DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709100803

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Bob Hutchinson

                                            LENGTH:   26 lines

A WEEKLY GUIDE TO THE REGION'S HOT SPOTS

This is the season when white marlin can stage a spectacular run off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina.

Call it big-game fishing's September song, if you will. But call it exciting.

There's an adage that all men are equal in the eyes of marlin. This is certainly the case with white marlin. They aren't as big as their blue brothers, but they can humble even great anglers.

The challenge of marlin fishing comes in knowing when to set the hook: too quickly and you'll miss a hookup; too slowly and the fish will reject the offering.

And while experience often is rewarded, it is almost as frequently rejected. Which is to say, just when you think you know this hook-setting bit, a marlin will come along and prove that you don't.

Anyway, white marlin have been providing lots of hook-setting opportunities of late, a situation that should carry into October, peaking during and immediately after a northeast blow, even a minor one.

So if it's a billfish you hope to catch, now is the time.

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