Catch Archives - Page 4 of 13

Posted on March 21, 2017 by Sean Lange — 1 Comment

Inhaca Blue Marlin bite off the scale

Captain Duarte Rato of FishBazaruto.com has his finger on the pulse up and down the East Coast of Africa, and has an amazing Inhaca Blue Marlin bite to report, this March 2017.

The recent sport fishing competition held from out of Inhaca, just out from Mozambiques capital, Maputo – reported phenomenal numbers and more numbers of marlin action. The release only tourney was a huge success for the 13 boats, who each accounted for a minimum of three fish!

The winning teams raised so many marlin, that they lost count!

An excerpt from Captain Duarte’s report…

“Yolanda won the event with the release of 7 fish, four Blues and three stripes. However, they reported sixteen bites and over thirty raised fish – they said they lost count.

Then there were two boats with 5 releases; Hakuna Matata released 3 blues and 2 striped and Aquamarine 2 Blues and 3 stripes.

Gabri got 4 fish on the day. They released a blue and two Blacks and had another Blue die on them, which got tail wrapped and could not be revived.

The guys aboard Fourplay released 3 Blues, out of 12 they either missed or pulled – and they had 19 fish up for the day.

Other fish reported where a Black by Cheetah out of three bites, and they only fished until 9am. Nakisai also released 2 Blues amongst a number of strikes. Nana released two Blues and had another one sharked by an Oceanic Whitetip, the first ever time I have heard of a fish being sharked out wide in this fishery´s. They also lost another right by the leader, and reported about 15 bites! Another boat that reported a similar number of fish on the day was Mon Ami, although they failed to convert those except on one striped they released out of the whole lot. Bite Me II released two Blues, as well as DanDan.

That´s an average of more than 3 Marlin per boat per day and not a single one of the ten boats that where specifically targeting Marlin skunked! Again, this is weekend anglers, mostly fishing out of small outboard powered trailer boats!

The mind wonders… ?” – Captain Duarte Rato

Read the whole in depth report by Duarte here.

In the meantime, to get a marlin or other gamefishing trip together in Mozambique waters, get in touch with Duarte at http://fishbazaruto.com.

Enjoy the sweet gallery of Inhaca Blue Marlin action…

An Inhaca Blue Marlin underwater, all released

Nuno Mato co-ordinating the release of a Black Marlin off Inhaca Island

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Sean Lange — Leave a comment

Bazaruto Baitball Blowup

An amazing shot by Captain Duarte Rato (c) of a baitball off Bazaruto Island, Southern Mozambique

Bazaruto Baitball Blowup

The recent cyclone and weird weather may have had something to do with things but Bazaruto has been absolutely off the scale. Yellowfin tuna as far as you can see in every direction, with bonito and skipjack filling in any spaces.

And the marlin and sailfish are still around for a fight, it’s been one helluva billfish season up and down our coastline.

Here is a link – Baitball Article – to a contribution Captain Duarte Rato of FishBazaruto, made to a great article that ran in the January issue of Voyages de Peche magazine.

The article, which is about bait balls or where and when large masses of bait come together along with its predators, was put together by Julien Lajournade, had as it´s collaborators Duarte along with well know photographers Jessica Haydahl Richardson (Yellowfin & blue runnes in Cobia Panama), Pat Ford (tarpon and others on mullet at vero beach Florida), Marc Montocchio (great photograph with tarpon and silversides in the Caymans) and Scott Kerrigan (on sailfish and sardines off Isle Mujeres – Mexico).

