Guarapari is a small city just south of Vitoria and is actually closer to the usual marlin and swordfish fishing grounds than Vitoria itself. Because of that and the long hard rough ride to and from the fishing grounds everyday further south at Cabo Frio Captain Joe Franck moved his Brazilian charter operation up to Guarapari this year. He had leased Paulo Amorim's boat Dudas Mares, a 45 foot Marez powered with twin 600 horse power Scandia engines, for the venture. I went to try my luck at this new location in early February. I had caught some nice fish each of the last two times I had fished Vitoria and therefore had good reason to have high expectations, particularly fishing with a captain as experienced as Joe. I was particularly excited to get an opportunity to fish a spot named "Quebra Linhas" or "broken lines" which is within reach from Guarapari and is noted for its huge fish.

It takes 2 days to get to this part of Brazil from nearly anywhere in the U.S. I had to change my flight in Sao Paulo which actually got to Vitoria a few hours earlier than I would have arrived on my original itinerary. Joe and his wife Greet picked me up and drove me the 30 minutes south to Guarapari.  Following a nice meal I was ready for the rack after an 8 hour layover in Sao Paulo and two days in airports.

The next morning we left the dock at 7:15 and headed due south for a run of two and a quarter hours. The Marez wasn't the smoothest riding watercraft but was comfortable enough and handled the seas well. Our mates were local Brazilians Nildo, Fabio, and Jean. Nildo was from Cabo Frio and I had fished with him before. Fabio was the usual captain of the Dudas Mares and Jean was the usual mate onthe boat.  They were all very talented, attentive, and hard-working. None of them spoke much English but we were still able to communicate fairly well. The lines were dispatched into the water as soon as we arrived at the edge. It had been raining and very windy for two months so the fairly clear and calm conditions we had were a pleasant change for the crew. About 4 hours of trolling finally brought the first strike. It was a nice blue that had eaten the Dorado-colored Joe Yee "Smokey Joe" on the long rigger. The blue jumped only once very early in the battle and then settled down deep for a tough "down and dirty" fight. She fought a lot bigger than she was but after a 40 minute tug of war with up to 60 pounds of drag I finally brought her to the transom. There we estimated her at 650 pounds. We planted a tag in her shoulder and released her back into the deep. Late in the afternoon we had a knockdown from a white but it didn't catch steel. The rest of the day was quiet so we headed back to the harbor about 5:30 in the afternoon.

The second day on the water we ran out 52 miles to a more distant ledge and trolled back to Quebra Linhas where we worked the area hard throughout the entire day. We had only one strike in the mid afternoon which was a 300-pound blue that appeared to need glasses to find the bait and after trying repeatedly eventually gave up. We had no more action the rest of the day. It grew windier and quite a bit rougher as the afternoon progressed so the trip home was considerably less comfortable than the first day.
 

Dudas Mares	Guarapari Coastline	Local Boat Braving Rough Seas
Mate Nildo	Mates Jean & Fabio	Jean

The next morning the wind had shifted and was out of the south. We therefore went east. It was a shorter run to the dropoff this direction, only 31 miles. There was green water all the way to the edge but it was blue beyond. We therefore worked out another 10 miles and then trolled north. We had a blind strike at 11:00 a.m. but it was a solid hookup and the fish was on! This fish like the first one two days earlier jumped very little and fought very hard and pulled harder than I would have predicted for her size. After 30 minutes against 50-60 pounds of drag the 550-pound blue was finally boatside. After admiring her beauty we tagged her and let her go. She was short but very fat perhaps explaining her fighting prowess.

Day four was somewhat of a carbon copy to day three. Again we went east and there was green water all the way out to and beyond the continental shelf. We ran out an additional 12 mils and found blue water. We put out the lures and worked the area for awhile but there was no bait or sign of any kind of life. So we trolled back in where we did find bait and some birds in the green water. We even had a strike from a white marlin in the afternoon but he missed the hook. The rest of the day was very quiet. That night we were invited over to the God's Will, a mothership and gameboat operation that had previously been known as the Madam and the Hooker. I had fished on several occasions with the captain Jody Whitworth when he was running the gameboat on the French Look. We had a great evening and an excellent meal immensely enjoying the company of Captain Jody, his angler Dr. Jay Meier and his wife, the Aussie hostess Trish whom I had met a number of times in various locations before, and mates Oskie, Russ, and Tim.
 

