May is a good month for Bill Elliott. On May 31, the Carrollton angler caught, tagged and released a 550-pound blue marlin while trolling off Kona, Hawaii. It's not the biggest marlin that Elliott has landed, just the latest in a string of big fish caught in May.

On Memorial Day in 2006, Elliott was fishing near Bermuda when he caught a giant blue marlin that charter boat captain Allen DeSilva estimated at more than 1,100 pounds. When DeSilva posted photos of the fish on his Web site, he received several messages from other veteran anglers that he had underestimated the fish's weight.

Elliott's Bermuda blue is the only 1,000-pound marlin (veteran big game anglers call them "granders") documented in May from Bermuda waters. Elliott said most of the big billfish in that part of the world are not caught until summer. Even then, few of the biggest marlin approach 1,000 pounds.

"My wife, Leslie, and I caught the big game fishing bug on our honeymoon in 1982," said Elliott, a building official for the city of Colleyville. "We were in the Cayman Islands and we chartered an offshore boat. Neither of us had been deep sea fishing before. While we were trolling, a 400-pound marlin came up in our baits. It was very exciting. The fish wasn't hooked, but we were."

Elliott said it's the excitement and power of big pelagic fish that's kept the couple coming back for more. They fish for marlin at least once a year and have sampled the action in about 10 different big game hot spots. They've spent about 150 days trolling in blue water.

Their luck wasn't good the first few years, but the Elliotts learned that planning and research is more important than luck.

"To catch a marlin, you have to fish at the right time of the year with the right captain," Elliott said. "There are charter boat captains who just take you for a boat ride. They catch a big fish every now and then, but it's an accident. After you fish with the top captains for a while, you can spot the bad ones just by the kind of tackle and bait they use."

If the timing of a fishing trip meshes with a good boat captain, Elliott believes he has a 50-50 chance of boating a billfish. On several different fishing days, he's caught two marlin, though they've usually been smaller striped marlin. On the fateful day when Elliott caught the Bermuda grander, he'd already caught and released a 400-pound blue.

To the Elliotts, who were married on May 15, 1982, and renewed their wedding vows on May 31, 2002, meeting old salts and hearing their stories of the sea is a big part of the offshore attraction.

At Kona, they fished with second-generation skipper Marlin Parker, whose father was the first Kona charter boat captain to boat a grander. He named his son after the dramatic billfish.

Leslie Elliott enjoys offshore fishing as much as her husband, though she lacks the stamina to slug it out with a big marlin.

"I like to use heavy tackle," Bill Elliott said. "If you whip the fish as quickly as possible, it has a much better chance of survival. Marlin are incredible fighters and they sometimes fight to the death."

1. Bermuda

2. Kona, Hawaii

3. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico