Latest from Balancal
June 2008 Update
The first run of Atlantic blue marlin started in earnest early this month and has already provided some great action for anglers who were savvy enough to have booked their charter days in advance or to have come over at short notice. Fish have thus far averaged a very good size.
Despite limited time on the water the Balancal has more than held her own against the fleet of local and visiting boats. On a couple of occasions we have scored two hookups in a single day on blue marlin although we have not (yet) had the honour of being able to run up more than one blue marlin release flag. Our smallest fish so far has been a 312 kg that got tailwrapped and came up dead.
Although Madeira boasts a variety of other fishing options throughout the year, blue marlin are the crown jewel of the island's sport fishery. It is the dream of catching a truly big Atlantic blue marlin of 700, 800 or 900 pounds and bigger that brings our charter anglers back to the island. The difficulty in bringing a fish of this class to the leader can be considerable, but so great is the lure of these most coveted of all billfish that even after having caught and released blue marlin that would represent fish of a lifetime for most anglers, many of our guests return every year, some having done so for several years, to have the chance to experience once again the sight of a big Madeiran blue marlin heading for the horizon.
The biggest blue marlin encountered here will exceed the magic thousand pound mark. Such giants show up on the island grounds even in the leanest of seasons, and when ocean conditions and fish migrations coincide to create good fishing the huge fish encountered off this tiny island are the focus of attention of the world's fishing elite, for whom marlin of over a thousand pounds have held legendary status since the very beginning of game fishing.
Today (21 June) the dream came true for our angler Oliver King. This morning the Balancal raised a big fish which attempted the short corner a couple of times before finally getting hooked. It ripped off a lot of line in the initial stages of the fight, but Oliver successfully brought the leader to Gabriel, our wireman, after a 38-minute fight. Captain Anibal's estimate, backed up by measurements which were taken as the fish was being swum by the boat prior to release, was that the fish would have exceeded 1000 lbs.
Congratulations to Oliver, Anibal and Gabriel on this splendid catch. This is our first but hopefully not the only grander class fish of the 2008 season.