BCSS Underwater Obervatory Project: The first ‘croc couta comes in for a real close look but turns away right the last second. There are two of the +-20kg class fish circling the live bait with piqued interest. In a flash the hapless bonito has its tail sliced off. Blood streams out. Another fish circles and bang! The couta comes from in from below and chomps into the bait. Vas! But somehow he misses the hooks and another guy comes in and finishes off.
This action is all part of the Bazaruto Centre for Scientific Studies’ (BCSS) Dr. Mario Lebrato’s long-term ocean observatory project. One of only a handful worldwide, Dr. Lebrato is set to deploy a multifaceted underwater monitoring system. Cameras, sensors and a myriad of other sampling equipment will be installed all over the Bazaruto Archipelago. For long-term data recording and analysis.
Luckily, part of these underwater observations includes predator fish kill behavior. Trolling tow cams on marlin dredges and teasers, and right in front of live baits, is opening a huge new three dimensional perspective of a mostly viewed in 2D wake and prop wash. What goes on down there is gob-smacking. So many fish come in interested, but then shy away at the last minute, and move on. In fact, the plentiful and ever-present Zambezi shark is far more careful than the aggressive king mackerel. Tuna seem to be the most suspicious so far. Cobia are also wily characters. Talang queenfish get super excited about a live bait, but will not touch it! Then it grabs a lure! Amazing revelations about fish learning and behaviour.
Wait ’til you see the Zambies following the boat!!!
The hours and hours of material recorded will go back to Europe for careful analysis and processing into data.
Fresh in from Bazaruto Island: Captain Duarte Rato has been hard at all February, and rounds it all off with a fantastic trip he got together with his Dad and his son. Spanning three generations, the effort was serious enough, but with the help of Duarte Jnr’s mom Gretha, those yellowfin were really in deep trouble!
“As all who fish with us know my Dad, Jose Duarte, is a true salt, a real old man of the sea who spent his life in the Ocean, mostly on commercial vessels. He took me to sea from a very young age and, from a very early stage in my life, when my friends wanted to be Doctors, or fireman, or engineers, I knew I wanted to be a charter Captain. My oldest son, Duarte, who just turned 5, as definitely inherited the passion of the sea from us. Or should I say obsession! The boy dreams fishing, watches fishing videos as opposed to cartoons, spends huge amounts of time looking at my BlueWater, Ski-boat and Marlin Magazines and, at five, can easily identify between a Blue, a Black and a Striped!”
The yellowfin tuna have also made an appearance of Tofo recently. Acres of birds enjoying the feast of small sardine-like fishies all over the place right now. Judging by some of the smashes going on, visible over a few kilometres even, there were some big fish on the hunt. Voracious attacks on the surface!
In the backline at Tofinho were the bonefish again. They looked like they could have been spawning as every now and then one lolled over another and a flash of underbelly was occasionally seen. Very cool to see them all so tightly knit and floating along just shy of the waves. If they were not spawning, then I am not sure what they were getting up to?! And no, they were not lemonfish!
Along the beach at Fatimas the bonefish pros were baiting up with prawn and squid and getting a handful of foot longs each. These guys just seem to know exactly when and where these fish decide to show up. This was a few days ago, as a front came through.
The markets are overloaded with lovely gamefish like couta, kingfish and tuna. The weather has been crappy, but aytime the row boats get themselves out there, they bring back nice fish.
Catching Yellowfin Tuna in Mozambique
Well the biggest one caught up in these tropical waters here so far, has to be this 72kg monster, by Duarte and crew, taken on a marlin rig, a few years ago. This fish caused quite a stir, as on this same day, they were all over the place. These huge yellowfin tuna, out of nowhere! And on a mission to smash into everything they could. Luckily this fish held on right to the end. Quite a few got away!
This is the biggest Yellowfin Tuna caught in mozambique by anyone we know. Yes Captain Duarte Rato again!
At around the same time, bigger class yellowfin tuna were being encountered up and down the East Coast seaboard of Southern Africa. Even Durban got a fish over 50kg’s. A new club record for all the years of that clubs existence.
