BEST PLACES & TIME OF YEAR FOR BLUE MARLIN

[KEITH_SCHMIDT]

Where are the Best places to go Blue Marlin fishing and the time of the year /month to go fishing at these destinations Thanks Keith

[Capt._Hioram_Concepcion]

Starting about this time of year they come in thick. Saw over 30 between April 1-4 Raised 11 release 1 Raised 9 white and released 2 fishing gets better on the dark side of the moon.
Report from the Courtesan Too

[Warren_Brantley]

For Atlantic Blue Marlin the time is NOW in Venezuela. I have fished 36 days since July, 2004 (July/August/September/October/January/February and March) in Venezuela. For the Blue Marlin the months of March and April are the best. Other months in Venezuela offer shots but not always daily and you can go a week and not get a Blue but get plenty of Whites or Sails. There are many boats to select from and your comfort needs and income determine what to choose. I have found Venezuela to have the best marlin fishery in the world. E-mail me if you want a specific referral. I find Venezuela a magnificent fishery and I and my sons go quite often. The country does not fill everyone's expectations and those persons should go elsewhere. For me Venezuela is the place!!! It is "par excellant" for Blue Marlin and the few boats plying the water right now have chances of CATCHING 1 to 3 blues daily! The tournament down there is in about one week.

Another fishery, often overlooked, and doing rather well this month is Kona and Maui. The Pacific Blue Marlin run smaller on average with 50% of them being well under 100 pounds. But you also have more shots at the giant Blues at these locations. Hawaii is having their best marlin run in several years at present though they had some weather problems in March. There are a huge number of charters to choose from in all price ranges. Just go online and search. You can find online boats from $300 a day out of Kona. The bite will improve, with May and June being the best months. Go and study online and contact some captains. Also, boat prices in Hawaii are comparable to Venezuela. An excellent fishery and a beautiful state with deep waters adjacent to shore.

In both Hawaii and Venezuela, billfish are plentiful and considered part of the food staple. Marlin can be found in fish markets, bought online from Hawaii as Marlin Jerky, and served as Sashimi. This is also true in parts of Australia and New Zealand. You can charter a boat that does catch and release only and make that fact known in advance if you find this bothersome.

Best of luck with your billfishing endeavors. May you catch the Blues! WB

[Rick]

GOING IN LATE JUNE,ANY CONTACTS FOR A GOOD BOAT/CAPTAIN

[Warren_Brantley]

Thanks for asking. The boats catching in Maui (billfish) as per the last catch report in "Hawaii Fishing News" are: Iwa Lele (657# Blue), Ho'okela, Start Me Up Again, Start Me Up La Dat, Hinatea, No Problem, Reel Hooker, Finest Kind, Tale Walker, Kanoa, Ikaika Kai and Desperado. Go to "sportfishhawaii.com" to get the costs on a charter for Maui or go to Search for other charter sites. Log on to "Hawaiifishingnews.com" to read up on the fishery and see pictures of granders. They eat 60-70% of the billfish they catch. Tell them if you want to catch and release only.

The "Iwa Lele" crew catches live bait the afternoon before and heads out at 4:30 AM to get ahead of the crowd. Some of us are going down to Maui and/or Kona late May, early June for a week plus of billfish pursuit. Spearfish all around for everyone!! Let us know what you caught. Mahalo, Warren Brantley

[David_West]

Hi Keith
That's a pretty far ranging question!

Certainly for numbers Venezuela wants a lot of beating. But also, and this is making a sweeping assumption, on your side of the Pond (Western Atlantic?) St Thomas on the August and September full moons provides excellent sport, both in terms of numbers and higher average size.

In the Eastern Atlantic the 'granders' come from venues like Ghana and Ascension Island. But Cape Verde (off the coast of Senegal) produces numbers. It was there that Stewart Campbell released, if memory serves me correct, 22 Blues in a single day. there the fishery runs from May through to July. From what I've heard they've already in the last week released a 700 and a potential 'grander'.

Although it's no where near as predictable Madeira also released several 800s in the past few weeks.

