August 17, 2024
Fact: If you want to run your own boat out into the ocean and fish for marlin, you’ll have some bills to pay. Big Bills. Fact: The first time you watch a billfish tail-dance from the port side of…
August 8, 2024
Being successful offshore depends on knowledge and skill, and relates less to luck than most other forms of fishing. Why? Because it isn’t as simple as putting a worm on a hook and waiting for a bite…
June 26, 2024
Fishermen are amazingly creative when it comes to rigging baits, especially baits for billfish. There are several methods to rig ballyhoo on circle hooks, and they all may work. Some people use…
June 28, 2023
Maybe you got a taste of tuna trolling on a charter boat trip, a buddy turned you on to the thrill of watching a marlin attacking a bait, or you got a bit adventurous and ran your own boat through…
June 22, 2023
The classic bait and switch is a widely known tactic for getting marlin to eat a hook, but traditionally, it’s performed with a hookless teaser and a hook-bait. In reality, most of the time…
April 6, 2023
Few things are more painful than running 50-plus miles one way, trolling offshore all day, then coming home with an empty fishbox. Ripping open 20-pound bags of unused ice and dumping the cubes over…
March 29, 2020
Every angler’s definition of fishing success varies, but I’m inclined to believe that each would include the phrase “catch fish.” When an angler says, “it was a beautiful, relaxing day of fishing,”…
December 10, 2019
You want to find and bait marlin? Set out to fish for bigeye tuna? No one ever hit a 95-mph fastball, shot par on a round of golf, sank three-pointers on the court, or strapped on a pair of skates…
July 30, 2019
If you think you're a decent billfish angler or consider yourself a lucky fisherman, then two tournaments are coming up this month that you may want to consider entering: the White Marlin Open and…
July 4, 2019
Nah, no one really chunks for billfish, do they? Not around here – but if you spend enough time chunking for tuna in the Mid-Atlantic region, sooner or later you’ll look over the transom to see a…
July 31, 2018
In Billfish Special Part I: Fishing and Baiting Marlin we examined factors like how to locate an appropriate area to troll for billfish, and how to troll for them. But once a marlin is in the spread…
July 21, 2018
Every offshore angler dreams of the moment they encounter a white marlin or a blue marlin, and we were all watching the our ballyhoo baits swim behind the boat when the shout came off the bridge: “…
July 5, 2017
A lot of effort goes into striped bass management in the Chesapeake. Every possible user group clamors for just a bit more of the pie, whether to sell these fish commercially, leave as brood-stock,…