We have been coming to Madeira for years and always wanted to go big game fishing. This trip I was celebrating by 60th birthday and had my sons and partners/wife along. So we decide to take a full day trip on “Our Mary”. We were warned of the possibility of not catching anything in spite of Our Mary’s previous trip yielding 2 Big Eyed Tuna. The experience was what we were after and a fish would be a bonus. Captain Jose and his first mate were very informative and great company.
We were joined on the charter by Peter and a non fishing guest Patrick.
Four hours into the trip apart from 3 of the 7 on the boat seeing a turtle we had not caught anything.
Jose started to prepare lunch (very tasty) and said albeit tongue in cheek we will soon have a fish now.No sooner had we started eating then the first sound of reel realising it’s line was heard. My youngest son Tom jumped in the chair and was soon fighting what turned out to a Big Eye Tuna, 35 minutes later Tom was knackered but we had the fish on board. Listening to Jose shouting at Tom to keep the line tight and spread the line on the reel with Tom huffing and puffing was hilarious.
We soon had the lines out again hoping beyond hope that we had have further success. What followed next was beyond belief. We had 5 lines out. All of sudden someone shouted look a tuna is after one of the lures. You could see it’s wake behind the lure (unreal) Then bang a real let rip, Peter jumped in the chair.  Jose bellowed quick get the other lines reeled in. As soon as I started reeling bang another tuna was hooked and my reel went whirling , then bang my other son Jonathan’s reel was releasing line. We had 3 Tuna hooked on at once. All hell broke out as Jose and his mate got us organised. Obviously only one chair and so myself and Jonathan were bent over the side of the boat trying to reel in the other to fish, with all the time Jose shouting keep the line tight/spread the line. We would reel in 10 metres and then lose 20 metres as the fish decided it didn’t want to be landed. Tom became our team photography for the next hour it took to land all 3 fish.
With the skipper only being able to take 3 fish we had to release the 4th fish. The fish we kept weighed between 80 and 120kg, unbelievable experience.
Whilst Jose said he regularly catches 1 or 2 tuna he said this was his most successful trip in 4/5 years. For this to happen on the day we went out and on our first trip and on my 60th birthday trip to Madeira is something than will live with me and my sons forever.
Thank you Jose