I have always fancied catching a Wahoo, and Madeira is the
nearest place to the UK to
do it and the best time is meant to be October, so when Sandy suggested spending our 30th
wedding anniversary there in October, I thought what a great idea.
My fishing buddies have also shown an interest in fishing there
so this diary piece will differ from the norm to include information other
visitors to the island may find helpful.
However, the plan did not allow for the tail end of the
hurricane 'Joaquin' which had recently swept the west coast of the United States,
and faded as it headed east across the Atlantic, ending up over Madeira.
On arrival we had two nice days and I walked to the Marina where there are
kiosks where you can book your fishing. From the information I had read in the
past, I opted for “Our Mary”. This is a Mitchell boat taken over from the UK many years
ago. You may have seen John Wilson and Matt Hayes both fishing from it in
recent times. It was still immaculate and used Shimano gear so had obviously
been well looked after. www.madeiragamefish.com
The price in the kiosks was pretty much the same for each
charter boat, 230 Euros per angler with a minimum of two required to make the
trip viable for a seven hour trip, with a charge for passengers at 50 euros.
The four hour trip for beginners is 175 euros with watchers at 30 euros. You
can charter the boat for 950 euros for a full 7 hours or 630 euros for 4 hours.
I wanted to catch a Wahoo, and as I had booked the boat first for that day, I
had the choice of the type of trip and opted for trolling for the seven hours as
against deep sea bottom fishing. The maximum number of anglers on a trolling
trip is five, but there were only two of us on the day we managed to fish.
So all was set - until the storm hit, stopping all boats
sailing for two days – including the day
I had booked. They kiosk offered to refund my deposit but I rebooked for the
following Tuesday, five days later.
The rain fell steadily and the streams filled up all over
the island and spewed brown water into the bay. As there isn’t a huge tide or
current there, the brown water just stayed close in to the shore and the line
between clear and dirty water was such a contrast, it looked as if it had been
painted in. We trolled up to the cliffs on the south west of the island at 7-8
knots, at a depth of around 80 meters, the optimum for Wahoo.
We were unable to go to the north side or around the
uninhabited islands off the east coast because of the large swell after the
storms. When we arrived at the cliffs, the brown water covered a large area
there too. Jose, the skipper told us that Wahoo only feed at the surface and in
the shallower water. As this water was so coloured the fish would just sink
lower in the water and not feed.
Going out into the clearer water would entail moving to much
deeper water where they don’t venture. Jose let me ride in the tower so that I
could watch the fish finder; he was spot on with not one larger fish showing,
just small pockets of bait fish.
We therefore decided to change tactics and try deep sea
bottom fish, and deep sea is not an understatement. We were bait fishing with
around 12oz of lead at a depth of around 130 meters. With small diameter boat
reels, it meant that checking the bait, reeling fish up and upwinding between
drifts is a real pain and something of an endurance test to say the least. Once
the bait hit bottom, bites and light taps happened pretty well immediately at
many of the marks but you couldn’t be sure if your bait was still there. No
problem retrieving in 50 feet of water but 400 feet it is different and very
hard work.
I think there was also a problem to use bait from the
previous day which was soft and pulled off the hook very easily, whereas if we
used fresh bait from the day's catch as we do in the UK, the bait would have stayed on
better and the fresh scent would have been more attractive to the fish.
I must add a note here that Jose has purchased large
diameter fixed spool reels to aid rapid line winding and to give the left/right
hand flexibility the charter skipper needs. He was just awaiting the braid
which is cheaper and a faster delivery from the UK!!
Lunch was provided on the boat which was roast chicken
cooked on board with a selection of meats, salad, bread rolls and fruit and it
went down very well.
So the afternoon was spent moving from mark to mark and I
managed to catch a few blacktailed comber and an unusual fish which Jose told
me was an aerial snapper named after the front vane of the dorsal fin.
We returned to the marina at the close at 5pm after a 7 hour
day.
Whilst we were fishing, Jose told me that October IS the
best month for Wahoo and the previous year the weather had been good, but this
year, the storm had ruined this week's fishing. You have to judge the
likelihood of bad weather against the optimum time for the fish. I think
September might be a better bet in future.
