miércoles, 23 de diciembre de 2009

Cape Verde

Doña Pi has gone out last week to catch some bottom fish. They did good and even hooked 3 Blue Marlin , catching one on 30 lb tackle.

Not bad for off season !!

miércoles, 16 de diciembre de 2009

News from the Smoker

News from the Smoker

The Smoker has safely arrived in Mindelo Marina.

Cap Verde 27th June

The last 6 days we have been fishing with Pat Brian, Jim and Paul from Texas. It is their first trip to Cape Verde and they really enjoy it. We have caught 11 Blues so far out of 23 fish that we saw.All fish were caught stand up.

Cape Verde June 20th

After a few days on land we have just finished 6 days with Tobias Jansen from Germany.Fishing has picked up agian and we caught 9 Blues out of 18 bites. We raised 4 more and also had a Spearfish and a 120 lb tuna. Tobi caught all fish stand up and he did a great job on a 700 pounder.He really enjoyed his first time catching Blues on stand up using pitch baites.

Cape Verde June 10th

Morten , Kjetil, Lupert, Kent and Emil from Norway fished with us the last week.It was the slowest week a lot of guys coud remember in June.We went 2 for 7 and raiesed 4 more which did not bite.

Cape Verde May 30th

Andy Fanter was our angler for 5 days .Fishing was quiet slow, we only got 4 blues.Cape Verde May 27th

This week we fished with Juan, Tito and Ariel, also keen fishermen from the Canaries.We went a bit unlucky catching 5 out of 13. But at least we had awesome bites and fights on 50 lb stand up tackle.

Cape Verde May 20th

Manolo , Jose and Alfonso had a great week fishing 5 1/2 days catching 12 Blues.They are already looking foward to coming back next year.

Cape Verde May 12th

Our good friends from the Canaries, Luis, Emilio, Javier and Luis had a great time here, catching 12 Blues in 6 days.Emilio had a real nice one of 850 lb.

Cape Verde May 3rd

The last 6 days Bjoern, Joerg and Alfred enjoyed the experience of catching blue Marlin on 50 lb Stand up tackle, doing bait and switch. they left very happy having caught 14 Blues out of 27 bites. The biggest one was 650 lb

Cape Verde 27 april

We fished the last 4 days with the american anglers Bob and Jhon . The result was 8 for 21 . All fih were caught on 50 pound standup tackle.

Cape Verde 21 april

We have started our fishing on Cape Verde.We fished with Albi 1 1/2 days and went 4 for 7. Then we had 4 days with our friends from France catching also 4 Blue Marlin , the biggest 700 lb. Right now we are fishing with Tim Choate from the States .We have caught 3 so far. Fishing is OK for the last week, catching 1 Blue a day but the first 10 days of april were much better.We soon will se more numbers again I am sure.
Tight lines

Capt. Matthias Henningsen

 


News from 2008

March 05
Our long time friends from Itali Stefano, Jakobo, Alvy and Massimo have fished the last week with us.
They caught two blues standupfishing and missed a few plus some sails. We caught tunas ,dorados , wahoos and amberjacks to keep us busy. Massimo tried his 8 lb tackle for tuna again but only caught a small one this year. Last year he nearly caught a 60 pounder next will be the lucky one !
February 23
Phil and Andy have fished their week and both of them had a great fish one around 900 and one around 800

pounds. We caught another 350 and lost a few more. As bycatch we had tuna Wahoo and dorado.
Feburary 12
The last 2 weeks we fished with our long time friends from norway . We only caught 3 Blues and a 220 lb Big Eye. At least the guys bend their rods with wahoo , dorados and tuna around 50 lb.

Today it was the first day for Phil and Andy from England and they were lucky again. We went 2 for 5 and raised another one. One fish we caught was 350 and the other one 900 lb.
All the other fish were over 500 lb.Hope it continues like this
January 21th 2009
Roland and Heinz finished their first trip to ascension !
They caught 6 blue marlin up to 600 pounds. They are looking forward to come back to ascension next year !

April 24th 2008
Yesterday Johnny, Fleming and Kent were very happy because they had a 220 lb Yellowfin Tuna. The fight took 3 hours because we had the tuna on some lighter tackle as we were fishing inshore for Wahoo. We also just had a 3-foot leader so it became quite a challange to land this tuna.
Today we had 5 Sails and raised 10 more.
Tight lines,
Matthias


April 20th 2008


The last 9 days we have been fishing with a big group of Danish anglers. There is a lot of baitfish out in the deep water and we are raising 10 to 20 Sailfish a day. We are catching most of them on pitch bait and Stella reels. We also got two Blues and raised three more. For a few days also some tuna showed up, so when we saw them we had to get the teasers in and put some lures out. We caught 11 tuna the last 9 days between 150 and 200 lb.
Today we caught 7 Sails on Stellas, pulled the hook on one Blue and caught another 350 lb on 30 lb line test. Thomas pitched the bait perfectly and he saw a Blue Marlin fight as good as it can get. The fish was never more than 50 meters away from the boat and more in the air than in the water.


