Blue Marlin Sport Fishing Islamorada Fishing Charters Florida Keys with Captain Rick Killgore

Sport Fishing Islamorada Fishing Charters Florida Keys with Captain Rick Killgore

This is a "back cast" to the past, to St. Thomas U.S.V.I. where I released the vast majority of 112 blue marlin and black marlin, but the last blue marlin was caught right here in Islamorada. Of these 112 big marlin, 7 were black marlin down in Costa Rica. (I must make the distinction of big marlin for heavy tackle fishing. White marlin, hatchet marlin, or spearfish are great sport fish for light tackle, but not the same as big marlin on heavy tackle which is #50 test and bigger.)

The relevance is that I'm accomplished in blue marlin fishing, in technique and tackle. When we hook one up here in Islamorada, we have a very good chance at landing it. My percentages then were around 70% which is good for having a mixed spread of natural bait and lures. I have also taken marlin on live bait too.

Islamorada is not like St Thomas for blue marlin, but you can catch one at any time while dolphin fishing offshore and a number of blues are caught here every year. I think more blues would be caught if more guys strictly fished for them. Many times a blue will eat a small rod for dolphin (#20 or #30 test) and the odds at catching it are low and we hear it almost often. If I am trolling, I like to have all #50 test rods out. If I see dolphin under birds, we grab the spinners with pitch baits.

Oh crap! I got a tag stick in my hand and this giant blue marlin (est. 900 lbs.) jumps up within 4 min. of hook-up.

We saw a small blue marlin in the baits, which disappeared right before this fish hit. Capt. Flash Clark thought it was the small fish, backed down quick, and called out for the tag.

After this photo, the blue marlin jumped completely out of water right under the rigger - making a mental picture of it broadside that I will never forget! It then charged off, "grey hounding" across the water, burning off +300 yards of line. Four hours later and over 20 times on the leader, but just out of reach with the gaffs - the line finally broke!

Absolutely the largest blue marline I've ever seen, and we caught one three years later at least 850 lbs. (photos farther below). Capt. Flash Clark called the blue marlin at least 900 lbs., and he had caught a dozen granders and 30 black marlin over 800 lbs. in Cairns.

That is a "reverse wrap" I'm making on the left. A superior way to wire big fish taught to me by Capt. Flash Clark.

Some nice shots of me wiring some average size blue marlin, 250 lbs. to 350 lbs.

That blue marlin is "grey hounding" across the transom - with me still on the flying gaff !

One of the greatest blue marlin I gaffed:

313 lbs. on #16 lbs. test caught in about 12 minutes (just 15 lbs. from the record)

on the French Look by John Paul Richard and famed Capt. Laurie Wright of Australia.

Capt. Laurie paid me a great complement once we got that fish in the boat. He looked me in the eye, shook my hand, and said, "that's the best gaff job I've ever seen!" That was a hell of a complement, coming from one of Australia's famed captains at that time and still today.

As we backed down on it, Tony DiGilium grabs the leader.

Then the blue marlin dives under the boat, and jumps vertically straight up off the port side to our right! I dash behind Tony, switch hands, and nail that blue marlin with the flying gaff in mid-air!!! I hit that fish on the belly side, not the best but that's how it was coming down - belly up, back down. (It's very important to gaff every fish on your first opportunity.)

The blue marlin then greyhounds across the back of the boat from the port side to the starboard with me on the gaff and Tony still on the leader (1st photo). Once it pinned me in the corner, I released the flying gaff's pole. It greyhounds out to the end of the rope, turns and charges back to the boat. We gaff it again, and Capt. Laurie takes the "Louisville Slugger" to it! Take notice that even though it was gaffed on the belly side, the gaff hook went around the back bone and as it sunk in the shank of the gaff cut into the belly.

That last year in St. Thomas, I was quite known by the captains and crews so I freelanced as a "gaff man," kind of like a "hired gun."

A little controversial even then, but still less than 4% of blue marlin were killed in St. Thomas, which held true for my numbers too. But for all you purists out there, there is definitely a difference from a released fish and a fish in the boat, which takes a skilled crew to do it.

This was the largest blue marlin I have gaffed, and it was not even hooked. Again, gaff it on your first opportunity!

As this fish came up on the leader, it was down deep and digging down as we were going forward. As far down as I could put the flying gaff , I held it against the current almost six feet down with the big hook trailing and parallel to the fish. Once I felt the back of the fish with the bend of the hook, I pivoted the gaff and went down further until the point was making good contact. I sunk it in, but not to alarm the blue marlin.

I released the pole and the 1st mate, Steve, and I slowly pulled it up to the boat. Once on the surface, I could see the bill was just sitting in the bend of the hook with the barb backed into the bill just holding the hook there! As Steve grabbed the bill, so I could throw two half hitches over the bill with the flying gaff rope, the hook fell out! I then hit the blue marlin with the second flying gaff, mid-torso. You can see both hole marks by the gaffs in the photo.