Apart from Hawaii in the Pacific have you considered Costa Rica? It similarly produces reasonable numbers of Blues, mixed in with masses of big Sailfish.
Kindest regards
Dave West
Chairman - Sportfishing Club of the British Isles
www.scbi.org.uk

[LS_Wilkinson]

If el nino has it's full effect...Los Cabos may be a good spot in July...eighty plus degree water...basically, el nino expands the equator (sp?)...making weather more extreme...this means better fishing in the San Francisco Bay Area...note the limits of king salmon lately?
In 1983, the last large el nino, my late father saw a striped marlin off the farllones (sp?)...In 94 there were Dorado (dolphin) caught off the SF Bay...EL NINO SHOULD NOT FAIL...good luck...and good fishing!

regards,
LSW

[Mike]

I WAS LOOKING TO GO TO CABO SAN LUCAS. AND THE MAIN REASON FOR MY TRIP WAS TO MARLIN FISH. CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE BEST TIME OF YEAR TO GO HERE.

[Susan_Maza]

Hi David:

I am from Guatemala, and my company is www.sportfishingventures.com, I heard a lot about Senegal, and I have a very nice invitation to go there for October, my friend told me about Tarpoon Fishing, did you heard something about this Fishing there?.

But anyway, about Blue Marlin, this year particularly we have here in Guatemala a lot of Blue and Black Marlin, almost all my clients caughted one, being off season of this Specie, sometimes in March, April and in the last National Tournament that was May 14th., they released 12 in just one day, and the guy that won the Tournament released 2 in less than two hours, which is very excellent!!!, I know about Costa Rica and I being there several times fishing in Tournaments and for vacations, Quepos, Flamingo and Los Sueños, and somedays was a very good.

I don´t have anything against Costa Rica, in fact I admire them for to be so smart in exploted the Tourism, but Guatemala has a very nice concentration of Sailfish and Marlin, maybe is one of the best countries in the world for this Sportfishing.

I imagine that you being here, if not I invite you to come and see by your own of what we have.

My very best, and hope to hear from you,

SPORTIFHISHINGVENTURES


Susan Maza


Nice meeting you and

[EP]

You can really go to Puerto Rico in the months of may to july Great catches in San Juan, on july to october the west side (Mayaguez)is marvelous, only think in a place can you cath 5 or 6 blue in a day.

[MS]

You can really go to Puerto Rico in the months of may to july Great catches in San Juan, on july to october the west side (Mayaguez)is marvelous, only think in a place can you catch 5 or 6 blue in a day and if you got lucky maybe see 12 o 15, ask to the captains of Extreme BXRL Espn challenge. They got a really good numbers on 2004.

[David_West]

I guess just to illustrate the potential of Cape Verde fishing from the island of Sao Vincente with some friends we released 8 Blues in a 5 day charter at the end of May. But an American friend of my has literally just returned and was enthusing about 19 from 37 bites in a 9 day charter.

As I previously mentioned most of the fish aren't large, sub 300, but reasonable fish always feature in catches. What is apparent though are the poorish conversion rates. On our best two days we went 3 for 6 and 2 for 8. But a fellow Club member fishing there at the same time had a frustrating day of ZERO from 9 hookups!

Given the fairly rough seas - Cape Verde sits in the middle of the Trade Winds - the crews tend to use large lures. I suspect that many of the fish attempt to 'kill' the lures with their bills and end up with a wrap so you get the runs, some jumps and a 'Palm Beach Release'!

Seriously, especially for European anglers, it's reasonably priced and as close as you're likely to get for a guaranteed Blue.
Kindest regards
Dave

[Marlinhunter]

Venezuela, St. Thomas, Punta Cana and Cabo Verde are fine for Atlantic Blues.

But for Pacific Blues, you'll want to be in Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Hawaii and Baja.

