Having been out at sea for the entire competition and hearing the radio report of strikes
and successful releases, the picture I got is that during the marlin season from December to
March the blue marlin is by far the primary billfish species caught in these waters. A few
blacks are also caught though, with the occasional stripey and sailfish.
What I also found very pleasing was the short distance one has to travel after
leaving the marina to putting out the marlin lures. The coastal shelf is not more
than one-and-a-half nautical miles off the beach and the drop off is very steep,
meaning you get into very deep water — 2 000 metres-plus — very quickly.
The murky inshore waters change to deep cobalt blue in the deeper area
and aid the marlin hunters.
Weatherwise we were very blessed while I was there and we
experienced calm seas and barely any wind; the strongest wind
we experienced was from the north and not more than 8
knots.
The Mauritian Authorities have placed FADs (see chart
on page 18) in this deep water essentially for the local
small boat commercial fishermen to fish around for
tuna. Billfish and other gamefish are also caught
around the FADs.
During the competition each and every
strike was reported as a position on a
numbered block as indicated in the
above mentioned chart. This was
naturally of interest to the com-
peting skippers as it showed
where the action was
hottest.
On the last day,
while sitting with
Captain Thomas
on Mantra,we
noticed that
in the hot
area we were
working — we
had four strikes and
released two blues —
the thermocline appeared
to rise up a fair amount and
the water temperature was
about half a degree warmer than
other areas. Significant? Who knows,
but it was working for us.
As with all marlin competitions, levels
of expectation rise and fall as boats either
get an early strike or one hears on the radio
that other craft are getting strikes and hookups
while all you are doing is watching “plastic” being
dragged through the ocean all day!
SKI-BOAT May/June 2017 • 15