A voracious Bonefish!

But perhaps we now need to review those bonefishing tenets after Clive Williamson’s recent experience in Barbados?  On what was effectively a family holiday Clive couldn’t resist taking along a set of spin gear.  And, having ‘carted’ it nearly 3000 miles across the Atlantic, well the temptation to use it becomes just too strong!

So it was the idle stroll along the beach, tie on a 28gm Toby spoon and speculatively lob it into the ocean.  The rod hopped over, and after a short fight what emerges but a 4lb Bonefish!

Unfortunately though these ‘aggressive’ genes won’t be passed on through the Bonefish gene pool.  The persuasive native that 'magically' appeared to assist Clive insisted on taking it for the ‘pot’!

Salmon Fishing in the Baltic – Neil & John Cunningham

Neil's report from Sweden.

Taking advantage of Ryanair’s low fares we travelled to Malmo, Sweden from Prestwick (near Glasgow) via an overnight stop at Stanstead – the scenic route but CHEAP. The next day (13^th May) we were met at the airport by Olaf ”The Grimmel” Grimkowski.  (Those Club members who have fished Ascension Island, Croatia or Ghana will certainly know Olaf!)

We were there to fish for Atlantic Salmon from the port of Simrishamn in Southern Sweden - about an hour’s drive from the airport – aboard Olaf’s boat  - STELZBOCK.  It’s a Quicksilver 630, 21ft long equipped with a 90 HP outboard.  The Salmon grounds lay some ten to twenty-five miles offshore in the Baltic Sea.

Depending on the conditions it was possible to troll up to ten rods – with up to two on each of the downriggers.  For those we used Daiwa Interliner rods, where the line is threaded through the centre of the blank and were permanently bent over working the lures at various depths.  The rest of the spread comprised of light trolling rods.  The reels were lever drag Shimano Charter Special reels fished with 20lb test.

Again when conditions were particularly calm, and if indeed we could run the boat straight, Olaf would use planer boards to work two of the surface lures.  They’re the sort that plane out (surprising that) to the side, acting as ‘mini’ outriggers.

Gunning for bear!

For lures we normally use Spoons with a Dodger or Flasher up-trace as an attractor but also, occasionally, Jack Rapid or Dipsy Diver lures.

In that the weather was extremely cold, albeit very sunny, we had to wear full length immersion suits plus gloves and hats.

Blow convention, I’ll start with the last of our three fishing days.  Nada!  An eloquent phrase.  We caught nothing apart from the by-catch of Cod and pesky Garfish.  Certainly nothing capable of really pulling drag!

Then moving backwards, on day two my brother caught the only Salmon -  the biggest of the trip -10.4 Kilos, about 23 pounds.  A beautiful fish - the archetypal 'Bar of Silver'.

But it was on our first day that we really were in the action.  Both myself and brother John catching our first Salmon.  Something we'll never forget. The total for the day was four Salmon caught and two further fish lost.   My biggest was 9.7 Kg, about 22 pounds and the three other fish were 7.3 kg.,5.2kg and 4.3 kg.  We had two fish each.

Click on the thumbnails to view full sized images of the photographs.

All in all a great trip that I can thoroughly recommend to Club members.  It was also very cost effective although food and drinks are expensive in Sweden, but that comes with the territory.   Olaf will be back  fishing in Simrishamn, probably in March and April 2005.  If you have never caught a Salmon before give it a try, you’ll have an excellent chance of catching one of these beautiful fish.

Cape Verde Islands – Peter Gurd and Clive Taylor

Sometimes those exploratory, pioneering trips for Marlin can result in genuine ‘red letter’ days.  I (Dave West) recall in the early days of the Azores when, on our first trip in October ’86, Dick Clack, Dave Petty and I had strikes from TEN Blues in an afternoon.  That was aboard a wonderful Rybovich, the only one I’ve ever fished on, the Double Header.  And a couple of days later Bob Burchett, Peter Haynes, Graeme Pullen and Colin Shaw – fishing with Ted Legg on Rabao – landed FIVE Blues, one for each angler plus one for Ted.