You can read and see more of Duarte’ss amazing experiences with these bait balls right here…

http://fishbazaruto.com/2016/09/29/amazing-bait-balls-bazaruto/

Bait balls – massive amounts of bait and predators – it is all happening at Bazaruto right now, here is an email I received from Duarte recently…

“Hey mate, hope all good…

As you know after the season I have chilling with the family and finalizing all the bookings for the rest of the year for Bazaruto and Cape Verde. But, after cyclone Dineo (which as you know was much kinder to us here in Vilankulos / Bazaruto than our friends further south in the Inhambane area) we finally have had a spell of absolutely gorgeous weather and my boys at Bazaruto told me about excellent light tackle game fishing. So, yesterday decided to take my boy (that´s Duarte´s oldest son which just turned 4 years and is obsessed with fishing – I hear he prefers to watch fishing videos than cartoons – wonder where he gets it from) out. Man, it was absolutely unbelievable from when we got to V-mile area yesterday morning until midafternoon when we come back was going mental. I think all the churning caused by the cyclone as just moved up all these nutrients and the ocean is alive everywhere you look. Between V mile all the way to the north of the Island at any given time you seeing 5 or more schools of Yellowfin tuna, skipjack and bonnies gorging themselves on tiny oceanic anchovy! It´s all small stuff (what we in season call bait) but great fun on the light tackle. Perfect stuff to target on the light spinning rods.

We had nonstop action from the start and everyone hooked up simultaneously all the time. It looks like a slaughter and we did take a lot of fish out but we released much more and we were all with our freezers empty and brought some fish back for the boys. Funniest thing was Duarte Jnr, who we have now nicknamed gaffman, who at a stage did not want to take any rod but just wanted to gaff the fish, every single one of them…hilarious! And he knows when they really small he was like ´´this one we throw back “! By 10am he was so tired he was falling asleep but kept being woken up by screaming reels and he just could not resist. To let him have a much-deserved nap (he did wake up at 4am), and despite the water being horrible dirty and green I decided to fish for Marlin for a couple hours. We first put a live YFT but that did not last long and we were hooked up to a shark within 20 minutes, which obviously woke him up againJ! I decided to put the lures and head out wide in search of blue water which was not to be seen up to 500 meters out! It was green and we never raised one, did get a decent wahoo for Rafi tough. When we come back early afternoon it was still going wild and the mayhem continued before we decided to call it a day at 3pm. We have a strong SE moving in on Sunday which should push in the blue water and I am sure some fish with a sharp nose with it…there is enough bait to make them come! Until then we will just have fun on the small stuff, back at it tomorrow…

Cheers mate…attached a couple of pics from yesterday. Back at it tomorrow, and the next day!!!””

Some guys have all the luck!

Thank you Duarte…

Duarte Jnr looking ready with the gaff off Bazaruto Island

In amongst and all around the Bazaruto Baitballs are gamefish

And now this…

After mastering the necessary gaffing skills to be on the boat with his Dad, young Duarte was seen at the helm of his first vessel – a surfboard, at Tofo!

Oh oh, better catch some waves now before he grows up

To learn more about the FishBazaruto operation, click on over to http://fishbazaruto.com

Posted on January 6, 2017January 6, 2017 by Sean Lange — Leave a comment

Potato Bass caught and released at Karridene

Calen Moodley caught and released this Potato Bass off Karridene Beach

Potato Bass caught and released at Karridene

I was in Danwood Fishing Tackle in Tongaat yesterday, where I came across an amazing fishing story. Young Calen Moodley made this excellent catch whilst fishing with his uncle Annand, down at Karridene this week.

Calen cast his bait just next to some rocks a bit off the shore, and when he brought up the slack, found the reel wouldn’t turn anymore! So, on his own, he started walking backwards to get tension when his rod started bucking about. He continued his backward march until eventually his uncle arrived and helped Calen beach this absolutely beautiful and rare – Potato Bass.

Calen Moodley and his caught and released Potato Bass, on Karridene Beach

The fish was released healthily back into the shorebreak where it swam away with a big smile!

