My third trip back to the Portuguese island of Madeira began on a sour note when the flight in from Lisbon was delayed nearly three hours thus seriously eating into our first day of fishing. Then for the second year in a row all of my luggage was lost and did not arrive until the evening of our fourth day. Angling in borrowed clothes and barefoot was not what I had in mind when I made the arrangements to return to the famed marlin grounds of Madeira.

This island some 400 miles off of the northwest coast of Morocco has become known as the Mecca for grander blue marlin in the Atlantic. After only marginal billfish success the previous two years I returned with very high expectations on this occasion. The season in Madeira had started slowly more like a typical year. And we had come in mid August which historically had been a prime time for catching large Atlantic blues.

Our first day on the water didn't begin until nearly 2 PM due to our late arriving flight. We fished the Pesca Grossa with Captain Kevin Nakamaru and mate Steve "Hoggy" Haygarth until 7:30 at night without so much as seeing a billfish. We did have the pleasure of freeing a large bottle-nose dolphin from two long-line rigs in which it had become ensnared. It was wonderful to watch her swim away strong and healthy again.

The second day we again fished our routine location in front of Funchal from Garajau to Rubeira Bravo. Mid morning a small white marlin weighing about 80 pounds ate the chopped Hawaiian AP we had out as a stinger bait on the eighth wave. He put on quite an aerial display for approximately 5 minutes despite our heavy 130 pound tackle and then came unbottoned. The 12-0 hooks we were using although ideal for big blue marlin were a bit large for this little white.

Early that afternoon we experienced our first blue marlin strike when a 350 pounder grabbed the Marlin Magic Henry positioned as the long corner and briefly pulled drag before coming off. He then repeated his act with the Black Bart Zulu Impy on the short rigger but again managed to avoid the hooks. We had no further action until after 7 PM when similar to last year the Big-eye tuna started crashing the surface feeding on small green-back mackerel. We finally were able to get to a school before it went down and landed a 267 pounder after a tough 12 minute fight.

Day three proved to be composed of ten long hot uneventful hours with no boat in the entire fleet even seeing a fish. That was quite disheartening considering how far we had come and how much our trip had cost.

The next day we changed our strategy. We headed for the Desertas, a group of uninhabited islands 14 miles to the south. The water was alive with bait and we marked a number of tuna at 30 fathoms and below but we did not see a billfish. Finally about 2 PM we caught a 60 pound yellowfin on a blind strike. That was the first yellowfin caught by the Pesca Grossa in the three years she had been in Madeira. On our way back that evening there was a large swirl on the long rigger as we passed by the airport, but we didn't see the fish and it did not connect with the hooks.

Although we had seen a lot of life in the water at the Desertas, the only marlin that had been seen were back in front of Funchal. So day five we returned to our usual trolling grounds. Early in the morning just west of the impressive granite cliffs of Cabo Giralo we saw one of the small colorful local skiffs with two old men hand-lining for tuna. These gentlemen were local heroes having caught a 1040 pound blue marlin the previous summer with their primitive gear and bare hands. Hoggy had written an article about their feat that had been published in an Australian angling magazine several months earlier. As he had a copy of the magazine on board, we had the pleasure of watching their eyes light up and their faces break in to wide grins as they viewed the article about them that we had passed off to their boat.

Several hours later we saw a nice fish in the 700 pound range leisurely floating on the surface. As we trolled by she lit up and darted under our pattern diagonally racing for the long rigger bait. Astonishingly though she didn't eat and after eye-balling 3 other lures sank out of sight without ever even offering at a bait. We had no other activity the rest of the day until shortly before dark when we again were able to entice a boiling big-eye to strike a tuna lure. We boated the 210 pounder in ten minutes and raced back to the harbor before nightfall.

My partner Bob Unvert went to the fish market early the next morning. He was astonished by what he saw. There were massive bluefin tuna, big-eye tuna, yellowfin, huge swordfish, mackerel, wahoo, dolphinfish, scabbard fish, and innumerable other varieties all being sold whole or piecemeal. The entire square was alive with activity, but all was sold and the area shut down in just a few hours.

After Bobby returned from a brief picture taking excursion we boarded the Pesca Grossa and headed out for our sixth day of fishing still in search of our first marlin. Similar to the previous day we saw a fish lazily swimming on the surface just several hours into the day. After sinking out as we trolled by he reappeared behind the short corner Henry all lit up and ready for action. He grabbed the lure and briefly pulled drag but did not stick. He again appeared and as he swam wildly from one lure to another we were sure he would strike. But he disappointed us and after several minutes quietly slipped from view.