A few weeks ago I spent several sunny days with my girlfriends in Lagos Portugal. A beautiful part of Portugal down the coast from Faro, where I was able to tick off one of the big things on my Bucket List – Sport Fishing.
I know it’s a bit of a weird thing for a girl to want to do but its all those episodes of watching Robson Green, Xtreme Fishing that sparked my interest. So early one morning we set off in a boston whaler, I have never held a fishing rod before and I was full of expectation. We had to catch the bait first so it was over the side catching mackerel as quick as you can shout “fish on”.
I would have been happy doing that all day but then it was on to deeper waters, rods setup, teasers dragging behind the boat and all eyes on the water looking for the tell-tale fin of a Marlin swimming behind us. Chris our Skipper thought he was in for a dull day with his “fishing virgins” but no, before long the shout of “Marlin-Marlin” was being screamed by three rather excited girlies. I was the first to bring Marvin the Marlin in (we named them, all-girlie I know) and with my rod strapped into my belt then spent what seemed like hours reeling him in for it to then swim back out, jump majestically out of the water, and reel him in again…and again…and again.
My arm was killing me, my knees were shaking through adrenaline and sweat pouring off my forehead but it was so exciting. Eventually we could see the purple iridescent flash down the side of his body and he was finally against the side of the boat. The skipper then tied a rope to its lethal nose and passed it to me to hold. I couldn’t believe it. I had managed to bring in this amazing fish and “OMG” was said quite a few times, it certainly was an adrenaline rush. Of course, we then let him go to swim the seas again where I burst instantly into tears, overcome by emotion. Don’t think the guys do that but hey its my hormones!
Following Marvin we went on to catch four more, five in total: Marvin, Marilyn, Maurice, Miranda and Moriarty (he was a right evil one to get in). The skipper said that was unheard of and we had put his boat right into the best catch category. It was such a fantastic day, bucket list ticked, Robson Green – eat your heart out mate.
I'm thinking there could be a new Channel 4 programme in the making;“Valerie Allman – The Big Catch”.