Again, gaff every fish on the first opportunity. If we had horsed this fish and alarmed it, or if I had not gaffed it deep, it could have come to the surface, shook its bill, and thrown the hook. Game over and the +500 lbs. blue marlin Dr. Imhoff had fished a month for would have been gone at the boat.

First mate of the "Gracious Lady", Mike Lamptham, catches +850 lbs. blue marlin.

This was a great day with the boys, a fun day on the boss's boat, the "Lethal Weapon" with Capt. Larry Wilson and mate Richard Orman, both of Destin, FL. In 15 minutes we got the leader up twice, but Richard had to let go. His hands swelled up, so I was up to wire the fish next. Richard takes photo of me steering the chair and waiting for the leader to come up (1st photo).

At 30 minutes I grab the leader, and got this +850 lbs. blue marlin "up to the transom" two different times. Both times that blue came up, head down, pectoral fins out, and kicking. I'm stoked, it's the largest blue marlin I've wired by 350 lbs. and out of 80 blue marlin I've wired. I take a wrap, then a double wrap. I work my way to the blue marlin using "reverse wraps," double wraps each time, and short safe strokes to my gut . First time I get it up to the surface right behind the transom, port side. It makes a sharp head shake and tail kick, and I slip and fall on the covering board. My bent knees keep me in the boat like a hook. Richard grabs my belt and I release the leader. The blue marlin takes 70' line and stops. Mike pumps it back. Again I grab the leader, and work it back to the boat to within an easy gaff shot, but Mike had determined earlier to release it no matter how big it was. (No photos were taken because we were handling a big, tough fish).

It then takes off again on a 200 yard run. Mike says he wants to wire this big fish for the experience, so I jump in the chair. I get it back up to the boat at the 45 minute mark. Mike wires the blue up and Richard retrieves the lure (photos 2 and 3). They can not get the hooks out, so I jump out of the chair and cut the fish off with my release knife I always carried in my custom pliers sheath. Look at the girth of this fish over my right shoulder which is under water and maybe 12' behind me (photo 4).

Larry and Richard know what a fish this big looks like because just 5 days earlier they caught 1004 lbs. blue marlin (photos below). Larry thought Mike's fish could have been 1000 lbs., and felt we should have taken that fish. The difference from a 800 lbs. blue marlin to a 1000 lbs. is about 6" of girth. I can not judge that, but I must agree with Richard the blue marlin did not seem to have that girth from the anal fin back to the tail. Capt. Laurie Wright told me that a Grander will have a tail girth of 20" which we didn't measure and I couldn't judge that.

I was "smoked" by this 396 lbs. blue marlin I caught on #50 test stand-up tackle.

This blue marlin I caught standing up in a 23' SeaCraft like mine - beat my ass! It stripped me twice - down to the last few turns of mono on a standard Penn 50! It then sounded and died. Unusual because it was hooked by a lure in the corner of its mouth. Two hours later, we put it in the boat. I was fishing with friends Rick Steiner and Chris (?), on Rick's 23' SeaCraft on the North Drop of St. Thomas.

This fish was the fourth blue marlin I caught personally in two days, and just kicked my butt, especially after two nights of hard drinking on my days off - was it great to be young, strong, and stupid! That morning I was quite hung-over, and slept most of the morning on the deck of the SeaCraft. It was a slow day, so the boys were hitting the Heinekens pretty good too. I woke up around lunch time and after sandwiches they both crashed on the deck. Forty five minutes later as I ran the boat down sea, out of the corner of my nodding eye "there she is!" I yelled as that blue marlin pounced on the left short lure. Jumping up out of the water from behind the lure and inhaling it as it came down! That's a great way to be shocked into action.

I grabbed the rod as Rick and Chris struggled up. That blue marlin burned off 450 yards of line in less than a minute. We chased it down with the SeaCraft running forward, and I was backing the drag off proportionally as the line was melting off the reel. Going, going, going, then I saw the gold stud on the bottom of the spool, and I pushed it up to full drag - "locked up" and it finally stopped the blue marlin.

What a shock! And every foot of line I gained was a relief. I worked the blue marlin back up, maybe 3/4 of a spool full in twenty minutes. Then it took off again: going, going going back to the bottom of the spool again. I locked it up again and stopped that blue marlin a second time. Wow! Again I start recovering line. I got half a spool back, and then the fish starts fighting again. But at around 45 minutes it starts to feel like dead weight. Fifteen minutes later we determine it has sounded and has died, 200 yards down. It takes an hour to plane that blue marlin up, but we get it. Thanks a lot Rick and Chris.

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And as I mentioned earlier, the day before I caught three blue marlin as guest angler on the "Lethal Weapon" with the owner running the boat. Awesome! What an honor, not only to be taken blue marlin fishing as solo angler (like a "boat owner"), but also to contribute to this boat's record of the first boat to break 100 blue marlin caught in a season all in St. Thomas.

