When I´m writing this yearly review, it´s the end of November. Maybe you are thinking, why am I writing a yearly review at the end of November ? We have still one month to go.That´s correct, but the reason is, that the Blue Marlin 3 is in the dry dock, for the yearly repair and the holiday of the crew is from the 28th of November till the 7th of January. So that's why !

The year 2003 was for the Blue Marlin 3 very successful. In the second week of January, the captain of the Blue Marlin 3 received a letter from the Billfish Foundation.

They wrote that he had won the Captain Award for the most spearfish tagged in 2002 in the North Atlantic. Really a great honor and a super start for the year 2003. A copy of this TBF letter you will find also on this web site

We also prepared in the last year a lot of new pages on our website. In January we started with: the Photo of the Day. Really a great success and I would like to thank everybody for the positive reactions.

More refinements on our website were the sections: Ocean Killers, Fish Calendar, Moon phase Calendar, Kids Corner and of course, don,t forget our new rankings: Photo Album Boat Records and Photo Album Visitors.

All above mentioned "new"sections, certainly helped to bring a lot of more visitors to the Blue Marlin 3 website. In 2002, the website had 48.682 visitors, in 2003 the site has over 125.000 visitors, and all this, in less than 11 months. A rise of 150%..

But what brought the fishing in 2003 ? I can tell you: the fishing in 2003 was really great.The start of the first two months were more or less the same as the other years. Nice bottom fishing, with big stingrays, sometimes weighing in at up to 300 pounds. But also Angel sharks, Snappers, Moray, Sharks.......etc

March was a month, we will never forget. Three of the four weeks, we were fishing for Tuna. Most of them were the Albacores, between 30 and 70 pounds each. But also Yellow fin, Big eye and 2 Blue fins were part of our catch. Trawling with light tackle on 20 and 30 pounds line, really a super sport

In April and May, the fishing results were still okay. The first Wahoo´s we hooked up in April. Also in May, a nice catch for G.Huygens from Holland.

This fisherman caught on the 16th, on 30 pounds line, an Amberjack, with a weight of 102 pounds. Of course this fish was okay for a New boat record, but it was also the heaviest Amberjack, ever caught on Gran Canaria.

In the May we released also the first Spearfish and White Marlins of the year.

The first Blue Marlin we released on the 27th of June. It was C.Gillessen from Holland who was the winner of this fish.

Of course July and August were the top months for the really big gamer. The start of July brought a couple of nice Wahoo, followed by a lot of Skipjack tuna, Dorado and "the king of the sea" the exclusive Blue Marlin.

In the last week of July, we were fishing the yearly big game tournament of Puerto Rico. In 2002 we won the Tag & Release trophy. This year the Blue Marlin III ended in 4th place. There were 39 participants in the tournament. So also for this year a satisfied result.

On the 9th of August we had a small set back. On this day we caught a Blue Marlin, but unexpected, the fish died behind the afterdeck. It was the second marlin, in 5 years, that we had to bring in, to the harbor.

The catch of the 19th of August, was one of the best we have ever had. At 10.30 am we hooked up a Blue Marlin on 80 pounds line. The "lucky rod" belongs to R.Lefevere from Holland. Ruud was fighting, together with his friend K.Westerhof, also from Holland, over 4.5 hours, before we could tag the fish.

It was a Blue Marlin weighing 425 kilo/ 930 pounds and the fish was over 5 meters long. Of course we also released this beauty.

The old boat record of 325 kilo was broken. Also this record fish was caught by R.Lefevere in 2001.

Also in the month of September till the end of November, the fishing was still okay. In this time of the year we were fishing most of the time with "live bait". Really a super sport on light tackle to catch, Snappers, Amberjack, Garfish but also a lot of different Rays. In October and November again some nice Wahoo.

In 2003 also 4 new fish names on our record list. These were: Cownose Ray, Bluefin Tuna, Shortbill Spearfish and the Ringed Stingray. We upgrade the list also with 15 new records. At the moment there are still 63 sorts on the list.

So, you will conclude that the waters around Gran Canaria still have a lot of fish. Let see what it brings us in 2004.

I wish all our clients and visitors of the Blue Marlin III website, a merry christmas and a lot of hook-ups in 2004.

Tight Lines