Tight lines,
Matthias




April 3rd 2008
Last week we fished with a group from Denmark. We caught 3 Blues and raised 4 more. We also did a bit of inshore fishing, catching Tuna and Amberjack. We have four days without fishing now before we start our last two weeks of fishing for the season.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen



March 27th 2008
The last days we raised two Blues which never switched to the bait. Yesterday we got a nice one on our teaser. She failed three times to eat the pitch bait and, on the forth attempt, we got her on. Movie-fish for Eduardo on stand-up, jumping like crazy. We estimated her at 850 lb.
Tight lines,
Matthias


March 23rd 2008
We are fishing with Eduardo from Italy right now.
Day one we caught 2 Sails on pitch bait. We raised three more Sails and one Blue that never switched to the bait. In the afternoon he caught also his first Wahoo.
Day two was slow: just one Sail and a few Amberjack. Shy had a 700 lb Blue.
Day three we caught a few Yellowfin Tuna and Edu had his first Blue of 450 lb stand up. Shy had one bite of a Blue.
Tight lines,
Matthias


March 18th 2008
Today Morten caught one Blue and one Sail. We raised a few more Sails The weather is beautiful and perfect for Morten's stand-up fishing.
Shy went 1 for 3 Blues and also had a few Sails.
Tight lines,
Matthias


March 17th 2008
Fishing was good today. We went two for five on Blues and raised another one. We also caught one Sail.
Shy lost one Blue, raised three more, caught one Sail, lost a few more Sails and one Mako.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


March 16th 2008
The last three days were strange. We raised four Blues and saw another one but we did not get a bite out of a single one of them. Hope our luck changes soon and the fish get more agressive.
Shy also raised one Blue which did not bite.
Tight lines,
Matthias


March 13th 2008
Today we went two for four and raised another two Blues. The biggest fish was around 500lb. Per caught his first Marlin ever and Rune caught the second one. Hope fishing stays like this. Shy had two bites but pulled the hook on both.
Tight lines,
Matthias


March 11th 2008
The last two days we lost two Blues, one of them was a nice one. We also raised two more Marlin who weren't interested to bite the lures. There are a few Saits around too. Sea condition was flat calm, almost unreal for Ascension.
Tight lines,
Matthias


March 10th 2008
The last four days Oddvar and Tom both caught their first Blue on stand up. We also caught a few Tuna, Wahoo and Mahi Mahi. Shy caught two Blues the last four days too.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


March 7th 2008
We have finished 5 days of fishing with Eddie, Trevor and David. We went three days for Marlin and there was not much going on. Day one we raised one Sail and caught a Dorado. Day two we raised a Blue of 500lb and had two bites of Sails on lures. Day three we had a Blue coming up but he missed the lure on the bite and never came back again. We raised another 10 Sails. The last two days we were fishing inshore and caught several Amberjack, Tuna and Wahoo.
After a two-day break we start fishing with Morten and his Norweigian Vikings.
Shy had no success on the Marlin either.
Tight lines,
Matthias


February 28th 2008


The last four days were pretty slow fishing. We only caught one Sailfish and pulled the hook on a Blue. Jigging was OK with plenty of Amberjack and a few Tuna. Today it looked better again. We first raised a 500 pounder and later Alberto caught his first Blue of 350 lb.
Gracias chicos, Ale petit!!!
Tight lines,
Matthias


February 22nd 2008
We are fishing right now with Jordi, Josep and Alberto from Barcelona. It is their second time in Ascension and they love the variety of fish they can catch. Marlin was pretty slow the last two days, we pulled the hook on one and saw another one. We caught one Sailfish and plenty of Amberjacks and a couple of tuna on jigs.
Shy also lost one Blue the last two days and raised another one.
Tight lines,
Matthias




February 19th 2008
The last four days we caught two Blue Marlin and plenty of Amberjack on jigs. Shy had three Blues the last four days. Phil and Andy have left now and are alraedy looking foward to be here next year again. We have two days off now and start again on Friday 22nd.
Tight lines,
Matthias













February 14th 2008
Yesterday Andy caught a nice one of 900 lb. We also raised two more of 500 and 600 lb and caught one sailfish. Last year Phil had a nice fish of 950 plus, so Andy is very

happy that he got his big one this year.
Today we saw one of 400 which never bit and had also one more bite but never saw the fish.
Shy caught two Marlin today.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


February 12th 2008
The last two days we caught two Blues and pulled the hooks on another two.
Tight lines,
Matthias


February 10th 2008
The last three days we have been fishing with Phil and Andy from England. We have caught 3 Blues between 300 lb and 450 lb and pulled the hooks on another two. Shy caught one of 600 lb two days ago.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


February 6th 2008
It was Tim's last day and he had great fun today catching 2 Blues of 300 lb. We had 2 more bites, both fish of around 600 lb. Shy caught 1 Blue of 700 lb. We are not fishing the next 2 days.
Tight lines,
Matthias


February 5th 2008
The last two days we fished the southwest of the island. There are plenty of bonitos around and we caught a small Blue Marlin. Shy had two Blues fishing the same place.
Thing lines,
Matthias


February 2nd 2008
We are fishing now with Jim Twiddy, who is in Ascension for the first time. Today we released a 700 pounder (by far the biggest one he's ever caught) and also had a few Tuna. In the afternoon it was looking very good with a lot of bait around.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


