Blue marlin behavior around structure comes down to current, and Kevin Hibbard explains why the side it hits head on holds the bait, from the ledges off Kona to the banks off the Azores. He covers the corner in a ledge where fish stack, live baiting against a ledge, and using a 360 degree sonar to decide when to leave.
Fundamentals of Fishing Structure for Blue Marlin
Fundamentals of Fishing Structure for Blue Marlin
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Instructor:
Kevin Hibbard
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How do blue marlin behave around offshore structure?
Blue marlin behavior is nomadic: they travel open ocean with the current and feed where structure gathers bait. Ledges, seamounts and banks all work the same way: current hitting them head on pushes water from the bottom to the top, and that upwelling lifts plankton, bait and skipjack toward the surface.
Kevin Hibbard finds marlin, wahoo and mahi on the up-current side of FADs, logs and banks, with sharks down current, the opposite of the freshwater habit of a trout tucked behind a rock. Fishing the Condor and Azores banks 40 miles off the Azores, his first job each day was to find the current and fish the side it hit straight on. A seamount a couple of hundred feet tall in 6,000 feet of water "acts almost like a ramp," he says.
How much does current matter for blue marlin fishing?
Without moving water, structure won't hold blue marlin. Crews look for current pushing into a ledge or bank; a current that runs steady for days stacks fish on it, and one that flips 180 degrees overnight scatters them. Too much current hurts too.
Off Kona, Hibbard wants half to three quarters of a knot. In three knots, a marlin comes in, swipes once or twice and leaves. "If you don't have the current, the structure means nothing," he says. When current runs along a ledge instead of into it, he follows it until the ledge turns, "like chasing a mouse down the wall." He likes a current that holds four, five or six days, or a week or two.
When should you leave a spot that should hold blue marlin?
Most crews give a proven spot time, because marlin move through and feed in windows. Hibbard lets his 360 degree sonar decide: no marks after a couple of runs and he leaves; fish on the sonar but no bite and he stays for the next feeding window.
Before he had it, "I'd probably sit there all day long waiting."
Inside the video
- Kona's ledges from 100 to 1,000 fathoms, and seamounts 160 to 200 miles offshore
- A 500 fathom spot off the harbor that always got bit, and what modern machines finally showed there
- Live baiting against a ledge in 600 feet or deeper, and what bites inside that
- Why Kona itself is the structure: a mountain 32,000 feet from sea floor to summit
Questions About Blue Marlin Behavior and Structure
Do blue marlin live near structure?
Blue marlin are pelagic, so they have no fixed home and keep moving with the current and the bait. Hibbard says structure matters even more for reef-oriented fish like sailfish and black marlin. Run a couple of hundred miles off land and the ocean goes nearly dead, and life returns as the bottom rises toward an island or seamount.
What is a ko'a?
A ko'a is a corner in a ledge where a current running along it finally hits the structure, stops and stacks bait and fish in one place. Hibbard says the corner keeps everything there stationary for a bit; on a ledge that runs straight, the fish keep going until something structurally different holds the current and the fish.
Why is too much current bad for blue marlin fishing?
In a three knot current, marlin come into the spread, give it one or two swipes and leave. Hibbard can't say why. He wonders whether the fish just won't waste the energy. What he knows is that a slower current holding for days keeps stacking the bait together.
The Fish Behind the Behavior
How the blue marlin hunts, what it eats and where it travels is covered in our blue marlin species profile.
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There are no reviews yet.Kevin Hibbard
Captain Kevin Hibbard is a Kona-based marlin captain and wireman who runs the 2nd Offense out of Kona, Hawaii. He learned lure fishing from Kona's best, including Captain Marlin Parker, and has handled granders off Hawaii and Australia, including a reported 1,018-pound black marlin as the mate. He holds the shortbill spearfish world record on 16-pound tackle and is the first captain to win the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament's Henry Chee Memorial Trophy in back-to-back tournaments. A Pelagic Pro Team member, he teaches Kona lure spreads, hook rigging and reading structure for big marlin on In The Spread.
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