Adventurous Black Marlin Fishing

by erin on December 26, 2011

If you love sport fishing and you can’t resist a challenge, black marlin fishing may be your dream adventure. These magnificent creatures are remarkably good looking in addition to being huge. They are also strong and fast and persistent fighters. Their attractive coloring would look well on an expensive convertible sports car. The dorsal side is not really black. It’s a distinctive shade of blue, darker than that of the blue marlin. The lower side is an almost metallic white.

High Performance Fish

These are high-performance fish. They can travel at speeds up to eighty miles an hour. That isn’t as fast as your sports car but it can unwind a lot of line off your reel in very little time. Like an interplanetary rocket, this fish is designed with a long tapering nose cone. It’s propelled by a powerful tail. Its solid body is packed with muscle like a sea-going super hero.

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.

Speed

Once they have taken the bait, the fight is only beginning. With black marlin fishing, they don’t surrender easily. And their high-speed swimming has broken more than one line. Black marlins like live bait. Unfortunately so do sharks. Sharks can rip a marlin to pieces before its captors can haul it into the boat.

Fishing

Even without interference from sharks, it’s no easy task to get a full-grown black marlin into a boat. A mature male can weigh three or four hundred pounds. But he would be the runt of the litter.

Female Species

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.

Danger

These are not fish to be taken lightly. If you can imagine an angry thousand- pound female coming toward you with a bad attitude and a bayonet, you have some idea what you are going to be fighting with. Fortunately for you, they would usually prefer freedom to revenge.

Cost

Fishing for these splendid creatures is not an inexpensive undertaking. They are found in the waters near places like Africa, Peru, Mexico and Australia. If you don’t live near the warmer parts of the Pacific or Indian oceans, you may have to spend some frequent flyer miles.

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 was set in 1953 and still stands. Maybe you will be the one to break that record. All you have to do is bring one in that is bigger than 1560 pounds. If you enjoy black marlin fishing, you may also enjoy blue marlin fishing. They are a great species to catch as well.

 

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