January 31st 2008
We are not very lucky with the Marlin. The last three days we raised two and pulled the hooks on a third one. All fish were big, from 600 to 800 pounds. Yesterday Shy also raised two fish, both over 600lb.
Jigging was good, as usual, and we were catching plenty of tuna.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


January 29th 2008
We are back on Ascension and are fishing for the last few days with our very good friends from Italy, Stefano, Jacopo and Massimo. Marlin fishing is not hot but the fish we see is big. Today we pulled the hook on a 500 to 600, two days ago we raised a 700 plus and the day before we jumped one off 20 meters from the leader of about 500 plus. Jigging goes quite good for us and we have been catching Amberjacks up to 60 pounds and tuna around the same size. Shy caught a nice fish of 850 pounds two days ago.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen
 

News from 2007

NAscension Island present Fishing reports from Harmattan

***********************************************************************************************


April 26th 2007
We have finished our season in Ascension. Harmattan is safe on land and we are busy doing some maintenance on tackle and boat. We will be back end of October and start fishing on the 1st of november again. November can have some outstanding fishing with huge Blue Marlin, so we hope to get you some good reports then. Thanks again to all the great guys who came down here to fish with us and to all people who follow our fishing reports with interest.
Tight Lines,
Matthias Henningsen

April 24th 2007
Yesterday we had a bite of a 350 lb Blue, later we caught a Sailfish and pulled the hook on 2 more Sails. In the late afternoon we did some jigging. Every second drop we were catching Amberjacks between 20 to 30 pounds. In the evening there were plenty of tuna at the bouy. We ended up catching around 15 and one Six Gill. Today we pulled the hook on a 600 pounder and raised 2 more fish both over 600 lb. There are plenty of tuna and small scad around, so the Marlin are not very agressive. In the afternoon we did one hour of jigging and caught around 10 Amberjacks.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen

April 21st 2007
After a 2-day break we fished yesterday again with Bjoern, Volker and Andy from Germany. In the morning we hooked a very nice Blue and fought her for one hour before she went down and died. We tried to play her up but the fish kept sinking. Finally, with full drag and both hands on the spool, the hook pulled. I would have loved to see this fish closer. Later Volker caught his first Blue ever of 300 pounds. Today we released one Blue and later we caught 6 yellowfin tuna.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen



April 17th 2007
Our second group from Norway has finished their Ascension trip. They have caught 8 Blue Marlin, Amberjacks and uncountable numbers of tuna during the evening fishing. The biggest Blue was around 800 lb. Half of the Blues, including the biggest one, were caught on stand up tackle.
More coming up soon.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen









April 10th 2007
The last 4 days we have been fishing with our second group from Norway. For a few of them it is their first game fishing trip. So far we caught 2 Blues, 1 Sailfish, a few Amberjacks and we also lost a few more Blues. Tomorrow we start with some nightfishing to catch some Tuna and Six Gills for the boys.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen



April 7th 2007


Our norwegian anglers have just finished their  week in Ascension... They had a good time catching 3 Blue Marlin, a few Sailfish, Tuna, Amberjacks and Six Gills. We lost a few more Blues also and had some days with a lot of Sailfish action.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


March 30th 2007
On our first day with our Norwegian anglers we went 1 for 3 on Blue Marlin and 1 for 7 on Saifish. We raised one more Blue and several other Sails. Shy lost a nice Blue Marlin over 600.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen

March 29th 2007
Today was the last day for our italian friends. Jacopo caught a 300 lb Blue and we raised another one. We also had some bites of Sailfish. Shy went 2 for 3 on Blues.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen



March 28th 2007
Today we went only Marlin fishing and went 2 for 4. The fish were 250 and 800lb. We also caught one Sailfish. Shy also caught 2 Blue Marlin. There is plenty of Sailfish but they are not biting the lures. The 800 pounder was Massimo's first Blue Marlin.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


March 27th 2007


The last two days we did a mixed fishing of inshore and Marlin trolling. We saw a lot of sailfish but the fish was just not biting. They didn't follow the teaser at all. Inshore we did some jigging and caught a lot of Amberjack. Today Stefano caught a really nice one of 130lb.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen






March 25th 2007
Yesterday we did some inshore fishing and caught Wahoo, Tuna and Amberjacks. Later on we went for Marlin trolling and saw a 500 pounder that didn't bite. We also had another bite but never saw what it was.
Today we raised over 20 Sailfish, had 8 bites and caught 2. We also released a 400lb Blue Marlin, once again on the Ascension Project. On the way in we stopped for 20 minutes of jigging and caught a few Amberjacks up to 40 pounds.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen







March 23rd 2007


Today we started fishing with our friends from Italy, Stefano, Massimo, Jacopo and Alvise, who visit Ascension for the third time. The whole morning was pretty quiet and slow. In the afternoon we found a large school of Yellowfin Tuna of 60 to 100 pound. After 15 minutes of trolling around them, we jumped a Blue Marlin off well over 500lb. Later on we caught a Wahoo and, on the way back to the Pierhead, we decided to drop some jigs down and caught two Amberjacks of 20 and 35lb.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen



