July and August are the prime months for targeting blue marlin in the East Region, particularly because one of their favorite foods—little tunny—are here in abundance. The little tunny (bonito) schools start showing up in early June, and but the first week of July are thick as can be offshore. The marlin hunts these bonito on a daily basis.
At the same time, peanut dolphin and juvenile blackfin tuna are also in the area, so there’s a wide option of food sources. The majority of the Spanish mackerel have moved out, but baitfish like threadfin herring, Spanish sardines and cigar minnows are all over the reefs, so there’s no lack of food to draw the bonito, dolphin and tuna, as well as the marlin that hunt them.
Bonito will be scattered, but traveling in schools mostly in depths from 50 to 140 feet of water, but the dolphin and blackfin tuna often range out to 1,000 feet of water or more. If you want to target blue marlin in my area, you can do it three ways: trolling lures, trolling rigged dead baits or slow-trolling live baits. All three methods are very effective.
The majority of blue marlin encountered in the East Region are from 100 to 300 pounds, with fish over 400 pounds caught. If you want to troll lures, you can get away with 30-size reels, but the majority of anglers use 50 and 80 size reels with 300 pound monofilament or fluorocarbon wind-on leaders.
Lure choice is up to the individual, but darker colors like purple and black, pink and blue and the Halloween orange and black seem to be the favorites. The Williamson Big Game Catcher and Live Spanish mackerel are great options.
For trolling natural baits the same size tackle is used, but baits can be anything from extra-large ballyhoo to swimming mullet or Spanish mackerel, which is probably the favored bait. A lot of boats like to put out a combination of the above. Read more.