AUGUST 1, 2024 | MADEIRA
We started the day fishing out of Calheta marina on the “Pesca Grossa” a 30ft Dorado. At the helm was Captain Gerard “Frothy” de Silva along with his crew Carlos and “Chico”. Frothy, a native of Trinidad moved to Madeira in 1995 to pursue his passion of chasing big marlin.
Before we left the dock, Frothy joined us for a cup of coffee at the top of the pier. His first question, “You guys’ ever marlin fished before?” We all had to a certain degree and knew what we were getting into…. Blake, the man with the mission, had caught a blue fishing in Louisiana off a kite. Ryan, a charter captain in Miami for the last 15 years has caught two blues in his local waters while trolling for dolphin and we caught a white together off my 16ft Boston Whaler. I’ve caught whites in the north east, striped in the pacific and we all caught a black together in Costa Rica on my bachelor party just last year. I had hooked a couple blues pushing 500+ pounds in the northeast while tuna fishing but those resulted in pulled hooks.
We shared this with Frothy who responded, “Well boys…. We don’t see a lot of fish here. But when we see them…. They’re big. We’re fishing for a fish of a lifetime. We had a couple small ones over the last few weeks maybe 500 pounds, but its been slow. We won’t have much bycatch this time of year. So far, we’ve fished 60 days and seen 11 blue marlin.”
And that was cool with us…. Calm seas, trolling for hours. We were in. And we were stoked. Whether we got a bite or not we were happy to just roll the dice….
Carlos and Chico untied the boat and started getting the tackle in order. Short trip to the grounds…. Soon as you leave the marina the outriggers go down and lines are set. Frothy has his spread. Tried and true he knew what lure he wanted where and that was our spread for the day. 5 hooked lines. One way back with a ballyhoo for a white and then 4 out of the riggers with bigger lures hand made by Frothy himself. The spread was set, and we headed west. Frothy came down and walked us through the procedure for when the fish showed. He encouraged us to hook the fish on our own and play by the rules set by the IGFA. Blake was our angler. He recently turned 40 and decided as a gift to himself he wanted to be tortured by a big marlin. He listened to Frothy’s every word and motioned through the routine.
5 months earlier, in a group chat Blake let us know he and his girlfriend Anai were going to Madeira on this quest and asked if we wanted to join. Not too sure he really expected us to…. I originally said I couldn’t swing it…. Money, work, other travel plans…. What an irresponsible decision it would be to join….
One night I was smoking a cigar with Ryan who shared with me that him and his girl Anita were going to be in Italy during that time. A simple adjustment to his trip schedule and he was in….
“Damn it….” I thought. “Well, if you’re in…. I’m in…”. It did not take much convincing my wife Gianna who has a serious travel bug of her own….
So there we were. 5 months later. On the back of the Pesca Grossa. Frothy is walking Blake through exactly what to do when the fish strikes. When to push the drag…. When to ease it… when to go to the chair…. Everything is methodical and with reason. This is what Frothy does. He wakes at night thinking of these things…. How can he perfect the process…. How can this be better. And he was an open book to all our questions. A truly valuable experience just to conversate with him.
And then…. We trolled. We trolled for hours. We went all the way to the west end of the island and then back east almost to Funchal. Working the hot spots along the shelf as we came across them. We had one knock down on the center rigger mid-day but nothing came of it so we kept on moving.
It’s a beautiful place to fish. And that time of year you fish the leeward side of the island. So it flat calm with electric blue water. The ocean itself was lifeless. A couple birds here and there, but I wouldn’t say they were “working”. No bait…. Nothing. Frothy said they haven’t seen much bait yet this year.
In September there’s a squid run which brings the tunas and swordfish with them, but this place felt barren. Around noon we ate lunch and just hung out watching the lures. It’s quite a comfortable boat to fish on with loads of shade and 2 bed like structures under the tower you can just chill.
Blake wasn’t feeling too well, but was staying on the ready. Ryan was doing his part, sipping a bottle of Jack Daniels for luck. I was putting down a couple beers here and there with the occasional sip of the Jack. Around 1pm Ryan lit the first cigar, and we all agreed…. The second cigar was as going to get the bite.
Hours passed just trolling along. Frothy would come down every once in a while, and we’d all share fishing stories and techniques utilized in other parts of the world. It was great conversation and humbling to hear Frothy's approach to fishing. You would think with all his time on the water he’d have it all figured out…. Or at least think he did, but was quite the opposite. He’s consistently innovating and thinking of how to improve his system. He picked our brains about different tactics we use back home.
Another hour passed…. Ryan lit the second cigar.
