Peter Bristow

Captain Peter Bristow is an Australian big game legend who has caught more thousand-pound marlin, black and blue, than any captain on earth. He spent decades on the Great Barrier Reef out of Cairns, landing 52 grander black marlin and a record 192 blacks in one 1973 season, then moved to Madeira in 1996 to chase giant blue marlin aboard his Katherine B. In his In The Spread video, Bristow explains how to choose a marlin lure that runs true, from head shape to build quality.

Instructor's videos

There are great marlin captains, and then there is Peter Bristow. Over a career spanning more than fifty years, the Australian skipper has caught more thousand-pound marlin, black and blue combined, than anyone on the planet. When people talk about the men who built big game fishing into what it is, Bristow is on the short list.

He was born in Brisbane in 1938 and came up fishing the waters of southern Queensland, starting as a commercial dory fisherman before the giant black marlin off Cairns pulled him north in 1968. In 1970 he launched his own boat, the Avalon, and spent the next two dozen seasons on the Great Barrier Reef proving what that fishery could do. He put 52 black marlin over 1,000 pounds on the deck, and in a single stretch of the 1973 season he caught 192 blacks in two and a half months, a record that has never been beaten. His work helped establish Cairns and the Reef as the big fish capital of the world.

Bristow chased the giants across oceans. After a stint in Micronesia, the news of enormous blue marlin off Madeira drew him to the Atlantic in 1996. Ever the hands-on seaman, he converted a retired naval gunboat into a sport fishing machine by hand, rebuilt the engines, and built the fighting chair from scratch, then named her the Katherine B after his daughter. He has run her out of Funchal ever since, working a fishery where roughly one in ten blue marlin tops a thousand pounds and the biggest fish he has hooked ran well over 1,400.

He is also a conservationist. In 1981 he helped lead the campaign that protected the famous Cod Hole and its potato cod on the Great Barrier Reef, and he was later inducted into the Cairns Game Fishing Hall of Fame and honored with the IGFA's Gilbert Keech Heavy Tackle Award.

In his In The Spread video, Bristow turns that lifetime of experience to a subject most anglers get wrong: choosing a marlin lure. He explains why a poorly molded, top-heavy head will never run true, what to look for in a quality head shape, and why it pays to buy from the best craftsmen and insist on a balanced lure. When the man who has caught the most granders in history tells you what makes a lure work, it is worth every minute.

Personal Website: https://www.fishmadeira.com/