Fishing with Captain Derek Flaxman, from out of Cashew Bay Lodge in Inhassoro, Barry Viviers got his first ever black marlin Sunday last week!
After a real slow start at the south tip of 25 mile, where we were beaten by a nice couta and a GT that were herding some fusiliers, it was high time for some konas and a good spread out the back. We were only on our third rod when the real close kona started to really go. I did see a flash in the white water behind the magnificent Super Cat 38 we were on, but the fish never jumped until it got a food few hundred metres of line off us. By that time the other lines were cleared and Barry climbed into the chair. A few adjustments and we had Barry going back at the jumpy little black marlin.
At that size they really can perform, and this little guy was never gonna let us down. Luckily his antics seem to tire him quite quick, and soon Barry produced a leader! It took about twenty minutes on the nicely matched 30, and was oh so much fun!
The fish swam away with a new attitude to konas, and we had our spread back in order. Sitting atop the tower, I heard a shout from below as somebody spotted a sickle. Then we all saw it, I had such a cool view, as this fish, a much bigger and more fussy marlin came charging in but turning away at the last moment. This went on for a good few minutes when eventually she over took us in haste. It was a great encounter, but eish that was a big fish, and we already had one so it was back to gamefish a while.
Some angry skipjack gave us some serious revs. The couta were chowing the lures. We hit and missed on many frothing bait balls of scad and small bonnies, we wanted one for bait so bad!
Then I hooked a nice one and as I was passing the rod over, a shark came flying in. The bonnie got off. But the shark went straight for my beautiful halfbeak so nicely rigged on a #4 Mydo. It was a good fight and we got most of the trace back.
Fishing with Derek and his able crew is such a treat. And the huge Supercat 38, named Comforter, is just that. An absolute pleasure to fish from. Stay tuned, but the weather has been terrible. The after-effects of the cut off low that wrecked parts of Durban, is huge pressure differences, and so bad weather. And it’s been bad! Stuck on land!
Cashew Bay Lodge in Inhassoro is really cool and right on the beach
To come marlin fishing with The Sardine team, click here.
You could write a book on releasing marlin, there are so many variables at play. And if one person could write that book, it would be Captain Duarte Rato, of http://fishbazaruto.com, operating off Bazaruto, and all round the world. Duarte gets to fish Baz through the current season, and then the rest of the year, he chases marlin from the Great Barrier Reef, to the Ascension Isles, Madeira and the Azores!
This cool little clip was shot this week as Duarte and his crew skilfully release a small black marlin for Carl Jankowitz, off Bazaruto, Inhambane, Southern Mozambique.
Releasing a marlin off Bazaruto with Captain Duarte Rato
For budding wiremen out there, take note of the successful hook extraction without even touching the fish at all. Apart from some bill grabbing, this fish never even smelt a human hand. Gloved up and using a proper hook extractor, this is the way to release a fish healthy.
Duarte has also been leaning towards using single hooks out there too. The truth is that there are so many more fish off Bazaruto, that you can be sporting and use singles, to facilitate quick and effective release. Double hooks certainly help hook up and sticking rates, but they really can damage the fish. Hooks in eyes. Gills. Not nice at all. Especially the chain gang rig. That thing is lethal. Unsporting to say the least. And then there is the potential danger to the wireman and crew. An extra hook flailing about during the fight and ultimately the release can spell sheer disaster if things go wrong.
For the newbies to the scene, take note that the boat never stops moving forward. The idea is to have the fish alongside, keeping the bill up out if the water. and therefore in control. You are literally planing the fish on top of the water as you get the tag in and the hook out.
Check back for more video and instruction by Captain Duarte Rato.
Click on over to http://fishbazaruto.com for the ever-entertaining and up to date Captain’s Log, video channel and booking enquiry page.
The Bazaruto fishing season is well underway with Captain Duarte Rato reporting in on the billfish and gamefish action, as we move into October.