[David_West]

To put things into perspective I've noted below the statistics for the Cape Verde season - fishing in the main off Sao Vincente, but occasionally Sao Nicolau - for one of the charter boats, Andromeda, a 46' Bertram. They fished 74 days from April 24th until July 19th and caught 79 Blues, all were released. The largest fish was estimated at 850lbs, although fishing with some Russian anglers they lost an estimated 1100 pounder on the leader.

In total they hooked 162 - see my earlier comments about bill wraps - out of the 235 they raised. That works out to an average of over 3 a day throughout the season.

I understand that next season Andromeda is planning to fish from late April through to September. (The local fleet traditionally fish through to October.)

[Michael_Wagner]

we have great blue marlin fishing june to september on the dominican republics east coast, areas are called punta cana, bavaro, macao, cap cana, uvero alto
info about charters with professional crews you'll find on www.mikes************************.info
or mail your questions directly to Mike on Mike@Mikes************************.info

[Johan_Pettersson]

I worked in Cape Verde (Happy Hooker)in sept this year and in a total of 8 days we caught and released the following fish, 800 Ibs , 600Ibs, 500 Ibs, 300Ibs. We also lost two grander size fish that both came close to the boat. Had a few more fish that pulled the hooks. Lost a white too...
And this was in september when everybody thinks that the season is over.
If I had my mission set to catch a blue I would set my aim on this place.

Tight lines!
Johan Pettersson

[michael_lucarelli]

anyone have advice on cheap 3 day full day charter for blue marlin, etc... in puerto rico? as well as hotel? etc...I live in new york city, so puerto rico is pretty convenient and closest i can find to me for some summer blue marlin fishing, i know venezuela and some other places are better but too far for me.

[Natalie]

My fiance and I are looking for a great place to marlin fish in early july for our honeymoon. I would like to go somewhere we can do a variety of things as well. Any suggestions??

[Michael_Wagner]

puerto ricos west coast like our punta cana dominican east are great for white marlin in may and june, on the dominican side we get them only 2-8nmls offshore, for blues in the area you should wait til end of june, better mid july
Mike

[Nick_Fuegi]

I like the sound of fishing Cape Verde and hope to do so. However, if you're not JUST fishing and want something to do on land, Venezuela is a run-away winner. Beats everywhere else I've fished in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. Both in terms of number of marlin and especially in terms of what else you can do/see in the country.

You've got the Andes, Amazonas, Los Roques, Los Llanos, Canaima, Gran Sabana, Angel Falls etc etc etc. These are all life-time "must sees" if you're going on fishing trip anyway.

You could spend three months in Venezuela and still see something totally new and amazing every day.

Just make sure you take a good hard look at the damage being done to the environment of the whole place, consider what else is going on in South America and try to do what you can to help look after it all in for the future.

Check out these other threads more info about fishing in Venezuela.
http://www.marlinmag.com/forum.jsp?ID=556164
http://www.marlinmag.com/forum.jsp?ID=558167

Nick

[Rick_Alvarez]

IT WAS 'TEAM RELEASE' ALL THE WAY

AT THE

SOLERA OPEN INTERNATIONAL LA GUAIRA BILLFISH SHOOTOUT

La Guaira, Venezuela, March 12th, 2006 - Anglers Jaime Riveiro, Luis
Millan Jr and David Benzaken, fishing aboard the 51' Riviera, Release,
with Captain Luis 'Loro' Millan jumped out to an early lead on day one
with four blue marlin and never looked back during the prestigious all
release Solera Open International La Guaira Billfish Shootout held in La
Guaira March 7th thru 12th. By the end of the third and final day, Team
Release had amassed a total of 4,700 points with nine blue marlin plus one
sailfish releases in the three days of competition marking the first time
in its twelve year history that the Shootout is won by a local Venezuelan
team.

Despite strong challenges on day 3 from the local anglers aboard Adelina
who released 3 blues and 2 sails on the final day placing them second in
the overall team standings with a final tally of 3,400 points and the
Puerto Rican team aboard Mojito who scored a thousand points on day three
to finish third with a total of 3,000 points for the 6 blues they released
during the event, Team Release managed to hold on comfortably even though
they only caught one blue on that last day.

