15 Jan 2001 Season just starting. Some albacore and Wahoo but soon the bigeye tuna arrive.
3 Feb 2001 The TUNA have started to run
4 Feb 2001 Pilot Whales and Common Atlantic dolphins seen feeding on needfish. Tuna around but not biting. Calm seas.
7 Feb 2001 Rough weather from SW, 60Knots +, somewhat rough, fishing off!
12 Feb 2001 The 3rd day of ‘Leste’ – warm east wind with dust haze from the Moroccan desert. This can bring a very hot situation in the middle of winter. Seas rough from the SE.
21 Feb 2001 Light NE wind, lots of Pilot Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins off the airport side. Large Bigeye tuna 50-80kg being caught north of the Island . Rough conditions and fish are 2 months early.
22 Feb 2001 1st Albacore Tuna on Katherine B – 60lbs. Whales, Whales, Whales. First Cory Sheerwater (from Brazil). Fin Whales to the North – Big Sperm Whales to the South – all in playful spectacular mood, lots of ‘hands of god’. Also Common Atlantic Dolphins. Beautiful weather.
25 Feb 2001 Just caught. Look at this Albacore!
March 1st. Katherine B is hauled out for refit and paint, in readyness for Tuna and Marlin season. Strong SW from intense Low Pressure – has everybody shore bound. A few Albacore and Big Eye Tuna caught just before the blow upto 40 kilo’s.
5 March 2001 Weather dreadful. Wind and rain. No fishing this week.
4 April 2001 Steady NE trade, Big Eye Tuna upto 40lb in size. Large schools of Big Eye are off the Morocco coast. Turtles are here and Cory Shearwater are everywhere. Next week done with refit.
14 April 2001 Steady NE trade, beautiful day, Sperm whales, dolphins, turtles, but no fish today.
15 April 2001 Half day trip, steady NE trade, blue water, ocean currant coming in, stripped and common dolphins, Pilot Whales and turtles. Saw large tuna jump.
17 April 2001 Whale watch, lots of common dolphins and then bottlenose dolphins, turtles but no whales today. Tuna everywhere.
15 May 2001 SW easing. Common dolphins all over, some Corries and a rare sighing of a Tropic Bird.
18 May 2001 Friday. Calm with light NE. Stripped dolphins today and very friendly.
19 May 2001 Saturday. Tagged a small White Marlin around 25kg (50 lb) saw lots of common dolphins and about 30 Pilot Whales. Tuna showed up late but would not bite, all around the 100 kg (200 lb) size.
25 May 2001 Clean water, strong current full of Turtles, Ocean garbage and Trigger fish. Stripped Dolphins. Blue Marlin raised off Cabo Giro – 600lb.
27 May 2001 Stripped and Common Dolphin. Saw one Blue 4-500 lb.
29 May 2001 Heavy Dust Haze. Very clean blue water. Common Dolphins very friendly. One Dorado (Mahi Mahi) caught, 15lb – female.
1 June 2001 Flat calm, Common and Stripped Dolphins all over. A very tropical ocean, dorado, large Hammerhead Shark, Turtles of all kinds and sizes. Current from the north.
General note – Good catches of Albacore are being caught right now off Porto Santo – 40 miles to the north of Madeira. Albacore in Portuguese is Avordore, which translates as Flying Tuna. Understandable when you consider the long pectoral fins of this fish which is known is South Africa as the Long Fin Tuna.
4 June 2001 Fishing charter – Fresh NE trade, Saw one Giant Blue Marlin (1,000 + lb) free jumping infront of the boat and a smaller one just swam by. Dolphins – stripped and common all over in small groups.
6 June 2001 Fishing charter – Calm Light NE. Dolphins everywhere. Caught a nice Wahoo around 40 lb on light tackle.
7 June 2001 Flat Calm. Took Film crew for Travel programme and Reid’s Palace Hotel in-house video. Had Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. We picked up an old plastic drum and tipped 20 or 30 trigger fish onto the cockpit floor. They were all Released of course, but not before demonstrating how the trigger mechanism works on a Trigger fish – do you know how it works?