March 22nd 2007
Today we finished our 8 days fishing with a Danish group and a Swedish group, each one of 4 guys. For half of all them guys it was the first time fishing in tropical waters, so we did some mixed fishing. All together we caught 4 Blue Marlin, 2 Sailfish, Tuna, Wahoo, Amberjack, Dorado, Oilfish and 1 Sixgill Shark, so the boys had a good time and got a good taste of what this kind of fishing has to offer.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen

March 16th 2007
Another big fish caught in Ascension Island.... This time it was Shy III who landed a nice one. Since the pierhead's crane was on inspections, we had to think of another way to lift the fish. With the help of a lot of people, we finally managed to drag the fish up the pierhead steps with a jeep from one of the locals. One of the guys who works at the pierhead came with a forklift and helped to lift the fish up to weigh her. It was already 10:00 p.m. when the scale marked 918lb. Congratulations to Olaf, Albi and Dietmar from Shy III.

March 14th 2007


For Gerd, Thomas and Jens from Germany it was the first fishing trip to Ascension Island. They wanted to fish different species so we did some trolling, jigging and night fishing. The Marlin fishing is still slow but there are some Sailfish around. They caught Wahoo, Tuna, Amberjack and Sailfish. Shy had one nice Blue Marlin today of 700lb. Tomorrow we start fishing with a mixed group of Danish and Swedish guys who visit Ascension for the first time too.
More soon,
Matthias Henningsen



March 9th 2007
The last 8 days were really slow. We only saw 4 Blue Marlin and a few Sailfish. We also did some inshore fishing and caught some Tuna, Wahoo and a Mako Shark. Today we were doing some Wahoo trolling on the east side of the island when Shy called us to say they had caught a 350 lb Blue, a Sailfish, raised another Blue and a few more Sailfish..... All this happened on the Southwest. I hope this means the fishing is getting hotter again.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen

February 28th 2007
Our luck has not been quite the same with our last anglers. Our Russian friends caught 3 Blue Marlin during their first 4 days of fishing, 300, 400 and 600 pounds, and the last 3 days were pretty slow: we only hooked 3 Blue Marlin, all between 500 and 600, but they all came loose. We hope our luck will change the next days. Shy released a 700 pounder and a 900 pounder on another day, which means they are still swimming around.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


 


News from 2007

February 20th 2007


Phil and Andy left tonight back to England. Yesterday we started late and the day's result was that we jumped one Blue off over 600 lb. Today we had a bite of a 700 pounder which pulled the hook right away. A bit later we hooked up on one that looked pretty nice and released it to see an 800 pounder. 10 mintes later we had another bite of a Blue. Later we hooked up again and released another fish of 800 pound. In the afternoon we pulled the hook on a small Blue and raised a Sailfish. I can say with certainty that Phil and Andy had a great fishing trip, catching 7 Blues, 3 of them of 800 and one of 950 plus.
Tight lines, Matthias


Feburary 17th 2007


We are fishing right now with Phil and Andy from England, who visited Ascension to fish with us in november 2005. The day before yesterday we had a good day with Andy catching a 200 lb Blue and later we had another bite and finally Phil got a 800 plus pounder, his biggest fish ever. Today we went out at 08:30 and fished in front of Georgtown. Shy came out a bit later and went a bit more north raising a small Blue right away, pulling the hooks on another one 10 minutes later and another 10 minutes later releasing a 400 pounder. After these 30 minutes of action neither Shy nor we saw anything. I stayed in the area waiting for the action to start again. At 14:30 we raised a small Blue which finally knocked out the long rigger lure, but did not hook up. 10 minutes later I saw a nice fish on the Ascension pro Jet Lure on the long left. On the second attempt we hooked up and the fish jumped twice and took some 200 meters of the reel. I estimated the fish over 800. We had a long and hard fight with the fish, getting some 4 jumps after 30 minutes of fighting. After one hour and 20 minutes of fighting with 55 lb of drag the fish was still swimming strong and pulling line when we got the leader. We got her to the side of the boat, cut the hook and let her go. It was one of the nice Ascension Blues and I call her 950 pound. Shy was 30 meters away taking some videos and Olaf was sure the fish was easy over the mark. All in all it was a great day for all of us and congratulations to Phil who has toped his 800 pounder from 2 days ago.
Tight lines to everybody,
Matthias Henningsen

February 6th 2007
We had the honor to fish with Tim Choate, former owner of Artmarina Fishing in Guatemala and Brasil. We caught with him 4 Blue Marlin out of 8 bites and raised a few more. Shy also caught 4 Blues the last 6 days. The biggest fish we saw was around 600lb and Shy caught one around 700 and pulled the hooks on a 800 plus.
Tight Lines,
Matthias Henningsen

January 31st 2007
We have finished our first 6 days of fishing in the 2007 season. Walter, Marc and Martin, who have been in Ascension for he 4th time, love the inshore fishing on light line so we spent the first 4 days pretty much on catching Tuna, Wahoo and Dorado. The last 2 days we went with them Marlin fishing and caught 2 out of 4 bites. We raised 3 more Blues durig these 2 days which did not bite. Shy went 1 for 5 for the last 2 days, but their fish was a nice one of 700 lb.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen

