A Fishermans Tale from the Cape Verde |slands

”The Blue Marlin leapt from the water as if in slow motion roughly ten meters behind the boat. Again and again, he revealed himself in his full majesty. All of a sudden, huddled in the fighting chair, I feel small and weak, so I call up to the captain standing on the fly-bridge of the "HAPPY HOOKER":

"Berno, how am I meant to get that thing out of the water?"

But Berno was far too busy pulling and pushing at the four levers for accelerating and switching gear in order to maintain taught control of the fish. Directly following the aerial acrobatics, the Marlin had set off on a sudden run and taken with him 700 yards of line from the 80 lbs reel, before making a tight turn, swimming back towards the boat and diving.

He swam deeper and deeper until I could barely keep my rod away from the transom of the boat, while the sky above me turned darker and darker and I started to suffer cramps.

But that is why I had come here with my father: The Blue Marlin. But everything had started so badly: we had planned to set out five fishing trips in just one week.

Half of our first trip on our arrival day had to be cancelled due to a delay in Cabo Verde Airlines. But in addition to a wahoo, this first half day fishing before the coast of SAO VICENTE brought wind, which increased over night to such an extent that the second and third days had to be cancelled, so the atmosphere worsend increasingly.

On Wednesday, the "fourth" day, we set off through the choppy waters. After catching a 45 lbs wahoo in the morning, I finally felt the first marlin bite and drill in the afternoon. I had waited so long for this moment. It was a 220 lbs fish, and it took 350 yards of line in its first run before being tagged by Berno after 25 minutes. My father followed two hours later, also battling with a 220 lbs fish.

Then, just after 4.30 p.m., came the bite. The fish only took a little line, and I had no idea what was going on until Berno, standing up on the bridge where he could see the marlin, shouted "Watch out, Mark, it's a big one!"- and there I still sat an hour later. Tense, trembling and without strength in my arms. But Berno couldn't have been better, without him I would never have landed the fish. With his cry

"Give all you've got, Mark, you can rest later!"

he made me laugh, gave me new courage and manoevred the boat continually to change the angle of the line and to put pressure on the fish, until the marlin got tired of it all and came back up to the surface. After a final battle over the last 110 yards of line and a total of two hours drill, the crew was able to set the gaff. Next day, then, the scales in the harbour showed 1093 lbs.

Whoever wishes to catch a marlin has a realistic chance off cabo verde. Almost all billfish are tagged and released - it is a pleasant form of fishing”.