8 June 2001 Flat Calm – Atlantic Spotted Dolphins in spectacular form, also a baby turtle. Foot note. Last week we saw one of the rare ‘Beaked Whales’. No positive I.D this time. but these very shy and rare creatures show up in the summer months off Madeira. I have made a positive I.D. on three species so far.
12 June 2001 Small group of Spotted Dolphins also around 20 Pilot Whales in the same place.
15 June 2001 NE Trade Moderate, Spotted and Pantropic Dolphins x 100.
22 June 2001 Calm, quiet day but a Spearfish strike and later a Dorado (Mahi Mahi). Lots of bait, NE up.
25 June 2001 Moderate NE. One Spearfish bite, caught Wahoo weighing 50 lb. Dolphins and Pilot Whales out wide.
26 June 2001 Sperm Whales over large area, very difficult to observe, heading west. May have been 10 altogether.
07 July 2001 Sperm whales – two groups, 3 and 4 and 1 lob tailing and jumping.
10 July 2001 Strong NE. Hundreds of Bullwars. Plankton in 10-20 metres. Pod of Beaked whales, could have been 5 or 6, one large with brown colour. Very shy.
12 July 2001 One Barracuda. Dolphins are back. Calm.
13 July 2001 Calm, Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. Reports of Swordfish – 250 lb. Dust Haze.
17 July 2001 Strong NE. Turtles in current line and Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. They found ‘us’ when we stopped to look at the Turtles.
20 July 2001 Wind easing, looked wide – found Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, family group – 20 +.
23 July 2001 Large group of Tursiops close to drop off. One Sei Whale, medium size. Definate I.D Dorsal and Blow visible at same time. Frequent blow and very loud and swimming in circles. Two Marlin seen around 400 lb.
25 July 2001 One Grouper, saw 20-30 Hammerhead Sharks.
26 July 2001 Double Header, 500 lb BLUE MARLIN tagged and released by Cyril Taminiau of Holland. Calm and hot, light to medium NE, also one Mahi Mahi.
27 July 2001 Caught one Mahi – Pompano in trash lines. Larger than normal sizes. Very clean water.
29 July 2001 Calm. One bite from 500 lb Blue. Strong current PM. Clean water.
31 July 2001 Heavy haze. Atlantic Spotted Dolphins feeding in group of around 50.
03 Aug 2001 Strong NE. 5 Turtles, 2 large schools of tuna, 6 miles off.
06 Aug 2001 Lots of Dolphins. One Amberjack.
08 Aug 2001 Tagged and Released a 650 lb BLUE MARLIN. Strong NE. One skipjack.
10 Aug 2001 Sperm whales going fast, E off shore. Unable to catch up. Atlantic Spotted, same old place – large group. Reports of Pilot whales AM. Strong NE.
11 Aug 2001 Lots of small stuff about – Skipjack and Mahi. Clean water and strong NE.
12 Aug 2001 Skipjack and Mahi. Clean water and Turtles.
14 Aug 2001 Flat calm, small group of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins.
16 Aug 2001 Calm, Skipjack, Mahi (dorado) and White Marlin all the way to the west. Tagged and Released a 70-80 lb WHITE MARLIN by Hans Bayr of Austria on light tackle. Two Blue Marlin raised, no hookups. Current still coming from north. Squid season at peak, close to shore at night-time.
17 Aug 2001 Quiet Day, 2 Mahi (dorado).
18 Aug 2001 4 Mahi. Heading home to Funchal and a nice 400 lb BLUE MARLIN tagged and released by Hans Bayr of Austria. Absolutely gorgeous water all the way. Turtles and Atlantic Spotted Dolphins in small groups – very active.
20 Aug 2001 One bite, 7 Dorado all caught by Hans’ son Andreas. Blue water all the way to the west. Moderate NE.
21 Aug 2001 Calm, two whales off the Desertas. A positive I.D, Northern Bottlenose. Back to Reid’s and we found a Sea Lion – Monk Seal (very rare). Only the 3rd I have seen in 4 years!
