bob@reefcatfishing

Normally get a tuna run in the spring, april and may. Then again late september through to november/december. The bluefin traps at Tavira are catching fish now, so I've been told. Although I don't know of any large bluefin being caught on rod and line on the Algarve ever. We're going to have a go downrigging for them.

Well we trolled all day and nothing to see, just a few suicidal dorado that threw themselves onto marlin lures. Someone up the coast hooked a bluefin tuna, and was spooled on 80lbs class tackle. Its still very early to be seeing this number of tuna around, so hopefully its going to be a very good season. We're going to do a spot of bottom fishing tomorrow, then back to trolling once the easterlies die down.

I'll give you a call tomorrow Dave, we had 24c yesterday, but the occassional warmer patch. Its looking very good at the moment. Just rigging a few smaller lures at the moment. Good luck m8 - speak to you soon

What size hooks and what lures Dave? Whites are notoriously hard to hook up, smaller hooks tend to work better maybe mustad 6/0. Even so one hookup out of 6 runs seems to be about normal, except when they are hunting in packs, in which case the hookup rate goes up a lot. The ideal is to find half a dozen fish, they then compete with one another and are much more aggressive. Have you seen the fish striking the lures? Were they fully "lit up" or were they just playing? We're off to 500 metre plus tomorrow, whats your boats name Dave, I'll call you up on the vhf.

Last day of the Tavira competition. 8 blue marlin hooked and lost, 2 white marlin landed and many more lost, hammerhead shark of 126kg landed. Guess what we're doing tomorrow? Just sharpening hooks on the lures and making the sarnies.

Norm - the dorado was lovely, sorry there's none left but we can easily catch some more. Return flights from gatwick in mid september are about £100.00 so what are you waiting for? Last day of the IGFA/Rolex competition today, just been on the mobile, 2 blue marlin hookups this morning, none captured as yet, but looking good.

Just got in from half a days trolling, 3 skipjack tuna, and 8 small dorado. But, a 203kg blue marlin was caught and unfortunately killed, about 30 miles south of here. Thats the 3rd blue marlin this month, so far no sign of the white marlin, but its still early in the season. Norm - we're trying a new dorado recipe this evening, simmered in orange juice, with a little olive oil, garlic and onions. Sounds a bit weird but I've been assured its lovely.

Snatcher - we will certainly give you a good time fishing. Whether we can get marlin or not is up to mr. marlin. The prospects look good, water temp is 24 degrees, but they can come and go very quickly. We are seeing tuna very early this year, and the marlin tend to follow them in so its a question of fingers crossed. This is pretty much the only place on mainland europe where you can seriously expect billfish. Even if the marlin don't show, we have some good fishing, and I can guarantee that we will try our hardest to put you on the fish. I'm off fishing now, so I'll let you know later how we got on.

Hi Dave and Norm - very badly let down, the boat when it finally arrived 8 months late, was the wrong size, and had loads of bits missing. The builders have done a runner, and the Australian embassy is looking for them. Fotunately, our contract was with a Portuguese company, and they are in the process of building our new boat now. It will be the dogs wotsits when its done, 12 metre cat with all mod cons and fully fittted out for game fishing. Norm - proabaly not worth a full review this year, i would rather wait for the new boat, unless the white marlin appear in huge numbers that is. I've just got back from the annual IGFA/Rolex offshore championship round at Tavira (20 mins from here). No big billfish, but a short billed spearfish, a small mako (on a trolled lure) and loads of skipjack tuna. Two more days of competition to go so we'll see whats being caught. We've had a few skipjack tuna and quite a few dorado in the last few days quite close inshore. So we are going out about 25 miles tomorrow to try the deeper continental waters for marlin. Dave - your welcome to join us on a trip, we can go through some lure rigging techniques, bimini twists and wind on leaders if you like.

Some of you may remember earlier posts about setting up a charter fishing business here on the Algarve in Portugal. Our Australian boatbuilder has let us down very badly, and our new purpose built catamaran won't now be operating until next year. However, at the last minute we have been lent an 8.5 metre cat to try and get some fishing in for the remainder of this season. We now find ourselves with a boat and very few clients, because we haven't been able to kick off the marketing this year. We are prepared to offer some free days fishing to members of anglersnet, provided we can cover our fuel and bait costs. Daily costs will work out at about £100 a day. You will have to pay your travel and accommodation. We can get b&b very cheaply. We just want to go fishing. Its now the start of the marlin season, so fingers crossed we could be in for some good white marlin, and even the odd blue. If the marlin don't show we have some pretty good shark and bottom fishing, so there will be some variety. The boat will take up to six anglers, although for trolling four is more comfortable. I have exchanged a few mails with Elton and he is happy that I put up this post. So, if you are interested in getting a trip together, please let me know. Bob

Vagabond - after hours of trolling, searching for birds working, following tide and current rips, there is very little to beat the sight of a bill smacking at the lures. The atmosphere on the boat goes from slight expectation, and perhaps a bit of boredom, to 100% adrenaline charged excitment. As you rightly say constant vigilance is the key, if you know fish are in the area, there is a lot of things the crew can do to try and induce a strike. And when you get the hook up, and the reel starts to sing, there's nothing like it....

Ken - I had a self catering holiday business in France for about 13 years before moving to even sunnier climes on the Algarve, and am now setting up a game fishing business. If you're serious and want a bit of honest advice drop me a pm.

