Episode 391: Jervis Bay Marlin With Malcolm Munro

Malcolm’s Top Tips For Marlin Fishing

• A sounder is a key piece of fishing tech for marlin enthusiasts. It’s essential for locating bait schools and monitoring changes of water temperature.
• Like many bluewater anglers, Malcolm usually runs a teaser behind his boat whilst trolling. At the front of the teaser he places a large diving lure with the hooks removed to help get the teaser a little deeper and at the back he runs a large trolling skirt (no hook). The teaser has strips of holographic plastic about 3 ft long to create flash. This increases the profile of the teaser and seems to improve its effectiveness. Remove the teaser from the water when you see a marlin following behind.
• Good sunglasses are a must-have as you’ll often see the marlin coming up behind the lures.
• Finding baitfish is the key to finding marlin, and often baitfish aggregate seafloor structure such as canyons and sea mounts. Gannets working and water temperatures upwards of 21 and preferably 23 degrees are perfect for billfish.
• It’s important to have super sharp hooks, they need to grab and feel like they’re biting when you drag them across your fingernail under even very light pressure. It doesn’t hurt to file down the barb a little, too, making it easier for the hook to penetrate the bony mouth of a billfish.
• Malcolm typically runs 4 lines when trolling for marlin, two outriggers and two from the corners. He runs a teaser down the middle and staggers the distance that the lures run behind the boat. The 12” Pakula will normally run the furthest back, about 50m on the outrigger in clear water. One of the lines from the corner will be around 3/4 the distance of the Pakula, and the other one 4-5m further back.
• A good strategy is to run circles around the bait schools at speeds between 8-10 knots, adjusting to suit the conditions so that you’re not bashing the boat around too much and the lures are working nicely.

Malcolm’s Marlin Fishing Tackle

• Malcolm likes Penn 50SW and 80SW two speed reels and prefers to load them up with 50-80lb nylon line rather than braid, finding the stretch in nylon is important for shock absorption he plaits a double in the nylon and attached a 3.5m length of 200lb Jinkai fluorocarbon wind-on leader gives enough protection without upsetting the action of the lure.

Malcolm’s Best Marlin Fishing Lures

• A 12” Pakula pusher-style trolling lure. Has a nice erratic action and leaves a very nice bubble trail. Malcolm rigs these with two 10/0 hooks and places enough beads on the line above the first hook that the second hook protrudes about an inch or so beneath the end of the skirt.
• JB Lures in Jervis Bay make some awesome trolling lures, too. Malcolm has had great success with the 8” Dingo, which has a slanted head that creates a bit more action than the standard pusher style head. Rigged with two smaller hooks and the back one hanging about half an inch beneath the skirt.
• Malcolm loves a homemade lure that his mate made using a small vegemite jar filled with resin and drilled out, which with a skirt ends up being about 8” in length too.