She never stopped winding. Two feet underwater and surrounded by straight gaffs, chamois’ and floating bottles of bleach, Sally Kurz needed to catch a blue marlin … and she wasn’t going to let this one get away. At the hookup, Capt. Tim Richardson knew about the importance of this fish and immediately turned on the little blue to keep it as close as possible to the 61-foot Garlington, Ambush. His deft handling got us up on the fish quickly and as we approached the tailing fish, he spun the boat to get the leader in reverse.

I stood behind Sally to coach and steady her during the fight. The Dominican Republic is known for being a bit sporty from time to time, and this was one of those times. The fish took off and since we were so close, Richardson had to back up-sea to follow, quickly filling the cockpit. The next wave broke over the transom and sent Sally and I crashing to the deck. As we slipped underwater, my elbow knocked open the cupboard under the gunnel, releasing the onslaught of gaffs and cleaning products. Sally fell on top of me and continued to wind throughout it all.

We emerged from the water, and the mate said that he got the leader right before we went down. I told him that I didn’t see it, and since the fish was still on that, we needed to catch it again,
which she promptly did. As soon as we touched the leader, Sally proceeded to tell us that, “You SOBs nearly drowned me!” However, it was mission accomplished for Sally, a spirited lady in her late 60s at the time. She and her husband Bob put together this trip to Marlin University to check off her Atlantic blue and white marlin. She got them both on the second day of the trip, May 22, 2014, where Bob also caught a sail to give the boat a grand slam.

With only a swordfish needed to complete her royal slam, it would take several tries over five more years for Sally to eventually score that elusive broadbill in Miami, Florida, with Ray Rosher’s Miss Britt. “That swordfish took me 40 years to catch,” Kurz says. “I was 74 when I finally finished my royal slam.”

Royal Slam

The International Game Fish Association sets angling rules and archives both fresh and saltwater game fish records, including all-tackle world records and specific line class records. It also recognizes several different Royal Slam Clubs that honor the achievement of catching a specific collection of game fish species within an angler’s lifetime. There are seven Royal Slam Clubs in total, comprising billfish, tuna, sharks, salmon, trout, inshore and bass. A quick look at the species required for each tells you that none are easy to accomplish. So far, 171 anglers have scored a billfish royal slam, which entails catching Pacific and Atlantic sailfish and blue marlin, white marlin, striped marlin, black marlin, swordfish and any species of spearfish, excluding the roundscale. Thirty-three people have done it multiple times, with four individuals accomplishing a billfish royal slam on fly tackle.

With different species occurring in both the Atlantic and Pacific, and some, like the spearfish and swordfish, being somewhat rare and elusive, nabbing a royal slam takes a bit of planning no matter how you start the journey. “It’s funny,” says IGFA Trustee, Treasurer and holder of two royal slams, Bob Kurz. “I don’t know that there was much of a focus on getting the slam early on, but within the last 10 or 15 years, as we traveled and we began to catch more of the different species, we thought why not? It’s a worthwhile angling achievement.”

The Kurzes Take a Trip

The couple started planning trips around the species needed to complete their slams. Bob’s first dedicated royal slam trip brought him to one of the most historic multi-species destinations of all-time — Venezuela.

“I went down to try and get my white marlin,” says Kurz, “but the weather conditions weren’t very good, so I went back the following year. That trip turned out to be the icing on the cake and got me on the way to the second royal slam! We fished for four days, and the mate was chomping at the bit to drop for swordfish. So on the last day we had a good morning on La Guairá Bank and we ran to another part of the bank and did the first drop. After about a 25-minute drift … nothing.

“The mate asked me if I wanted to do it again. I’m thinking, do I really want to spend more time at this when I could be trolling for blue and white marlin? I agreed to do it again and this time, after about 10 minutes, we hooked up. I catch the sword in less than an hour’s time. I never thought it would be so easy. Let’s go deep dropping every day!

“I wound up catching a grand slam myself that day with a sail, a white and the swordfish. We went back out looking for a blue to make a super slam but couldn’t find one. We ended up catching 63 billfish in four days. I always hoped that I could take Sally down there, but even when I was there, I didn’t feel it was the safest place. I’m sure it’s not now.”

Past & Present

Obviously, any place where you can reasonably expect to catch more than one billfish species in a day is going to be a desirable location for someone chasing a royal slam. Getting three or more species for the price of one trip is hard to beat.

