---------------

The yaer 2004 has been an exceptionally good year for the Blue Marlin 3. During January, mainly bottom fishing was the technique used . During this first month, already great catches were reported, including two new boat-records, the first set by the tagging of a Striped Bonito and the second set by the tagging of a Smouth-hound.

February, a usually quiet month, was highlighted by three new records this year, set by the tagging of; a Butterfly Ray, a Steaked Weever and a Red Hogfish.

On the 20th and 21st of that same month, Puerto Rico was hit by a severe storm and heavy rainfall, causing the first two restricted days. (the third and last occurred on November 10th ) Although we were not allowed to leave the harbor, the storm did bring along something more positive, it would be the start of many successful months.

Tuna, normally arriving in March, arrived early this year, during the last and turbulent week of February. Even during March the Albacore, the Big Eye, and the Yellow Fin Tuna, kept us company. As a result, the Blue Marlin 3 continued to return, loaded with fish and flags hoisted, for weeks on end. March brought us two
more boat-records, the first was a Blonde Ray and the second a 33.2 kilos weighing Albacore Tuna, caught by Mats Borjessen from Sweden.
Wahoos were easily caught this year, already 20 were counted during March and April. During the first few weeks of April we were mainly fishing on the Puerto
Rican-Reef, resulting in Rays, beautiful Snappers, Amber Jacks and Moray Eels.

Our first contact with the Blue Marlin was made on April 20th , an early lady. Unfortunately, we did not manage to land the Marlin, after a 10 minute struggle the Marlin managed to break free. That month, our boat-records were improved on account of the Barracuda and the Brown Moray Eel.

May turned out to be a great month, due to the high water temperatures. On the 4th, we made contact with no less than two Blue Marlins. The first Marlin,
during the early morning trip, managed to break free. During the afternoon trip, Peter Tellefsen from Denmark was the first this year to tag a Blue Marlin weighing 300 kilos. This month, various Blue- and White Marlins plus Spearfish paid us an early visit, accompanied by the usual high number of Wahoo and Albacore Tuna, not to mention the hundreds of Skip Jacks, that gave rise to great sport-fishing using light material. During this month, no new records were set.

On June 22nd , Jan van Wincoop from Holland turned out to be the truly lucky one, using a 30 pounds-line to fish Rays, he landed the catch of a life-time. After a strong hook-up and a 300 meters run, he managed to land an Amber Jack weighing 51.6 kilos, which was a new boat-record and an official Dutch Record.

June also brought us a new boat-record, concerning Spearfish. Leif Lagerqvist from Sweden made the list by landing a Spearfish weighing 40 kilos. Especially
during the last two weeks of June, every single day gave rise to a party. Landing 5 Spearfish, accompanied by Wahoos and Dorados became a normal experience.

These luxurious results continued during the first two weeks of July. Again Blue- and White Marlins were being tagged, accompanied by Wahoo and Dorado. During the second part of July, these successes suddenly came to an end. The Marlin seemed to have disappeared completely, which became brutally clear during the Puerto Rico Tournament, the last week of July. In all 35 boats participated and only one managed to land a Blue Marlin. The other 34 boats didn't managed to land a single fish during the 3-day tournament.
Brian Castleton from the UK set the boat-record in July, landing a Dorado weighing 16.950 grams.

Due to the sudden disappearance of the Marlin, other alternatives were sought after. One alternative was to start fishing for sharks. I have personally never been a huge fan of shark-fishing, since releasing these creatures is somewhat risky. However, it does give rise to a wonderful tension and the boat-record for Hammerheads was broken no less than three times during August. At this moment the record is being held by B. van Andel, who landed a Hammerhead weighing 160 kilos.

Trawling, using smaller artificial bait turned out to be successful as well. No less than three records were broken. First, C.van Hirtum caught a Skipjack Tuna weighing 8.6 kilos. R. Spierings set a new record by landing a Yellow Fin Tuna weighing 69 kilos and the third record was set by L. Juffermans landing a Blue Fin Tuna weighing 78 kilos. All three record-keepers were Dutch.

The absence of the Marlin lasted till mid August. Normally the most successful weeks last from mid July till mid August, not so this year. It appeared as if the Marlin-season started and finished two months earlier. Thinking about next year, it will be difficult to predict when the best Marlin-weeks will occur.

Again Mats Borjessen from Sweden seemed to bring about a swift change. He returned after his successful trip in March, to land to tag one White Marlin and two Blue Marlins, during his consecutive trips.

During September we mainly fished on the reef, approximately 4 miles from Puerto Rico. These trips mostly resulted in landing nice big Snappers, Amber Jacks, Moray Eels, Baracuda and not to forget various kinds of Rays, sometimes weighing more than 100 kilos.

Trawling fishing during September resulted in the landing of Dorado and Wahoo. And the Marlin-season had truly come to an end, or so it seemed. October turned out to be yet an other memorable month. A day of trawling fishing during the first week resulted in a couple of Albacore Tuna. However, there was more. On October the 9th we made contact with a Blue Marlin, once again. Due to the miserable fact that our nylon got entangled with the anchor-line of a professional fisher boat it took more than 5 hours and 50 minutes to land the Marlin. Unfortunately the Marlin did not survive this long struggle and the 265 kilos weighing
fish was taken into the harbor. The profit of this Marlin was donated to the Billfish Foundation, an organization that supports the ' tag and release' principle.

During this month new records were set, again. No less than two new fish could be added to our list. On October the 6th English sport fisher Nathan Stevens
set the first record by landing a Vidago weighing 2.6 kilos. The second was set by the Dutch sport fisher Kees van der Nulft, who landed a Grouper weighing 10.7 kilos.

October and November were the best months for using live bait. After the hot summer months an abundance of food is present in the waters surrounding our island, making our plastic bait redundant. It is truly spectacular to land Skip Jacks, Barracudas, and Snappers using light material and a 20 pounds line.

On January 15th our new web forum was launched on our web site. At first it appeared to be rather successful, however the number of participators declined rapidly the following months. I would like to use this occasion to ask all of you to intensify you efforts to participate. Thinking about this year's results, new
records and so forth, I would say there's enough to talk about.

The number of visitors to our site has increased considerably this year, compared to the previous year. www.bluemarlin3.com registered over 160,000 visitors
during these past 11 months. The underlying pages ( Photo of the Day, Latest News.... etc.) were visited approximately 3.9 times per visit, bringing the total number of hits to 740,000 during 11 months. In October we also launched our Dutch site: www.bluemarlin3.nl

I would like to bring this report to a closing by whishing all of our customers and visitors to our website an merry Christmas and a wonderful and fish-rich 2005.

Our first trip will depart on January 11th 2005, at 9:00 in the morning.

Hans