Sunday. The rest day after the Bermuda Big Game Classic. Dan Jacobs and his team pulled off another great one – thanks to all of you.

I am pretty sure that Bree won the tournament. We will know for sure tonight at the awards banquet.

MAKO had a tough tournament, releasing a Blue in three days of fishing. We missed two bites on the first day and one sneaky White Marlin attack on the third day. Things were quiet for us, but we could have done better. That is what suckers you into going out and doing it next year!

There is one more tournament in Bermuda next week…the Sea Horse Anglers Club. We are looking forward to that.

Finally, the wind has died down. The last day of the Classic was nice and it is really nice today. Let’s hope it holds.

Tuna fishing remains hot on the North side of both banks. I am not aware of anyone who tried tuna fishing on the North side of the Island, but that might pay off too. MAKO’s calendar for the rest of the summer is looking pretty good, so with the right weather we ought to be able to provide some pretty regular advice as to conditions.

Talk to you next Sunday.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

As I was getting the cameras, etc. ready for the Bermuda Billfish Blast and the World Cup, I happened upon these clips from last year.

From 2008 Blast

A day late and a dollar short….

I hope you enjoy watching them. The first fish on the video was caught a day late…after the World Cup.

I will let you know what we see during the tournaments.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

Good lord! This wind.

Last week was had a few good days weather-wise but tournament day was howling when we woke up. Sacha and her team of Nicole and Karen (of Sam and Omie’s fame) got on the boat with their hair streaming behind them and a grim, determined look on their faces. Oh, and a blender.

Well, the day went pretty well. We got shoken up on the way to the north side of Challenger Bank where much of the action has been lately with the tide running to the Southwest. Things started pretty quickly for us with a bite on the shotgun. Karen was quick to the rod, despite the rotation previously agreed with her teammates. The fish jumped and it was clear it was a Blue Marlin. The cooperative fish stayed on top and we were able to back down pretty quickly, despite the rough weather. Karen did a great job keeping up with the boats and before too long a very wet angler and mate had the fish to the leader. Pete did his usual great job and we got the pictures required in the tournaments. The fish was about 200 pounds and 500 points. MAKO was on the board!

We high-fived each other, got the spread back out and continued trolling. The long right rigger came down within 10 minutes with a fish that ran off enough line to make us wonder what kind of marlin we had. Sacha did a great job getting the girt 130 outfit into the chair all on her own and she made short work of the White after that first run. We had good luck, the fish stayed hooked and we didn’t make any mistakes. One White Marlin relaease for 700 points. MAKO in the lead!

Well, I would love to tell you kept up at that pace, but it did not. We had another bite or two that came unstuck and did not get an angler in the chair again.

About 2 pm the blender came out and the Beast Wackers started to flow. Boy, was that ice machine a good idea on the new boat. We ended the day in second place but we entered Level One and Level Two, while the high point boat chose not to do so. What a break and a nice way to start the July tournaments.

Sunday was quiet for us and the fleet. We did not catch anything the second day and ended up in Fourth Place, or so. The weather improved and the blender still worked so it was not a total loss.

Three comments worth making:
1) A huge congratulations to James on the Wound Up. He won the Blast and the World Cup with a nice big fish on Saturday. As James said, “Beware the Lobster Boat”!
2) If you are in the Outer Banks, swing by Sam and Omie’s for breakfast. If Karen is there, she can tell you all about her Blue Marlin. Get the Country Ham. It was great fishing with you, Karen.
3) The yellowfin Tuna fishing is as good as it has been in several years. With fish in the 50 to 60 pound class, it is really great fishing. Northern side of the Banks, plenty of bait and tuna around. Go give it a shot or come with us to catch some.

And girls, see you next year, I hope.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

Wind and plenty of it.

Look at all that breeze on the map above!  Not a normal June, that is for sure.  The weather kept us tied to the dock more than I would have liked this week.  But we did manage to get out a few days. 

Amy and Steve Fass toughed it out with us for two days.  The first day was quite rough, rainy and quiet.  They were rewarded the next day when the sun came out and the wind laid down for us.  Amy caught a Yellowfin around 60 pounds and Steve caught a nice Wahoo.  Both were taken on live Robins.  Steve got his on a mono leader – that does not happen very often.

We were two for three on Blues for the week.  On Friday we caught a small Blue on the shotgun rod and also had a nice fish – 450 pounds or so – come up on the teaser.  You have got to love those teaser bites!  Mate Peter pitched the fish a Blue Breakfast with two 11/0 hooks to her and she ate.  Everything stayed tight during the fight and we were able to release her as well. 

 Saturday and Sunday was the new release tournament in Bermuda.  We had a trip with Colin Barnes on Sunday.  It was slow for us and the fleet.  We released a White and I think the total catch for the fleet on Sunday was 1 Blue and 2 Whites.  Congratulations to Waste Knot with 3 Blue releases in the tournament.

With some days off, I was able to take care of a few little gremlins in the new boat – loose connections, unbalanced Ethernet networks (whatever that is) and a few bolts needed tightening.  I was also able to take some pictures of the inside of the new boat – we are STILL waiting for a nice day to take some running shots of her.

Each week we are taking the photos of that week and putting them on our Flickr site.  You can get to them by clicking on the photo gallery on this site.  We are trying to use only a few pics in the actual fishing report, there are a lot more in the gallery – go check them out.

Dan Jacobs and his team from Marlin magazine who organize the Bermuda tournaments are installed in the Hamilton Princess for the month of July.  The visiting boats are in and PW’s is starting to look like Pirate’s Cove Marina.  We have tournaments for each of the next three weeks and will keep you advised of how things go. 

The tide continues to run hard into the SW.  That is keeping fish on the North side of both banks.  I can’t wait to see what Bull on the Sea Toy does with this tide – will he give up his spot on the South East corner of Challenger Bank??????  We will see.

