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Ascension Update – Neil Cunningham
Two separate groups from the Club fished Ascension late November/early December. Firstly an update from Neil Cunningham, entitled - The First and The Last. Why that title? It will become apparent, just read on:
The date had finally come. We were going fishing! But this was different we were going to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic - the Jurassic Park of Sportsfishing!. We were to fish 22nd-26th November 2003 on Shy 3, the week before the other SCBI club members came down south to this incredible fishery.
After an uneventful flight with the RAF my brother John and I settled into our rooms at the Obsidian Hotel in Georgetown.
November 22nd - We had a few knocks from a White Marlin in the morning and then had another bite from a small Blue which we fed a bait to on 50 lb tackle. It took the bait but dropped it and then disappeared. Then in the afternoon we caught a Marlin, estimated weight 700lbs, on a Hydra from Legend Lures. The fish of a lifetime for myself! And great team work and skill from Captain Ian “Yeti” Carter, first mate Martin “Marty” Bates and my brother John, as second mate, ensured a successful release.
Neil Cunningham's 700 pounder goes airborne.
It made the trip worthwhile, for those few seconds that the huge marlin was jumping close to the boat - everything seemed to go quiet and into slow motion. It made the trip worthwhile for those few seconds alone - fantastic to see such a great beast jumping high into the air, 10-12 feet from the boat and then swimming off back down to the depths.
November 23nd - We had great fun with the Black Jacks in the morning and in the afternoon fished for Tuna, Wahoo and Shark but caught nothing.
November 24th - One knockdown but generally very quiet. At the end of the day saw two fish, one huge female 1000lbs plus with smaller male. They were not interested in us or our lures!.
November 25th - More fun with Black Jacks in the morning and a large bait ball of small Skipjack Tuna just at the pier head. Set off Marlin fishing and we pulled the hooks on a 500lb plus fish. We also had a second fish show interest by biting the bridge teaser! In the afternoon we hooked a huge fish with my brother John in the chair. It was very calm at first but then realised it was hooked and started jumping in circles around the boat. In the end it must have jumped through the line and broke us off, that was after a blistering run with the acceleration of a Ferrari. I saw the wake from the fish on its last jump and it was huge - the size of a large speed boat - and must have been in 1000 -1400lb class - a possible All Tackle World Record.
November 26th - Our last day Marlin fishing - caught nothing.........saw nothing!
So statistically the fishing was slow. But I caught the largest Marlin of my life so far and my brother lost a fish that could have broken the All Tackle World Record. And we saw several other huge fish tailing that most marlin anglers could only dream of seeing in their lifetimes.
A paper published recently in the scientific journal NATURE suggests 90% of large predator fish have been cleared from the seas in the last 50 years. That leaves only 10% of original stocks in the sea.
The authors of the report say the era of “heroic fish” - the huge Marlin, Shark and Swordfish that inspired legends and novels - is well and truly over. The report, which took over 10 years to complete, says only dramatic cuts in catches, subsidies and the establishment of a network of “fish parks” will save certain species from extinction. In my opinion Ascension Island should be the first of many of these “Fish Parks” for the South Atlantic. It should be even more wide ranging than the recent changes on the Great Barrier Reef, the fishing around Cairns, Australia.
These parks could have limited “catch and release” fishing, but the political will needs to be there to put this into action. Perhaps the Billfish Foundation could explore this after their success in banning long-liners from the shores of California and Mexico? Also the Florida Swordfish population shows how stocks can recover given the chance.
So ironically we are the first generation of anglers that can reasonably go to places like Ascension Island to fish but if things don’t change we may also be some of the last.
See the websites below for more information:
http://ram.biology.dal.ca/depletion/ - Rapid Worldwide Depletion
of Predatory Fish Communities.
http://www.well.com/user/davidu/extinction.html - Extinction website.
Ascension Island Update – the ‘Other Group’.
This group from the Club – Roger Bradbury, Denis Froud, Peter Gurd, Clive Taylor, Jaap Tuit and Vince Webb – accompanied by two guests fished the week after Neil. They fished aboard Shy 3 and Andromeda.
Just like Neil’s trip they received a visit from the Monster Blue Marlin. Peter Gurd was on strike when this huge fish struck at one of the outriggered lures. It missed, but then tracked the other ‘riggered lure for what seemed like several minutes. Frustrating! Peter was similarly on Shy 3. And Ian and Marty were convinced it was an even bigger fish – 13 to 1500lbs!
The start of another day. Ian and Marty waiting for their charter
That puts the others into the shade but they did release fish estimated at 600 (2), 700 (2) and one of 850lbs. Clive had the larger of those fish. They also had two that died – 575 and 634lbs.
The 634 pounder was hooked in the root of the tail! And the crew had to follow it for two miles, running with the fish – it was too fast to continue backing. Running at 22 knots water pressure was holding the 130lb Dacron backing in a huge loop, and kicking up an impressive roostertail. And it was only on the rare occasion that the line flipped above the surface that they were able to recover line. A sad end for a game fish though.
Several ‘Sails’ looked and they had a relatively rare Atlantic (Long Billed) Spearfish. In addition, trolling, Vince had a 65lb Wahoo.
Additionally Andromeda tried unsuccessfully - in that the mooring on the drop off was starting to drag - to fish the bottom for Six-Gill Sharks. Denis was after a ‘double grander’. They couldn’t fish the bait correctly in the right spot and all they could manage, apart from the ubiquitous Google Eyes and small Grouper, was an estimated 80lb Oilfish. Something you handle with extreme care. Its scales are covered with particularly effective hooks!
Bluefin Tuna landed Plymouth - 5 December
This is a Press Release that John Bowman picked up, issued by staff at the Plymouth Aquarium.
A medium-sized Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus) was landed at Plymouth Fish Market this morning. The fish is 244cm long (Fork length) and weighs 42½ stone - 595lbs. It was caught on the evening of 4th December at around 49° 55´N 004° 40'W, that is about 24 nautical miles east of Lizard Point, SW Cornwall.
It was caught by the Scottish mid-water trawler Ocean Star (FR 894) in a mid-water pair trawl.
The last landing of a fish of this type in Plymouth was a 340 kg (750 lb)Bluefin Tuna on 29th October 1998.
There have been a few catches of large tuna over the last few years to the South-West of Ireland, and a number of reports of probable tunas, mainly of about one metre in length, from around Devon and Cornwall. There were also two Atlantic Bonitos (Sarda sarda) caught at Polperro on the Cornishsouth coast at the beginning of October 2003.
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