Today is the day! Quite apart from American friends celebrating 250 years of independence, nearly 200 boats are combing the world’s oceans for a huge blue marlin that will capture the Blue Marlin World Cup and the pot of money up for grabs. And impressive it is — last year it was over a million dollars!

Small wonder why so many boats take part and many have the advantage of picking their fishing spots and scouting out potential winning fish in advance of the big day.

On the big day, the fishing starts somewhere in the South Pacific, probably near Guam, where America starts its day, and makes its way westward across the Indian Ocean. A few hours pass and the eastern Atlantic comes into play. It is here that the Cape Verde Islands, Madeira and the Azores have been producing big marlin this year. And that is not to say that these islands have not had their moments of glory in the past. Since the tournament’s inception in 1985, the winner has come from the eastern Atlantic 14 times.

As the hours tick by, Bermuda comes into her own. No mean player in this worldwide stakes, the winner has come from here no less than nine times. Not bad for what is probably the smallest bit of oceanic real estate in the competition.

While the East Coast has had its moments over the years, the Gulf of Mexico has staked its claim in recent years also posting winners. Then it is off to the Pacific where the clock finally runs out somewhere around Hawaii, another big player, with over a thousand miles of bottom to explore. The fabled Kona coast has produced eleven winners over the years.

Boat numbers also play a role. The South Pacific has few contenders compared with places like Hawaii and little old Bermuda, which this year has some 40 participants.

Now, picking the right venue is only part of the strategy needed to emerge as a winner. Finding the fish is another important element. Working on the assumption that the selected hunting ground harbours big fish, then the trick is to locate them. This is made all the easier with side scanning sonar that allows the boat operator to electronically see the presence of large fish in the area. While it often cannot be too specific as to the size of the quarry, it can identify the presence of large fish and, obviously, fishing where you know there are fish beats spending time blindly trolling through water that is effectively deserted.

Then comes the next part. Even locating a big fish is only the beginning. The next step is to get it to bite. Maybe it is not hungry, or in the mood, or maybe has mating or something else as a priority. Maybe it simply does not like the colour lures you are presenting or maybe it doesn’t fancy that expensive bait you are dragging right over her. It is almost certainly a “she” if the fish is big. Most blue marlin over about 275lb are females.

If all goes really well and the fish comes up and bites and the hook holds, the real work begins. It has to be caught within the accepted rules of game fishing. Pretty much no help can be given to the angler. Lots of advice, for sure. Most boat skippers can work near magic with their craft; but there are still myriad things that can go wrong until the leader is taken and the fish is brought to boatside when it will be decided that it is large enough to be a contender or whether a release and claiming the release points in the tournament are the better part of valour.

Ah, there is something else: while the Blue Marlin World Cup is a one day wonder, it also coincides with the Bermuda Billfish Blast, the first leg of the Bermuda Triple Crown. The Blast is a three-day modified release tournament that just happens to overlap the worldwide event with most boats entered into both competitions. A final caveat for the tournaments is that each boat is allowed to boat only fish over 500lb, and in the case of the World Cup fish over the weight of any fish that has already qualified, so there will be some thought processes involved.

The local charter boats and the first of the foreign boat arrivals have spent the past week working the deep water with positive results that augur well for the weekend ahead.

To put things into context, consider last weekend’s highly successful Marlin Release Challenge. Attracting a record number of local boats, this no frills event, sans electronic enhancements, proved to be a record-breaking year. When time was called at 4pm it looked like the fleet had managed to catch and release ten blue marlin and two white marlin. Congratulations were starting to pass around when two boats that had been fishing out of radio range came back in to report their catches. When all the confirmation videos had been checked the total tally ran to 18 with Captain Bobby Lambe’s Last Chance emerging as the winner with four blue marlin releases, making for some rather profitable Tight Lines!!!