We had a party of 4, mother, daughter, son and father with us yesterday the 2nd January 2019 and we left Calheta Marina at 0800 hrs for a ful day of mixed fishing.

We travelled down to the West End of the Island and could not believe our eyes when we saw that there was virtually no swell and the corner of Ponte do Pargo was easily passable. So we went to a spot that I knew of and that was seldom fished due to the sea state and we immediately started to catch. The first fish was a Red Snapper of around 5 lbs caught by the daughter (her first ever fish) and this was rapidly followed by Trigger fish, Grouper, Barred Hog Fish, Thick lip Bream, striped bream and spotted bream.

In all we caught over 60 fish in 4 hours after which the tide turned and the bottom fishing went off the boil, so we started to troll for Tuna, running 5 lines with blue/white and purple/white on the main lines and a small rainbow lure on the shotgun. regrettably we had not takes and this could be partly due to the fact that the sea state deteriorated somewhat forcing us to travel at no more than 4 knots. We had wave 3 – 4 meters every 5 to 5 seconds, so clearly it was a matter of safety first.

The only sign we saw was about 3 small shoals of juvenile flying fish leaping out as though the were being chased. We went over to take a look but nothing showed on the scope or visually. We returned to the marina at 1600 hours and enjoyed a glass of beer with the clients The reason for no photo’s is that the client insisted on immediate release of all fish, so not enough time to take pictures.