Our good spots are still secret, so if you are interested in trying to catch a world record amberjack, please contact us and we will give you special prices for august when the winds are down. As it is unusally cold here compared to the last years, we believe, the marlin fishing will be very good in june and july this year, we still have plenty of free weeks for charter. And remember: As we did the last years already we go down with the charter for july, august and september !

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A few days ago even several yellowfin thunas were caught and the odd wahoos are around in good numbers to make the lurebuilders happy … HAPPY HOOKER 2 was on the dry dock for 3 month and completely overhauled, She looks quite good now as we put a lot of money and effort into the job!

Our customer MARTIN FUCHS from germany went out yesterday to catch his first marlin ever. He and his friend are booked on HAPPY HOOKER for 5 days fishing with Capt. JOSÉ, who is on the helm since april. After catching a Wahoo early they had another bite in shallow water, which was that marlin. Only less than 5 minutes after hookup the fish came alongside the boat and was leadered by TUTU. Now they saw the size of that fish very well and decided to bring it in as a 1000 lbs +. But the gaffs were (luckily) not prepered … Having that fish on the leader and at the surface of HAPPY HOOKER’s cockpit, TUTU gave the leader to KAPAI, jumped inside the boat and came back with the flying gaff. That fish was still easy to hold as it was completely calm and relaxed swimming with the boat !!! Just that moment the gaff was ready to put it in its shoulder, it must have decided that something was wrong and exploded to get away from the boat !! Only now she was starting to fight and it took the angler another ~ 2 1/2 hours to get the fish back to the leader ! Imagine what would have happened if they would have stucked the gaff in its shoulder after a few minutes without the fish having done nothing so far !!!!! Anyhow, the fish weighted in at 483 kg or 1065 lbs. That is already the 9th grander caught on HAPPY HOOKER in the past 14 years here in cape verde, which prooves her to be the boat with probably the most grander blues caught in the atlantic and pacific! Big congratulations to Capt. JOSÉ, our local crew TUTU and KAPAI, the angler MARTIN FUCHS and of course to good old HAPPY HOOKER !!!!! The lure, BIG SMOKER, they caught the blue on is from Stephan Kreupl and Robert Rein, please check here:
www.bluewaterfishing.eu
Tight lines to all, Berno

1065 lbs

1097 lbs

There were 149 teams fishing in 17 locations around the globe. Each team fishes from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM in their time zone. Fishing starts on the far side of the dateline in Vanuatu and New Guinea and concludes in Hawaii and French Polynesia.

Since the heaviest blue marlin over 500 lb wins, as soon as a fish is weighed in, the information is spread to the rest of the teams so they will know what they have to beat and smaller fish can be released. The number of teams set a World Cup record for participation and generated prize money of well over $350,000. there was a separate pool called the Big Blue Challenge with 34 teams entered. None of those teams caught a 500 lb marlin, so an additional $130,000 plus will be returned in accordance with World Cup rules. Three other marlin were landed prior to the Happy Hooker calling in the weight of their fish. A team fishing on La Onda Emma with captain Wolfgang Maier, also fishing in the Cape Verde Islands, landed a 511 lb blue. In the Canary Islands, Hedonist, with captain Manuel Ramirez boated a 600 lb marlin, and in Madeira, off the coast of Portugal, the team aboard Audaz brought a 546 lb marlin to the scales. Unfortunately none of these teams were entered in the Big Blue Challenge.

Fishing hot spots Bermuda and Kona, Hawaii were uncharacteristically slow on July 4. Each location had produced 6 World Cup winners over past years. This year, 49 World Cup teams in Bermuda failed to catch a fish over 500 lbs although a few smaller marlin were released. In Kona, not a single blue marlin was caught by the 44 boat fleet. Madeira, with 14 teams entered also reported slower than usual fishing. Three World Cup winners have come from Madeira in the past.

The only other 2 World Cup winners over 1000 lb came from Bermuda. They were an 1189 lb blue caught by Martin Estis aboard Tripleplay in 2004 and Don Hunt’s 1195 lb winner on Challenger in 1993.

For the first time, World Cup hookup by hookup action was posted on Facebook and Twitter which produced a large following around the world. The real time leading catch, sponsored by Black Bart Lures, was also posted on the World Cup web site, www.bluemarlinworldcup.com.

Mike Leech, Tournament Director said he was pleased with the record participation considering the weak world economy. He also noted that communications ran very smoothly with the help of constant updates posted on the social networks.

(Official Report from Mike Leech from bluemarlinworldcup.com)

Hey, thanks so much everybody !!! Vielen Dank an alle !!! That have been very scary hours for us with of course tons of beers and everybody involved in fishing here around us to wait until the final minute when boats at hawaii stopped fishing !!

Guess Chris and me wrote history, hard to beat! Nobody ever done it before in 26 years of 4th july world championship to win twice with the same team and same boat.

Thanks old »HAPPY HOOKER« !!

And let me send a big THANKS to my local crew; TONI, my old boy who stays with us for 12 years as mate allready and TUTU, who worked with me first time this year. both have done a more than perfect job yesterday! TONI never dropped the leader, even when that fish jumped, all on video! And TUTU setting the gaffs as a professional!! It could not have been better done, both are worldclass crew !!!!!