Of all the marlins, the striped is the lightest built and the one with the tallest, most pointed dorsal fin, often as high as the body is deep. Its pale blue bars glow bright when it is feeding behind a lure, and hooked fish spend a lot of the fight in the air. It likes cooler water than the blue and black marlin, which is why the famous striped marlin grounds are in the Pacific, off Mexico, New Zealand and Australia, rather than around tropical islands.
One Mauritius boat lists it. ti bato fishes from Cap Malheureux on the northern tip of the island, leaving at 08:00 for 5 or 7 hours with up to 5 on board. The day mixes trolling offshore with spinning and some bottom fishing over the reefs, and the fish on its list are the ones a north coast trolling day usually brings: blue marlin, mahi mahi, wahoo and tuna.
So book it as a trolling day for whatever is running, and count a striped marlin as luck if it comes. Ask the skipper what has been biting that week, and agree before you go whether a marlin is released.
Questions and answers
Short answers to what people ask before they book. Anything else, ask the captain in chat.
Are striped marlin common off Mauritius?
No. Striped marlin prefer cooler water and are far more common in the Pacific. Off Mauritius the boats mostly meet blue and black marlin, so a striped marlin is a rare fish on a trolling day there, not something to plan a trip around.
What does ti bato fish for on a marlin trolling day?
ti bato trolls offshore from Cap Malheureux at 08:00 for 5 or 7 hours, for up to 5. Its list has blue marlin, mahi mahi, wahoo and several tunas, plus snapper and barracuda from the reef and bottom fishing part of the day.