January 2nd 2007
We are coming closer to starting the new season. On 16th January we fly down to Ascension and on 24th we start fishing until the end of April. Check our site for the fishing reports from end of January. We are sure Ascension will once again bring a lot of exciting moments for our anglers.
We take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year. We hope that each one of you had a wonderful Holiday Season.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


News from 2006

News from 2006


April 27th 2006
Harmattan is out of the water and everything is duely put away for the end of our season now. It will spend a few months there waiting for us to return but our good friends from Ascension Island will look after it until we return in mid January 2007. It is always exciting to think what new adventures await us next year but we will keep you informed, as we always have done, once the season starts again. Thank you all for always being there and for your interest in our fishing reports. Stay tuned for more in 2007.
Tight Lines,
Matthias Henningsen

April 16th 2006
We have just finished our season in Ascension. The last 4 days we fished with Franz, Jens and Paul. Paul came all the way from the Gold Coast in Australia. The boys wanted to do some mixed fishing, so we spent half of the time on tuna fishing. During the trolling time  Jens caught 1 Blue Marlin and Franz pulled the hook on another one. We raised also around 20 Sailfish, catching a few of them. There were plenty of tuna between 60 and 100 pound on the mooring. They were all around the boat and we hooked them on bait, jigs and poppers.I have not counted how many we caught of them.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


April 12th 2006
The last 4 days we have caught 3 Blue Marlin, 6 Sailfish and around 20 tuna up to 100 lb. A lot of small Scad has arrived on the shore. There are plenty of Tuna out on our mooring. It was the last day for our group from Denmark and they all had a great time.
Tight lines
Matthias Henningsen


April 8th 2006
The last 4 days we caught 4 Blue Marlin and 6 Sailfish. Most on the activity is right in front of Georgetown. One day we saw a lot of Sailfish, but they were very hard to tease up to the pitch bait.
Tight lines


April 4th 2006
Yesterday we fished the last day with the jiggers from Spain. Again we caught a lot of fish, including 2 Amberjacks around 60 lb, 1 Yellowfin of 60 lb and 1 Big Eye around 130 lb. Today we were back to trolling with our new anglers from Denmark. Bent caught his first Blue Marlin ever of 300 lb with 30 lb line. Later in the day we saw some tuna jumping, put one lure out and had a 235 lb Big Eye Tuna.
More coming very soon.


April 2nd 2006
At the moment we are  fishing with some Jiggers from Spain. The last 5 days we only fished for 5 hours for Blue Marlin and raised 2 Blues. The rest of the time we have spent Jigging. Our result is around 100 fish per day, mainly Black Jacks and Amberjacks but also a few tuna and wahoo. Yesterday we had around 130 fish, over 50 of them were Amberjack. Today we had the biggest catch so far, a 130 lb Big Eye Tuna on a Jig.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


March 26th 2006
Yesterday we did not fish. Today we took out an italian film team who is making a report for an italian television fishing channel. We caught 2 Blue Marlin out of 3, 1 Sailfish, 1 Yellowfin and a few jacks and dorados. Our next boys arrive on the 29th, so there are 2 days without fishing now. More coming up soon.
Tight lines,
Matthias Henningsen


March 24th 2006
The last 2 days we only raised 2 Blue Marlin and 2 Sailfish. We got 1 Blue and 1 Sail to eat the pitch bait, but jumped them off. In the evening we caught a few 60 to 80 lb tuna. A few of them were eaten by a shark. We finally saw the shark, a 700 lb tiger, when he swallowed one of our 80 pound tuna in one piece just 1 meter from our boat.
Tight lines


March 22nd 2006
Today we fished the southwest again and caught 1 Blue of 350 lb on 30 lb line. We raised another one of 600, but she did not bite the pitch bait. In the late afternoon our anglers were pushed to their limits fighting two 90 pound tuna on their long popper rods and 8000 Stellas. The fight took over half an hour and we broke the leader on the first tuna and the second was eaten by a shark after 35 minutes.


March 21st 2006
After 4 days without fishing we started yesterday again with our french and italian anglers and caught 2 Blue Marlin and raised 8 Sailfish. Today we caught 1 Blue, 2 Sails and 5 Yellowfin tuna.
Tight lines
Matthias Henningsen




March 15th 2006
During the last 4 days of fishing we ended up catching 2 Blue Marlin, 1 Sail and 1 White Marlin. We raised 6 Blues in total in those days. We also caught a few 60 to 80 pound yellowfintuna
Tight lines
Matthias Henningsen






March 9th 2006
Yesterday we fished the southwest and Englsih Bay, but never saw a fish. Today we spent all the time in the southwest and south and Lars caught his Blue Marlin of 650 lb on 50 lb stand up tackle.