Posted on January 3, 2017 by JP Bartholomew — Leave a comment

Fly fishing Umdloti with JP Bartholomew

Fly fishing Umdloti with JP Bartholomew

And here we have JP Bartholomew entertaining us again with tales of fly fishing Umdloti, just north of where JP lives…

A final break in the weather and I wanted to get some flyfishing in and especially to see how my right arm was doing after battling with Tennis Elbow which I had been battling with for the last couple of month’s.I hit the Umdloti stretch with my 8/9wt Explorer fitted with a Explorer Orion 9wt Reel with intermediate line using a 22lb fluorocarbon leader.The water was flat with a slight South westerly wind blowing and as always fishing on a pushing in tide.The water was a nice green/blue in colour which was perfect not clean and not dirty the stretch was mine with the odd Holidaymaker Anglers trying there luck. A lot of scattered reef along the shorebreak and open gullies made it that more interesting to fly fish. Don’t you just ever get that feeling that today is just going to be an exciting morning for you not expecting anything big but just hopping for a epic morning’s session and you just wanna get going? Well this time I had a awesome morning’s fly fishing.

I had set up my fly set up and looked for a fly best suited to try the water’s I was going to be fishing that would attract any rock or sand dwellers in the near vicinity of where I would target the are I would cast towards.I decided to go with a Black Clouser which would stand out and throw more of a dark silhouette and attract some nice Specimen to it.I started peeling off line to begin my assault, I managed to get close to some structure and felt some nice bums on my retrieve but no hook ups so I a slower retrieve and not long a went on tight getting a few little head shakes I was just not quite sure what it was definitely not a small kingie of sorts, finally got it to surface and I had a little beauty of a Kob I quickly got a pic for my photo gallery and removed the fly and slowly released it back into the water stokked I was on the scoreboard I continued to cast around the same structure as well as bouncing my fly off a small sand bank to my left and slowly allowing it to sink and then slowly bouncing it off the bottom to get a reaction I tried the same retrieve a few times before I went on again.

My rod went tight and this fella was giving me stick which felt so good hoping to see what I had picked up a few more runs I slowly started retrieving the line back and slowly got it to the surface it was a nice size Stone Bream. I quickly got my buddy to take a pic for the gallery and removed the fly and slowly released it back to fight another day epic seeing how much activity happens when you fish a pushing in tide and the conditions are right and the fish species are roaming around looking for anything which gets knocked off the rocks or when the waves churned up the sand throwing up all sorts of crustaceans and small sprats allowing anything in tvicinityity to feed freely on them.

After a few more casts I finally moved on to a different spot as the water was pushing a little more with more white water breaking over the rocks hoping to try target for a kingfish or two hopefully.I had a couple of casts into the white water before going tight a a nice quick peel on my line zig zaggingfrom left to right very unasual fight after a few minutes I managed to get close to it so I could identify the fish I had hooked into – Eisssh my first a Concertina fish nice size too happy with my catch I just had to get the pic in quickly and release it back as soon as possible which I did.I carried on for a while hoping for a bigger pick up as the gulley filled up nicely and the waves were still brakeing over the rocks it was still fish able for a few more casts.I slowly started moving out slightly more backwards so I could have a few more casts in front of me towards the bay that had build up in front while I was busy fishing but to no avail.

Fly fishing Umdloti with JP Bartholomew and his Concertina Fish

I moved out and walked more down towards the bigger bays and try for some small Geeeeeet’s hopefully I kept to the Black Clouser why change your fly when you’ve been having such good results with it. I slowly started peeling off line to begin my casting I spotted a nice little gully which came off from a sand bank and dropped off into a nice deepish pool of running white water which is always a exciting spot to target kingfish ambushing sprats or smaller Mullet in the turbulenced water.It wasn’t long before I got smoked by something that just felt like another Concertina fish and yip it was another I safely removed the fly and released it back, carring on and casting into the channel I got a chase and it it my fly but missed the hook up I could only have been a small kingie so I kept at casting in the direction of the chase I got hoping it would give Me another go.No luck after a few more casts nothing was happening so I moved further down where to more of a sandy bay with a scattered reef to see what species I could hook my fly into and attract what ever is lurking along the sandy channels.

Well this would be my final session before my turn around and start to make my way back to my car. Looking to see where would be the best option to start I saw a sandy spot just starting to get water washing over the bank that could only be to My advantage with the water stirring up the sand and exposing small Crustaceans, Sealice , Sand Shrimp….etc and all I had to do is cast my fly towards the turmoil and white water rolling around.

