Bonaire 2003

At  the 6th of february the team of www. biggame- fishing .com left for the tropical island Bonaire. The team, Leon Pennings and Thijs Risseeuw, had made plans to fish for marlin, tuna, wahoo and sail fish.

After a nice trip with the royal air company of the Netherlands we landed at Bonaire in the middle of the night . A taxi driver brought us to our first two beers and of course our apartment for a good night sleep.

The following day we went to discover a piece of the island ( which isn’t that big ) and we also met for the first time with our captain Frank of the “Siri”, a 38 foot Bertram. We agreed to go fishing the next day. Frank told us he had different strikes that week so we had high hopes for the following day. That evening we enjoyed a nice piece of the catch of the day ( which was wahoo) and went to sleep after we drank a “couple” of beers.

The next day we had to get up at 5 am and we waited for Frank to pick us up. Frank arrived half an hour later with the news he couldn’t get the boot started. In tears we went back to bed to be wakened again half an hour later by a happy looking Frank, with the news he had started the boot . 30 minutes later we were fishing for marlin in the beautiful sea around Bonaire. We fished on the outriggers a dead flying fish on the surface and a big kona-head. On the two down riggers we fished at 30 and 90 feet deep for wahoo with a dead ballyhoo.

The beautiful thing about Bonaire is that you can fish as soon as you leave the harbour. The first strike came from the down rigger and brought us a nice wahoo. The ice was broken and we relaxed in the rising sun. We put a new dead fish on the down rigger and trolled along, heading for the northern part of the island. Frank told us there was a big plateau were he hooked and caught several marlin and sails. The down riggers were put in and two surface kona-heads were replaced together with Frank’s secret weapon, a huge teaser. So when a strike went off we were almost sure it was one with a bill.

The dead flying fish was grabbed of the surface and a nice marlin produced a hard trilling run. To bad off course he was able to get rid off the hook. That day we enjoyed the sun and the company of the crew but we didn’t catch any more fish.

We arrived at the harbour at one pm after a 8 hour fishing trip so we were hungry and were despaired  for a cold drink. We went to one of Bonaire bars and went to sleep knowing there were lying four more days of fishing ahead.

If you want to know how our trip has been for the furthering days and  you want an impression of Bonaire, wait for our biggame video which is in production right now. Don’t expect loads of  fish but enjoy how a trip to Bonaire can be and how it looks like.( but let me assure you there will be pictures of the capture of a blue marlin, several wahoo’s and barracuda. Click on this site at video and you will see a first glimp of it all)