March 7th 2006


Today we fished the southwest again. First we raised a small Blue but pulled the pitch bait out of his mouth. Around noon, we raised a Sailfish and 2 hours later we had a triple header of Blue Marlin between 200 and 350 pound. We pitched 2 baits to them, but jumped one off right away. The other one stayed hooked on 30 lb tackle. After 5 minutes Steve had the leader and the fish did 2 jumps near the boat. We were quite lucky on the second jump, because the Marlin landed on the transom bord of Harmattan but then slided right back to the water and not into the cockpit. A few minutes later we released this Marlin. Late afternoon we raised one more Blue, but the fish never took the pitch bait. In the evening we caught 2 yellowfins and broke the leader on a six gill.
Tight Lines
Matthias Henningsen




March 6th 2006
Today was the first day for Morten and his friends from Norway. After arriving from 15 below 0 of temperature, the guys are very happy to get some sunshine and action on the boat. We raised 4 Blues between 300 and 500 pound and caught 2. Morten and Wiggo both had their first Blue Marlin ever. They both caught their fish on stand up tackle using pitch baits. The second Marlin gave a real good fight with some spectacular jumps close to the boat. More very soon.
Tight Lines
Matthias Henningsen








March 2nd 2006


It was the first trip to Ascension for Sascha and Bjoern from Germany. We fished 2 evenings and they caught 13 tuna, most of them around 60 pounds, and each had a Six Gill around the 1000 lb mark. We spent the rest of the week Marlin fishing. We raised 10 Blues in total but only caught 2. We were fishing teasers only, so we had crash bites, pulling hooks etc, etc. However, in spite the bad hook up ratio this time, Sascha and Bjoern enjoyed fishing teasers for Marlin. It is the most exciting way to catch Blues. We will have 3 days off now and start again beginning of next week.
Tight Lines
Matthias Henningsen




February 22nd 2006
The day after their great catch, a grander of 1038lb, Josep, Jordi and Alberto caught a Blue Marlin and pulled the hooks on another. They also had one Sailfish and some more bites. The following 3 days we raised 5 Blues but pulled the hooks on 3 of them...2 only came up but did not get to the pitch bait. In 2 evenings they caught a few 60 pound yellowfintuna. Shy had a good day yesterday catching 3 Blues of 150, 600 and 900 pounds.



Ascension Grander!!! February 16th 2006
Another great day for Harmattan and its crew! It was the second day fishing for Alberto, Jordi and Josep from Barcelona. We had been trolling for just an hour in the south west when I saw a nice fish smoking in the spread. She disappeared for a second and once again showed up in the middle of the spread. Eventhough she had not yet attacked any lure at that point, she was showing a very aggresive behavior. Only a moment later the fish switched to the right rigger and everyone on bord saw an awesome bite. She missed the lure on her first try but, on the second attempt, crashed it and took off with 400 yards of line pealing off the reel. After a short while, the Blue Marlin settled down and, after 1 hour 10 minutes, with up to 60 lb of drag, the fish came very tired to the boat. After having taken a very good look at her, I thought she could make the mark so we pulled the fish in the boat. Back at the pierhead the scales showed 1038 Lb! I would like to thank our angler Josep, who did a great job, and my mates Steve and Marty. For Josep it was not only the biggest fish he has ever caught, but also his first Blue Marlin!!


February 15th 2006
Our first week of fishing ist just over. There is not much life out there but we still managed to raise 6 Blues and catch 2 of them, one of 500 and one of 600 pound. We also saw a few Sailfish and released one on one of our marlin lures. There are plenty of 40 to 80 pound tuna around and we had quite a few of those on our mooring. We also caught a 700 pound tiger shark, which is quite a rare catch on Ascension. Today our new anglers from Spain arrived for their first visit to Ascension.

 


News from 2004

News from 2004

November 8th 2004
The latest news from Ascension are coming from Gods Favor, an american boat who started fishing some 15 days ago. They report plenty of bait, tuna and huge Blue Marlin. They managed to tag some 600 + Blues with satellite tags and lost one monster Blue on a live bait. 3 days ago they weighed in a 1040 lb Blue Marlin caught on a lure. The fish was serious hurt , having the hooks deep in his throat. This is grander number 5 for Ascension !!!!! A probably unique place for giant Blue Marlin.
Tight lines  Matthias Henningsen

July 20th 2004
I am back in the Canaries right now after a 14 day test fish adventure on Ascension. The Marlin fishing was pretty slow, but we caught the 1000 pounder which alone has made the trip worthwhile. Tuna fishing was pretty good with countless 40 to 70 pound yellowfins and 8 yellowfin tuna in the 200 lb + range. Also we raised around 30 Sailfish and 20 White Marlin. Denis Froud caught apart from his 1043 lb Blue a potenial world record Galapagos shark of 310 lb. We had a few more of these sharks, all around 200 to 300 lb. There was plenty of life in the sea with lots of scad , school size yellowfin and skippies.
It looks like there are Marlin year around in Ascension, but november through april seem to be the peak time for Blue Marlin.
Denis-Froud-Marlin-215

A big thank you to our anglers Denis, John, Allan, Rocky and Jap, who took part in this adventure .
Matthias Henningsen
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July 4th 2004
BIG BLUE MARLIN
On the 4th of July Denis Froud managed to catch his first Grander!! His Blue Marlin weighed 1043 pounds. The fish was caught on Harmattan with Captain Matthias Henningsen and mate Bernhard Glade. On the same day Denis also caught a White Marlin and a Spearfish which led him to a Grand Slam.

