Reefcat has a "Reelax" fighting chair and bucket harness allowing much more pressure to be put on the fish. The idea is to tire the fish quickly, so it can safely be tagged and released, if the fight is too long the fish risks dying from exhaustion. However, a sizable blue marlin can take upwards of 2 hours to beat, and I gurantee the angler will be as tired as the fish.

Blue marlin are found in "blue" offshore water, on the Algarve coast this is usually found a minimum of 10 miles offshore, although some fish have been caught in much closer.

Season

Blue marlin normally appear around August with the season running into October according to water temperature.