The Black Marlin is the biggest single payday on this whole site. My Unique came in at 599.551 kg and 469.9 cm and paid 305,253 coins with 182,255 XP, more than double what my best European Sea Sturgeon returned. It is a giant billfish that hunts the open water off Noomaa Kuda Atholhu, and I took it trolling a squid chain teaser behind a trolling octopus. This guide covers the trolling rig, the open-water spot, the timing, and how to land a fish this size on the crane. One honest note before anything else: that 305,253 figure is the Unique payout, and a Common marlin pays a fraction of it, so read the expectations section before you picture yourself rich.
Why Target the Black Marlin?
The money is the headline here, so let me be precise about it. My fish was a Unique at 599.551 kg, and it paid 305,253 coins and 182,255 XP. That is the largest coin and XP return of anything I have caught for this site, ahead of the sharks, the sturgeon, and every tuna and marlin at Kaiji No Ri. If you want one catch that pays for a piece of gear you have been saving for, or that jumps your level in a single hit, this is it.
But here is the honest part. The Black Marlin reaches around 750 kg, and mine at 599 kg was a Unique, near the top of what the species offers. The payout scales hard with size and class, so a Young or Common marlin pays a great deal less than my Unique did. Do not read 305,253 as the number you will see every time you hook one. Read it as the ceiling this fish can hit. Even so, a Common marlin here still out-earns almost everything else on the map, so this is a genuine coin target, not a species tick.
The other reason to fish it is the fight. This is a huge, fast billfish, and hooking one on a trolled lure gives you a real battle rather than a fish you swing aboard. It sits in my Noomaa Kuda Atholhu cluster alongside my Indo-Pacific King Mackerel and Wahoo guides. As I add more species from this atoll, I will link them here.
About the Black Marlin
The Black Marlin (Istiompax indica) is a massive pelagic predator from the billfish family, found in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It weighs up to around 750 kg, which makes it one of the most sought-after catches in the game for both commercial and sport value. It prefers surface waters near coasts, islands, and coral reefs, and rarely goes deeper than 200 metres. Its diet is mainly small tuna, anchovies, mackerel, flying fish, and squid, along with crustaceans like shrimp and crabs.
Two lines in its description shape how you fish it. First, it is active around the clock, so you are not locked to a narrow feeding window the way you are with some fish. Second, adult marlins are usually solitary, but when large schools of baitfish gather near the surface, several marlins can appear at once. That is worth remembering: if you hook one, there may be more in the same water. It comes in Young, Common, Trophy, and Unique classes, so there is a size ladder to climb, and mine was a Unique near the top of it.
Level and License: What You Need to Fish Here
Noomaa Kuda Atholhu is a Level 94 map, so you need to reach level 94 before you can fish it. There are two starting points, Maahuraa Lagoon and Kuda Veli, and I launched from Maahuraa Lagoon for this catch, the same as I did for the Wahoo. Because a marlin is a Unique and Trophy target you will want to keep, and because you are fishing from a boat, you need the Advanced License here rather than the Basic one. The Basic license has keep restrictions and no boat fishing, so it will not serve you for this fish. I was on the Advanced License for this trip.
Where to Catch Black Marlin at Noomaa Kuda Atholhu
I marked and caught mine near coordinates -966.81, -1731.69, out in the open water off Maahuraa Lagoon. This is an open-ocean fish that holds near coasts and reefs, so troll the open water around the atoll rather than working tight against the shore. This is broadly the same open water where I take the Wahoo and King Mackerel, which is the real convenience of this spot: you can troll one stretch and hook several different pelagics from it.
Trolling logic applies as it does for every pelagic. Cover water rather than sit still. Drop a marker buoy as a reference, keep the boat moving, and work runs across the open water off the lagoon. Since marlins can gather where baitfish school, if you get a strike in one area it is worth working that stretch again before moving on.
Timing: It Feeds Around the Clock
Timing is forgiving with this fish. I caught mine in the Morning, around 07:30, in rain at 30°C air and 25°C water with a light easterly around 2.5 m/s. The game notes the Black Marlin is active around the clock, so you are not chasing a single magic hour the way you are with a sunrise-and-sunset fish like the Wahoo. Whenever you are out trolling the open water, the marlin is a candidate.
