Madeira 2009

[Marlinmoz]

  Thanks guys, It is an awesome Island Kraken, no doubt about that…exquisitely beautiful in its own way and great vibe. I can´t get around the drop off´s here myself. I have fished/worked other Atlantic islands such as the Azores, Bom Bom, Cape Verde, as well as Mauritius, but this place is truly amazing in that respect. 

I know what you mean with catching broadbill and other big stuff on rowing boats, got a couple pics myself from my grandfather doing that out of sesimbra in mainland Portugal in the 50´s.

Yup, did fly here. I worked here the first time in the mid 90´s, only a teenager then, but still remember the crazy runway approach. Was here last year and has with this year the flight and touchdown was cool, no worries at all…but I believe that after a couple of crashes they did finally extend and improved the runway a lot…no worries there.

Def-e-nition, we release every single fish…unfortunately some of the local weekend warrior charter boats can´t really drive a boat and some fish are brought death due to it, but otherwise the fleet pretty much release every single fish.

Shagnrelease, using a Canon 350D, not the greatest and not enough shoots in a second, but its holding up to the job alright. Mostly shooting with a 18-200 sigma lenses.

~Cheers,
Duarte


PS - Another photo of Luc´s fish…   

 

[zamarlin]

Good on you Duarte!! Have a blast. Still have not managed a day out off Luanda this year but keep hoping for one.

 

[zamarlin]

Good on you Duarte!! Have a blast. Still have not managed a day out off Luanda this year but keep hoping for one.

 

[Marlinmoz]

Thanks Zamarlin, hope you get a day there soon...that´s some pretty interesting fisheries you got down there...really hoping to experience it soon.

Any of the guys fished the 4th July in Luanda or Lobito...did any good fish come out???.

 We got a 850 lbs the day before, but on the 4th we only got a bite from a 600 or so. There were four fish caught in madeira but the largest was only 590 lbs...a good fish but not good enougt. Hawk eye (in the pic) hooked the fish about 15 minutes after lines in...

 

[Marlinmoz]

The next day we caught a hatchet Marlin in the morning...  

The first one I have ever seen or caught. There is an ongoing big debate amongst Captains, anglers and the scientific community if this is a separate species from a white and spearfish...but after having seen it my mind is made up and I defenitly think it is.
Diffrent scales, the dorsal is square and not round as a white...etc etc here is a bit if info into it:

John Graves Professor of Marine Science Virginia Institute of Marine Science College of William and Mary The hatchet marlin is a pretty interesting story. When the billfishes were last reviewed in 1985 by Nakamura, there were a few problem areas. One was the roundscale spearfish and the other was the hatchet marlin. The roundscale spearfish was described based on one specimen taken off Madeira, and they didn't keep the specimen. Nakamura chose to include the species in his publication — Tetrapturus georgii. While Nakamura did not recognize the hatchet marlin, he pointed out that it might be another species of billfish. For the Fourth International Billfish Symposium that was held last year on Catalina Island, California, my colleagues and I presented a new study of the billfish based on morphological and molecular characters. We had specimens of all billfish except for roundscale spearfish. What our data showed was that the hatchet marlin was indeed a different species than white marlin, and it grouped with the spearfish. At the symposium another researcher from Florida presented molecular information on the roundscale spearfish indicating that it was a valid species. When I saw his pictures of the fish I thought to myself that it was a hatchet marlin. After the meeting we exchanged samples and sure enough, the hatchet marlin and the roundscale spearfish are the same animal. It was just lucky to get three more specimens of hatchet marlin at the Mid-Atlantic $500,000 in August 2006. It provided us a chance to look at morphological differences between whites and hatchet marlin. While most of us use the squared off fins to designate a hatchet marlin, it turns out that that character does not always work. Whites can have truncated fins. There are three really good characters to identify a hatchet marlin/roundscale spearfish: (1) the location of the vent - in a white the vent is about two inches forward of the anal fin; in a hatchet marlin/roundscale spearfish it is about six inches in front; (2) the lenght of the branchiostegals (the rays below the gill cavity on the ventral side of the head) - in a white marlin they are relatively short, extending to the pre-opercle (about two- thirds of the way out on the gill cover), while on hatchet marlin/roundscale separfish, they extend almost all the way to the end of the gill cover; and finally (3) the scales - if you look at the side of a white it is fairly smooth in coloration while in a roundscale spearfish it appears almost polka-dotted and if you run your hand forward on a white you'll get stuck by the scales - that doesn't happen on a hatchet marlin/roundscale spearfish. 

Any of you guys have any toughts on it... Well, pretty rare catche anyway and very beautiful looking fish...

 

[Marlinmoz]

Another picture from the pretty fish coming into the boat...beautiful colours, but all gone when we brought it in for a pic!!!

 

[Marlinmoz]

Things were looking pretty good the next day with loads of mackerel showing on the sounder and lots of activity, with whales and dolphins all over the place...

 

[Marlinmoz]

...just waiting for the bite!!! and we got a 600 pound right up next to some fin whales, but the it would not eat!!!

...gorgeous looking Island alright!!!

 

[Marlinmoz]

The secod bite come within 20 minutes on a 900 pound freight away train that went high flying all over the place. It took 500 yards in seconds and we had to chase this big girl at full speed...

 

[Marlinmoz]

The last couple of days have a bit frustrating with the fish just knocking the lures down but not hooking up. For two days in a row we had fish of about 800 pounds come up, take a swipe, run off 50 yards and come unbuttoned. Then we raised a fish well over a grand that would not eat and later that day another about 700 that hit the lure three times but never found steel.
 
Another boat got a 240 pound bigeye tuna a couple of days ago and some Blue Marlin being released, but not in the same numbers as the previous week.
 
The fish are definitely here but not just feeding properly…the weather as settled and got a good feeling things should start heating up…
 
 
 ...Randy Allen from Texas dealing with a furious big Blue...

  

 

[Marlinmoz]

How insane is this view???

What a beautiful place to fish from...

 

[Marlinmoz]

Yesterday was a great day and the fleet was raising fish like there was no tomorrow...most fish were not very agressive and very few materialized into releases.

Overall the small fleet had about 20 strikes...

 

[Marlinmoz]

Our turn come in just after noon with a double header, with a 600 pound fish finally finding steel on its third strike on the long left...as it warped off a much bigger fish somewhere in the 900 pound region charges the long right as we pulling wawy from the first fish.

Unfortunetly we only stayed connected to the smallest fish...

Barry doing the hard work in the chair!!!

 

[Marlinmoz]

...backing down!!!

 

[Marlinmoz]

...on the wire!!!

 

[Marlinmoz]

...and a #600 release!!!

 

[Marlinmoz]

...on a SA BIG T beauty, that we have nicknamed ``Black Mamba``

 

[tauruck]

Hey Marlinmoz, great pics and by the way I got a very interesting email. Thanks for that as well. Those "Fish" are too big for my liking, lol.

 

[shagnrelease]

awesome stuff that Duarte, and thanks for the mail as well. I see your using a bill snooter,are they commercially available over there? and do you know were i can get one in SA, We had two fish kick the crap out of the boat last season, and I am concerned about the damage to themselves and the boat. Just had all the battle scars removed from the Gel coat!!

 

[Clint-0]

nice one bud