in Brazil’s northeast state of Bahia, is a city of 2.5 million people. Historic churches perched on narrow cobblestone streets overlook trendy restaurants and nightclubs. About eight years ago a private enterprise invested millions into the construction of Bahia Marina, which now features the most modern marina facilities in Brazil. Anglers here enjoy Brazil’s shortest run to productive fishing grounds. The continental shelf swings in as close as eight miles off Salvador, and crews rarely stray more than 30 miles from port. During the peak season (December through January), boats typically raise three or four blue marlin per day, with fish ranging from 90 to 400 pounds. There are no bona fide charter boats along the docks of Bahia Marina. However, the Marazzul tackle shop puts clients in touch with private owners who make their boats available for occasional rentals. While the sales representative may speak English, you’ll most likely end up fishing with a Portuguese-speaking captain and crew. These crews know their home waters well, but don’t expect to bait-and-switch; they practice straightforward tactics of trolling lures or dead ballyhoo. No direct flights link Miami to this city; passengers must fly to São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, hundreds of miles to the south, then backtrack to Salvador on a connecting flight.

is a small town of 30,000 people, about 170 miles south of Salvador. The key to the town’s billfish allure is the Royal Charlotte Bank, an underwater cliff face that juts out 50 miles into the Atlantic, interrupting southerly currents and creating upwellings and rips that attract baitfish, tuna, dolphin, wahoo, whales and billfish. Artmarina in Miami arranges travel. The 15-hour trip from Miami routes through Rio or São Paulo, Salvador, and Ilheus before a ground transfer takes you to Canavieiras. Clients stay in a private, four bedroom guest-house with maid service, laundry service and made to order breakfasts. Artmarina’s fleet (the 30-foot Coyote, 34-foot Coyote II and 40-foot Coyote III) puts anglers in the epicenter of Brazil’s most consistent blue marlin action. English-speaking skippers direct crews well versed in trolling plastics and pitchbaiting with bonito strips and live tuna. Captains typically raise two to eight blues per day during the height of the season from November through January. The average size of released blues stands at 400 pounds. Grander status eluded Canavieiras captains until March 6 of this year. First-time marlin fisherman Anthony Mathews battled a blue that pushed the scale to 1,014 pounds. Another huge blue, a 937-pounder that died after getting tail-wrapped, came in on April 11 of this year.

sits 30 miles south of Vitória. Angelo Coutinho, a local businessman and marlin fanatic who has been fishing Guarapari for more than 20 years, says it’s not worth his effort to fish anywhere else. The nearest marlin grounds lie about 32 miles offshore, but Coutinho frequently makes a 45-mile trip on a southerly bearing to reach a hot spot dubbed Quebra Linha (Line Breaker) for all the huge fish hooked and lost there. Though at 60 fathoms it’s relatively shallow, Quebra Linha offers quality fishing thanks to a magic mix of bottom structure and currents. Only four or five boats belonging to weekend anglers work these waters. The town has no marina facilities; boats stay moored to private docks at homes along the canal. The area offers spectacular sailfish and white marlin angling, but Coutinho concentrates on big blues. In January he hooked a massive grander at Quebra Linha. “The fish hardly fought,” he said. Just 10 minutes into the fight, the mates sank in flying gaffs. “The marlin ... just powered straight down, slowly and strongly. Both gaffs ripped out of the fish, and it broke the line.” The fish was estimated to weigh 1,600 pounds. Coutinho caught a 1,113-pounder the following week and says the first fish was much longer and thicker.

If catching a 1,000-pound-plus Atlantic blue marlin ranks as a lifetime goal, Cabo Frio is a fine place to concentrate your efforts. Though it’s a sleepy fishing village turned bustling vacation town, bring a “no pain, no gain” attitude for the fishing. Big winds and rough seas can make landing fish a lot more complicated, and the 65-mile run is no joy. While anglers have been catching sails, whites and blues off Cabo Frio for decades, its big-fish reputation is a recent development. The Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro holds an annual Cabo Frio blue marlin tournament. Catches have gotten so consistently large that the modified-release format has a minimum weight of 550 pounds. In February 1997 Cabo Frio’s first grander tipped the scales at 1,062 pounds. There have been seven granders landed in the past six seasons, even as sportfishing pressure remains relatively light. Production of big fish here is very impressive. In 2002 the late Capt. Jo Franck moved from his Azores operation and set up a charter business in Cabo Frio. His best three blues weighed in at 910, 930 and 1,183 pounds. I saw the likes of Terry Tri and many others come to Cabo Frio for granders, only to be foiled by big seas and lost fish. I fished the 2005–2006 season with the Freedom, a beautiful 70-foot American yacht. They released 24 blue marlin in two days, with the smallest fish just over 600 pounds. Three fish they estimated over 1,300 pounds each, spooled them completely. All this occurred on very short fishing days. For safety reasons the boats leave together at 6 a.m. and run the 62 miles together. At 3 p.m. all vessels buddy-boat back in, as there is no rescue service. I firmly believe that the next world-record blue marlin will come from Cabo Frio. .