The mean Wahoo that love the drop offs and deep water that surrounds Bazaruto Island are vying for the attention of the small fleet of boats operating in the area. Although billfish is first prize, along the way to catching them, or whilst targeting bait, the marauding wahoo are game to eat anything that moves. They even eat the huge konas left out there for the granders! And they are so much fun to catch. Blistering runs and dodgy tactics. And stay far away from their teeth.
Craig Sherrah over from OZ, fishing with FishBazaruto.com, and a few mean wahoo.
Very long fish for Craig Sherrah
Bazaruto fishing has been consistent as usual.
But it’s the marlin that makes Bazaruto fishing what it is. At any time as the season moves into full swing, those really big fish could show up and jump on your unsuspecting kona. Characteristically rather small this time of year, 80 to 200lb’s, you could get a shot at these eager beaver little fish with a fly rod for sure. The really small guys seem to love the shallows, right in close. And boy can these little fish perform!
The following is a choice of the marlin pics that Captain Duarte Rato of FishBazaruto.com, sent in, this week.
Bazaruto fishing report for September 2017
Releasing a marlin. A blue marlin about to swim away having learned a good few lessons
Black marlin performing for Captain Duarte Ratos camera
And Captain Duarte’s colourful and entertaining full report can be read at the following link;
FishBazaruto’s game-fishing video playlist getting bigger and better
Game-fishing for the camera! It’s real cool when the kids take over and just thump out cool little edits of your day at sea for you! Well this has been happening more and more as the young ones embrace technology – especially cell phones and video. Captain Duarte Rato of FishBazaruto up in Vilanculos, Southern Mozambique, had some real keen and talented young crew on his boat Vamizi this last week – The Watt teenagers – movie makers and fishermen!
Young Benji Watt and his first sailfish is the first clip.
As you can see from these classic clips recently added to FishBazaruto’s YouTube playlist, authentic and quality video is a cell phone or a GoPro away. All these tools come with editing software these days – totally intuitive and built into the hardware. You can trim video right in your phone’s gallery, and assemble the whole lot with titles and if you really have to, put music on top.
Throwing a track over your hard earned authentic sound bytes is a no-no! And you lose out on the copyright of your own material. Any revenues generated go to the artist who originally recorded the song. Use original sound wherever possible. You can bleep out the swearing!
You also don’t need to commentate at all. You can but don’t talk to the camera. Do that afterward with a voice over helping to tell the story. Filling in any gaps. But mostly, the story tells itself, especially if you can tie off a shot and record the whole lot on a wide, and use another phone or camera for the close ups.
Too easy!
Assemble on your phone or your computer. Then upload to YouTube. And this is where all this extra cool new content is coming from! You! YouTube is awash with every fishing video you could dream to watch. Instructional stuff is all over and so well done. Knots. Traces. Fighting fish. You can glean so much from watching these videos. Often they are series’ of themed video- just like a TV show.
So what’s next from us?
Live from the boat! As the season kicks off in Bazaruto this year, there are some spots that have enough signal, to get a live stream going. Both Duarte and ourselves (The Sardine Team are operating up in Vilanculos through to January), will endeavour to get a live tangle with a marlin going.
Stay tuned via our Facebook pages, if you Like our pages, you will be notified when we go live.
Learn more about FishBazaruto at their content rich website over at http://fishbazaruto.com. Duarte and his team update the site regularly – in fact every trip Duarte has done since 2010 or so, is documented on the website. With photos.
As we move into the video age – when everyone has access to the equipment, and the interfaces become easier and more intuitive, it’s gonna be a very colourful – Future of Fishing.
FishBazaruto.com is taking Bazaruto 2018 bookings now!
FishBazaruto.com is taking Bazaruto 2018 bookings now! After another incredible year fishing the waters around the Bazaruto Archipilego, Captain Duarte Rato has opened his booking calendar up for 2018.
Duarte has also opened up the spread with many more options for you to choose from. From the really big and comfort laden Supercat 38’s, to this year Duarte has worked hard on getting smaller boat packages together, that are real affordable. He has broadened his accommodation offerings too.