Halcyon days!  And it continued.  Two years later, fishing with Ted, a group of us ventured out to the Princess Alice Shoal, off Faial.  That was, to my knowledge, the first time that anyone had ever Marlin fished out there – 46 miles offshore.  And the memories are still with me.  We released 3 Blues out of 10 strikes.  But also saw two magnificent Bluefin Tuna tracking the lures.

Then a few weeks later Ted was crewing on Double Header when angler Lawerence Furman caught a fish of 1146lbs.  It’s still the 50lb line class record.  But, as they were ‘clearing the deck’, the fish that tracked in on one of the other lures was even bigger!

Talk to Ted though.  In those early days there was the informal ‘head to head’ when Ted on Cecilia and Don Merten on Double Header released SEVEN Blues each.  And there were the ‘Monsters’ that no one would put estimates on.

That was the Azores.

Then we had Ghana and, in the last two years, we’ve seen the development of the Ascension Island sport fishery.  Tim Hook had for years been trying to convince people of its potential, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2002 that Dieter Haselhorst moved his boats down from Ghana.  And the ‘granders’ started to appear.  The best to-date has been a fish of 1337lbs.  But several anglers, including Neil Cunningham’s brother, have hooked and lost fish that appeared to be in the 14 – 1600lb range.

I started off though talking about the ‘red letter’ days in exploratory fishing.  This report however on the Cape Verde Islands could more appropriately be described as a ‘red letter’ week!

Dieter had always had a hankering to fish the Cape Verde archipelago, off the coast of Senegal – West Africa.  The few local boats seemed to have reasonable catches and, most years, recorded at least one ‘grander’.  And it was also from here that Stewart Campbell had released 20 Blues in a single day. 

So, in late March 2004, Ian Carter and Zak Conde took Andromeda the 1400 nautical miles up from Ascension.  It was a 10 day trip.

Dieter and his partner started things off with steady, but certainly not spectacular fishing.  Then Peter Gurd and Clive Tayor arrived in early May. 

In what was effectively six days fishing – unseasonable windy conditions had forced them to temporarily re-locate their base from Mindelo for the first couple of days – they released 16 Blue Marlin from 30 strikes.  Seven of the fish were estimated at 500lbs or better, with the best two – 720 and 750 – coming as a ‘double header’.  Full details are on our 2004 Notable Fish list – click 2004 Notable Fish to view.

Now some further statistics.  Average weight was estimated at 450lbs, with albut one of the fish being taken on lures.  The singleton – a 650 pounder -  taken on 50lb stand-up tackle fishing Bait ‘n’ Switch, came on the last day to Clive.  During the trip they had two ‘double headers’ and one ‘triple’.

There’re two further points of interest. 

They found hook-up rates definitely improved when they ran the lures with initial light drag settings.  The drag is set just enough to prevent overrun.  When the fish strikes it is then allowed to turn away from the boat with the lure – 4 or 5 seconds – prior to pushing the lever to the conventional drag setting.  Most are then successfully hooked in the scissors.  And it appears not to matter whether you use a hard or soft-headed lure, they just hang on.  Obviously bill wraps are always going to have the same end result unless you’re extremely lucky!

Then three of the fish, in the 275 – 400lb range, were satellite tagged by a Billfish Foundation scientist working with God’s Will / God’s Favor.  I believe that’s a first for Club members.  And it will certainly be interesting to see the results of their travels once the data is disseminated. 

As I mentioned Clive and Peter fished on Andromeda.  Bookings can be made through Sian Carter, and you can contact her through www.azoresmarlin.com

Cape Verde Postscript - An Abundance of Fishes

Soon after Clive and Peter returned I received this note from Berno Niebuhr who operates two 33' Bertrams, appropriately named Happy Hooker 1 and 2.  So the 30 strikes in 6 days fishing wasn't just a 'flash in the pan'.

After Clive and Peter left, I’ve seen the best day with 16 blues and got 14 bites out of them.  But managed only 3 releases!  Very poor hook-up ratio related to that many bites.  I was however 25 feet away of catching my first triple header on Blues, when the first one pulled the hook that close to the boat.  But anyhow, we caught the other two. 

