We first met Matt & Nick in early July when they come up from Maputo for a couple of fishing days to target sailfish. Seeing the water was green on the inside we decided to head out deep on our second day and they raised a 700 pound Blue Marlin and got a 72 kg Yellowfin tuna that we believe is the biggest ever caught on Bazaruto. Anyway this time they come for Marlin and they had a great trip. On their second day they raised 3, lost a 600 pounder right by the boat and then proceed to release a fish about 300 pounds. They finished it off with a 250 pound fish on the last day.
Shawn Harris went fishing with ultra light tackle under the cliffs of the Uvongo Estuary this week. Using tiny prawn baits he had a blast catching little strepies and blacktail, until he hooked into this tasty flatfish.
Flatfish are commercially hauled out all over the world, but in southern African waters the fishery is not feasible. They are hard to catch and bury themselves in the sand out of the way of nets. But every now and then you will catch one of these tasty critters in the surf or an estuary…and they are delicious.
Shawn ‘Killswitch’ Harris caught this flatfish in the Uvongo Estuary this week. Note both eyes on the top side of the fish! Evolution hard at work. In this pic you can almost see the line down the middle, where you would place your first cut, before opening each side to create pockets into which your stuffing goes.
It’s easy to split open the sole from head to tail, along the backbone and then cut into the two fillets onto the bones, creating a pocket each side that you can now stuff with whatever you like. Crayfish, mussels, clams, shrimps…whatever you can get ahold of!
Slice a bunch of onions and green peppers, and place them all around a baking dish. Place the stuffed flatfish on top of this base, and go for it with all your favourite seasonings. Crushed garlic and olive oil sprinkled over the whole thing wraps it up.
Into a hot oven and in about 15 minutes take out and serve…
We made this dish in a pizza oven and it came out perfect. Any oven will do, you just have to variate the timing according to your available temperature. 180 Degrees is the right heat.
There are two types of flatfish we get in our waters, very closely resembling each other but differing in spines, scales and fins. They are both called Mancopsetta, and then Lepidosetta and Milfordi being the two variants. The Milfordi model being named after a certain Milford, who worked at I&J and contributed greatly to marine conservation and science, in the 60’s.
Surfers Rally For A Good Cause As Movember Heads For Llandudno Beach
Llandudno, Cape Town – On Saturday the 1st of November surfers of all kinds will congregate at Cape Town’s Llandudno beach for a fun day out at the Off The Lip Movember Surf Jam. This event, which is hosted by Quiksilver and the Movember foundation, is aimed at creating awareness as well as raising funds for men’s prostate cancer, testicular cancer and other men’s health issues. Surfers participating in the event are encouraged to dress in seventies surf gear, alter-ego’s welcome, use surfboards from the seventies era and don freshly shaven upper lips to mark the start of a hair-raising month for creating awareness for the Movember movement.
The event will see eight six-man heats take to the icy Cape waters with the traditional beach start in practice. Unlike traditional surf competitions, surfers will be judged on their style, flow and creative approach to each wave. Judges will include South African surf legends Tich Paul and Gavin Rudolph. Various fun awards such as “Vert Alert”, “Spin To Win”, “Wave Waster” and “Best Dressed Mo In Character” will be handed out to surfers and spectators alike. Various single and twin fin surfboards from the seventies era will be on hand for surfers to test drive, old school rock ’n roll surf tunes will be the order of the day which will culminate in a six-man final to crown the eventual seventies surf master. Action gets underway at 10.00am with the finals expected to be held at 3.00pm.
All proceeds raised on the day through the compulsory R100 participation fee will be donated to the Movember foundation and their men’s health partner, CANSA. All surfers, families, friends and members of the public are welcome to come down to the beach to join in the fun and support a good cause. Quiksilver’s Dane Patterson is excited for the event and hopes to see it well supported, “We are very proud to be associated with Movember and such a good cause, we really hope that the surf community can pull together to support the event. It promises to be a fun day out with some classic traditional surfing.”
For more information about Movember and to register and start your fund raising visitwww.movember.com. To purchase Movember merchandise and support a good cause visitwww.boardriders.co.za/movember.
Dan Redman flying in sunglasses and moustache at Llandudno! (C) Nick Ferreira
Fresh news in from Captain Duarte Rato on Bazaruto Island just as the season is getting into full swing…
After Louwtjie´s giant Black Marlin estimated at 900 +++ pounds on the 15th October we had two lay days and then started with our good friend Carl Jankowitz on the 19th. Carl is no stranger to big fish and amongst many released he as also weighted two granders with us, one which weighted 1107 lbs and the other 1098 lbs. But his last really big fish had been three years ago and he sure was ready for another. We started the day with a 27kg YFT, followed by a 18kg wahoo and some more smaller YFT in between. However it was Marlin we were searching for and just after 1pm a great fish inhaled the long left lure. This most magnificent fish proceed to gibe us an hour of great entertainment with some spectacular jumps a few of which on the leader. The fight then went down and dirty with Carl having to push the pre set on the 80W all the way and fought this fish on absolute maximum drag for the next hour. Finally after a 2-hour fight we had the estimated 900-pound fish by the boat for a release…
Spectacular photography by Captain Duarte Rato. This Black Marlin looks like it would have gone over 1000 pounds. (c) Captain Duarte RatoCheck at the shoulders on this huge Black Marlin caught and released off Bazaruto Island (c) Captain Duarte RatoVery big Black Marlin (c) Captain Duarte Rato
Incredibly big fish being encountered at Bazaruto this year…reported in from Captain Duarte Rato on location…
Louwtjie and 5 of his mates come up for 3 days of fishing in mid October. Although they mostly wanted to do some plugging, fly-fishing, spinning and light tackle game fishing they ended up experiencing a hell of a Marlin bite. The charter started with a sailfish on light tackle right off the bat. Then the guys got into some beefy GT´s on jig and ended the day releasing a 250-pound Black Marlin. Then, the second day started with a 200-pound striped Marlin. We the spent most of the day spinning and plugging at 25-mile reef but seeing it was slow we decided to try for Marlin again in the afternoon and Lowtjie hooked a monster of a fish just after 1pm on a live skipjack. It was Louwtjies first ever Marlin but he did a brilliant job and we got the fish on the leader in just under an hour. Of course that was not the end of it and it took another half an hour of extreme drag to have it by boat side again. We think the fish would have gone over the 1000 pound mark had we decided to weigh it, but seeing we did we call it a conservative 900 pounds +++!
This giant Black Marlin was healthily released off Bazaruto (c) Captain Duarte RatoThe sheer size of this fish is incredible…easily 1000 pounds but conservatively called at 900lb ++ (c) Captain Duarte Rato
