Early September is usually a good time to go to the Azores to fish for huge Atlantic blue marlin, white marlin, the occasional sailfish, and even the odd broadbill swordfish. Some years the waters also team with huge schools of big-eye and yellowfin tuna and every now and then even giant bluefin tuna can be taken this time of year. In previous years I have had very good luck fishing these gorgeous volcanic islands situated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with Captain Joseph Franck on either his 42-foot Hatteras Shanghai or 43-foot Daytona Double Header. On this occasion my good friend and fishing partner Ian McTurk and I were invited back to do a videographic and photographic shoot for the Azores Bureau of Tourism and were even provided with Premier class Airline tickets from TAP Air Portugal and housed in the beautiful and recently remodeled Pousada de Santa Cruz in the city of Horta on the island of Faial. The Pousada is built within the historical Fort of Santa Cruz whose initial construction began in 1567 and was completed in 1572 and was the site of many important battles for the island over a period of three centuries.

This trip was particularly special as Captain Joe had also invited the well-known big game angling innovator Brooks Morris to join us. I have known of Brooks for many years as the creator of Doornob lures, Area Rule Engineering’s lip-latch and obverse-barb hooks and the famed T-bar handle, and more recently Tiburon Engineering’s Smart Shift and Quick Change reels. It was indeed a unique pleasure to get to meet and fish with this icon of the sport.

Our first day was sunny with very little wind, something unusual for this location which is known for its rough water and inclement weather. We ran 25 miles to the north side of the island of St. George and within a half-hour of putting our lures in the water I caught a nice 65-pound wahoo on one of Brook’s doornobs. Shortly thereafter a 450-pound blue took three passes at the same Dorado-colored lure but couldn’t seem to find the hook. She eventually lost interest despite my attempts to tease her back. Several hours later a white marlin knocked down the same lure but didn’t pull off any line. Then late in the afternoon we had a final knockdown this time from a mako shark but again it did not catch steel. I jokingly accused Captain Franck of running rubber hooks. As we ran back to the harbor we reflected happily on our busy day and looked forward to the nice grilled wahoo steaks and shashimi that we would have for dinner. Brooks was particularly happy since all of our strikes had come on doorknob lures!
 

Brooks Morris	Ian McTurk	Captain Joe Franck
Mate Nildou	Terry on a fish	Wahoo for dinner

The next morning we ran 42 miles southwest to the Princess Alice bank after a brief stop at the Azores bank which was void of any apparent sea life. We found the Princess Alice very “fishy” with a lot of birds, stacked bait, schools of porpoise, and warm water. A purple-colored doorknob provided us with about an 80-pound white marlin that I quickly caught and released. The rascal broke our outrigger on the strike due to a defective AFTCO rigger clip that did not give-way when the fish hit. We had four other knockdowns from white marlin there but none were hooked. Late in the afternoon after seeing no blue marlin we went back and re-investigated the Azores bank but still found it to be a desert so we went back to the dock.

The third morning we went back to St. George Island and once again had several early wahoo strikes where we found bait showering out of the water but we were unable to hook them. A few hours later a white marlin teased us by knocking down a large Marlin Magic lure but avoided the hook-set. The rest of the day was dead quiet.

Captain Frank changed the strategy the next morning by running due west to the Condor bank. Although it was a bit windy and rough in the morning the conditions settled down as the day progressed. There was some bait around along with a few birds and we saw scattered schools of porpoise as well suggesting Joe’s strategy was a good one. It was quiet though until about 11 o’clock when the right rigger bait “went off.” The hungry fish proved to be a nice 850-pound blue marlin that put on quite a show and provided a tough albeit brief fight before being released. She swam away very healthy despite the encounter having struggled for only 15 minutes before being given back her freedom. The fish had eaten Brook’s purple doorknob. It was again quiet until 3:00 p.m. when we had a knockdown from a white marlin without a hookup. That scenario was repeated just thirty minutes later. The remainder of the day saw no further action but we had a good time discussing our exploits from earlier in the day.
 