Vilankulos, where FishBazaruto operates from, is really quite a drive for anybody convinced on taking their own boat all that way up north. And fishing with Duarte and his decades of experience really puts you in right on the action.
Sunrise overlooking the Bazaruto Archipelego
You get to enjoy the Archipilego thoroughly, with Duarte and crew relating historical, geographical and all things fishing regards this most interesting area, and country. All of Duarte’s team really know the place super well, and are first class pros, in big game fishing – and making sure you have a great day out.
Now here’s the thing. 1000 Pounds. The grander. The big momma. She is there. And up for a fight. Black and blue marlin. You can actually choose which to hunt. The bad tempered stripeys also make their rodeo appearances, as do shoals and shoals of willing sailfish. Some big ones, even going over 50!
A few pics from the old days…where release wasn’t as compulsory, as it is nowadays…
More 1000 pounder history
Monty Smith and his 1000 pounder caught off Bazaruto in the 70’s. These waters are really hardly fished much, compared to anywhere else in the world. It is still wild out there! (c) Bazaruto 2018
This was the very first one I believe. It was caught down the coast at Praia do Tofo
And another 1000
The increasing mean size of yellowfin tuna being encountered inshore has rapidly increased lately in KZN waters. They even got a 48 off Durban?! But last season, Duarte shocked everyone with a 72 off the island! Luckily it grabbed ahold of a kona rigged on an 80, and it came home before those dumb sharks got it!
The 72kg yellowfin tuna that has gotten everyone very excited. There were a whole shoal of these things when luckily they hooked up on just this one, and got it out!
And that’s another thing about fishing Baz. It’s wild. Really wild. You might even encounter a dugong. Or a whale shark. A friendly school of dolphins. All sorts of whales. Even orcas.
Fishing out the back of Bazaruto Island gets you in the hot seat for a marlin on plastic, or a 10kg yellowfin to rig and try keep out of trouble until a marley comes along. Wahoo are real mean as they knock the sense out of any live bait rigged that weighs less than 10. The wahoo are huge. And if it ain’t the wahoo, you also have to watch for goliath GT’s that also love to swallow a bonito whole. And then there are the sharks. Nuff said. So back to plastics and hope for that huge big and loud strike.
Seeing these huge fish come charging into the wake at blurry speeds, smashing into a kona, pulling line and then leaping and greyhounding away is what every angler should experience. It’s diabolical. It’s insane. It’s something you need to see and absorb. The power. The grace. The magnificense of it all.
Duarte’s Weapons of choice for Bazaruto 2018 season
Big black performing off Sailfish Bay, Bazaruto (c) Duarte Rato
Dave Charley hauls while Muki looks on…(c) Duarte Rato
(c) Duarte Rato
Chaaaaaarge! (c) Duarte Rato
58kg Sailfish (c) Duarte Rato
In bad weather, Bazaruto waters hold another ace. The channels between the islands are clear and deep, and in the completely flat water. Wave action out to sea, and island either side of you, and you can catch king mackerel, sailfish, Natal Snoek – until you are blue. On spinning tackle! Too much fun. And we do end up fishing in these highly technical fishing areas quite a lot. Knowing where and when to find the hot spots and times, is all the fun! There are very many places where, if you pay your 500 Met park fees, you can walk and spin fish for all sorts from kingfish to rock salmon.
Right, there you have it. I could add the islands themselves, the unreal snorkeling in the lukewarm crystal palace water, the palm trees and coconuts, the delightful and unspoilt wetlands and river, the quaint little party town of Vilankulos that recently welcomed Sylvester Stallone, Jeremy Clarkson and his little mate…and back in the days…The Kennedys, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and host of other stars. The Donna Anna, the hotel in which they partied, which has been restored to a level of glory, and yes you’ll go there too!
You can get the ball rolling and get in touch with the team at FishBazaruto at his website link below:
