Madeira

Hi Uwe
It's probably nearly 25 years when I last fished Madeira when there was just one game boat there, operated by the local tourist board - the Alcor. In those days there were lots of Tuna, mainly Big Eye but also Bluefin. And the commercial boats used to catch them literally with a kilometre of the harbour entrance at Funchal.

But even in those days I recall attempting to read an article in a local magazine that described a local angler catching a Blue Marlin in excess of 1000lbs in weight.

Several of our Club members continued to fish Madeira and, as well as Tuna, they caught the occasional Marlin. I think the biggest I can recall, which was a European record for some years, was nearly 900lbs in weight.

However it was in the mid-ninties that an English skipper - Roddy Hays - started to catch, and release, numbers of very big fish. Word soon got around the big game angling community and a number of famous boats like French Look - Jean Paul Richard's boat - and Chunder - Stewart Campbell's - re-located there. And for a number of years, although they weren't catching lots of fish they were catching BIG fish. A number of other boats were put into commission and charter rates became ridiculously high - although people were prepared to pay them for the chance of catching a 'grander'.

During that period I remember one of our members releasing THREE granders in a season, the biggest estimated at 1300lbs. And these fish were being accurately measured - length and girth - and weights calculated using the recognised international formulea.

But then the fish disappeared for a number of seasons. And so did some of the charter boats and, more importantly, their clients. Why did the fish disappear? Possibly as you suggest the effect of El Nino - although it initially affects the Eastern Pacific it does appear to have a global impact. Or I suspect more likely the North Atlantic Drift, an element of the Gulf Stream, has moved slightly and the fish, whilst still passing the island, are further offshore. Or perhaps it is over-fishing by the commercial tuna long liners. They operate throughout that area, from the West African coast out to the Azores, and Marlin are often taken as a by-catch.

Any rate from what I now understand 2005 was a reasonable season - they never caught lots, but average weights are around 600lbs. And there's a fairly detailed report for the 2005 season on this thread from the MarlinNut web site. The reports are written by a young English lure manufacturer, Dustin Foo. I believe there are currently 11 boats in the Maderian charter fleet. Contact details for some, should you be interested can be obtained from our Club's web site.
Dave

I noticed looking through the Trip Reports on the MarlinNut web site that Dustin has started to post details for 2006. All subsequent posts will, I suspect, appear on this thread.

At the moment it's early in the season and just a few small Big Eye Tuna are being caught.

There're also urls of all the skippers web site appended to that post.

Well Madeira remains somewhat of an enigma. Over the years it has produced some really BIG fish and average weights have always been high. But numbers? No. And this, to some extent, is compounded by a distinct lack of bookings.

(But I suspect some of the skippers - there in the early 90s and now long since departed - were much too greedy. With Americans prepared to spend 'BIG bucks' for the chance of a 'grander' charter rates climbed. Some anglers looked at different venues in the Atlantic and, with a couple of poor seasons, the wealthy also disappeared.)

For those 'in the know' though it is still a venue of choice. And on this thread - http://www.marlinnut.com/forum…c&forum=104&topic_id=5020 - there're reports of two 1100lb fish, one taken by a visiting boat the other by an English angler - who visits there every year - on a local boat. There're pictures on the thread of the second of those fish.
Dave