Dudas Mares Cockpit	Captain Joe's Lure Arsenal	International 130
First Blue Ready For Release	Lures Working In The Water	Second Blue About To Be Released

The next morning we ran 40 miles south again to the Quebra Linhas area. The water was blue and there was some schools of bait around. We put the lines in at about 9:00 a.m. At 10:00 we had a blind strike without a hookup from a whitey an then at 11:00 another blind strike from a large dorado who also avoided the hook. It was quiet for several hours and then a 600-700 pound blue came up and grabbed the Dorado-colored Marlin Magic "Ruckus" on the left rigger. She ran off about 50 yards of line but didn't stick. A small male that had apparently been accompanying her then made passes at all 4 lures repeatedly but never actually grabbed any of them and sank out after providing us with about 10 minutes of excitement. Two thirty in the afternoon another blue knocked down both rigger baits without tasting metal and an hour later a large wahoo knocked down both the short and long right baits without a hookup. We immediately pulled in our baits and checked then as we were sure we must have been running rubber hooks since we couldn't buy a hookup from any species. One of the two baits did have the hooked looped up around the leader explaining at least part of our misfortune.

Day six we ran back south again for two hours and found green water on the edge. We trolled outside for a short time but it seemed like a desert. We worked back toward Quebra Linhas and had a knockdown from a white marlin. Twenty minutes later we hooked a nice sized white but he spit the hook on the second jump. We had absolutely no more action the remainder of the day. God's Will releaseda nice 600-pounder that afternoon. We ran in a bit earlier as there was a significant weather front coming in. We had been working 11-hour days with a 2-hour run each morning to the edge, 7 hours of fishing, and a 2-hour run home in the evening.

Our last morning we left the dock a half hour early as we planned to go out farther. It was raining as we headed out. We ran 50 miles south before we put lines in the water. It began blowing at about 30 miles out and progressively picked up as we continued on. As we put out our lines it was blowing about 25 knots and there were 6-8 foot seas.About an hour after we started fishing we had a strike on the left flat but the fish dropped the bait as I got to the rod. I picked up the rod and attempted top tease the fish back up when the left rigger went off. I grabbed the rod and jumped into the chair and buckled up. After pulling off about 50 yards the fish turned and came back toward the boat. I wound hard and Joe pushed the boat forward and the line came tight again. The fish ran off once again somewhat slower than the first run and we started backing on her getting some line back very slowly. Then suddenly she shifted into overdrive taking off at wahoo speed. The line pealed off of the reel at warp speed as the drag screamed loudly. She spooled off 150 yards of line in a flash and suddenly was gone having apparently changed direction with the attendant shift in the vector of the drag pulling the hook. I wound frantically hoping she was just chargiing the boat again but she was gone. I have only seen that kind of speed from a marlin once before and that was a 1200-pounder in Madeira. Although we never saw her I am quite sure she was a keeper. About noon we had another short strike from a white marlin but the rest of the day was totally quiet. God's Will had hooked a very large fish late in the morning that they got the gaffs out for but lost the fish before getting it to the boat.

My first trip to Guarapari was very enjoyable and reasonably successful as I did catch two quality blue marlin and had a very large fish on the last day at least for a short time. The hotel was quite nice, the food was very good, the weather was acceptable. I would have preferred more action but the unusually wet weather prior to my arrival had clearly changed the quality of the water and the fish's feeding behavior. I will be back next year as this place seems to have incredible potential. Our last day of fishing there were two very large fish hooked with only two boats on the water. And although neither was caught the fact that two fish of that size were seen in such a short period of time with only two boats fishing is incredibly encouraging.
 
 

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