Venezuela

Venezuela is indeed one place that used to factor in big time for those wanting to complete any kind of billfish slam. With a flood of blue marlin in the spring, and big numbers of whites, blues and sails in the fall, Venezuela was grand slam central. Only two fantasy slams — five species in a single day — have ever been recorded, and both happened in Venezuela. Unfortunately, the present political situation in Venezuela makes scheduling any kind of fishing trip there a foolhardy venture.

The only other countries that can come close to the numbers of different billfish species frequenting their waters, and in good targetable numbers, are Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico and Kenya, with each country scoring more than one super grand slam in a day’s fishing. The western edge of Australia, around Perth, is also an up-and-coming hot spot with a lot of grand slams, but it’s quite a jaunt from anywhere in the United States.

Panama

Panama, and Piñas Bay in particular, gets more than an honorable mention because of the incredible number of grand slams with Pacific blues, sails and black marlin. In fact, Tropic Star Lodge is probably the best place to target black marlin in the Western Hemisphere. So a trip to Panama can easily knock off three species in one shot. It’s a great return on your investment in a place that should be on every angler’s bucket list.

Australia

While the black marlin can still be elusive here, anglers can always bite the bullet and make the trek to Australia. Of course, the Cairns giant black marlin fishery, already more than 50 years young, remains the most reliable place in the world to target grander blacks. There are tons of juveniles inside the reef at the end of July, you can catch double-digits on light tackle when they are firing off, and the giant season kicks off mid-September. If there were to be a national billfish of Australia, it would have to be the black marlin.

The Dominican Republic

Over the last 20 years or so, the Dominican Republic has also carved out a nearby grand slam hot spot during the spring. Just enough sailfish and blue marlin show up with the influx of whites to make grand slam days a real possibility and ticking off all three species more than probable during a multi-day charter. The summertime bite off the FADs out of Casa de Campo is probably one of the best bets to tag your Atlantic blue as well.

St. Thomas

For the longest time, I told anyone that wanted to catch an Atlantic blue marlin that they should fish in St. Thomas, USVI, the week before or after each full moon from June until October. That advice remains true today as it is still one the most consistent blue marlin bites in the world. However, it has become a bit overshadowed in recent years.

Cape Verde

Cape Verde, which is a group of islands off the western coast of Africa, also enjoys an incredible blue marlin season during the spring and summer months. This is another one of those special places that has a mixture of both large numbers and large sizes of fish. It’s a bit of an adventure to get there, usually requiring an overnight stay in Portugal, but when you see five or six blue marlin in the spread every day, with most pushing 500 pounds, you won’t care in the least about jet lag. With the advent of FAD fishing, the two blue marlin species aren’t that hard to catch.

Costa Rica

From June through September, the FADs and seamounts offshore of Costa Rica can hold incredible numbers of Pacific blue marlin. It’s easy to catch 10 in a day, a relatively unheard of feat before the discovery of this fishery.

Elsewhere

Most would agree that the two hardest species to catch to complete your royal slam are the spearfish and swordfish. Spearfish do not occur anywhere in huge numbers, and it is rarely targeted in most places where its only occasionally captured. The only exception to this phenomenon occurs off Kona, Hawaii, every April and May, when a predictable population of shortbill spearfish moves into the waters just offshore. The Mediterranean Sea gets a few, as do Madeira and the Canary Islands, but it can be a real hit or miss proposition to target them anywhere else but Kona.

Swordfish are a true pelagic species with historically heavy commercial interest. For the longest time it was hard to find one, let alone pick a destination to target them with any kind of consistency. Until the longline ban in the Florida Straits was enacted, most anglers targeted swordfish in Venezuela and Southern California. New Zealand has good numbers and big fish, but it’s halfway across the world from the U.S. and the fishery is a long way from shore, usually requiring the added expense of a liveaboard or mothership. Traditionally, SoCal anglers target swords on the surface, but an emerging deep drop fishery produces significantly improved catch ratios.

Nowadays, deep dropping for broadbills in the Gulf Stream from Key West to Fort Lauderdale is your best shot at checking a swordfish off your list. Texas and Venice also have great daytime fisheries, and with little to no current over the Gulf sword grounds, it’s a lot easier to tell when you get a bite.

