Angola: Winter Billfish

[Pargo Man]

Gentlemen Anglers,

mid May the season for sailfish and marlin is over... or is it?!

Aboard MAHINDA we still find fish, that would normally not be considered winter fish e.g. blue marlin, dorados and even tuna.

The past two weekends we tried our luck 30 miles out on the 200m bathimetry and struck some gold.

Waters are 21 degrees inshore, but some 25 miles out 24 degrees and more are still possible.

With two new gearbox oil coolers, MAHINDA does her steady 20 knots and so range and distance are well within our repertoire.

 

[Pargo Man]

Another two hefty dorries come aboard.

 

[Pargo Man]

Where there is dorados, more dorados will be close...

 

[Pargo Man]

Eventually, we have to turn the bow towards Luanda, but with so much forrage for the marlin, the Big Blue cannot be too far away either.

15h00, baaaaeeeeng, the four-eyed-monster get's struck out of the middle rigger.

A nice 400 lbs class marlin breaches and jumps and gives us the full show.

Esley is on and fights the fish for 20 minutes... when she turn her head and the hook slips off the beak...

 

[Pargo Man]

Already last weekend we had had a marlin on the line, but lost it with 600m line off the reel. Since then we stopped fishing 7 lines with just two anglers aboard ;-)

 

[Pargo Man]

16h30 by now and we turn towards Luanda trolling steady 8kn in the calm seas. .. and baeng, riiiiiiiea goes the TIAGRA. Fish on and it's Commodore Xico's turn. This fish does'nt jump, but feels heavy, Tuna, Xico's verdict!

 

[Pargo Man]

All in all a fabulous day, Gentlemen, but we got to get home and still have 30 miles to port before us.

 

[Pargo Man]

On the more serious side, we found another gillnetter dropping her tackle 30 miles out on the 200m ledge. This is what she looked like... we since have found her owners are Spanish, the VIDAL Armadores Group.

 

[Pargo Man]

Her Captain feels uneasy with us so close and taking snapps.

 

[Pargo Man]

wheird story of her owners and name changes...


IMO 680 39 61; Norwegian Black List; previous flags: Aeq Guinea, Togo; Previous names: Carmela, Gold Dragon, Golden Sun, Seabull 22; Owner: Vidal Armadores S.A. Espanha; Source: http://issuu.com/haylsb/docs/ocean_inquirer_v10_low_res

 

[Pargo Man]

the ground gillnets are put out in a circle around rock formations on the seabed in 100 to 200 meters. The traditional drag nets cannot access these zones without risking loss of tackle. That's when these trawlers move in and take the remainder of snappers, grunt, bass and all the slow growing resident species. Already we had been wondering about the drastic reduction in variety and capture in some of our jigging spots...

 

[Pargo Man]

One week later the water has gone off totally.
Green, cold and foul... the cool breeze demanding...

 

[Pargo Man]

still, with a good portion of luck...

 

[Pargo Man]

by the FAD we saw marlin hunt, but hey were not
tuned into our spread...

 

[Pargo Man]

a good source of protein and exercise in the
fresh breeze of the Atlantic...

 

[Pargo Man]

some delicacies too

 

[Pargo Man]

Whalewatching was slow, thourgh, but surprising.

Here is our first sighting of a Sei Whale.

 

[benniejordaan]

Very nice report. You guys certainly do seem to be spoilt out there.

One question... You mention "four eyed monster" Are you talking about a Mouldcraft lure?

Thanks again for posting.

 

[Pargo Man]

exactly, Bennie.

We find straight tracking, soft and relatively
smaller lures much better to work off season.

Reasons:
Calmer waters, weight no issue
Lesser appetite, less aggressive fish
Better chances to entice tuna due to smaller "callibre"

The moldcraft hooker is one of these favourites.
So is the four-eyed-monster. Another interesting
one is the standard wide range.

Hard headed lures we do use with some response are
the Black Bart Little Breakfast and the St. Thomas Prowler.

 

[benniejordaan]

Nice, thanks for sharing some of your secret weapons!