Tag: Bazaruto

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So you wanna see a bait ball?

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

So you wanna see a bait ball?

So, you wanna see a bait ball?

Check this one out!

When Captain Duarte Rato gets excited, so do I! He has been frothing over these amazing pics he lucked into whilst on a charter off Bazaruto two days ago. This one is a shark based bait ball, but many others were instituted by sailfish the same day. The bait balls are everywhere, even down here in Barra and Tofo.

And they are having the desired effect on the fishing.

The fishing off Bazaruto has been epic this last couple of weeks. Huge yellowfin, by inshore standards are being encountered. The ones that are coming out have been 40kg’s! The ones that have been getting away and there have been plenty, have been estimated at over 50!

Wahoo and couta have also been going mad, as they do, this time of the year, every year.

Sailfish are a bycatch of fishing for tuna, couta and wahoo really, and are almost as plentiful. There have been plenty sailfish all over lately. Targeting just sailies yields big numbers. Sometimes 5 or 10 a day. All released of course.

It’s just the big mommas, that are taking their time to appear. A few encounters with 800s, and a bunch of smaller fish, “rats”, as Duarte calls them, but a little quiter than last year.

Duarte is at sea right now…so stay tuned for more Bazaruto torture!

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Spending time with Captain Duarte Rato

Spending time with Captain Duarte Rato

Tofo has of recent been playing host to Dario, Duarte jnr and Greta – the enthusiastic young family of Captain Duarte Rato, along with Duarte, as they spend some quality time together. Each season he does up at Bazaruto, off Vilancoulos, Duarte leaves the archipilego where he has been coaching the marlin there for decades, to visit Tofo for a week.
We have been bumping into them all over town and the beach, culminating in a visit at their cabin, during feeding time in the early evening.
“He only eats fish! Give him anything else and he just looks at it?!”, exclaims Duarte as he finely chops up a juicy chunk of couta fillet.
Greta is preparing the meal of healthy beans and local vegetables. The couta fillet is to flavour it all with fresh fish. Dario who is almost one, and Duarte jnr, 3, encourage her eagerly.
Soon we’re able to talk lures, and I show him through the original Mydo range, and then the new stuff. Out of the blue, Duarte drops the biggest marketing bombshell I have ever dreamed of.
” Hey I got my first billfish on a Mydo…a sailfish, when I was 16.”
I nearly fainted as the enormity of his statement set in. Africa’s most successful marlin fishermen got his first billfish on a Mydo #2 Baitswimmer.
I piled more lures into his lucky packet. All the Baitswimmer range up to the 4.5 weighing in at a healthy 222g – gets big baits down real deep. The Luck Shots for high speed deep trolling and jigging or even just drifting. The 2 sizes in the Luck Shot Mini, for casting and cranking. And then the newly developed (from the original Mydo spoons), the SS Spoon range. For casting, cranking and jigging.

I give a lot of lures out in this way, and there are just a few things that with Duarte, I am sure of. First, I will get the photos. And second…he will use every last one of them.
Obrigado Amigo!

Getting big baits down deep for big fish. Start posted for what comes up on the end of the line when captain Duarte Rato reports back.

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Bazaruto fly-fishing mayhem

Bazaruto Baby Black Marlin bite

Bazaruto fly-fishing mayhem

Bazaruto fly-fishing: chuck a fly in here and see what happens!
Bazaruto fly-fishing: chuck a fly in here and see what happens next!

Early season in the Bazaruto Archipelago sees shoals of baby black marlin on the hunt in the shallows. Often this Bazaruto fly-fishing opportunity happens only a mile from the lodge! Captain Duarte Rato and crew of fishbazaruto.com are geared up for this ultimate type of fishing. Years of experience have seen many fish successfully caught and healthily released.

At these small sizes, from 20kg’s and upwards, the fish are far more resilient and hardy – and man can they jump to heights way out of proportion to their small size.

As this recent report just in from Captain Duarte Rato shows, the fly is deadly fun up there, and a wide range of gamefish are prepared to gorge them…

“On the first day they had an absolute ball at 25 mile releasing several different species including king mackerel, indian mirrorfish, GT´s, golden trevally, talang queenfish, prodigal son and yellowspotted kingfish. On the second day they found a crazy mayhem of game fish just north of the lighthouse and spend the all day in the area catching and releasing few different species but mostly YFT and lots of nice size cuda.” – Thanks Duarte!

This big couta was the only fish not released, it was not able to be revived, after a long fight on such light gear. All the rest of the fish fought that day, are alive and swimming...
This big couta was the only fish not released, it was not able to be revived, after a long fight on such light gear. All the rest of the fish fought that day, are alive and swimming…

For more information on how to get tangled up wto a mean tempered baby black marlin, head on over to fishbazaruto.com and get in touch with Captain Duarte Rato.

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Bazaruto Marlin

 

Bazaruto Marlin

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Bazaruto marlin by Captain Duarte Rato

Just to feature once again – the most incredible photography by Captain Duarte Rato, as he chases down billfish through the summer season, off Bazaruto Island.

Again, it was another surprisingly consistent season and even in the face of hectic weather most of the time, the tallies of tagged and released marlin swimming around off Baz are way up there.

At the moment, Inhambane is being battered by very strong swells whipped straight at us by the tropical storm / cyclone hanging off Madagascar. It is travelling in the right direction to keep compounding the swell and by the next dark moon spring tide, the line ups will be very interesting indeed. The fish are active in the wild surf zone with kingfish smashing baitballs right in amongst the bathers at Praia do Tofo.

 

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Bazaruto in November: Mayhem

Bazaruto in November: Mayhem

The last 4 days fishing we have raised a total of 15 Black Marlin, releasing a total of 6. There is a lot of fish around but bites are a bit lazy so not the best hook-up ratio.

However this is incredible fishing by any standards and today we started with Rod, Carmen and Gordon Janz from Canada and had another blasting day in flat calm seas. Twenty minutes into it Carmen hooked into a very big fish that stripped 300 meters of line before coming undone. We then had another fish miss the lure and then one about 300 pounds that come off immediately after the strike. Finally at noon we hooked up solid and Carmen managed to release her first ever Black marlin at about 200 pounds on #50 pound tackle. The afternoon was slower and we only raised a fish about 400 that never struck the lure.

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Bazaruto in November: Black Marlin action off the charts…(c) Duarte Rato
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If you want to see this in real life…Get yourself to Bazaruto Island and go fishing with Captain Duarte Rato!
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Carmen Janz about to say goodbye to her first Black Marlin (c) Duarte Rato
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