With the absence of bait there is really nothing to attract the fish and hold them.
Where ever it is found is a good indication of where to find Big Blue Marlin.
Main source of bait is mackerel as shown on the screen.
A Marlin Fisherman's Dream is to find bait like this. It showed up right outside of town. (Funchal) soundings in meters.
Mr Luc from Belgium was working hard on the one fish he caught this year
Dr Eduardo Teixeira and Augusto Figueira, President of the Big Game Club of Portugal.
presenting me with an award for service to Sportfishing.
I was surprised and sincerely grateful to receive this honor.
I looked over the gunwale at this slab sided monster and said right away, Ben you have a Grander here. I got howled down but will stick to my guns, that was a Grander. I’ve seen too many of them and always go on first impression. It never really jumped properly near the boat so we did not know what we had. Good on you Ben — Well Done.
When they are very fat like this thing was they can look short and fool the socks off you.
I might add here that I had a call from Wayne Whippin about that time. His voice was noticeably shaken. He said, Peter I have just seen the biggest Marlin I have ever seen in my entire life. He was about one mile away from us. He said the thing just lay on the surface, fins out and did absolutely nothing. He took the boat right up to it and had it almost under the rigger. Still it would do nothing. From being so close he was able to get a very good idea of length and girth. His estimate was 15 to 1800. Wayne is a very experienced fisherman who I have known since the early 70’s. He knows what big fish look like and BS is not part of his persona. Apparently nothing could entice the fish to bite and it just sank out of sight. The Stuff that Dreams are made of. There are several stories like this from Madeira and I can vouch for one myself.
Benjamin Cart from the USA with a 999 - well done Ben.
June 1st and the fish were right on queue. Andy releases his first Giant Blue Marlin est wt 850 lb.
Congratulations Andy. Also our first for the season.
An awesome strike but completely missed the hook -- it happens. Thats the tail of the fish you can see there.
Late May we got two bites right out of the gate. It was a double header but pulled both hooks. Sometimes you get lucky but not today.
This gave us a good taste of what was to come.