Competing with the required
official tournament line, Sufix Supreme, the blue marlin action in this year's Solera Open Shootout was fast and
furious where every tournament boat, without exception, released at least two blues during
the tournament, for a final per boat average of almost five blues. This
is the second best per boat blue marlin average in the history of the 12
year old event and is only exceeded by the 6.4 blues per boat average
recorded in the record breaking 1999 Shootout when a total of 256 blues
were released in 3 days aboard 40 boats.

In the individual angler category there was another first for Venezuela
with one of their favorite sons taking top honors for the first time in
Shootout history. Luis Millan Jr of Team Release posted an impressive
point total of 3,500 points releasing seven blues. He was followed by
anglers Massimo Ortisi also from Venezuela fishing aboard Adelina with
2,200 points resulting from 4 blues and a sail, and American Larry I'anson
fishing aboard Guarimba with 2,000 points for the 4 blues he released.

There was yet another first for Venezuela in this year's Shootout. In
the annual softball game played on the lay-day pitting Venezuela vs All
Visitors, Venezuela prevailed for the first time in the 3 year tradition
crushing the Visitors by a score 14 to 4. The game had to be called on
account of lack of equipment after the Venezuelans knocked all game balls
out of the park with several consecutive home runs!!! We'll see what
happens next year . . . Special thanks go out to our Title Sponsors for
making sure nobody went thirsty during the game and the entire tournament
for that matter by providing plenty of Solera Premium Beer, Pepsi, 7UP,
Gatorade and Minalva Bottled Water. Also, special thanks are in order to
angler Luis Angel Rincon, owner of Mango ************************ and his staff for hosting
and making the Pirates of the Caribbean Rum Bash held on the night before
the game, another tremendous success. Maybe the visitors partied a little
too much at the Rum Bash and that's why they were so badly defeated the
next day?

Mark your calendars for the upcoming Venezuelan International Super Slam
scheduled for September 27th thru October 2nd. The tournament promises to
be another great one. Observers interested in participating please
contact Michelle Zelones at bluefin@usa.com or 561 310 3474. For charter
boats contact FishQuest Sportfishing Adventures at 1 888 891 3474 (from
outside the U.S. 706 896 1403). For dockage please email
info@intlbillfishtourns.com. Register online at
www.intlbillfishtourns.com. We look forward to the pleasure of your company.

[traveltime]

A group of six couples will be in Maui in early March 2007. The guys want to take an all-day charter fishing trip. Can they expect to catch Marlin at that time of the year? Do you have a favorite boat and captain to recommend?
Thanks.
Donna

[Mike_in_TX]

Where would you recommend for catching billfish in the latter part of the year, or should I wait until Spring? I'm suprising my spouse on our 20th anniversary with a trip.
Thanks.

[Seth]

This is for marlin in general:
Australia: Sept-Nov Blacks
Azores: July-Sept Blues
Bermuda: June-July Blues
Brazil: Oct-Dec Blues
Hawaii: June-Aug Blue
Madeira: June-Sept Blues
Mauritius: Dec-Mar Blues and Blacks
N.Carolina: Aug-Oct Blues
Panama: Dec-Apr Blues and Blacks
Tahiti: Sept-Apr Blues

There are many excellent destinations out there and this is not an absolute list.

[Jose_]

mike,
Venezuela is the best and it is all year round with the spring being most productive.

[puertoricofishin]

If your planning on coming to Puerto Rico to go Marlin fishing, just do a google search for puerto rico fishing charters. You will come up with a few, just give them a call and ask them what the best time to plan your trip will be. If you come to the san juan area (capital), there are many hotels in the San Juan area (Isla Verde, Old San Juan). If you decide to go to the west of the island to fish the areas near Dominican Republic, there are also a few hotels that way. Just call the charters they will usually be straight foward and recomend hotels.
I work in a Boutique Hotel if your interested just let me know, it's in Old San Juan. www.cervantespr.com the prices are there, but if you PM me or Email me we could work out a discount.

[henryatencio]

Viva Venezuela!!!