Martin telephoned me to say he had spare room on his boat Natucha for a shark trip next day, would I like to make the numbers up and show the holidaymakers what to do? Yes please, I said, it would make a change from chasing big carp and barbel.
So I sorted out my shark gear and a spare rod for float fishing and set my alarm for an early breakfast.
I could see the boat anchored in the river Arade as I drove over the old bridge to Portimao. Martin and his mate Egnasio were on board getting ready to pick up the tourists from the harbour wall. I managed to find a parking space and made my way to the waiting group of tourists. as soon as they saw that I had my own equipment the questions came thick and fast.
Do we catch many fish? How big? Are they dangerous?
We all boarded the boat and I bagged my favourite spot on the engine hatch amidships. Martin manoeuvred the boat away from the quayside then gave me the wheel. He brought up the big shark gear from the cabin below and started to get them sorted out, while I took the boat up the channel and out to sea. Egnasio was already at the task of smashing up about 50lbs of sardines for rubby-dubby. Natucha is not your modern light plastic boat but a solid 40 ton wooden boat designed to fish the big seas on the west coast of Portugal. We steadily moved out to sea following the compass and satellite navigation settings that Martin gave me. We fish about 15 miles out on the drift in 45 metres of water.
After 30 minutes Martin took the wheel and I went to stand in the bows looking down into the clear water. Occasionally we disturbed small sharks basking on the surface, then the dolphins came. Fantastic to watch them swimming under the bows , crossing over each other, you could almost reach out and touch them. Then their friends on each side of the boat started to jump clear out of the water, the cameras were sure clicking at a frantic rate.
Martin cut the engines and we ran out 10 shark floats rigged up with wire traces, big hooks and baited with three sardines to each hook. The best fishing is when we have a good wind blowing in the same direction as the tide. When we have little wind the fishing is not too good and the floats tend to drift together and we get tangles. Today looked good.
The bags of rubby-dubby were put over the side and shaken every 10 minutes. The mackerel and garfish turned up after a few minutes, chasing about in the rubby-dubby. So I put a light float out on my spare rod baited with a piece of sardine and started to catch them. After a few fish everyone on board was after a go. Some days we only catch three or four sharks so it keeps them occupied whilst waiting for the sharks to turn up. I like to drift a small float out past the shark floats and wait for the big garfish that can go over 3ft long, they jump out of the water when hooked.
After half an hour we had our first shark run. Martin hooked the fish then gave the rod to the tourist to play the shark. You can try to hook them yourself but it takes a little practice and usually the tourists are not watching closely and miss the fish. We started to catch a steady stream of blue sharks. In between landing these sharks and unhooking them Martin kept the tourists entertained with stories of sharks landed and lost, with some good pictures to prove them. A few weeks earlier he had taken a picture of a great white shark that had been landed from a local trawler, you could have walked into its mouth it was so large. We saw a massive Mako shark near the boat one day that must have been over 500lbs. But the best sight that I ever saw was when a marlin jumped completely out of the water in front of the boat.
By 3pm all the anglers had landed one or two sharks, so when I hooked my third shark of the day I gave the rod to Martin. After a few minuets he had a big smirk on his face because he knew that this was no blue shark. When it came up to the top it was one very angry Mako, thrashing about all over the place.
Martin and Egnasio managed to get this monster on deck. We eat the Makos we catch so I had Mako steaks on the barbie every day for a week. Final tally for the day was 19 sharks and we all agreed what a good day out it had been.
The record catch for the boat was 40 sharks, all blues and all safely returned.
If you want more info about both freshwater and sea fishing in Portugal get in touch with John at j.bate@clix.pt.
Or phone 00351 282 34 3261.
