Hi Peter

I'm that guy in the Canary Islands that ordered lures from you last May and thought it was about time I gave you a catch-up on what went on with your lures in our marlin season here in the Atlantic. Yes they worked, which I had no doubt about from previous experience from the one lure I begged from an American skipper here, but we had some interesting days and about half way through the season only ran

Pakula's. The results were impressive with a fair number of blues up to about 700lb and topped out with a fish we called over a thousand, I will have to check your catalogue again for our next season order as in the general order of our business we lost a couple of lures at the boat including what we called the grander, we have fished marlin for over 20 years and have a good idea of the size of fish we release and had weighed in a fish of 1065lbs 6 years ago when it died down deep after a long battle; 3 on the boat that day and the guy who angled the fish was only 15, but handlined up from 200mts so no junior record. You very kindly threw in a few extra lures with the order + shirts & visors and it was one of these that took the big one, it was the largest lure I got from you as a gift and we called it 'The Big Blue' and ran it on the short right (third wave back), unfortunately we were only 2 handed that day and I messed up on wiring the fish at the boat, I had the leader 2 times but this fish had come in green and I couldnt hang onto it, third time the brute went under the boat which was effectively dead in the water as I was also captain & wireman and broke off on our stern gear, OK so we should have given the fish more time but my mate and I are both in our 60's and he had had enough in the chair by that time. I run a Carolina Classic 35 specifically on the basis that we are often shorthanded and I can then get to the leader relatively easy from the lower helm position while my mate is in the chair doing the hard work, so definite re-order on this. But the real news was the effectiveness of the Softease Fang in green, it simply outfished all the rest, ran short again on the left and it always appeared to be the first lure to raise fish and not only blues but we had a fair number of those pesky whites in the season and they all basically ignored whatever else we were running and at some stages we would have maybe 2 or 3 whites all attacking what is now known on my boat as The Magic Green, last blue on this at the backend of our season in November. Fotos of any of these fish with a Pakula in their gobs, sorry no – when your are running shorthanded there is no one on camera duty and the day of the big-un the GoPro battery had run out, its a shame but we know what we caught and thats the best memory.

Anyway all the fish have now gone and we wait for the tuna which normally show up after Christmas, fist the albacore, then bigeye and bluefin, and this year I am certain that the Magic Green will be in the spread.

Best wishes,

Bill – CC 35 Hey Jude