The map activity chart still shows the usual generalised bite rate rising and falling across the day and night, so use it as a loose guide to when the water is busiest overall. It is not a marlin-specific graph, so treat it as a pointer rather than a promise. Use Forward Time to reach whatever window you want, and steer clear of Next Day, which sells everything in your storage, including a fish this valuable.
The Rig: A Heavy Trolling Setup
This is the exact rig that caught the fish. It is a trolling setup: a heavy rod and high-drag reel, a squid chain teaser, and a trolling octopus as the working lure:
- Rod: Asgard 160
- Reel: Ragnarök 22000
- Main line: ZenLine Braid 0.51 mm
- Teaser: Trophy Squid Chain 15 cm, 4 pcs
- Lure: Glowing Trolling Octopus 230 g, #14/0
This is the same trolling method I use for the pelagics at Kaiji No Ri, a squid chain teaser leading a trolling lure, but built on my heavier Norse outfit rather than the Kaiji gear. The point that carries across maps is the presentation, not the exact rod name: a chain of squids in front, a single hooked lure behind, dragged through open water. You need a rod with the backbone to drive a hook into a hard-mouthed billfish and a reel with the drag to survive its runs, and this setup has both. If you are rigged for big-game trolling already, you do not need anything new for the marlin.
The Teaser and Lure, and Why They Work
Both pieces are on the marlin’s preferred list, so this is the right tool rather than a workaround. The Black Marlin’s preferred lures include Plugs, Trolling Octopuses, Trolling Skirts, and Squid Chains, which is exactly what is on the rig.
The Trophy Squid Chain is a teaser that imitates a small flock of squids, several silicone squids strung one behind the other on a couple of metres of line, with the main hooked lure running behind the last one. The game itself calls it ideal for catching tunas, marlins, and mahi-mahi, so it is purpose-built for this fish. It does not carry the hook; it is the attractor that pulls a hunting marlin in to the lure behind it.
The working lure is the Glowing Trolling Octopus, a 230 g octopus with a glow-in-the-dark body and lifelike silicone tentacles. The glow makes it effective in deep water and low light, and it is built to troll at any speed. Trailed behind the squid chain, it reads as the last, most catchable target in a fleeing group, which is what triggers the strike. If you would rather vary things, the marlin also takes baits like Finger Mullets, Split Tail Mullet, Japanese Jack Mackerel, Small and Large Flying Fish, Scaled Sardines, Japanese Anchovy, and Indian Ocean Squid, but the squid chain and octopus is what worked for me.
Landing a 599 kg Fish
This is where the marlin is a completely different animal from the small fish elsewhere on this atoll. At nearly 600 kg it is far too big to lift by hand, so it comes up on the crane, not to the deck. The fight is a real one: expect fast, powerful runs and the weight of a genuine giant on the other end. Do not try to horse it in. Let the drag do its work, keep steady tension, and recover line on the pauses rather than cranking against a running fish.
Two practical points. Watch your boat’s load limit before you keep it, since a fish this size eats a large share of your capacity. And set your drag sensibly before you ever hook up, because a billfish this heavy will find any weakness in a rig or a panicked thumb on the spool. On the heavy trolling outfit above there is enough rod and drag to win the fight, but only if you let the tackle do the work.
Common Mistakes
Expecting 305,000 coins every time. That was a Unique near the species ceiling. A Young or Common marlin pays far less. The marlin is still the best earner on the map at any class, but do not budget around the Unique number.
Fishing tight to shore. This is an open-ocean predator. Troll the open water around the atoll, not the shallows against the beach.
Sitting still. Like every pelagic here, the marlin roams. Keep the boat moving and troll to find them rather than anchoring and waiting.
Horsing the fight. A 600 kg billfish will break a rig you try to muscle. Let the drag absorb the runs and take line back on the pauses.
Forgetting your boat capacity. A fish this heavy takes a big bite out of your load limit. Check you have room before you hook one you cannot keep.
Pressing Next Day. It sells your whole storage, including a marlin worth six figures. Use Forward Time to move within the same day instead.