Big-Fish Boat Handling

Capt. Roddy Hays shares tips on subduing large blue marlin from the flybridge.

2001/01/23

By By Dave Ferrell

To those of us unfamiliar with the controls and handling characteristics of big-game fishing boats, captains perform unbelievable feats of maneuvering just getting the boat into the slip without taking out a few pilings along the way. Watching a captain coolly wedge a 50-foot sport-fisher between boats that cost 10 times more than your house with just a foot or two to spare on each side definitely increases the pucker factor tenfold - at least for those of us on the dock.

Throw in the antics of one or more hot, ticked-off billfish streaking back and forth in the wake and the skills required to outthink, outrun and outmaneuver a fish that can change direction with a flick of its tail reach mind-boggling proportions - or so I thought.

Capt. Roddy Hays spent seven years honing his boat-handling skills on the big blue marlin of Madeira, and he learned quite a bit about how a big girl behaves once attached to the other end of your line.

Through trial and error, he also learned what he could do as the captain to help speed up fight times and limit the wear and tear on both angler and fish. Much of what he found resonates with clear, common sense, and can be picked up quite easily by anyone with a modicum of boat-handling skills.

Hays would like everyone to know that the information given here deals with blue marlin fishing with lures, and that you would probably employ different tactics when fishing with live baits or with other giants like black marlin or bluefin tuna. Hays relayed these tips as he plied the waters off La Gomera in the Canary Islands, in search of another big lady to take to the dance.

ON THE BITE

From their vantage point on the bridge, captains have a leg up, as it were, over the folks down in the pit when it comes to seeing fish and how they act before and after the strike. Unless there's a blind hookup where the fish just materializes out of nowhere and attacks your offering in a mad rush, the captain can do a few things to prepare the crew and angler for an impending strike. Obviously the first thing you want to do when you see a fish trailing a bait is to let the crew know where the fish is, how it is acting and how big you think the fish might be, says Hays.

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