No report this week due to the lake being frozen, Some parts
of the lake has ice 7" thick. There is a change in the
weather mid week. I will up date site as soon as there is
a change
Interest article
I have been fishing on the Island of Madeira for over 10
years now, Famous for its Marlin fishing between May &
September its also now becoming a favorite location for many
anglers in the winter for its bottom and drift fishing and
vertical jigging. Although I enjoy Marlin fishing I prefer
the many various species that the island has to offer, I like
fishing for big fish on light tackle.
Winter in Madeira has an average temperature of between 70
& 80 degrees not bad when its been - 6 degrees in the
UK for most of December. Flying from Cardiff to Madeira is
just over 3 hours.
Because of ware the island is situated and surrounded by
steep cliffs the seas are very clam.
What can you catch?
Marlin tend to run from late April to end of September &
weights cat be from 250kg to 550kg, Madeira has more that
its fair share of Marlin over 1000lb Tuna can be well over
the 200kg and plying these beast can really take it out of
you as they are mainly taken on 50 to 80lb stand up tackle.
Not much bottom fishing is done between these months as anglers
from all over the world come for the Marlin season. 4th of
July is also the Blue Marlin world cup championships worth
about one million US dollars. From about mid October the Marlin
start to disappear as they follow there sauce of food along
the continental shelf. Although some boats will still troll
there big lures for a couple of weeks as the odd Marlin is
been caught in November.
Now its time for the boats to put away the big tackle especially
the 130 class reels & rods and start to concentrate on
other species.
Trolling with light tackle you can catch Wahoo this is an
excellent game fish that can reach speeds of 60mph. Biggest
Wahoo recorded is 158lb. I have landed many of these fish
with my biggest at 63lb.
Bottom fishing approximately 70 meters you will get all species
of Rays. Butter fly ray- Eagle ray and the biggest of all
the Sting Ray. On my last trip a couple of weeks ago my mate
Simon Green lands a big sting ray that weighed approximately
150 kg (over 300lb).
Eagle & butterfly rays are good fun to catch. On the boat
I fish on ( Our Mary ) the Caption Jose has one special rod
called the punishment rod for anglers that think they can
handle big rays.
There are very large grouper fish on the island my biggest
one is 55 kg. Red Snapper to 25lb.
One of my favorite ways to fish is using my Shimano 12.20
rod and 4500 fixed spool reel loaded with 50lb braid two small
lead shots and a dead bait drifting up to 100 mts behind the
boat. I have had some very large Amber Jacks fishing this
way. I have also landed Dog tooth Tuna. Wahoo. Barracuda.
Albacore.
There are many other species to catch here in Madeira such
as big eye & the yellow fin tuna. Mako shark. Derado.
Spear fish. Sword fish. Skipjack.
So if you want to try some winter fishing with the sun on
your back try a trip to Madeira .
Tight Lines
Jud
|
