Episode 403: Sunshine Coast Black Marlin With David Granville

Dave’s Tips For Sunshine Coast Black Marlin

• Spring is the time when a mix of sailfish and juvenile black marlin move into Sunshine Coast waters. This can start as early as August some years, but is often a September/October trend.
• Finding the bait is often the key, as is common for many predatory species. Yakkas (yellowtail scad) are a resident baitfish on the Sunshine Coast, but Slimy Mackerel are the hands-down favourite food of juvenile black marlin. They’re a little less predictable than yakkas.
• Bait schools are usually holding over structure such as a bit of gravel or wire weed on the bottom. A good place to start is at a depth of around 50m over smallish, flatter structure. The position of the bait in the water can tell you a lot about whether there’s fish there. Bait get pushed higher in the water by predators, so when you find them rippling on the surface you know there’s fish around.
• If you’re unfamiliar with the Sunshine Coast, just head North East out of Mooloolaba towards the Barwon Banks and when you’re in 50m or more of water you’re in the zone once you find bait.
• Water clarity and baitfish presence are the key factors on the Sunshine Coast and a calm day or a gentle breeze is beneficial. Water temp is less of a factor because the Sunshine Coast doesn’t get seriously cold. 
• Don’t run troll more lines than can be managed by the crew onboard. For solo fishing Dave will only put out two rods and a teaser and will keep the amount of line out to a minimum so when a fish is hooked he can clear the other line and teaser quickly. Fish will come very close to the boat to take a lure, so this doesn’t affect the bite much. With an experienced second person on board he’ll run up to four lines at a time.
• When unhooking and/or tagging a fish it’s important not to kick the boat into neutral, but to slowly motor along and lead the fish. Otherwise the fish can quickly become uncontrollable.
• Outriggers are great because you can run lures in clear water and give them a better chance of getting hit. 

Dave’s Tackle For Small Black Marlin

• Dave prefers 8kg tackle for small marlin and for sailfish, but will switch up to 10 or 15kg if he’s solo fishing. He uses a 6′ short stroker rod in the 8kg class, a Tiagra 16 or TLD, Tyrnos or similar overhead reel with a line capacity of 500-600m line is ideal. A 100lb wind on leader is generally sufficient for these smaller fish.

Dave’s Sunshine Coast Marlin Lures

• You could easily get by with just taking three straight running, cup-faced Pakula trolling lures in the 6-9″ size range. The Lumo Sprocket is a little larger but is usually one of the lures Dave runs for marlin and sailfish. Otherwise a Pakula Cockroach or Mosquito in other colour combinations, particularly pink and purple/black.
• Moldcraft trolling lures are also good for black marlin at times, although Dave tends to use them more for blue marlin.
• A single hook rig is much safer for anglers when a feisty black marlin is boatside. Dave rigs his by looping the line around the shank of the hook and crimping, then crimping the tag end again a few inches up the leader to create a stopper for the lure head. He’ll have the eye of the hook just inside the skirt.