It was about 5pm and we were working our way back out front of the marina. Around now we started the talk… “Well, better luck tomorrow.” We were winding down the day. Trip was over at 6pm. Just then Frothy pointed to the boat ahead of us….
“They’re hooked up”.
“Damn!” I said as I turned to see the boat about a half a mile away looking like they were backing down. But…. Good sign…. Fish travel together so our senses were alerted. We headed in the direction of the boat that was hooked up. All our eyes glued to the spread. Hopeful. Waiting….
“Left long, left long!” We heard Frothy yell from the bridge. Just then we watched a long black shadow come from inside the spread out smashing the lure (just as Frothy said would happen). This fish did not hesitate. “Push it up! “Push it up! Push it up!” Frothy yelled from the bridge to Blake referring to the drag so the hook would set. In the chaos Blake mis-understood Frothy's words and thought he was telling him to push the drag past the button to sunset…. We watched as the fish lunged half its body out of the water and shake its head towards the boat. The lure got thrown from the fish’s mouth and just like that…. She was gone…
“FUCK!!!” Yelled frothy from the bridge, we all resonated with that…. That was our shot. And with one second it was gone…. It was over before we even knew what happened…. For sure that fish felt the hook. We stung her and now she won’t be back…
Frothy turned into a hound dog on a scent trail. He sped up the boat and turned back where we got the bite. He would speed up and slow down making figure 8 like patterns trying to coax the fish back into the spread. His approach…. Piss the fish off. Entice an aggressive bite.
Two minutes later she showed back up. This time on the right long. She just hung there next to it…. Looking at it and faded out.
A minute later she’s under the left short. Swatting her bill but not eating. We’re there waiting helplessly for that pile on bite.
She fades away again. Then there she is on the right short. Then on the teaser. We pitch a beautiful swimming Spanish mackerel…. She fades again….
Every time your heart breaks. There’s moments of extreme anticipation and excitement followed by hopelessness and hopefulness. Will she show herself again? Or is she over it?
The fish danced like this with us for probably 5 minutes. To be honest, time stopped moving at its normal pace. 5 minutes is my true guess for how long that fish swam with us. But it could have been two. It could have been 10. In those moments you lose the concept of time.
She proceeded to look at every bait in the spread twice.
The fish showed again. This time on the right short and then quickly switched to the teaser inside. The fishes body black like a fighter jet. Pec fins lit up the most electric blue you’ve ever seen. She faded out…and then “Bang” a swat at the right short. Damn… Missed it… but she was more aggressive this time.
She faded…. And then there it was. The pile on we were looking for on the right long. Line started peeling off the reel. Blake jumped from the port side over and pushed the drag to strike keen to not make the same mistake. The fish peeled line off like a freight train.
I’ve seen big bluefin tuna pushing 700lbs peel line off a reel…. This was something different. That reel hit a whole nother octave as the line peeled off.
Blake hung by the rod at the ready as we all cleared the lures in the spread and layed the rods down on the bed leaving the cockpit open for battle. Once everything was cleared, Frothy gave the ok to Blake to back off the drag and bring the rod to the chair.
The battle ensued. It’s a surreal experience being in that position. Something you dream of your whole life... and there you are…. Living it in true color. One of your best buds strapped into a big blue marlin. This is what we came for.
The fish stayed on top in the beginning but never jumped. It would make these blistering sprints and the settle, and we’d back down to her. Blake was in good form. Keeping up with Frothy’s driving and staying tight on the fish.
About 45 minutes into the fight we looked down into the water and could see the color of the fish. About 25-30ft down, she swam steady keeping her distance from us. Almost as if she was eyeing up the boat. She had plenty of life and plenty of power. She just stayed there. The mate grabbed the leader for the first time. This makes it an official “catch”. But we couldn’t move the fish. When she decided, she was done checking us out she took off again on a blistering run.
This happened a few times. She would take off and we’d catch up to her. Carlos was putting all he had trying to lift the fish up. At one point maybe an hour in she came to the surface and showed herself full. The first time with her dorsal and tail out of the water swimming away from the boat. One stroke of her tail she sprayed a 5-gallon bucket of water and she took off.
“You boys see the propeller on her?” Frothy yelled from the bridge.
Even though we saw her close now none of us had any context of how big she really was. I’d never seen a fish that big in my life…. 600lbs? 700lbs? We asked Frothy in that moment, and he just replied calm and collected “I don’t know… she’s a nice one, boys.”
Blake got back to work. The fish stayed up on top and kept teasing us with a jump but stayed submerged. When the fish is on top Blake is essentially keeping the light tight as Frothy plays chess with the boat and the fish. Constantly maneuvering and counter maneuvering to the fishes' play. Every once in a while, the fish would go down just a little and Blake had to pump it back up. Using the harness and chair to his advantage, he would pull back just a bit and drop the tip of the rod as he reeled up the slack.
