Azores – One of the premier big blue marlin fisheries is living up to its reputation thus far in August. Despite a short season, when these guys are on, they are on. Today, we got out 10th Grander of 2011, a 1,188 lbs Blue Marlin courtesy of the Habitat. This same week, we had two 950+ fish, from Makaira and Xacara. In typical fashion, the guys would not call these Granders, but take a look at the pictures and you can decide for yourself.
There are really only 4-5 boats targeting these blues, so who knows how many big fish are really out there when the bite heats up.
Here are some of numbers thus far in August.
Azores – Xacara – 500 lbs.
Azores – Xacara – 950 lbs.
Azores – Habitat – 650 lbs.
Azores – Brasilia – 800 lbs.
Azores – Makaira – 950 lbs.
Azores – Brasilia – 750 lbs.
Azores – Xacara – 650 lbs.
Azores – Habitat – 1,188 lbs.
3 Comments
Jack Tullius
8/12/11 Grander Horta Faial Azores
S/F Habitat
Capt: Filipe
Angler: Lukas Folk
Lure: 1656 Angle
Jack,
Thank you very much, it has been really awesome to get that fish. Here the story about the catch:
On that day we had no charter clients but the conditions were really good and the day before we got a marlin. So we decided to go out on our own. Just me and my skipper Filipe on the Bertram and we fished a bank 22 miles out with 3 other boats from Horta. 2 boats have already caught blue marlin and it was around 2pm when I saw the big fish coming for the teaser. Filipe tried to get the teaser out of the water as soon as he could and than the fish ate the long corner behind the teaser. It took a few meters of line but came off. Then we saw the fish behind the short rigger (RPP) and same thing again. A few meters of line and lost again. And finally she came again on the long rigger (Angle 1656) and this time the single hook did his job and hooked the fish very good. The fish made a big run and took almost all the line from the #80 Tiagra. We came close to the fish after around 1 1/2 hours and saw the fish on the surface. When we came close to the leader she decided to go down. I put #32 drag (sunset) on and told Filipe to go ahead to lift the fish up again. But no chance to stop it even with 2 hands blocking the reel. So I decided to put more drag on and made 8 clicks on the left side of the reel to get more drag. It worked and I could stop the fish and she came up. After 2 hours Filipe came down and touched the leader but he had to let her go again because she was to strong and nobody was driving the boat. After that I told him to prepare the gaffs, just in case. After one more touch on the leader and let her go again she decided to go down very fast. It was impossible to stop the fish and after around 200 meters she stopped and died. So we started to lift her up very slowly. I blocked the reel and Filipe went forward with the boat and when we had a better angle he went back and I could win some line. Finally after three hours we had the fish next to the boat and fixed everything to trail it to the scale. The scale gave us finally a weight from 1188 lb.
Short Length:147 inches
Girth :74 inches
Tail :21 inches
Weight in pounds 1188 lbs
Best regards,
Lukas Folk
Michael McCarthy
What is the best time of year for Blue Marlin out of Horta?
Hook
Fish start showing in July, August is probably the peak, but fish are there into September.
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