In my days fishing around littlehampton, we started using very lightweight rods with fine tips to aid bite detection. Not much more than a quivertip really, made a huge difference. You'll have problems feeling bites on a standard 20/30lb boat rod. I also think that bream are a perfect fish for using small circle hooks. My hookup rate for smallish bream has gone up dramatically since using cirlcles, give em a try.

Elton - would you buy a car without seeing it first, and hopefully having a test drive? I know its really tempting, been there, but I don't think I would splash out that sort of money without having a good look around it, hearing the engine etc.

Just heard that the new boat will be arriving on the 23rd May, this means that it is very unlikely that it will be ready in time to compete in the IGFA tournament, which is really disappointing. So if you need a good deckie Dave give me a call. Norm - I'll give you a call when I know the boat will be ready, still hoping to hit the main billfish season late august and through september, but time will tell.

The Halcos are pretty substantial lures, I think you'd need a good set of bolt croppers to cut one in half. I don't use trebles at all now, replaced them all with doubles. I tend to find them much easier to remove with a T bar at the side of the boat. I do put a few turns of dental floss around the parallel shanks, to stop them falling out of the split rings, but this breaks off easily when the T bar is being used. However, an angry 150lb mako calls for a very long T bar. http://diaboloteur.free.fr/3dsportfishing/...s/IMG_3387.html This is a baby from last year.

The european qualifier for this event is held at Tavira, on the algarve, here in Portugal. If we have our boat ready in time we will be competing. Its a very well organised event and a lot of fun. Last year it was won with a small mako shark taking a trolled live bait off the surface. Unfortunately no billfish were caught during the competition, although we had been raising white marlin for days beforehand, close inshore. All the boats decided to go out 30 plus miles after blue marlin, and they all blanked. Silly really because the whites were in the green water only a few miles out. Of course in the weeks after the comp, 14 blues were caught, i think the biggest was over 800lbs. Hoping that they come back this year

Thats the baby, thanks Newt, I must of messed up the link. Our flybridge will be a bit lighter weight, and thats the long cabin version, ours will have a shorter wheelhouse and loads more fishing space. Outriggers and fighting chair are coming with the boat from Oz. Just finalised a deal for 18 shimano combos from TLD25's to Tiagra 80's, can't wait.... The big bream (pargo) start coming in around May time Alan, with live cuttlefish the preferred bait, although we have caught them on joeys. Its the big fishing show at the NEC this coming weekend, so I may be popping up there, thanks very much for the offer Alan. And, i haven't forgotten the otoliths, I promise, just not sure if I can get them made into earrings, i will pursue it again. I'll also have a look at the 2 Chris's tackle when I get half a chance.

Hi Alan - boat has now left Australia, should arrive end of April, but don't think we'll be operating again until June, maybe even July. For a rough idea of what it looks like try: http:www.ozycat.com.au I'm in the UK at the moment getting the tackle deals together, I should be buying shares in Shimano. Speak to you soon.

You may need to save article and zoom in to read the text: http://diaboloteur.free.fr/FBFish.jpg The meek shall inherit the earth....if thats ok with you...

I know a couple of guys who have got away with a belt failure. I believe that diesels are a bit more tolerant than petrol engines due to the higher compression stopping the engine quicker. Keep your fingers crossed.

Stavey - I think I'm a hardened ex pat now, lived abroad for more than 15 years, so no I don't think I'd move back to the UK. As for the fishing changing over time. Absolutely yes, in the late nineties they had a few years where you could walk on the white marlin, and a fair number of blues were caught. That was followed by some years where almost no marlin were seen. Last year 14 blue marlin were caught, and we were regularly raising white marlin quite close inshore. We are at the northernmost tip of their distribution, so if the warm water currents get here, then the billfish do as well, as well as the mako sharks. The really good billfish fishing coincided with El Nino, and we are on the build up to another one in the next few years. We are hoping that the bigger fish will get to our waters in increasing numbers over the next few years. We could be wrong, however, and not see any, all down to water temp, which seems to be pretty unpredictable. This area was also a major bluefin tuna fishery in the 60s and 70s. Commercial pressure and climate change seems to have driven them away, although some are still caught in inshore traps. They definitely come past here, but I think in very small numbers. Hence my interest in downriggers and kites, want to try some innovative fishing methods to try and tag and release a bluefin. Some of the fish caught in the traps exceed 300kgs, but I don't think any have been caught on rod and line for many years. We were spooled last year on 30lb gear while trolling for smaller tuna, never saw the fish. So water temp is a major consideration, although how much of it is due to climate change I think is unknown at the moment.

Just spoken to Australia, and at last have a confirmed shipping date of the 11th March. Much later than planned, but at least its on its way. Still got to fit engines, electronics etc when she gets here, so I doubt that we will be operating until about June. Now ordering all new tackle, rods, reels, researching lures, downriggers outriggers etc. Just finished rigging all my existing lures, so I'm back to the UK for a week or so, to talk to some tackle dealers.

Haven't fished that time of year yet, I guess mainly bottom fishing, but there's always some shark about.

Thanks for the wishes guys, I can see light at the end of the tunnel, at last. Fastbass, yes that was another little problem, I've got, yachtmaster offshore, advanced powerboat (and all the other powerboats) commercially endorsed, so first aid and sea survival. The portuguese wanted the International certificate of competence, which is probably the lowest qualification i've got, they were'nt interested in the rest. The bureaucracy is unbelievable, but it works, you just have to be very very patient. It also helps if you've a few locals on your side, which I have, they just can't believe it when we release perfectly edible fish. In fact they think that released fish will tell all the others and scare them off.