The best three days in a row on my two boats.  So far we’ve seen an amasing 70 blue marlin !!!    Any how, there are a lot of small fish around this year and we all miss quite a lot of them, but the action is great as you can imagine!

For details of bookings contact Berno through his web site - www.capeverde-fishing.com.

And again to reflect a broader consistency whilst Ian Carter who brought Andromeda up from Ascension Island was skippering her for the 27 days between late April and late May they had 110 strikes in total and released 42 Blue Marlin.  Zak has now taken over as captain, ably assisted by Olaf as his 'deckie'.  News updates on their operation may be viewed by clicking here.

Seychelles

Eric Roberts has just returned from a trip to the Seychelles.  His report follows:

Fishing was great!  Fished two days from the boat Marlin out of Victoria
on Mahe with Captain Norris and his crew boy Pascale.

First day was 38 miles to the south-east, on the edge of the Continental Shelf.
Caught plenty of Skipjack Tuna, a Yellowfin Tuna - that was cooked within minutes of coming over the side, and tasted great - and a 35kilo (77lb) Dog Tooth Tuna. Took about 30 fish in total.  Also had a Marlin of well over 100kg come into the lure pattern. All fish apart from the Dog Tooth were taken on lures.  The Dog Tooth took a strip bait on 30lb gear, as we came over a sea mount that rose from 300m to 100m.  A fierce opponent!

And here's a photograph of it.  Click on the thumbnail to view a full-sized image.

Second day was again to the south east, 36 miles out of Mahe.  Started taking Bluefin Trevally from the instant the lures hit the water.  Most fish were around 20lbs.  As we came over the Continental Shelf,100m dropping to 2500m, a small Blue Marlin took the starboard long flat line that I had just run back into the spread. It was incredibly acrobatic, and it fought solidly for 30 - 40 minutes. Fish was weighed later and clocked in at 70kg (154lbs) - my first, and to say I was happy maybe a slight understatement!  Mission accomplished for me. (Some people may well moan but the fish was taken and was used for food for the locals.  I can live with that knowing it was simply not wasted.)

Carried on catching Bonito, Barracuda, Dolphin and Trevally all day.  Had a very big Sailfish strike mid-afternoon but this one managed to escape before the fun began.  Caught more fish than the day before, all of which were given away to the locals at the dock.   It was a bit early for any Wahoo, and the Rainbow Runner gave us the slip.   Had an interesting experience when two 20lb+ Trevally took the same lure!   I was convinced right up to the boat that I had a huge Dog Tooth.

I believe there is great potential for fishing here and will be returning hopefully next year for more of the same.  And maybe a few days down in Alphonse.

Shore fishing on Mahe was interesting.   Around Beau Vallon there is no point. I travelled around having a good look, and found the south / south west of the island appearing the best bet.   Lost a barracuda in the surf off Anse Intendance.   

IGFA/Rolex Offshore Championship

The fifth running of this prestigious invitational competition was fished out of Cabo san Lucas, Mexico during the latter half of May.  66 teams competed.  All were tournament winners from one or other of the 98 designated qualifying events held throughout the world, in 33 countries, during 2003.

A total of 297 Striped Marlin, a single Blue Marlin and solitary Sailfish were released, together with 15 Dorado, a Tuna and 10 Wahoo.  (The weighed fish were donated to local charities.)

Russell Brumby was part of a Kenyan team that fished the tournament without, unfortunately, much success!  They only racked up three Stripeys, against the winning team’s count of 11 Striped Marlin and the Sailfish.  However Russell did catch a nice Dorado of 41lbs on 30lb class tackle.

If you’re interested in the IGFA’s Press Release can be viewed by clicking here.  To finish summarising though the tournament was won by a family team from Texas with the team from Tobago, skippered by Frothy DeSilva, a bit of a distant second.

A Brace of Thirties

On a recent trip (end of May) to the Wintons Island Lake at Rugles in Normandy Terry Smith recorded two impressive Carp - a Common of 36lb 2oz and a Mirror of 37lb 10oz.  The larger of the fish was just 6oz under our current Club record.  Both were taken on boilies on 12lb class tackle.