Blue Marlin

 

Hello all friends and clients out Horta Azores and from everywhere.. This small mail is to let you know that our company has now a new destination with a new business fishing charters. La Gomera ,Canary island is our second choice for normaly fishing may to september in 2013 but due to late authorisations for 2012 season ,we d' like start fishing in june untill end of july.( just to be ready for Azores in august and september)Our new boat, "Nell Magic" is a 36 Jersey cape custom Davis hull Carolina with all the best fishing tackel for marlin and tuna fishing. The boat is full equiped for big game with 2 cummins 6BTA 8.3 450hp and twindisc gearboxes.Have a look on the two photos joined. For the first year, we are happy to propose special law rates. Captain Olaf Grimkowski , Mate Michel Frisch and me will be the crew for the two mounths. For a lot of anglers, it's not necessery to expose a lot on the high potencial of big fish that we can find in la Gomera 's calm waters. If you would like to join us in june and july, please, contact me. Canaria are near Europe, only 4 hours flight. To arrive in San Sebastian marina of la Gomera, you have to go to Tenerife south after you have to take a taxi to Los Christianos Fred Olsen boat and direct to San Sebastian. Contact, Louis : marlin.be@skynet.be Tight lines . some good dates are still available in Azores.

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Some good dates available in august 2012.One angler would like to find another angler to share in september
Contact : brasilia.fishing.charter@skynet.be

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Giant Blue Marlin - the Azores
The best place to find giant North Atlantic blue marlin (those over 1,000 lbs) is where they spend the most time during their annual migration beginning with their Caribbean spawning sites (during the spring) to their summer through fall feeding grounds in the central North Atlantic, particularly the Azores.

Blue marlin (and swordfish) follow the edges of major surface currents including the Gulf Stream where their prey is concentrated. This is where longliners set their baited hooks. The Gulf Stream in particular is like a "giant conveyor belt" bringing the largest Atlantic blue marlin directly to the Azores (a group of 9 volcanic islands in the middle of the North Atlantic). They spend the summer through fall gorging on enormous schools of small tunas and other prey. This prey is drawn here by an abundance of small animal life produced by the Gulf Stream's plowing into the Azores causing huge upwellings which brings nutrient-rich bottom waters up to the surface where, exposed to sunlight, small plant life explodes fueling the base of the marine food chain. It results in an enormous feeding frenzy.

The big picture of the annual migration of adult blue marlin (and swordfish) in the North Atlantic is really a picture of its major surface currents, shown here:www.bigmarinefish.com/currents.html. Spawning occurs in the Caribbean from about 1 May through the first week in June (it takes about that long for all of a big females' eggs to mature and be released in batches every few days). The spawning sites include all the passages between the major Caribbean Islands and two large areas east of Trinidad and Tobago well out in the middle of the Atlantic (positioned on the N Equatorial and S. Equatorial Currents coming from West Africa). As soon as spawning is complete, the adults migrate along the edges of the major surface currents fairly quickly to northern waters which have much larger volumes of available prey. The clear water of the tropics indicates it has less plant and animal plankton than do colder, more nutrient-rich waters toward the poles. In the tropics, there are greater numbers of different species, whereas northern waters have fewer species but much greater abundance. Big fish like these need frequent, large meals to fuel their high metabolism and, for a female blue marlin, swordfish or bluefin, to provide enough energy to produce up to 20 million eggs. Soon after spawning, most of the adult marlin from the Caribbean spawning areas follow the edge of the continental shelf along the U.S. east coast and out to the tip of Georges Bank. (Another group of marlin appears to follow the Loop Current from their spawning site in the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba going only to the northern Gulf of Mexico.) A majority of the adult blue marlin (and swordfish) follow the Gulf Stream past Bermuda on their way to their primary feeding grounds at the northern part of their range. From late summer through fall they are predominantly found in the broad area between the Grand Banks and the Azores (at about 40 degrees N. Latitude) following the Gulf Stream and its extension, the Azores Current. (The movie “The Perfect Storm” took place in the center of this area.) They do not abandon this their richest feeding grounds until winter drives them slowly south - either back along the Gulf Stream or clockwise following the Azores Current toward Madeira and the Canary Current towards the Canary Islands off northwest Africa. By May, I believe many of these have followed the North Equatorial Current back across the Atlantic to their Caribbean spawning area “hot spots” where they re-join the adult marlin that returned counterclockwise following the Gulf Stream.

The westernmost island of the Azores and the first to be washed by the Gulf Stream's extension - the Azores Current - is the island named Faial. This is where upwelling is greatest and therefore where the fishing for the largest fish is best and its duration (summer through fall) the longest. Charter boats out of Faial have produced dozens of world records of many species including grander blue marlin and bluefin tuna - about the only place in the world where this is possible. The port is located at Horta which has perhaps the best bar in the world (catering to the international sailing community), and is a small, typically old world Portuguese village with no McDonalds and the other trappings of garish modern "development." The boats to charter are those of Brasilia Fishing Charters http://www.azores-fishing.com/fish.htm. Captain Les Gallagher and his team can also help arrange hotels and inter-island flights for a truly memorable experience. I guarantee it, as I've done it! For evidence, see www.bigmarinefish.com/photos_index.html.

Jim Chambers

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