* This log will now be quiet for about 10 days as the ‘log writer’ will be away. Peter will be fishing and I will update as soon as I get back.
*I’m back so here we go: )
22 Aug 2001 Calm, Bottlenose Dolphin and two small Dorado.
23 Aug 2001 Calm, 2 Wahoo at the Desertas. Very clean blue water and so many big Turtles everywhere.
25 Aug 2001 Light NE. Currant from SW. Bait and some tuna off N. S Lorenzo. Dolphins reported.
26 Aug 2001 Light NE. Little bait, large Bottlenose Dolphin. One Wahoo at the Desertas, water very clean and blue.
28 Aug 2001 Calm, large group of Stripped Dolphin wide off Harbour. Clean water, I think this was the largest group of stripped I have seen since being in Madeira. 100+ , very shy and reluctant to approach the boat. Only one or two ventured close. Wild jumping display, very spectacular.
29 Aug 2001 Small pod of Tursiops. Skipjack and Mahi everywhere. Calm.
31 Aug 2001 Light NE. 4 Dorado.
01 Sept 2001 2 Dorado. Had Marlin bite marks and took a head of line off the bait rod? guess I will never know.
02 Sept 2001 Light NE. 4 Dorado, one marlin bite. Clean blue water, calm.
07 Sept 2001 Calm. Large group of 60 Pilot Whales, made up of 5 seperate groups – 10+ in each. Spy hopping, logging and lob tailing. One large male sat alongside for a long time.
08 Sept 2001 Calm. Dorado and small Skipjack. Water very clear and blue.
11 Sept 2001 Calm. Pilot Whales, maybe the same group but seemed more. Many large males, approx. 60-80, very spread out.
12 Sept 2001 Flat calm. Clear water, fished the Desertas. Large bait schools but no bites. Sperm Whales 2 or 3, unable to get close
13 Sept 2001 Calm, little currant. One Blue Marlin free jumping in front of the boat, about 400 lb.
14 Sept 2001 Moderate NE trade, just Skipjack and Mahi’s today.
15 Sept 2001 Moderate NE trade. Skipjack in the morning. In the afternoon Light NE trade with clear blue water. One group of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins out wide. Playfull and colourfull. Pinks belly’s.
16 Sept 2001 Very small Skipjack all over. No mahi. Sooty Searwater still about, only singles. NE Trade, swell from the west.
17 Sept 2001 Small Skipjacks again. Wahoo biting to the west. Calm with a heavy swell off Hurrican heading to N Atlantic.
18 Sept 2001 Calm with swell from the west. Pilot Whales of about 60, the same group.
19 Sept 2001 Light NE swell. General water colour seems to be going down. Wahoo all over. 3 for none at the Desertas.
20 Sept 2001 AM calm, SW pm upto 20 knots. Wahoo bite on. 4 for 7 on light tackle. Some great fishing, nice fish 30-60 lb eaach, lost 2 big fish. Billy caught 2, Ricky caught 1 and Peter caught 1.
22 Sept 2001 Calm, none for 3 Wahoo, 1 Amberjack. Light winds, 2 large Tursiops, lots of bait.
23 Sept 2001 Calm with a couple of rain squalls. Wahoo are biting, 6 for 20. Found same group of Pilot Whales.
24 Sept 2001 Light NE, calm. Wahoo in same place but picking only today. 3 out of 20 bites between 30-60 lb each. All fish caught were foul hooked! Imagine if all had hooked up properly.
26 Sept 2001 Calm, clean water. 2 for 2 Wahoo today. Finished early, wahoo 40-50 lb each – shark bite! Saw a small group of spotted dolphins.
02 Oct 2001 Calm and sunshine, light W – SW, very clean blue water. Noticeable decrease in turtles and all bird species, indicates end of summer and the south migration. Observed one Cuviers Beaked Whale – 3 blows 10+ seconds apart then took a shallow dive. We waited 15 minitues but no other sighting.