Congratulation Denis for this beautiful fish. 
Matthias Henningsen

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April 22nd 2004
We have everything packed up, because we make a little break for some weeks. We are back in Ascension mid june to mid of july to see what the fishing is like in these month.
The fishing between end of january and mid of april was pretty consistant, we had an average of 1.8 Blue Marlin bites a day. Tuna fishing was unreal with countless yellowfin tuna every single day.
Good fishing to everybody
Matthias Henningsen
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April 17th 2004
Today we first raised a doubleheader, got one of the Blues to take the pitch bait, but the hook did not stick. In the afternoon Paul pitched the flying fish to a 500 lb Blue and after a hard fight the fish was released in a good shape.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.
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April 16th 2004
Yesterday we caught 1 Blue Marlin and pulled the hook on a second. Today we got 1 Blue to the pitch bait, but the hook pulled after a few minutes.Later in the day we had a crash bite of a Blue on our teaser and the fish never came back. We raised a third Marlin for the day, but he was not interested in the bait.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.
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April 15th 2004
After 3 days without fishing we had our first day with Paul from Holland. We went 1 for 3 on Blue Marlin, raised another one , and had one bite without seeing the fish.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.
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April 10th 2004
The last day for our Danish group. We caught 2 Sails, pulled the hook on another one and raised 4 more. Also pitched the bait to a 500 lb Blue Marlin , but after a few seconds he came off. Everybody of the group left Ascension pretty happy with a lot of memories.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.
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April 9th 2004
Yesterday Henning made a rare catch of an Atlantic Shortbill Spearfish! We missed 2 Sails and caught another 7 Yellowfintuna of 60 to 80 pounds.
Today we pulled the hook on 1 Blue Marlin and later on Thomas managed to catch his first Atlantic Blue of 300 lb stand up. He did a great job feeding the Blue Marlin the pitch bait. We had 2 more 70 pound tuna.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.
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April 6th 2004
The last 4 days our danish anglers caught 9 Sailfish, 1 Blue Marlin, 17 Yellowfintuna ( 60 to 90 lb) and 1 Six Gill around 1000lb on stand up gear. We raised another 4 Blue Marlin and 28 Sailfish and had a nice bite of a 200 lb yellowfintuna on our hookless teaser.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.
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April 3rd 2004
Yesterday our danish anglers caught 4 Wahoo, 6 Tuna and 1 Blue of 300 lb on 50 lb stand up. We pulled the hook on another Blue on 30 lb tackle and raised 5 Sailfish, got 2 to the pitch bait, but the hook did not stick.
Today our guys found out again, that bait and switch is not so easy all the time. We raised 33 Sailfish and caught 4 out of them. They were feeding on small flying fish, and indeed very hard to tease to the pitch bait. We also had 1 Blue up, who took the pitch bait, but pulled the hook, after a few great jumps close to the boat.
Anyway, 3 very exciting days so far for our guys who have never done game fishing before.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.
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April 1st 2004
Our new group of 8 guys comes from Denmark, they are all keen fishermen, but this type of game fishing is new for them. Yesterday we left in the late afternoon to spend a few hours on the bouy to get everbody familiar with the tackle. On our way to the mooring we caught 2 Wahoo. Once moored up the guys had 7 Tuna up to 70 pounds, 1 Oilfish of 60 lb. 1 Hammerhead of 130 lb. We could not catch more, because everbody was watching Mike, who hooked up on something bigger close to the bottom. After almost a 2 hour fight we released his six gill shark of around 800 lb.What makes this catch special, is that he caught the fish with his 30 pound rod and 25 TLD Shimano reel, spooled with a 50 lb line, without a harness!!!!. Congratulations to this achievement, of having the will and physical power to hold this pressure for almost 2 hours without a harness!!!
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.
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March 28rd  2004
The last 2 and 1/2 days our lady angler Emi caught 1 Sailfish and 1 Blue Marlin of 300 lb on 50lb stand up, doing bait and switch.We raised 6 more sails and another 4 Blue Marlin.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen.

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March 23rd  2004
Our charter from England, Dave West, Peter Gurd and Dick Clark, just finished their week of fishing.Those brave guys were only fishing stand up on 50, 30 and fly rod, in spite of not very smooth sea conditions. We raised 12 Blue Marlin around 200 and 500 pound and 7 Sailfish, catching 4 Blues and 1 Sail, all on "Bait and Switch".







 

Apart from that, they caught 8 yellowfintuna, 1 wahoo, 1 Dorado and numerous Jacks on Fly.
Tight lines Matthias Henningsen

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March 17th  2004
Fishing stays consistant with averaging 2 to 3 Blue Marlin bites a day.Today our new clients from England had their first day fishing and caught 2 Blues with "Bait and switch". We raised another 2 Marlin , but they did not take our pich bait. The previous 2 days my wife Emi caught 1 Blue of 300 lb and pulled the hooks on another 3 ! She also caught 1 Sail and a few 60 lb Tuna.

