We really enjoyed our day out at sea with Paul & Ibon from Lanzarote Fishing yesterday. It was a shame that we weren’t one of the boats who caught and released the 13 marlin but they’re out again this morning for the second day of the competition.
It was our first experience of a sport fishing competition, there was a great camaraderie around the marina before the start. Thirty nine boats from Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Tenerife and La Palma entered the event. The star prize this year is €25,000 offered by Mapfre for the first fishing boat that either catches and releases 3 x blue marlin in one day or 4 x blue marlin over two days.
The boats are released from harbour at 9am and have until 5pm to record any catches. At the start, the fishing boats set off in all different directions, the more powerful boats heading for the richer waters around La Graciosa. We left the rain behind and our boat Tono headed across the Bocaina channel to a spot off the coast of Fuerteventura. Paul has caught competition winning marlin here
before and it’s where we spotted the pilot whales. We were trailing six lures behind using the outriggers and shortly after 11am we had our first encounter with a marlin, circling the spot for some time, we were unsuccessful at getting him on the line.
Paul set us on a course parallel to Lanzarote although so far out, we couldn’t actually see the island, with Fuerteventura behind us. Some time later we found the black “marlin” sea birds, a clear indication that marlin were close by as these birds like the oil released when they feed. Just before 3pm there was a flurry of excitement, a white marlin had touched one of the lures, the tension aboard was incredible, we were all aware of the impending deadline. Sadly, it was not to be, we continued trolling whilst heading back towards Lanzarote but there were no more chances for us.
The first catch of a white marlin was notified at 12:03 by Chiripa IV, there were 13 reported in total across the 39 boats. As the fish are just brought alongside the boat and released, the catch is recorded by camera which is verified later in the marina by a judge.
Despite the lack of a catch, we had a great day, Paul & Ibon are fantastic company, they’re serious fishermen with outgoing personalities which makes for a very pleasant time on board. We also had a good natter with Ken who helps maintain Tono, the crew have nicknamed Blackie due to his reputation of not catching any fish when he’s aboard!
You can see our album of photos from the day on our Facebook page XXI Concurso de Pesca de Altura.
We really hope that Tono are successful today and record the two catches they were confident of before setting out yesterday.
Lanzarote Fishing offer a Fishing Adventure excursion for anyone who would like to go sea fishing during their holiday. The crew speak fabulous English, more information and their contact details are available on their website www.lanzarotefishing.com. You can also connect with them on Facebook at Lanzarote-pesca-wwwlanzarotefishingcom
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