And the boys on the "Lethal Weapon" were stoked, because each fish I applied maximum and aggressive pressure: near full drag when needed and proper stiff leg technique in the fighting chair. Two of the blue marlin I caught in around 10 minute, but the third took 45 minutes with maximum pressure and technique. Just what I hoped for, a chance to really use what I had learned in the last ten years of blue marlin fishing. From working the drag from strike on the runs, to more drag while fighting the blue marlin back to the boat, back to strike on the runs, to full drag when the blue was just under the boat - we were going to release this 375lbs. blue marlin anyway, and it is really fun when that fish lifts your butt off the chair as you wind down the rod tip to gain line with a heavy drag.

Here are a couple 350 lbs. blue marlin we mounted the first year I worked in St. Thomas in 1986 on the Miss Liz, a 57' Andy Mortenson - what a boat!

This is the best fishing boat and sea boat I've ever fished on, and what a work of art was the carpentry and bright work. I confidently say this after having fished and worked on two Rybovitchs, two Merrits, a Jim Smith, a Buddy Davis, a Ray Davis, two other N.C. custom boats I can not remember the builder, two Gamefisherman, and numerous Hatteras and Bertram boats.

St. Thomas is famous for very rough waters. I had comfortably fished some 10' to 12' vertical and close wind chop with an occasional breaker in the transom with no problem. And for backing down, it was excellent. With its modified-v hull, relatively a flat bottom in the stern but a sharp "v " entry in the bow with just the right amount of beam, makes this boat what it is.

I would like to know where that boat is today. I heard it left St. Thomas a few years after I started fishing in Costa Rica in the late 80's.

1004 lbs. blue marlin caught by Richard Orman on the "Leathal Weapon." Richard is the one with the Dom Perignom bottle.

Look at the girth of that fish compared to Richard's shoulders, and he is around my size, 6' 2" tall.

These guys were "fun fishing" with the bosses permission. Richard was the mate and Larry Wilson was technically the captain, but Bill Killey is written on the board as the captain (actually a captain of another boat in St. T.), so they all must have been rotating around from the cockpit to the helm as they fished and stayed where they were after hook-up.

That is Harry Tellam, one of my many great mentors (aside from my greatest mentors, my Mom and Dad, both tough and intense fishermen), catching a blue marlin on the "Miss Liz."

I've been offshore fishing with Harry since I was about 6 years old. Harry had his 35' Bertram right next to my Dad's 34' Norseman, and Bill Hegamyer (another great mentor who taught me the basics in blue marlin fishing by hiring me for my first job as a mate for the Bahamas Billfish Tournament circuit) had his 36' Broadbill on the other side of my Dad's boat. Those three boats right next to each were always flying numerous sailfish flags every day we went fishing. We would also plan trips to Bimini and Chub Cay for blue marlin fishing together.

So It was great to get Harry out to the North Drop for some awesome blue marlin fishing that I was experiencing that first summer in St. Thomas in 1986. It looks like Harry is once again mesmerized by a "grey hounding" blue marlin. Harry came with his brother-in-law, Jimmie Lambert who now owns the "Reel Tight," a 65' Merrit, and now it is a regular boat in St. Thomas. That was Jimmie's first trip there, and I guess I hooked him. They caught 4 blue marlin in two days of fishing.

That is Jan steering the chair for Harry. Jan was the second mate on the "Miss Liz" even before I was working as first mate on the "Miss Liz." She was one of the two first female mates that worked in St. Thomas. I'm happy to say I showed her how to wire her first few blue marlin.

Jan is about to tag a blue marlin.

Two 900 pounders and an 800 pounder.

Capt. Dale on the "Sundance" from Virgin Gorda weighs in a 918 lbs. blue marlin caught by a first time angler from Britain. Capt. Red Bailey and my friend, first mate "Dan-O" on the "Abegail III" drag an est. 800 lbs. blue marlin through the tuna door. Capt. Marty Snow and renown Dominican mate Vincinti Fox (sorry I do not remember the 1st mate's name) on the first "Tyson's Pride" (60' Hatteras) weigh a 910 lbs. blue marlin for a petit woman angler.

WOW! Do not fall asleep! That bucket of saltwater is filled with ICE CUBES !!!

Can you believe we caught that blue marlin!

It was one of a double header which we caught! After I caught the first fish standing up with a big #80 test, I turned around to guide the chair for the angler and in his excitement his wrist hit the Fin Nor's drag lever into free spool - Wam'O this backlash! What do you do? You back down like a mad man, and reel good line over the back lash: zigzagging across the mess to mat it down. One thing for sure you can not let the fish get back down to the back lash.

That is a Dunlop tire we caught with Winn Rockefeller!

It was so rough, like 8 - 10 feet, that when the right rigger went down and by the time I cleared the other lines, we could not see the tire dragging on the surface. The rough waves put a little life in that tire at first, before we started backing down on it. On the knock down Capt. John Tellam called in a hook up, but about after a minute of backing down we suspected something strange then we saw the tire. John called it in: "'Alchemist' has boated ..... a Dunlop!" There was definite confusion and laughter on the radio. I made a flag out of a paper plate and electric tape which I put on the rigger, and we got this photo back at the scale. Hey, you got to be able to laugh at yourself too.

One of the few sketches I've made. Drawing is too tedious for me. I think this is when Guy Harvey just started marketing his shirts. Should I have kept with it?