Wish us luck!  Talk to you next week.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

MAKO finished the crossing late this afternoon. For a new boat, things worked really, really well. A few bugs to work out, but that is expected. We are ready to GO!

The weather for the trip was much better than expected. We left North Carolina in calm conditions with the ocean like glass. We made good time that first day, despite all the fuel weight aboard. We averaged in the low 20 knot range all the way until dark.

View MAKO’s First Crossing in a larger map

We had a quiet night making about 10 knots until dawn. The new Garmin electronics sure performed well. More on that later — Garmin is a new brand to me and relatively new to the sportfishing market but I think they have a really good set of products and I want to do a report on just that in the coming weeks.

Around 6:00 am we sped her up with about 220 miles to go to Blue Cut (the most direct cut in the reef system). Things continued to run well, with an average speed again in the low 20s to conserve fuel. We pulled into the customs dock on Ordinance Island around 4:00.  Not too shabby!

To the crew at Briggs Boat Works, thanks for building such a great boat. We cannot wait to put her through her paces in Bermuda.

Joe, Brian, Peter…thanks.  It was a great trip.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

As promised, the first trip report from De Mako and the first from Panama!

After our trip from Florida around to the Canal, our first set of members came down to try out the fishing.  While the water quality certainly wasn’t great, we all had a great time and managed to catch a Black Marlin and five Sailfish.

After the members landed, they made the 30 minute trip to the boat using a driver that I have known for years.  Before long, De Mako was out of the slip and headed to overnight in the Las Perlas islands, about 60 miles from the Marina in Panama City.  The weather was ok, calm seas but cloudy.  We had a great dinner on the boat anchored in the lee of those beautiful islands.  We went to sleep anxious for what the day would bring.

I was concerned about the fishing as I had heard that an unusual amount of green water had pushed into the fishing grounds.  The first day of fishing we certainly found this green, green (maybe coffee would be a better description) water.  We looked for the blue water but did not find it that first day.  As we moored in Pinas Bay,  we were all hoping tomorrow would be better.  After a good night’s rest we set out in rainy conditions.

The water did seem a little better today and it wasn’t long until a Black Marlin came up on the short left teaser.  Jason was on the rod and decided to pitch the 30 because the fish did not look all that big to him.  Well, on the bite, we all changed our mind.  That Black looked like a rolling Tarpon as it took the pitch going away from the boat.  After about 30 minutes, Chowie released the fish – about 300 pounds.  Take a look at the photos the members took of the fish.  Pretty work on the rod and behind the camera, I would say.

The day continued with what I would describe as pretty slow action.  We ended up catching 5 of 10 Sailfish bites.  The fish were their normal selves, putting on a show on the light 30 pound tackle.

That night, the members had a cocktail and dinner at the Tropic Star Lodge.  They said that the food and atmosphere was great.  It sure is a beautiful place.  Quiet and still, with jungle all around.

The next day we steamed back to Panama City to catch the return flight.  All in all, a great start despite difficult condiitons.

We are going again soon, so stay tuned and book your flights down!

- Capt. Mike Springer

Mike, Allen and the guys made it to Panama this weekend.  We will add more detail when they get back, but they said the trip was long, and a little rougher than one would like but there were no mechanical problems and they made pretty good time.  I tried to figure out how to make a map of their trip.  

View De Mako's Trip to Panama in a larger map

The link is here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106606152088836733603.0004682170ae3e0e6ac25&z=5 

As I said, when the guys have a chance to download their pictures, we will add those and lots of stories.

Speaking of stories, the first members are planning their Panama trips so we should have some interesting fishing reports pretty soon.

- Jeff Radke

Well, Black and Blue Fishing club, MAKO and the De Mako are just about ready to go.
First, some news about the Club – we finally have the legal and banking stuff done.  It was a bother to set it all up so formally, but in these times of economic uncertainty, we think it will pay off to have dotted the “i’s”.  You are reading this so the new website works. Many thanks to Wade at rainmakerwebdesign.com for his help on the site. Like most things, a website is about 7.2 times harder and more time consuming than I would have guessed. The effort to recruit members is going well with three Founding Members already. The captains and members have emailed the proposal to many of their friends and contacts.  We are quietly confident that it will be a success given the interest we are seeing after a week or two.

De Mako – that is the boat that will end up in the Pacific – is sitting in West Palm Beach Florida.  She had some work done to get her ready for Panama (back up generator, watermaker, satellite phone and TV, etc).  We expect that she will be ready to go shortly.  I am attending a convention of sorts this weekend as Allen DeSilva (the Club’s Bermuda captain), Mike Springer (the Club’s Pacific captain) and I descend on South Florida to meet with Jason Doyle and make sure the boat is ready for the trip.

And what a trip it is.  Florida to the Canal is a long, long way.  While Mike has plenty of experience with trips that long, most of the rest of us are more used to the 750 mile run from Bermuda to North Carolina.  I always think of crossings as being like a policeman.  You are going to be bored or scared…and you really hope it works out that you are bored. We expect De Mako will be fishing in Panama by the end of April.  I know several members have expressed an interest in trying to get down there as quickly as they can.  We are looking forward to those first fishing reports!

MAKO, the boat the Club will run in Bermuda, is probably being sanded as we speak.  Let me explain.  MAKO is being built by Sunny Briggs in North Carolina.  The new MAKO is the third boat Sunny built for Allen and me.  If you have ever watched one of these boats constructed, you know that the process is 1/2 sanding, 1/2 everything else.  Sunny, Jeff and the guys are doing a great job pushing to have her done by May 1.  She is going to be pretty!  I can’t wait to see her overboard. We will add pictures of both of the boats when we get back from the upcoming trip.
– Jeff Radke