Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 933 is my conversation with billfish and travel-fishing expert Elliot Stark, the author of a book on traveling the world to fish for billfish. We had not spoken since 2012, when an Into the Blue crew caught a tagged sailfish and Elliot helped connect the story. Since then he has run a mothership marlin operation in Panama, worked for The Billfish Foundation on tagging and economics, and written the book on where, how, and why to chase billfish across the planet.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
Elliot Stark is a billfish and travel-fishing expert who wrote a book on traveling the world to fish for billfish and other species. He spent years with The Billfish Foundation working on tagging programs and socioeconomic studies, ran a 163-foot mothership marlin operation in the Pearl Islands of Panama, and now writes for outlets across sport fishing and runs the Fish Travel Eat blog.
His book is a guide to travel fishing for billfish and other species around the world. Beyond where to go and what you can catch, it covers the things most fishing guides leave out — whether a destination is fishing-only or has activities for non-fishing guests, the food, the logistics, and what to expect from a trip. He explains in the episode that he wrote it as an outgrowth of all the places he visited working for The Billfish Foundation.
Elliot worked on billfish tagging programs and on socioeconomic studies that measured the economic impact of traveling anglers. He describes studies at Cabo San Lucas and Costa Rica that showed sport fishing generating macroeconomically significant revenue — in one case a meaningful share of a nation's tourism GDP. That data has been used to argue for keeping fish in the water because anglers keep coming to catch them.
Elliot ran a mothership-based marlin fishing lodge in the Pearl Islands off Panama's Pacific coast. The mothership was 163 feet, held 90,000 gallons of diesel, had six staterooms and a crew of around 25, and stayed out for roughly three months at a time. Guests flew to a nearby island and were brought out by panga. He targeted giant black marlin, big yellowfin tuna, cubera snapper, and rooster fish.
He sees both sides. Anglers who own the technology love it; those who do not say it removes the skill of reading water and turns fishing into a video game. He points out the offshore world solved the fight by splitting tournaments into sonar and non-sonar divisions, and he and I talk about how that same two-division idea could work in the bass-fishing forward-facing-sonar debate.
Elliot says blue marlin often jump frantically — greyhounding and windshield-washing like their hair is on fire — while black marlin jump in a measured, almost confrontational way. Black marlin carry their weight in the head, have thick locked-out pectoral fins above about 300 pounds, and are more coastally associated, found near deep-water access points like pinnacles. If he could catch only one fish, he says it would be a black marlin.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 933 with Elliot Stark is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
Elliot and I first crossed paths back in 2012 around a tagged sailfish that turned into one of my favorite stories. When I caught up on what he had been doing since, I realized he had lived a version of the fishing life most of us only read about — running a giant mothership in the Pearl Islands, working inside the science side of billfish conservation, and then sitting down to write the actual book on travel fishing. I came into this one as a student. I wanted him to walk me through all of it in his own words.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the whole arc.
Elliot's book is the first I have heard of that gets into the parts of a fishing trip nobody tells you about. Some destinations are fishing only. Some keep you on the mothership the entire time. Some are loaded with activities for the people in your party who do not fish. He gets into the food, the logistics, and the texture of each place, not just the species. It is the kind of detail you only have after visiting nearly every country in Central America for work. Hear him explain how the book came together in the episode.
This was the part that surprised me most. Elliot walked me through the socioeconomic studies The Billfish Foundation ran at Cabo San Lucas and in Costa Rica — work that put hard numbers on how much money traveling anglers pour into a local economy. Cabo, he reminds me, was built on the backs of striped marlin long before the golf courses and Michelin restaurants. When you can show a fishery is macroeconomically significant, you can make the case to keep fish in the water. Listen to him lay out the numbers.
Elliot ran a mothership marlin lodge in the Pearl Islands off Panama, and the logistics are staggering. The boat was 163 feet, carried 90,000 gallons of diesel, had six staterooms and a crew of around 25, and stayed out for three months at a stretch. Guests flew to an island airstrip and got ferried out by panga. He fished four days a week as a second mate while keeping the whole operation running. The way he describes a slick-calm morning with fog rolling out of the rainforest is worth the listen alone.
I asked Elliot what he would catch if he could only catch one fish, and his answer was immediate. Blue marlin jump like their hair is on fire — frantic, scared, greyhounding everywhere. Black marlin, he says, jump measured and almost confrontational, like they are inviting you to come get some. He breaks down where you find them, why they are more coastally associated than blues, and what makes a big black so unmistakable on the leader. Press play in the YouTube player above to hear it.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
What stuck with me the day after talking to Elliot is how much of fishing is really about people and place. He has spent his life chasing billfish, but the stories that landed hardest were about the village that learned an arapaima was worth more alive, the town that was built on striped marlin, and the data that lets a fishery keep its fish.
The other thread is the technology debate. Whether it is offshore sonar or bass-fishing forward-facing sonar, Elliot's read is the same one I keep coming back to: it is terrible when the other guy has it and you do not. The offshore world's two-division fix might be the most sensible answer anyone has landed on yet.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 933 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Elliot Stark is a billfish and travel-fishing expert, writer, and the author of a book on traveling the world to fish for billfish and other species. He spent years with The Billfish Foundation working on tagging programs and socioeconomic studies that quantified the economic impact of sport fishing, ran a 163-foot mothership marlin lodge in the Pearl Islands of Panama, and has fished across Central America and beyond. He now provides content and writing across the sport-fishing industry and runs the Fish Travel Eat blog.
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