The search for Australia’s Greatest Fish: Marlin

It involves hours of just rolling around on the ocean waiting and hoping that an angry stick face will eventually decide to eat one of your lures or baits.

It can even take days to get that bite. But when it comes, there’s few fish in the sea that can make a reel scream so loud it gives you an instant hit of adrenaline.

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Australia has three species of marlin; blue, black and striped.

All share a pointy nose and are spectacular leapers when hooked, but between them there are differences in behaviour and distribution.

Marlin is found along both Australia’s east and west coast, ranging from as low as Tasmania in the south, and throughout the tropics right up to the Top End.

This makes marlin fairly accessible to most Aussie anglers in need of a sportfish hit, but you do need a boat capable of heading out to sea, often to the continental shelf and beyond.

The simplest way to hook any of the marlin species is to troll a lure. Put out a bunch of pusher-style lures – they’re flat- or concave-faced and push water out of the way on the surface – and match their size to what you think the marlin might be eating.

Then it’s a matter of driving around at around 5.0 knots.

There are many theories on correct lure sizes, hook types and drag settings. Sometimes you can overthink it, but our tip here is to use a needle-sharp light gauge hook.

Where to troll? Look for schools of bait on the sounder, or bird life swirling on the surface. Marlin also likes clean, blue water.

Marlin has a bony mouth, so the hook can be prone to falling out once the fish starts jumping all over the ocean.

To overcome this, we use a technique known as switch and bait.

This exciting method is great on striped marlin, and all it means you use teasers, which are just lures with no hooks in them.

When a marlin comes up on the lure, you simply ‘tease’ it to the back of the boat by slowly drawing it in as you troll along.

The angrier you make the marlin the better, so just keep pulling in the lure until it’s at the very back of the boat.

Once its there, pull the lure out and replace it with live bait such as a slimy mackerel.

The live bait is rigged on a circle hook that, once is lodged in the corner of the marlin’s mouth, won’t come out.

An option is to just use live bait from the get-go, taking advantage of a circle hook, and either drift or slow-troll it along where you think the marlin might be.

The ultimate of the species to target, though, is giant black marlin.

Every year from about September to December they turn up on the Great Barrier Reef, kicking off the season.

Fishing for them includes ridiculously big baits for some ridiculously big fish – think 450kg or around 1000lb in the old measure.

You will need to open up your wallet wide for a FNQ trip, but the experience is one that everyone should try and do once in their lifetime!

Let’s see how this king of gamefish rates in our search for Australia’s Greatest Fish.

Marlin is not going to score very highly when it comes to how easy it is to chase them.

To target them, you need the right quality gear – we love our Aussie-made Venom game rods; they’re lightweight and will handle any fish in the sea – and the technique.

You’ll need a boat capable of getting you out to sea and fitted out for sportsfishing.

To do it properly, you pretty much need to be rich, or have a mate who is.

Score: 2 out of 10

The bite and the fight are the whole reason you go in search of marlin. Put simply, there is no other fish in the sea that gives you a rush like marlin does.

Score: 10 out of 10

Marlin are big, which makes them pretty big to haul onboard and photograph properly.

However, sitting in the water alongside the boat, they can look amazing, and especially when they light up and glow blue.

Where they don’t look great is hanging up dead on a hoist – you’re best to leave them in the water and take a few pictures before releasing them back into the wild.

Score: 8 out of 10

Personally, we wouldn’t kill one, but striped marlin and small black marlin are not too bad to eat.

If you do want to take one for the table they taste like a cross between tuna and a mako shark. The simplest way of cooking it is to just sear stakes, but you can also eat it raw as sashimi, or smoke it.

Score: 5 out of 10

If you’re going to target marlin, you need to get a bit serious with your gear. That includes rods, lines, rigs and lures capable of fighting a fish, and a boat that doesn’t mind running wide offshore to find them.

Even before you’ve hooked one, the chase can be exciting, and the adrenaline rush, once you’re hooked up, is at the pointy end of life's best experiences.

In a mixed bag, marlin gains a total score of 25 out of 40, meaning it slots in at number four on the Australia’s Greatest Fish leaderboard.

Next time on Australia's Greatest Fish: Andrew and Nick head back north to scout the waters for coral trout.

The latest season of Hook, Line and Sinker airs each Sunday on 7Mate. Check your state's fisheries website for bag and size limits, and closed seasons.