Madeira opened its grander status on Thursday past, with Capt Anibal onboard the Balancal finding a huge fish for his crew and angler. We know little about the catch other than what Paul Watson of Marlin Online has sent us :

"Today two friends of mine achieved a first in Madeira onboard Balancal. Ian caught his first blue marlin ever and it was estimated at 1000lbs, and Ollie wired it, his first ever grander wiring. Congrats to both. The rest of the fleet saw a fish for Omega (x1) and Our Mary (x1) and Grander lost a fish. Typical, I had the invites to go out and film too !"

What we can say is that the sucessful lure was a white 22 Pro-Range Andromeda in Bermuda colours, a great favourite combination the world over. Hopefully, Anibal has put that lure away in anticipation of the World Cup on July 4th !