PDA

View Full Version : BOM BOM 4th JULY



MarlinMoz
09-07-2007, 07:57
Greetings from this tiny lush covered speck of rock in West Africa,

We just finished our first charter for the Marlin season with angler Luc Van Puyenbroeck, from Belgium aboard the “Dorado”, a 32 ft Blackfin. Luc come back to Bom Bom for the 5th consecutive time to fish the 4th July Blue Marlin World Cup. Although its still early in the season, and the Big Girls the area is so well know for normally start showing up more consistently by mid to the end of July, Luc has seen some very big fish in his early July trips and believes there is no place on the planet that will give him a better chance.

Overall in our four days of fishing (2 full and 4 half days) we saw or raised 38 Blue Marlin, had 21 meaningful strikes, hookup on 11 fish and released 8. We also got a sailfish and a couple of good dorado. Most of the action actually took place within two days, has we spend the days before the World Cup exploring.
So, yes with had red hot action but the big girls did not show their faces and all of our fish run between the 250 to 450 pound range. Our hook up ratio was also quiet low, I guess it suffered due to the size lures we were using because of the World Cup in comparison to the average size of fish we encountered, fairly rough seas and because fish were taking mostly with their bills, getting bill wrapped, pulling a few yards and coming off.
On the 4th of July we choose to fish Gale and Sundi area, where we had found most action. These are the closest grounds to the Resort, a mere 10 minute ride away.
It took us some time to get into the thick of things and only at 10h38 did we have our first bite that never connected. From then on we had non stop action releasing two fish (300 and 350 lbs) out of 6 bites and running / pulling lures away from another six fish that were below the eligible weight, thus trying to maximize our fishing time. The only fish that would have just made it past the 500 lbs mark come on the SR Wide Range late afternoon, but missed the lure altogether.

Conditions are looking extremely good for the season ahead and we are seeing more and more bait and activity every day, with good fishing stretching from Sundi and Gale all the way east to Razza were we released 2 fish (350 and 500) out of 4 bites and another two fish raised in two hours of fishing a couple of days ago.

Tight lines,

Duarte

PanamaJack
11-07-2007, 17:38
Thanks for the update Duarte. Although I know they have caught a near 'grander' from Bom Bom the reports we tend to pick up in the UK usually relate to the large Sailfish. And then it's often on the fly.

I understand for what is the fourth time in the past five years the 'Marlin World Cup was won by a fish from Bermuda - 728lbs. The exception being last year when the fish came from the Cape Verde Islands.

For anyone interested here's the url recording past years results - http://www.bluemarlinworldcup.com/winnersarchive.html.
Dave

MarlinMoz
15-07-2007, 09:26
Hi Dave,

Actually a good number of granders have been caught or released at Bom Bom, the largest a fish just over 1100 on the 5th July a few years ago. At the begining of the season (June-July) there tends to be more numbers but with an average weight around 300 and then into August and September the numbers decrease but the weight increases to a 500 pound average.
The problem with Bom Bom was that over the last 6 years or so accessibility was difficult and expensive and with few guests the operation was somehow neglected. The new ownership, which also owns an air company is slowly adressing those issues and upgrading the fishing operation.
Yes, there are good sailfish here especially from September to December and over the years 6 world records on conventional and Fly have been captured...but if you ask me this place is all about the Blue Marlin and only Cape verde comes to mind that can deliver such numbers.

Cheers,

Duarte

MarlinMoz
21-07-2007, 20:00
Finally got back from St. Tome a couple of days ago. Jose Cruz, a Portuguese holidaymaker booked a half day of game fishing yesterday, but I eventually managed to convince him that at this time of the year at Bom Bom it would be a sin not to go marlin fishing instead (-:
We left the jetty at 9h30 this morning and were back at 12h00, and went 2 for 3. Has we had not fished this last week we opted to look around Gale area first but despite there being lots of birds and bait, the only thing we saw there was a big mako and 45 mins later decided to move east to Razza. At 10h45, ten minutes after arriving there a fish of around #400 come in on the SR lumo Rat, then changed to the SG SPJet, found steel, went airborne a couple of times, pulled about 100 yards but come unbuttoned. Set the spread and within 5 minutes had another inhale the LR predator and Jose was solid into his first marlin. Has we were fighting this fish, another, larger one showed tailing not 40 yards to our portside. We urged Jose to work hard, got a bit of dancing around on the leader and shortly released the #350 pounder. Has the small 10/0 trailing hook was slightly bent I changed to a Enki on the LR and had barely put the loop on the rigger when a good fish come crashing down on it. It missed twice but on the third come solid and started going ballistic in the air. It then went down, we pushed the drag up and after a lot of sweat got him back to the surface. But by now Jose was finished but not the fish and it took us another 20 odd minutes to grab the leader. The fish went berserk and jumped all over the place, knowing Jose would not really be able to carry on and a single hook was into the fish I hold on tight. After going from one side to the other a few good times the leader just parted. We called it #550. Exhausted Jose asked if we could go back, he would not be fit for another!!!

The last fish was great for photographs, but I had one of my local deckies taking the shoots and not much experience with camera there…
Cheers,

Duarte