Traditionally, yellowfin tuna just don’t hang in these tropical and warmer waters at all. Once they reach sexual maturity, which is 35 to 40kgs, they shoot over the horizon and into the “tuna lanes”.
But, tuna, all of the species, are well known for their feeding patterns. They can stick to a regimen like clockwork, often traversing hundreds of kilometres in a day as they migrate between feeding spots. Feeding spots that these highly intelligent fish know are going to produce at those times. And they can change feeding habits and patterns, completely.
Bluefin tuna used to use False Bay as one of their spots. These fish were most likely Southern Bluefin, which we still get in quite prolific numbers, right off our coast. The Transkei Wild Coast regularly sees legal longliners from Japan, there are two of them, catching Southern Bluefin Tuna, within cellphone signal distance from shore. These ships are based out of Durban and can be monitored on any AIS app, anytime. They catch serious fish. Billfish and Southern Bluefin. but the Bluefin that vacated False Bay in the seventies – have never come back!
Weirdly enough, Bluefin started pitching up off Ireland a while back. After a very long absence. Local anglers were amazed to see these huge fish coming right up to them, as they plied their regular fishing techniques right offshore. Soon, these guys were posting online, questions on how to catch Bluefin Tuna. And sure enough, they caught quite a few!
So the influx of bigger tuna to these shallower and more tropical waters, could be seen as an adjustment to their feeding patterns. An adjustment to the adjustments made as so many variables have to line up for natural events like sardine runs to occur.
So tackle up this next season. Keep that heavy duty popper at the ready!
Another Super HOT February in Bazaruto. Enjoy another sizzling report from Captain Duarte Rato fishing the offshore waters of the Bazaruto Archipelago. February is not normally considered marlin fishing prime time. But that has not been the case this year as even a couple of 800’s have been terrorising the light tackle brigades.
A 1000lbs Marlin on New Years Day and a bunch of other stories make up the latest post by Captain Duarte Rato – sportfishing Captain with FishBazaruto.com.
The 1000lbs marlin was not caught at Bazaruto (it was a Blue Marlin taken of Western Australia), but the fish became somewhat controversial, as social networking groups jumped on the attack on the Captain. The very same Captain who was graced with an award for his efforts in tagging and conservation, just last year (2017) One of the biggest and most successful tagging operations, these guys reserved the right to boat a broken fish. And in doing so, incurred the wrath of greenies all over the planet.
The truth is, that without sportfishing charter captains working closely with environmental and conservation entities, there would be no research data available whatsoever. It is this data, supplied by charter captains worldwide, that is used to formulate the management strategies, for these fish stocks.
The ocean is under HUGE pressure right now. We are down to 4% of our original allotment as humans. 4%! To learn more, I would strongly recommend the following book:
Available from Amazon, it outlines the destruction we as humans have wreaked on the planet’s oceans.
In the meantime, tagging as many fish as possible is the only way we can garner the data needed, to formulate better game plans, for the survivial of our remaining 4%.
Marlin release pro Captain Duarte Rato checks in from Bazaruto
Marlin release pro Captain Duarte Rato checks in from Bazaruto with two more Captain’s Blogs from his recent excursions taming marlin out off Bazaruto.
It’s just amazing, that our eastern seaboard, right on our doorstep, has so many marlin. From as far south as the Cape, and right through KZN and into Mozambique, and further north…our continental shelf wavers and wobbles creating eddies and currents and congregations of all sorts of baitfish. That the marlin are after.
And it’s not only the marlin, we are so fortunate to live here. Huge yellowfin tuna swim these same waters. And wahoo. Dorado. Anywhere in the 80m zone along the shelf will tell a story.
It’s just all about timing. The weather can really play along, but often times it doesn’t! It has been really otherwise lately, as you can read in Duarte’s report – since that cut off low caused all the trouble a month ago. It seems that if we don’t get a cut off low, then the weather plays along just fine. But the huge pressure difference this last low brought, caused havoc up north. 40 knot easterlies!!! Luckily it gets better and better through November and into December.
