Planning a Destination Fishing Trip – Beautiful Azores, Portugal
While most of you are currently planning your destination fishing trip to Key West, Florida, I’m currently planning my own destination fishing trip to Azores, Portugal! It’s always a challenge booking a destination fishing trip. You make the lists, or throw darts at a map, or watch that far off video of someone else catching a monster marlin with a tropical island off in the distance. And you suddenly need to be there too. So you grin, and your heart gets light, and you start dreaming about your own big fishing adventure. Where? Which trophy fish will you catch? When should you go?! Where will you stay!?!!
This September, I’ve been lucky enough to have some time off of charter fishing, to go out and do some fishing of my own! After much debate, I’ve decided to plan a destination fishing trip to Azores, Portugal and hunt down some blue marlin. The Azores are known for their world-class offshore fishing and beautiful island landscapes.
This month is the tedious but fun task of finding and booking my destination fishing trip! I did all of research through my fishing community, online research and asking friends and family that had already visited the islands, along with using a travel agency to make sure I had a safe travel experience outside of my charter as well. After many rounds with my Magic 8 ball, I found the Azores was the right place with the blue marlin in town at the right time of year for my available time off.
The Azores Island are a chain of 9 Portuguese volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These islands are well known for their wine, cheese and world-class fishing, including the big pelagic fish. Blue marlin, tuna, wahoo and mahi are all found here, but blue marlin are at the top of my list!
So, next I looked into blue marlin charters in the Azores. I had been working with one of the charter companies out of Pico, Azores already. They make amazing marlin lures I have been using, had excellent customer service and had the perfect boat for myself. The captain assured me that based on his local knowledge and experience, September would be the ideal time for me to hunt for marlin.
As we all know, always listen to your local captain! So September it would be. I booked them for the last week of September, the only week they still had available! Destination fishing trips tend to book up pretty far in advance, especially the great ones. Once I had solid dates, and a star charter lined up, I looked into flights and accommodations. Clicking that purchase flight button has never been more thrilling for me!
Now it’s only 160 more sleeps until I get to jump on that flight and chase some dreams around the Atlantic Ocean. I can almost taste that Azorean cheese and fresh salt air already! I’ll be bringing along a fishing friend as well, and we’ll tell you all about our adventures when the time comes. From Key West to the Azores … it seems my heart longs to always be in the middle of the ocean. Stay tuned!!