04 Oct 2001 Flat calm. Half day, one for 2 Wahoo.
09 Oct 2001 Strong N-NE, clean water. A few Corries still about but didn’t see any dolphins today.
21 Oct 2001 Log writers note. The large gaps in entries now are due to a couple of reasons. We’ve had 3 or 4 (lost count now) SW weather systems come through. When it is blowing around 35 knots plus we decide not to beat everybody up including the Captain! Because of the inclement weather conditions at he moment, there seem to be fewer anglers.
Now with Mackerel skies and Mares tails along with the Cat cleaning right over his ears ‘again’, I guess we are in for more wind and rain. These ‘wives tales’ have not prooved us wrong yet! As a friend of ours in PNG (Australian) once said “I’ll bet on witch craft any day”
24 Oct 2001 Strong NE. 0 for 5 Wahoo. Fishing is good, the catching is difficult. This is because the fish are just picking and annoying everyone!
27 Oct 2001 Seas calm. Niels and Family from Sweden. 4 for 7 Wahoo upto 35kg – 77lbs. Junior angler Norma caught a 21 kg – 46lb Wahoo. This young Lady was a natural angler showing exceptional skill and ability to use a rod and reel. All fish were caught on 20lb Spin, using Penn Spinfishers. The morning was flat calm so we headed for the Desertas. Birds were everywhere. Young Cory’s Shearwaters with new feathers. They look so stupid when they are learning to fly. Tripping over as they take off and falling into the water as they make a gliding turn – born on the Desertas this Summer, soon they will be gone heading for a trans-atlantic flight to Brazil, they will return next March. Large areas of bait and alot of action made a spectacular sight. The big Wahoo (77lb) took 50 minitues to bring along side, was a difficult fish to deal with. So strong. First hook up was 4 landing 3, second hook up was 3 landing 1
The Wahoo caught by Norma was a potential junior world record.
01 Nov 2001 Just had another batch of bad weather for a few days from the SW, no boats went out. Then dust and wind from the Desert – Leste.
03 Nov 2001 Light West, rain. One bite. Clean water and flying fish everywhere. Wahoo at the Desertas, apparently they have now moved to the other side of the Island. One Amberjack around 10 lb.
08 Nov 2001 Calm to the Desertas. Heavy swell from the North. One large Wahoo, lost half to a Mako Shark. Still lots of Cory’s Shearwaters, mostly young birds. Saw Big Eye Tuna bust. Big fish but only a few. Dropped a 15kg Mahi Mahi at the boat and watched small group of Pilot Whales. About 10 of them. Had 2 more Wahoo bites. Bryan came up with an interestering way of subduing a Mahi (Dorado) – with Rum in it’s mouth – never heard that one before, any comments?
Saturday.
01 Dec 2001 Charter, Brian Worthy, Calm. One Wahoo bite on the top of the tide. One for One 29kg. One Barracuda and One Skipjack. Large group of Pilot Whales spread over wide area, same place around 80 animals. Very clear air today. I wonder if this will confirm the rain theory. We will see. Only swa one Cory’s Shearwater.
02 Dec 2001 Raining! So the clear air theory is right. Strong NE, barometer dropped almost 20 points.
12 Dec 2001 IMPORTANT NEWS. Fish for Christmas. Big changes are happening here. Last night record catches of Mackerel took place. 60 tonnes were taken by local fishermen in one night. For the past 5 years mackerel fishermen have caught vertually nothing. In the history of fishing, mackerel landings were directly related to the occurance of tuna and marlin. Keep your eyes on Madeira over the next six months. This is an indication of things returning to normal, ie, The Good Old Days.
Thankyou to everyone who came and fished with us this year. Some were lucky some where not so lucky. Also a BIG thankyou to my three mentors, B, Ch. and R. I have annoyed the pants off them!
We are off for a 3 week break now so you will not hear from us until the next year. Peter is shooting on saturday, hope he remembers that a lure will not catch them!
For a pint of Adnams, you will have to make your way to the Suffolk/Norfolk border.
Have a great Christmas and New Year and thanks once again. See you next year for the following installment. Pepe.
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