Fishing for Marlin
on the Reef
We typically run three rods when fishing for marlin on the reef. Our shortest bait will be what we call the “big bait” on the rigger. The big bait is typically a mackerel or tuna “skip” bait.
A skip bait is exactly what it sounds like, a bait that skips along the surface of the water which draws the marlin’s attention from down below.
Next we have our swim bait – our scad – on the other rigger. The perfect swim bait will swim life-like below the surface. If you’re rigging your scad well, it will be difficult to see from deck level. If you’re rigging your scad really well it will be difficult to see from even the tower level!! (see: holding the scad on the right!)
Occasionally we will rig a rainbow runner or Queenfish as a swim bait… but its most typically a scad which is why we spend so much time scad fishing. It falls victim to big marlin but also a lot of the bities on the reef like wahoo and barracuda hence we go through a lot of them!
The third bait we run is typically a center rigger long – we call it a shotgun or stinger – because of how fast the clip can come back at you when it’s hit by a marlin.
Stinger bait: The stinger bait can be a swim bait or skip bait (or even a lure) depending on Captain Luke’s preference on the day and also the weather conditions of course.
We often run a tuna on the stinger bait as a skip bait because of the way that they can ‘surf’ (because of the body shape of tuna) from the higher center rigger position.
As a swim bait it can be a larger scad or queenfish. As a skip bait, it might be a smaller sharky mackerel or Spanish mackerel or larger rainbow runner.
The reason we don’t run too big baits on the shotgun is obviously with the distance, particularly in weather you have to tighten the clip too much so that when you get the bite, it’s too hard for the marlin to get the bait out of the clip and often spooks them.
Not what you want!
Rainbow Runners: Considered good baits because they have thicker skin and can last a lot longer than a mackerel with quite thin skin.
We call them “Rodneys”!
Rodney can be hard to catch because they have this knack of doing a last minute head shake as you bring them over the side and getting off the hook!
Scad and holding the scad: Scad and a well swimming scad will attract almost anything that eats on the reef and so we do tend to go through a lot of them. Hence we spend a lot of time scad fishing when bait fishing in the mornings before we go fishing for marlin. Because a well swimming scad is hard to see from anywhere on the boat, when we’re not doing something else, Captain Luke will typically have us sit on the scad rod and hold the rigger. But what we’re doing at this point is feeling a bite!
The sneaky scad bite is my favourite bite of all – after all, elephants eat peanuts – but even better is actually feeling the bite as you’re holding it!
Dropping the rigger bait: When you see a boat turn on the reef it’s typically a skipper turning on the mark of what may be a big marlin! Many skippers will turn on their swim baits to drop the bait even lower in the water column to be more visible to the marlin below. But others, Luke included, will turn on their big baits (skip baits). The reason being to get this big bait into clean water in the turn and even more visible to the hopefully big fish below!
When one the veteran skippers sees a boat turn all of a sudden he will know what’s just happened. Most of them will simply go about their business but maybe pay a bit more attention to ol’ mate to see what comes of it and if they hook up! But some guys will see this as an invitation to chug on over and try and run their own baits over the mark and then proceed to drive all over you.
The lesson here: Don’t be a chugger!!
Swimming the scad: a little bend here, tweak of the rigging here and pop it over the side on the leader to see how she swims. A good swimmer with get the whistle of satisfaction from the skipper above. Otherwise there might be more tweaking and consultation on how she is swimming and which side she is favouring.
And we keep a good eye on the scad when we are swimming. They have raised marlin in this fashion before!