A little over an hour in and the fish showed no signs of weakening. We had this fish to leader probably 6 times by now. She would come just close enough to grab the leader, but despite Carlos giving everything he had to try to lift the fish it would not move. Every time he would pull hard, the fish would pull harder. Ripping the line out of his hands and Blake up out of the chair.
Ryan looks up to Frothy and respectfully asks, “Frothy, you mind if I pull on this thing?”
There was a pause for a moment...
Frothy asked back “Boy, you ever pull on a big marlin before?” Ryan, a seasoned charter captain and mate for years has pulled on his fair share of big fish, especially sharks…. But humbly he responded. “Well… no”. Frothy responded with a chuckle. “You know, we do care about safety on this operation”. We all had a laugh and Ryan respected Frothy’s denial of his request. “No problem. Had to at least ask.”
At this point, Frothy started talking about the release. He instructed Carlos to put maximum pressure on the fish. Chico had a pair of sheers in his hand. Frothy said, “She’s a healthy fish. I’d like to get a clean release on her”. The plan was Carlos would pull the fish close enough where someone could grab the lure. The ideal scenario is to get the hook out of the fish but sometimes that does more damage than good.
Frothy instructed Chico. “As soon as I tell you to cut it, you cut it Chico”. “Yes Frothy” Chico replied. He wanted to get at least close enough so there was only a foot or 2 of line trailing off the hook. It wouldn’t take too long, and that hook will fall out and the fish will heal. We just had to get close enough so there wasn’t too much line trailing.
The fish was still very full of life and there was no budging it. We’d have leader and then fish would run. Not far… But just far enough to stay out of range.
About an hour and 45 minutes into the fight, the fish started taking more line. Not fast…. But steady. She was heading down.
“O no….” Frothy said. He knew right away what this meant. After a long battle the fish will dive deep to try to cool off. What we didn’t know was at some point the fish had gotten tail wrapped. She kept taking line slowly but surely. And we couldn’t stop it…
“Where’s the drag at?” Frothy asked from the tower. “Right at the button” Blake responded. “Push it up” Frothy instructed.
This meant we were going full drag on the fish. Frothy didn’t want any more line to come off that spool. Blake pushed the drag to sunset. Probably 60-70lbs of drag. That is a lot of pressure on the line and the fish. And still it took…. Slowly coming off the reel.
“Cup the spool. Don’t let her take another inch.” Frothy instructed. Blake did so, but even with full pressure of his hand with the drag…. The fish was still taking. We were back to the braid backing on the reel. “Alright,” Frothy said…. “You caught the fish already technically when Carlos touched the leader. Time to make this a team effort to see if we can get her up and revive her.”
I couldn’t believe what was happening…. The plan was always to release the fish…. But the thought of taking one back to the dock of course pays in the back of your mind…. I’d get to touch it, feel it…. See how the fins open and close…. What a thought… I couldn’t help but be a little bit excited about the opportunity to touch her. Like all the great fisherman and explorers of the past… Hemingway, Zane Grey. I grew up reading stories about these men and their adventures. Taking big marlin… It’s a once in a lifetime experience for someone like me. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little intrigued.
I looked to Ryan and mouthed quietly, “She’s swimming down…” He knew exactly what I was talking about…. He just looked at me with a sly smile and took a sip of his whiskey. It was important to us to be respectful to the captain and crew. We knew it meant a lot to Frothy that we release this fish.
At this point, we got Blake a glove to put on his hand. Both Ryan and Chico grabbed the line so the fish couldn’t take any more. Frothy would bump the boat in gear and just drive about 75-100 yards. All three men held the line tight. Once we got to the determined distance, Frothy would back down hard and Blake had to reel fast with everything he had. We were planning the fish up. As the boat moved forward it would force the fish to come up a bit in the water column and then back down on it and we’d reel up all the slack.
Blake was pretty exhausted. He had a lot of heat in the fish for quite some time. We put the reel into low gear, but still just the act of reeling at that speed was grueling. We kept his spirits high and motivated him as much as we could. Giving him water each time we bumped the boat forward.
We did this process about 8-10 times and finally the fish broke the surface tail first right behind the boat. This is when we realized that she was tail wrapped. Likely drowned by the act of us pulling her backwards. It was an extremely humbling moment, and a bit of my heart broke to see such a noble and mighty animal belly up. Frothy immediately instructed us to unwrap the line from her tail. We got her right side up and pulled her along the side of the boat. “Let’s try to revive her for a little bit” Frothy said.