A Lone Wolf

Meet Dave Lawrence

There are as many ways to fulfill a royal slam as there are unique anglers, and Dave “Electric Dave” Lawrence is one of the most unique individuals, and avid fishermen, you’ll ever come across. A native New Yorker with a penchant for rock ‘n’ roll, Lawrence spent his evenings hosting the BB King’s Blues Club. “I started fishing when I was five or six, catching snapper blues, flounder and stripers off our dock on Long Island,” Lawrence says. “I would read in all the magazines about the famous fishermen like Alfred Glassel and all that stuff. I always wanted to catch a billfish. Of course, I kind of had to work up to that, fishing on party boats out of Long Island. I eventually caught a bluefin tuna and a mako, but I never did any billfishing.”

Electric Dave became friends with the legendary outdoor writer for the New York Star Ledger, Al Ristori, and in 1996 Ristori gave Lawrence his shot. “Al was an observer in the 1996 La Guaira Billfish Shootout, and he found out that someone had cancelled at the last minute and that there was a spot open on one of the teams. This was my big chance to catch a blue marlin, so I flew down there with my only goal to catch one blue marlin. Forget about competing. I didn’t have any allusions about winning,” Lawrence says.

The Trip Begins

“So on the first day I catch two!” Lawrence continues. “I was leading at lines out. Second day, nothing. By the third day, I was sitting in third when Sam Jennings caught a sail to knock me back to fourth. I caught another blue and sail, so now I’m back in second. With 20 minutes left in the day, I caught one more blue, ended up winning my first-ever blue marlin tournament as top angler. I caught every fish on our boat and we wound up second overall. That’s how I decided I needed to start fishing for my royal slam!

“I was immediately spoiled, and in 1997 I went to Tropic Star Lodge and caught my black marlin — a 500-pounder on a live tuna. I count that one in January of 1997 as the first one in the quest. That March, I went back to Venezuela and caught an Atlantic blue and a white. In April, I had some timeshare time in Cozumel, Mexico, so I went down there and got an Atlantic sailfish. In July, I went to Kona and got my Pacific blue and the spearfish … which is one of the hardest ones to get. That made six of the nine species. In August, I went on another trip with Al Ristori this time to Ecuador and I got the Pacific sail and a striped marlin. That gave me everything but the swordfish, which was the hardest one back then.”

The Trip Continues

Ristori knew that Lawrence still needed the sword, and he also knew that the Venezuelan’s had learned to catch swordfish by deep dropping to the bottom in 1,500 feet during the day. “I went down with Al and did a story on my quest for the sword and my royal slam,” says Lawrence. “We fished on the Los Meros Bank in 240 fathoms, keeping our dead octopus about 10 feet off the bottom. We were fishing two lines under long balloons that floated vertically in the water. As we were putting the second line out, the first got bit and I caught a 165-pound sword. That was the last fish I needed, I was very lucky,” says Lawrence. The day wasn’t over, and Dave caught six more swords before heading back to the Gigi House.

For those that endeavor to persevere, catching all nine billfish species comes with eternal recognition in the IGFA World Record Game Fishes book and the knowledge that you accomplished what few people in the sport of fishing ever have or will.

Time & Place

Everyone has an opinion on where the best bite is for which species, and it can change a bit over time, not by a whole lot, but places can and do change for one reason or another. With these facts in mind here are some of the best spots for each species and the time of year that will give you the best shot at success. This list also assumes that you are traveling from within the continental United States, and you are wanting a chance at another species on the same trip. Of course, Venezuela is no longer in the cards.

Striped Marlin

• Baja, Mexico // September – November
• Ecuador // January – April
• Cabo San Lucas, Mexico // November

Swordfish

• South Florida // July – November
• California // May – December
• Texas // Summer

Pacific Blue Marlin

• Panama (July-October)
• Costa Rica (May-December)

Pacific Sailfish

• Costa Rica // February – March
• Guatemala // November – June

Spearfish

• Hawaii // March – July

White Marlin

• Dominican Republic // May-June
• North Carolina // August-September

Atlantic Blue Marlin

• Dominican Republic // March-October
• Bahamas // April-June
• Cape Verde // March-August

Atlantic Sailfish

• South Florida // January-April
• Isla Mujeres, Mexico // February-March

Black Marlin

• Australia, GBR // September-December
• Panama // January-March

Royal Slam Application

All catches past and present are eligible as long as they can be properly documented and have been caught in accordance with IGFA rules. Photos of the angler with the fish and the contact information of the captain and/or witness are required for catches made after January 1, 2012.