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen





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March 10th  2004
At the moment we are fishing with Frans and Marcel from Holland, both have already been fishing in Ascension last year. We are doing "bait and switch" with them, as the guys enjoyed this kind of fishing very much.The first day we caught 1 Blue around 300 and had another crash bite of a 400 lb on the teaser. Day 2 we raised 2 Blues of 450 and 600, got both fish to take the pitch bait, but pulled the hooks.That day we saw another Blue Marlin tailing and raised 2 Sailfish. Day 3 we just had 1 Blue up on the teaser, we got him to the corner of our boat, but he did not swich over to the bait. Day 4, 5 and 6 we changed to lure fishing due to sea conditions, we caught 1 small Blue, 22 Yellowfintuna, a few Wahoo and pulled the hooks on 3 more Blue Marlin

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen
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March 4th 2004
Our french couple enjoyed their stay here in Ascension.Elisabeth and Albert both caught a Blue Marlin, plenty of YFTuna and a few Wahoo.

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen
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February 29th 2004
Our guys from Germany have finished their trip, with 13 Blue Marlin caught in 7 days of fishing. 1 day we spent looking for inshore species and they had 4 Wahoo , 2 Dorado and 10 Yellowfin Tuna averaging 50 pound.
Our new charter is from France. Maybe the first french fishing in Ascension? We have fished 2 days with them so far and caught 1 Blue Marlin of 300 lb and 7 Tuna around 40 to 60 pound. We also pulled the hooks on 2 Blues of 300 and 600 pound and on 2 Sailfish.

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen
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February 25th 2004
The good fishing continious. We caught 3 Blues today and pulled the hook on another 2.
Shy released 2 and weighed 1 of 800 pound.

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen
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February 22nd 2004
Yesterday we did not fish, but today we were out again. We went 2 for 3 and raised another Blue.The fish were 250 and 400 pound.

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen
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February 21st 2004
Pretty good fishing at the moment.We went 7 for 10 the last 3 days of fishing, the biggest was over 800 pound.
Shy had good fishing too, they caught 6 out of 9 during their last 5 days fishing.

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen




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February 18th 2004
After 3 days without fishing we did today the first trip with our german anglers Peter Giesicke and Fritz Reitz. The guys were pretty tired from journey, so we only fished half a day. Right after having started fishing we hooked the first Blue of 400 lb and released it after a short fight. 5 minutes later another bite, but the hook did not stick. 2 hours later Fritz was in the chair fighting his first Blue Marline ever. After 20 minutes we released a nice fish of over 800 pounds. On our way home we still caught Marlin No 3 of 200 lb.

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen
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February 13th 2004
Hard to describe the fishing for our american anglers Neil Isaac, Pat Brian and Paul.
We only caught 1 Blue Marlin of 600 lb, but pulled the hooks on 11 Blues between 250 and 650 lb. We tried lures and bait and switch, but just were very unlucky. Nevertheless the guys have seen the great potential of this place and already booked their week for next year.

Tight lines Matthias Henningsen
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February 12th 2004
After a few unlucky days and pulling the hooks on 7 Blues in a row, we finally caught a Blue Marlin today with our american guys from texas and hawaii. In the morning we raised a 250 lb Blue on the teaser, got him to the boat, but he did not switched over to the bait. At 4 in the afternoon another small Blue came up and Pat managed to feed him the pitch bait, but pulled the hook. Due to the low sun we decided to pull lures with hooks again and at 5 a little Blue knocked down both long riggers without taking any line off the reels. At 18 hours we had a bite of a nice one around 600. We stayed in the area and 5 minutes later a crash strike on the short rigger. After 15 minutes we finally tagged a 600 lb Blue Marlin.

Tight lines Capt Matthias Henningsen
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February 4th 2004
Another nice day in Ascension and the first day for Capt. Neil Isaac from Hawaii, Pat Brian and Paul from Texas abord Harmattan. Unfortunaletly we were a bit unlucky and pulled the hook on 3 Blues of 600+, 600 and 400.

Shy caught a 600 pounder and a Sailfish.

Tight lines Capt. Matthias Henningsen
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February 3rd 2004


Einar and Stefan from Germany have had their last day of fishing today. They have caught in one week 3 Blue Marlin, lost another 3 and raised one more. Apart from the Marlin, they had countless tuna between 40 and 60 lb, plenty of wahoo and jacks, 1 six gill shark on the night trip, Oilfish and a 70 lb Amberjack.

I reckon Ascension sees them again next year.

Tight lines Capt. Matthias Henningsen.

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January 30th 2004
We have fished 3 days for Blue Marlin so far and caught 2 small Blues of 250 lb each. Today on day 4 we hooked a 600 lb Blue , but lost her. Zak and Martin, fishing on Andromeda had a real big one on, fought the fish for a long time and finally pulled the hooks on the leader. They estimated the fish at 1000 lb!!!!!
We saw their fish jumping and it looked like a nice one.

Capt. Matthias Henningsen
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January 16th - 28 th
Michael and a nice Wahoo

After a week of preparation, we finally started fishing. Our anglers from Denmark, Poul Hansnæs & Michael Johansen are first time big game anglers, so we spent 2 nights on the bouy getting them familiar with the tackle.
Yellowfin tuna and Scad are still here in big numbers. We had tuna bites every 5 minutes and the numbers you are catching only depends on how fast the angler can wind them in.






Poul with his biggest Tuna 35 Kg taken on 0,38 mm line



Today we fished the first time for Marlin this season and Michael Johansen managed to catch his first Blue Marlin ever of 250lb. In addition to this they got several Wahoo’s and  Dorado’s. Conditions were looking good with some schools of skippies and yelowfin.