The art of the marlin

This time of year, white and blue marlin begin to show up in the canyons offthe New Jersey coast. But to catch one takes time, practice and plenty ofpatience.
Most of the encounters that boats from Monmouth and Ocean counties have with marlin are by chance, during the pursuit of tuna in the offshore canyons, primarily the Hudson Canyon.

In the northern canyons, where most boats from the Shore area fish, the marlin are more sporadic.

But in the southern canyons, which are more accessible to the more southerly inlets such as Absecon, Cape May and Ocean City, Md., marlin are a more common occurrence because the water is warmer. But every season is different.

Some of it is dependent on water temperature, which can be affected by the path of the Gulf Stream current. This season, the water seems to be warmer. As a result, Lanzerotti said, there have been more marlin encountered closer to shore, in places such as the Chicken Canyon and the Glory Hole, noting that one was caught on the Joanna in the Glory Hole just a couple of weeks ago.

Because white marlin are a highly migratory species, they travel great distances, dictated by water temperature and food availability. But they have a fairly wide temperature range in which they feed actively, Lanzerotti said, noting he has caught whites in water as cold as 73 degrees. "But some of my best white marlin fishing has been in the 80s," he added.

In addition, captains look for a temperature break — a place where there's a significant change in temperature, of a couple of degrees or more. The temperature breaks tend to draw bait and, in the process, marlin.

Like anything with fishing, there are a lot of opinions on how it should be done. Lanzerotti uses a dredge, which is similar to an umbrella rig but holds many more baits. Actually, he uses a pair of dredges, one with ballyhoo, the other with split-tail mullet, each with eight arms and holding 30 baits.

The idea is to create the appearance of a school of fish, he said. Other captains will troll using daisy chains or squid chains he said, adding that most of the teams that win billfish tournaments use one of these two methods.

Boats trolling daisy chains or squid may troll at 7 1/2 or 8 knots, whereas he trolls at 3 1/2 to 4 knots, and while he can't cover as much water as quickly as someone trolling a chain, he's had success with it and "it's just a personal preference," Lanzerotti said.

The purpose, in both cases, is to get the attention of the marlin to begin with. Once that is accomplished, the frenzy — and the fun — begin. "The most important thing is to keep an eye on the spread," where and how the baits are that are being trolled, he said, because when a white marlin hits, the timing of the angler's reaction can make a difference between a fish being hooked and one losing interest and swimming away.

"White marlin are pretty finicky," Lanzerotti said. "They will come up behind a bait and whack it with their bill a couple of times before they try to eat it." In the marlin's world, he said, it hits the bait with its bill to disable it. And that's why the timing is critical; if the angler doesn't respond by letting out line — dropping the bait back to the marlin, so that it appears it is disabled — the marlin may move on. [org pub Asbury Park Press by Karen E. Wall]