An American fisherman managed to hit a world record this Monday by capturing a 366-kilogram Blue marlin near Calheta, Madeira.
According to local press, the previous record fish of 358 kilos was caught off the Ivory Coast 28 years ago. This was beaten on Monday by sports fisherman, Gary Carter.
The fisherman is a frequent visitor Madeira and was on his last day's fishing in the region.
Reeling in the monster fish took Carter an hour. He was located some 15 miles from Fajã dos Padres, Quinta Grande, on the deep-sea fishing vessel, Silva Rod-0’.
Carter says that other sea areas may have more marlin but, off Madeira, fewer means larger.
The catch was made with a 20-pound line and beats the long running world record.
Normal protocol is for rod-caught marlin to be tagged and released. There are heavy penalties is this procedure is not followed.
It is not yet known why this did not apply in Carter’s case. The fish may have expired due the stress and exhaustion of being hooked, played and captured.
Not only is Carter delighted with his catch but he expressed happiness with the calm weather conditions, the warm welcome always afforded him by the locals and the food.
Carter praised Madeira in an interview with RTP, “It’s the nicest place to fish for Blue marlin in the world, the weather’s fabulous, the country’s wonderful, the people are friendly, the food's great, the calm seas ... and on and on and on.
“It does take a lot of patience to fish here because you don’t see all that many marlin. A lot of areas you can go to, you can catch a lot more fish than here but to catch a fish like this, Madeira’s the place.”
