Tag: Bazaruto

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BAZARUTO MARLIN SEASON OPENS WITH A BANG!

BAZARUTO MARLIN SEASON OPENS WITH A BANG!!!

Bazaruto has come alive nice and early, and Captain Duarte Rato is right on the scene again…

“BAZARUTO MARLIN SEASON OPENS WITH A BANG!!!

We caught some GT´s on plug and some game fish but Carl Jankowitz´s trip was about Marlin fishing and what a first charter it turned out to be. The water looked a bit milky on the edge on the first day so we opted to go out wide to 500 meters of water where we had been connecting to Blues in July and August. On the first day we got a amazing strike on the short left tube and connected to a 700 pound Blue that was one of the fastest fishes I have ever experienced. Unfortunately we lost that fish. The next day we went out wide again and this time we hooked up on the short right bait and released a Blue estimated at 600. The water looked better shallow on the last day and we decided to give it a go for the Blacks on live bait and we ended the day releasing two out of two strikes. The first fish was about 200 pounds and the second, that gave an amazing display by the boat went 250 lbs.”

Thanks Duarte – amazing!

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Bazaruto Blue Marlin in winter – again…

Bazaruto Blue Marlin in winter – again…

Hi Sean,

Seems incredible but every time we been going deep off Bazaruto, we getting into some Blue Marlin…and this is the peak of winter!!!
Went out on Friday night to fish for broadbill swordfish and we found very interesting structure dropping from 300 to 500 meters in less than half a mile. Except for sharks the night was uneventful but the next morning we decided to troll around the area with some Marlin lures and an hour into it we got a awesome strike on the short corner Black Big T – TT and hooked up. Charles Holsted brough his first ever Marlin for a release – a  fish we estimated at about 400 pounds.
We had another blue come up on the same lure a tad later but missed it and just before heading home hooked a sailfish that pulled hooks close to the boat!
Looks like we might have a winter fisheries in our hands that no one knew about!
Will be out there friday again, hope to have some news by the weekend!
Cheers mate,
Duarte
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Bazaruto marlin biting: Captain Duarte Rato checking in…

Sailfish season starting in southern Mozambique waters now! (c) Rato

Bazaruto marlin biting: Captain Duarte Rato checking in…

It’s always an absolute delight to open my inbox and see something, anything from Captain Duarte Rato. Duarte has developed a bad reputation among the marlin of our waters, between Bazaruto, Inhaca, Vamizi, Madeira, Cape Verde – he has been sticking tags into big shiny shoulders for many a year – he must have pin pricked thousands of billfish…!

“Hope all good. I know it is off season and not much normally going on this side but just want to tell you that the fishing as been absolutely ballistic of the Bazaruto Archipelago the last couple of months. I have not been out much but the boys on Vamizi have been hammering it. I had a client from CT come for 3 days late April and they caught and released something ridiculous like 70 odd game fish over that time. There as been good numbers of cuda, queen mackerel and kingfish but it is the Yellowfin tuna that is running the show and they are all over the place. With so much game fish and bait fish (skipjack and frigate bonito) it is no wonder that the Marlin seem to have forgotten to look at the calendar this year and they boys have been catching a good number of Blacks between 100 and 300 pounds (but up to 600) in the last month and a half! Considering they are not really targeting them and that we are in May…it is insane! But hey, I did not hear anyone complain! A few sailies showing as well and as we go into winter they should arrive in good numbers…..

PS: On my way to Cape Verde on Monday for 5 weeks. They are having an insane Marlin season there…I mean mind blowing! The top boat has released something like 170 odd Blue Marlin in the first 30 days of fishing….that is an average of 6 Blues a day!!!

BRING IT ON!!!!!”

Thank you Duarte, I feel like a pinhead in your presence!

 

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FIRST MARLIN FOR ANDREW WHITEHEAD

IMG_5856 FIRST MARLIN FOR ANDREW WHITEHEAD

Dave MacLean has fished with us for years and on his last trip in early October 2011 he had a brilliant trip, including fighting a fish well over a 1000 pounds into the drak for nearly 5 hours that unfortunetly chafed through the 650 lbs leader. He missed last year but a couple of months ago he phoned me but all I had left was three days in December, which he took straight away.

Unluckly, after a month of beautiful calm weather he arrived on the 5th, along with his sister and brother in law, Andrew exactly at the same time as a low pressure system moved in. However, despite the strong SE we decided to give it a go the next morning and by 6h30am were trolling a spread of lures down south in a very uncomfortable swell. As we tacked north we finally started to see some baitfish on the surface, mostly skipjack and caught a wahoo and released a nice great barracuda on the lures.

It was Andrew´s first ever deep sea fishing and I had given him all the in´s and out´s and finally at 9am the time come for him to get in the chair as a nice Black Inhaled the Blue & Pink Williamson BMC2 on the long right. The fish took off in a series of jumps and put us on the backing straight away. We quickly cleared and we in hot pursuit with Andrew puffing and sweating as he quicky recovered line. As we got close the fish made another series of jumps and trashed on the surface which gave us a break to get right on top of it. It then went down and I told Andrew to put up the drag, go to low gear and start the real work!  Eventually the fish come up, gave a couple of jumps and just before the half an hour Alex got the leader on a still very green fish. We got a couple pics, tagged the fish and let him go.

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Duarte A. Moreira Rato
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DOUBLE HEADER MARLIN FOR CHRISSIE & JOHN JACKSON

DOUBLE HEADER MARLIN FOR CHRISSIE & JOHN JACKSON

by Captain Duarte Rato on Bazaruto Island

Over the last 6 days we had Chrissie and John Jackson from the States and despite a slow Marlin bite we had great fun and some good fishing. The first day four days were great fun and we raised a number of Marlin, one estimated very close to a 1000 pounds. We released one about 150 lbs, a sailfish and got a good number of game fish including dorado, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, skipjack, bonito, great barracuda and queen mackerel.

Our 5th day started up north at lighthouse and we had not set the spread for more than 15 minutes when both, the left short and long go simultaneously. What a sight as the two Marlin jumped in together in our wake and what pandemonium as we tried to clear the deck and make sure the lines did not cross over. After that initial chaos we had everything under control and we decided to deal with the smallest fish first which John was fighting stand up. We made short work of it and soon we had the 150 pounder by the boat, tagged it and let it go. Now it was time to deal with the bigger fish which Chrissie was fighting from the fighting chair. The fish was deep but as soon as we got on top of it and applied some more heat it come up and gave us an absolute fantastic jumping display in the beautiful morning light. We got it close to the  boat but it was a hard fish and with 40 pounds of drag (as much as Chrissie wanted to go) it still took us another 10 minutes to get it under control by the side of the bat for some photos. We eventually let it go and called it 400 pounds. What a start to the day!!!

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