 

St. George Lighthouse	White marlin boatside	Nildou preparing another bait
Terry attached to a blue	850-pound blue on the wire	Pico viewed from St. George

The next morning we ran back to the Condor and found it still loaded with balls of bait, birds, and schools of porpoise. Despite the abundance of sea-life we had no strikes all morning. Joe steered a course to the south where a number of years earlier he had marked some underwater rocks that he had dubbed “Joe’s Rocks” on his plotter. We caught a 35-pound wahoo there but found nothing with a bill on it. On the way back to the Condor we had a white marlin strike at first one and then the other long rigger bait but apparently needed a good set of eyewear as it couldn’t managed to successfully grab either of the lures and eventually lost interest. We had no other action the remainder of the day.
 
 

Pousada de Santa Cruz from the water	Pousada viewed from the street	Pousada entrance
Inside the Pousada de Santa Cruz	Pousada coutyard with original cannons	The new swimming pool

Thursday morning it was calm and the water flat so Captain Franck elected to run all the way to the north side of the island of Graciosa where he had experienced some success in the past. Although he had never seen a lot of fish there those he had hooked had all been beasts. The weather changed as the morning wore on and we experienced a few rain squalls and increasing winds from the south. About 11:00 o’clock we finally had a strike. The large blue grabbed the long rigger bait and peeled off 400 yards of line taking me into the Dacron backing in a flash. Our Brazilian mate Nildo got the other three lines in rapidly and Captain Franck began backing down. The fish shifted into high gear and suddenly there she was jumping in front of the boat! Joe started to run with her so I could start to get some line back and when we caught up with her she slowed and went down. Joe spun the boat around and began once again to back down. At this point I was able to slowly get line back fairly well. When we reached somewhat of a stalemate I shifted into low gear and put a bit more heat on her using the waves to lift her and winding down as the wave would pass. Ever so slowly I was getting line back on the reel. Then as we got fairly close to her she turned toward us and the line abruptly went slack. She had only been bill-wrapped and the line slipped off of the bill when she turned. We had lost her just about 50 yards behind the boat. It was somewhat of a bummer losing her like that but I almost certainly would have released her anyway and I still got to enjoy the fun and excitement of a gallant 30-minute fight. I was most disappointed in the fact I never really got a good look at her. Captain Franck, Nildo, and Brooks all saw her well though and estimated that she was more than a grander. Oh well, another one that got away! We trolled virtually all around Graciosa and in the channel between it and St. George but didn’t even see another fish until late in the afternoon when we had two knockdowns from a couple of frisky white marlin. The wind progressively picked up forcing us to troll toward our home port of Horta where we arrived at about 8 p.m. having had a quiet trip back.
 
 

Captain Joe's Gameboats	Horta viewed from the harbor	Pousada de Santa Cruz from the yacht basin
The old fort	Graffitti on yacht basin walls	One of many beautiful churches in the Azores

Our last day on the water was a more typical Azorean day with wind at about 15-20 knots out of the northeast and fairly choppy seas. We were forced to fish the lee of the island of Pico which on occasion has yielded fish but this day was a dead zone. We tried to reach an area where Captain Joe had heard there was some warmer water but the wind and rough seas precluded us from reaching that area. Later in the afternoon the wind shifted so we tried to get back out to the Condor Bank but again we were turned back by the somewhat treacherous conditions. So we finished the day trolling the more protected Ribeirina area where we had two strikes from “whitey” but couldn’t sink the hooks on either occasion. Finally we trolled back to the dock.

This trip like all of my others to the Azores was a wonderful adventure. Captain Joe Franck and his wife Greet Wouters are fantastic hosts and the hospitality shown us by the local Azoreans was a treat as well. In addition Greet’s parents Rick and Simon Wouters were visiting from Belgium. We found them to be incredibly interesting and just meeting them added a great deal to our experience. Although the fishing on this trip wasn’t red hot in terms of numbers I was hardly disappointed. We had seen only three blue marlins during our seven days of trolling but we had released an 850-pounder which is larger than most blue water anglers may see in their entire career and the average size of the fish we encountered was 750 pounds. We may not have had quantity but we sure had quality. Add to that the opportunity to fish with a big game angling icon (Brooks Morris) and you have the makings of a great trip! And finally just witnessing the stark beauty of these volcanic rocks covered with emerald green vegetation jutting up out of the ocean floor is reason enough for making the trip all by itself.
 
 

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