Bazaruto Big Fish Season: Duarte Rato Calls 2026 the Strangest in Three Decades
If you think the weather down south has been wild this year, take a look up the coast in Mozambique. Captain Duarte Rato over at FishBazaruto just dropped his early November 2026 report, and the verdict is clear: this has been the strangest marlin season in nearly three decades of fishing the Bazaruto Archipelago.
Normally, Bazaruto’s heavy-tackle Black Marlin fireworks build steadily toward late spring and early summer. Instead, 2026 flipped the script completely.
An Upside-Down Marlin Season
While the 2026 Super El Niño pushed sea temperatures up across much of the globe, Bazaruto actually saw unusually cool water through September—triggering an early-season explosion out wide (FishBazaruto). From May onward, Blue and Striped Marlin fired relentlessly. The fleet even watched the new Butt-Cat Linene raise 18 fish and release 8 Blues from 13 bites on her maiden September run.
October Shifts & Grinding for Bites
By mid-October, however, conditions swung hard. The water warmed up fast, the current nudged east, inshore water turned greenish, and bait became scarce.
Even so, Duarte and the crew—including Alex and Lourenco aboard Vamizi and the team on Linene—kept grinding out results for visiting anglers. Highlights included:
- 5 from 11 Marlin aboard Vamizi for Guatemalan angler Alfredo Saraiva (FishBazaruto).
- Milestone firsts, including Matt Nothdurft’s first Black Marlin and Chris Hamel’s Blue Marlin on a Pulsator Stubby (FishBazaruto Mid-Oct Update).
- Multi-species action when the billfish went quiet—finding floating FADs loaded with Dorado, Wahoo, and Yellowfin Tuna, plus solid Cobia and GTs on the jig.
What’s Next for Bazaruto?
As Duarte notes in his early November log, an early peak has made this year utterly unpredictable. With El Niño currents still shuffling the deck along the East African seaboard, crews are having to work every trick in the book—from pulling dead-bait swims to hunting blue-water edges out wide.
Want to chase a Bazaruto marlin in 2027 or follow the daily Captain’s Log? Check out FishBazaruto.com or WhatsApp Duarte directly on +258 84 639 0466—and keep locked to The Sardine News for more Mozambique and KZN coastal dispatches.