Miller: Brazil is known for giant blue marlin. Describe your largest blue catch and largest lost fish.
Baumier: Last February, off Rio, I caught a 936-pounder on stand-up 50-pound tackle while fishing on the Old Lady with Capt. Antonio Rezende driving, and my mate, Adenilson Silva, in the pit. This is the largest blue ever caught off Rio de Janeiro. It took five hours to land her. She was a tough, skinny fish that was very much alive at the boat, and fought a lot on the gaffs.
In the 1999 Cabo Frio tournament, onboard the Isabel, I fought a fish that was estimated by three crew members and myself to be 1,350 pounds. We had the leader in seven minutes and scored a release, but the fight then continued for a total of three hours and 12 minutes. She was 20 yards from the boat, 30 feet down when the 550-pound leader broke. The fish had swallowed the lure and the two-hook rig and kept chewing on the leader.

Miller: What is your longest battle with a blue, caught or lost?
Baumier: I broke off an estimated 1,000- pounder in 2005 after three hours and 35 minutes. The fish was hooked on the left pectoral fin. After two hours the captain ran over the line, chafing it severely.

Miller: Describe the Rio and Cabo Frio marlin grounds. Are you fishing edges, banks, humps, bumps?
Baumier: Rio has a mostly sloping flatbottom. There’s a rocky area from 600 to

700 feet that holds large populations of bottom fish and a considerable concentration of billfish. But some of our best days have occurred over an absolutely flat bottom with no bait around. The fish can be found anywhere from the sailfish grounds (370 to 520 feet deep) all the way to several miles off the shelf in over 1,500 feet of water. Off Rio there is a shelf, but it is not particularly pronounced or steep.
Cabo Frio has lots of structure and bait. Fish can concentrate anywhere depending on water quality and food. The late Capt. Jo Franck had fantastic action 20 miles inshore of the drop-off during his Cabo Frio 2002–2003 season.

Miller: Does anyone live-bait for blue marlin? What about dead bait, down riggers and circle hooks?
Live bait is rare for blue marlin in Brazil. Slow trolling dead bait was the norm until 1989, when Capt. Jim Garnsey and the owner of the Mares boatyard, Carlos Ribeiro, introduced Brazil to highspeed lure trolling. There are some people experimenting with downriggers but I haven’t heard of any solid results. I’ve fished for sailfish with circle hooks, but have yet to try them for blue marlin. Since lure trolling is the norm, I haven’t heard of any blues caught on circles.

Miller: How has fishing pressure affected your blue marlin resource?
Baumier: We see and catch more now because of better, faster boats, improved techniques and greater knowledge. You might get the impression that blues haven’t been hurt by commercial fishing. But looking closely, one will see that big fish (over 700 pounds) have become less common in the last few years.

Miller: I have noticed a high incidence of dead blue marlin with angler photos. Is there any catch-and-release ethic afoot, especially for the large females?
the subject of conservation of blue marlin, but still have a long way to go. These days, all the main tournaments have minimum size limits. Rio’s is 440 pounds and Cabo Frio’s is 550 pounds. But any fish over 660 pounds, tournament or not, will probably end up dead

Miller: What is your typical spread: lures, teasers, bait?
Baumier: My setup these days is very simple. I fish four lines, all on tag lines to the outriggers. My Black’s tag clips are set to release at seven pounds. The lures are staggered on the spread and fished fairly close. As for teasers, I don’t use them. I have been using Pro Soft lures for the last five years. I don’t really care about soft or hard. I will usually troll a slant short-headed lure called Pandora on the short-short, and a Wide Range style lure called a Tracer on the long-short. On the longs I fish long slant-heads called Masters. These are all 12-inch lures. I used to keep a pitch-bait ready, but in the last few years I’ve been dropping back to the fish with lures. I’ve had an excellent hook-up ratio. Our fish are very aggressive.

Miller: Tell me about your season: how long, what months, peak period, preferred moon phases?
Baumier: We probably have marlin in our waters year-round, but they are less plentiful during winter when the Brazil Current flows further offshore. The best marlin season runs from early October to late March. Cabo Frio is pretty steady from November to March, while Rio has distinct peaks in late October through early November, and then again in February through March. The big females are definitely more active right around the full moon. I don’t see any moon phase difference on smaller blues’ activity.

Miller: Where do your marlin come from?
Baumier: We don’t have a lot of reliable data on that, but the Brazil Current runs down the coast from the equator, giving us some idea of the fish’s movements in the beginning of the season. The late season is a bit more puzzling as the fish are usually biting along the entire coast at the same time.

Miller: What is the preferred line set up: straight mono, Dacron/mono top shot?
Baumier: I have been fishing Momoi IGFA line for the last 10 years and couldn’t be happier. I fill ¾ of the spool with Dacron and use a mono topshot. Brazilians are now using varied setups: Dacron backing, braid backing, straight mono. I don’t like braid for billfish applications because I’ve seen too many people lose fish on faulty connections between mono and braid. Plus, braided lines are unreliable when it comes to IGFA testing.

Miller: What have you found to be the most reliable leader setup?
Baumier: I started fishing full leaders, then went to wind-ons. After losing a couple of grander-class fish right at the transom due to chafed leaders, I switched back to full leaders. These days I fish industrial- strength 3.2mm Lindgren-Pitman mainline mono. It tests at around 1,000 pounds, but I don’t really care. In the end the chafing issue is all about diameter. I imagine you must be laughing at this, but our fish are very helpful when it comes to hitting fast moving objects. The loss in lure action is worth it for the peace of mind when you’ve fought a fish for hours and the mate takes his wraps on a deepswimming fish that won’t budge.