Jose also tried to encourage me to have a go for the Atlantic
Blue Marlin, regarded by many as the top game fish species. He said the problem
with Madeira was that there aren’t little
fish, just specimen fish so if you catch a fish of any species, Marlin, Tuna Wahoo
etc it will be a good sized one, but bites are less frequent so it is not a
place for the faint hearted. He said he that if I booked four trips at the end
of June or start of July I would see a Marlin on the boat. But as the boat would need between two and
five people to make it out to sea, it is possible that the worst case scenario
would be 20 trips at 230 euros each which could make a marlin cost 1840 - 4600
euros. (Or 3800 euros for four days solitary charters). Too expensive for the average angler, but not too expensive compared to
other places around the world.
So, the trip on the day in truth was disappointing, but it
could have been much worse. I met two other anglers who had booked a fishing package
through an angling travel company for four days' fishing. The storm had cut
their fishing days to two but they could not get a refund, so watch out for
this if you take this booking option. At least this way you do automatically get
a refund if they can’t take you out.
However, my fishing on the holiday was not limited to that. Sandy had persuaded me to
take a travel rod even though she'd firmly said: "this is not a fishing holiday, this is
our anniversary!” So when she was swimming or having a massage, I nipped out
with my rod and fished from the concrete jetties at the back of the hotel.
The first time was from the Vidamar Hotel. The receptionist
said fishing wasn’t allowed but I decided he couldn’t mean that and there must
be a language issue, so I took some slices of bread and fished off the side of
the jetty after talking to the pool attendant (who said there was no problem
provided I kept out of the way of the bathers ).
There were shoals of Damselfish and a Greenfish which is
known as a Turkish Wrasse very close into the walls. These could be caught on bread
with a size 16 hook. The Damselfish were just too slow and the Wrasse ate
everything, in fact, it was difficult to get past them. The only way was to
fish further out where they wouldn’t venture for fear of being eaten.
I managed to catch a
Mullet before changing up to a size 4 and putting a big piece of flake on. The
problem here was that I had several bites which took the bait, charged off and
bit straight through the line. I would guess this was small Barracuda of Bluefish.
This was great fun, and proved an attraction to the guests
who came down to see what I was doing and appeared fascinated by what I was catching.
Perhaps fishing would be more popular if it was presented as sheer fun. This
was schoolboy fishing and I loved every minute of it.
A few days later we had moved hotel to the Cliff Bay.
The staff there were much more helpful, offering me a chair and suggesting that
I use the side jetty out of the way of the larger swell.
I had also bought some prawns as well as bread this time but
couldn’t find any wire to make a trace. (At the end of the trip I was told
there is a tackle shop in the marina). I
started to catch the Wrasse again but then set up a sliding float rig and
fished farther out with a prawn and caught White Bream, Bogue, Grouper, Pompano
and really enjoyed it again – until one gust of wind blew my expensive tray of
prawns into the sea!!! The Maitre d' suggested I got worms or crabs as there
were also Parrotfish there which make excellent eating.
So, that is my experiences of fishing in Madeira.
The jetty fishing was just sheer fun, but the boat fishing was a bit
disappointing. Jose suggested that I book the fishing to match the weather next
time, but not many people have the flexibility to do that, and cheap flights
may be difficult to book that way too. I
would suggest when you arrive, check the weather before booking your trip with
“Our Mary”. That way you get a refund if it doesn’t happen, but beware the
prolonged rain and water discolouration if you want to troll, and if this is
the case and you only want a Wahoo, maybe try another time. You really need good weather beforehand. For fun fishing, don’t forget your travel rod
and wire trace, it is really good fun and even attracted a young dutch lady in
a bikini; I let her have a go with my rod and she really enjoyed it, so much
so, when we spoke later, she said she was thinking of taking up fishing. Sandy
was looking down on me from the infinity pool and later said she never realised
fishing was a 'babe magnet'! (It has never worked for me in 50 years, so it
must have been my lucky day!!!).
As a footnote, I picked up a leaflet on guided trout fishing
which is also available in the streams and levadas (irrigation channels). The cost is 250 euros for 8 hours and 150
euros for 4 hours. On one trip around
the island I saw the fish farm where the rainbows are bred and stocked into the
streams at a reasonable size, in excess of a pound. I haven’t tried it or met
anybody who did; maybe next time.