I gave myself 20min to cast and hopefully catch my last fish before before heading home for some family time….!! Well I started casting onto the bank and dropping my fly down and using a slow retrieve hoping something would see it amongst the sand and white water trying to get away and smash my fly. I just kept at it eventually I felt a bump then another bump and a miss then got a proper pick up and quickly held my line and lifted up my rod to strike I was on Dad finally I got my Species that was playing catch me if you can but with perseverance I hooked the cheeky bugger not knowing what it was it was a feisty fella gave Me a nice little rev retrieving some line back I could see what looked to me like a little Grunter which landed up being My first Grunter on fly completely stokked at my little Spotted Grunter I took the Pic and released it back and got back to casting hoping for a bigger Boykie if there was one there must be more surely.

I changed my fly to a Brown Brush Fly to try impersonat a Brown Shrimp I casted for may be 15min then totally got Smashed I really thought I had the Daddy Grunter but landed up being a nice size Stone Bream unfortunately I had to take the Pic of My Boykie Stone lying on the sand quickly removed the fly and released it back safely I got straight back into the channel and kept at it hoping just hoping for that Big Cock Grunter.Boom I was on again and what ever hit me it was peeling line and going for it , it was stripping Me nicely best fight I had all morning.I finally started getting my line back I thought I had a little kingie on but I had hooked a nice size Wave Garrick epic I placed the fella on the sand took the Pic and released it back into the water and watched it swim of into the blue.

Well I called it a morning a gr8 one at that and started heading back to my car and just enjoyed the playback’s in My head on the morning I just had , well maybe I’ll get My kingie the next time round…Homeward bound.

Tight line’s

Happy New Year My Friends have a epic weekend all the BEST FOR 2017…..GOD BLESS….!!!

Cheers JP.

Once again JP, many thanks for sharing your fishing experiences with us. It’s really motivating, educational and appreciated! – Sean

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Sean Lange — Leave a comment

Chris Leppan and his 40kg Zambezi in the Umzimkulu

Chris Leppan and his 40kg baby Zambezi Shark in the Umzimkulu

Chris Leppan and his 40kg Zambezi in the Umzimkulu

Read all about it – Chris Leppan and his 40kg Zambezi in the Umzimkulu. Last week, fishing right in front of the Umzimkulu Marina.

Chris has become an absolute expert light tackle spinning enthusiast racking up phenomenal catches in the Umzimkulu River in Port Shepstone, over the past few years.

And now this…

Pictured here with sport angling partner Rory Lawlor, aboard one of the smaller attack boats in their fleet, the pair of them are subduing an epic 40kg estimated catch – a Zambezi Shark! The shark was released healthily, and speculation is rife that this fish was part of the same litter being encountered a few years ago, and that the sharks growth rate seems to be about 5 to 8kgs per year! About 20 to 30cm per year.

So the smaller fish we were catching a few years ago, in 2014 and 2015, seem to be growing up fast and healthy, and at about 200cm, will take to the ocean and seek residence on a convenient and healthy string of reefs somewhere up or down the coast from Port Shepstone. Zambezi’s are born alive btw, in a litter of up to 12 pups. They develop fully in the womb and pop out ready to bite and eat immediately. In a lucky estuary near you!

A great catch on light tackle – more details regards Chris methodology coming soon.

Greg Millward is the other member of the team, and excellent spinning angler, and together they have dispelled any and all lazy man’s rumours that there are no fish to be caught in the Umzimkulu. In fact, the fishing is actually excellent in the river, especially this time of year, as shoals of bigeye kingfish and smaller kob maraud up and down the channels.

Fishing off the Umzimkulu Marina bank, guests have been having a ball right now with grunter, bigeye kingfish and perch being taken regularly.

For more information regards the fishing the Umzimkulu River, email umzimkulu@gmail.com, or call +27 79 326 9671 (WhatsApp is best).

Inhaca Blue Marlin bite off the scale

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Bazaruto Baitball Blowup

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Potato Bass caught and released at Karridene

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Fly fishing Umdloti with JP Bartholomew

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Chris Leppan and his 40kg Zambezi in the Umzimkulu

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