Frothy put the boat in gear and idled forward. This helps to rush clean water through the gills of the fish and bring it back to life. We drove around for a couple minutes. “Is there any life in that fish at all?” Asked Frothy. “No.” Chico replied. “Frothy, this fish is dead.” “Ok.” Said Frothy. “Let’s get her on the boat and head back to the dock.”
We all jumped in to help. We timed a small swell to help us slide the fish through the fish door on the transom. Only about half her body fit on the boat… her tail and back section laid out of the transom. This was the first time we really got a good look at her size.
Ryan, Blake and I had no idea how big she was. The mate asked us what we thought… “We have no perspective or scale the judge this fish” we said. None of us had seen a fish this big before. “6-700?” We guessed. Chico nodded and said “Yea… maybe that”. He said it’s very hard to tell how big the fish is once they get over 800lbs. It really becomes about the girth. We asked Frothy again how big he thought…. Surely, he must have had an idea… he’s weighed a few marlin of size before. Coy his response, he replied… “She’s a nice fish boys…. Chico…. Call the crane operator.” And we headed for the dock….
At this point we were all in shock of what happened. There were still no big celebrations, and we were pretty quiet on the way in. Still in disbelief.
The girls had been texting back and forth with us throughout the day. We were supposed to be back around 6. They were stoked to learn we hooked the fish around 5:30 and seeing the size, we had told them we would be back late. At the end, we sent off a picture to them of the fish on the deck and they were in total disbelief. “We’re heading in” my text said them. “On our way!!!” Was the reply. Later Gianna told me they were teary eyed for us…. Full of pride and genuinely stoked at what we had accomplished. They raced down the mountain to come see the fish.
We pulled into the marina where the crane operator was waiting. We tied a rope to the tail of the fish and pushed it out the transom door into the water. From there the crane hoisted the fish infront of all of us. High into the sky we watched as it rose above the sea wall. “425” yelled the crane operator. “Frothy responded in a bit of disbelief. “Pounds?”
“Kilos” said the operator.
Using our calculators, we quickly did the conversion. “937lbs.!” Holy shit. Just shy of being a grander! We could not believe it. Another state of shock for us…. I believe a bit of relief for Frothy too. That fish is towards the end of its life and it’s a bit more acceptable to take a fish of that size if it’s close to being a grander. Though, I know deep down Frothy wanted to let that fish swim and we all have total respect for that. We were proud and stoked at what we had achieved, but still aired on the quiet side.
We left the fish on the scale and started making our way to the slip just a few piers over from the crane. As we’re idling over, we hear a car screech to a halt on the street. This was followed by the excited cheers of our 3 girls running down the dock. “Yewwwwww!” They were screaming as they ran toward the fish hanging from the scale. We just watched as they ran down the dock. It was exactly what we all needed…. To watch them run down with a genuine stoke really meant to world to all three of us and is a moment I will never forget. We have great women in our lives who love and support what we do.
It was quite an amazing moment to share with them especially. Not only did we catch a fish of a lifetime, but they were there to share and experience that moment with us.
We walked up the dock to the fish to get some photos. A crowd grew. Soon, about 80 people filled the space around the fish hanging. We cleared the space a bit for photos. Thankfully, Gianna grabbed my camera from the car before they ran over so I was able to shoot the moment and she captured video. I’ll always be grateful for that. To have quality pictures means the world to me.
A truck came to pick up the fish and bring it straight to the local food bank, where it was cut and served to the town. That was a process of its own. They hoisted the fish above the truck and layed it in the bed. Once the fish was secure, they drove off down the road.
This is a memory of a lifetime for me personally. I want to reiterate the amount of respect and gratitude I have for the fish giving us this moment. I didn’t write this or edit the video to beat my chest and brag about it. I did this because I want to fully capture the feeling of being there. I've always enjoyed reading the stories of big fish from Hemingway, Zane Grey and Guy Harvey and this moment really inspired me to document in a similar way.
People say when they achieve lifetime goals that they feel humbled…. I never quite understood that until this moment. I felt truly humbled and a bit perplexed. From being a little kid, this was a dream I never thought would come true. The chances are slim…. But it did. And it’s something I’ll take with me in my heart forever.
Blake was able to secure the bill and back at home I got to print it… I will cherish those forever. I may sell one or two so stay tuned if you are interested.
A big thank you to Cpt Frothy, Chico and Carlos for giving us this experience. Blake and Ryan for being great friends. I always cherish our times on the water. And to our girls who support us and give us our time to live our passions.
VIEW ALL PHOTOS: https://alexwex.pixieset.com/bluemarlin937/
It’s all love…
Alex
