Here the story of the biggest CAPE VERDE marlin of the 2011 season:
Our first fishing day on the AMELIA started at 6:30 a.m.. Our team: Jörg Donath (Angler), Zak Conde (Captain), "Scuba" Steve Hall (Mate), Towares Chyi (Mate) and myself. As the fish hadn't been biting around Sao Vicente, we pulled up anchor and headed for out next fishing spot, the sea between Noroeste-Bank and the island of Santo Antao. At 11:30 a.m. our onboard instruments showed that we were approaching the bank. We saw large schools of small fish and tuna as well as many sea birds hunting there. We caught three Wahoos and a small Yellow Fin Tuna. Around 2:00 p.m. we returned to Marlin fishing. At 3:00 p.m. came a violent marlin attack a long struggle began at that point for me. After an hour and ten minutes I had the guys take the leader and set the flying gaffs. Despite our best efforts and great teamwork, we couldn't manage to pull the fish on board. The door of the boat was too small for a marlin of this size. Then someone yelled "Shark!" and our blood went cold. Our boat was indeed surrounded by hungry sharks coming ever closer. "Scuba" Steve summoned up his courage, jumped into the water and tied a rope around the tail of the fish. In a fit of desperation we finally managed to muster enough power to get the marlin on board. Our battle lasted more than two hours! We were then homeward bound toward Mindelo at over 30 knots. In the thick of the night about ten miles from the marina, the boat came to an abrupt halt: our AMELIA was ensnared in a fishing net. After some initial struggle we were finally able to set a single propeller free and with only the one engine we puttered on. Before long we saw the harbor lights of Mindelo, finally reaching the marina at around 11.30 p.m.. A crane truck and helpers stood at the ready among many spectators. The Blue Marlin weighed in at 1,150lbs!
Summary: For Zak Conde as Captain his first weighted Blue Marlin Grander, "Scuba" Steve Hall and Towares Chiy caught their largest Blue Marlin and now I'm only missing a Black Marlin for my "Grander-Collection". After that I'll stop the Marlin fishing and only go fly and popper fishing …
Many thanks to Captain Berno Niebuhr and Captain Clay Hansley, as well as his two assistants from Ghana, for organizing the crane truck and digital scale at midnight.
The Fish was caught with our BluewaterFishing Lure "Superjet" in Black/Chartreuse/Red
www.marlincapeverde.com
Our first fishing day on the AMELIA started at 6:30 a.m.. Our team: Jörg Donath (Angler), Zak Conde (Captain), "Scuba" Steve Hall (Mate), Towares Chyi (Mate) and myself. As the fish hadn't been biting around