Tag: billfish

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Thrilling start to KZN South Coast billfish bite

Philips first sailfish was on a Penn Jigmaster 500L

Thrilling start to KZN South Coast billfish bite

A thrilling start to KZN South Coast billfish bite: there are many billfish hunting along the colour line on the KZN South Coast right now!

KZN South Coast billfish bite. Fish released.

Arriving dead on time, same as the dorado, the billfish are here! Sightings, encounters and hookups aplenty.

See the movie – of Phillip’s first sailfish – at the bottom end of this post.

The colour line/halocline has also seen some very early season couta coming out aswell! It’s looking good for the summer gamefish and billfish season down here on the south coast.

Spearos

The spearos, as usual, were the first to report the incoming billfish. A shoal of striped marlin on the shoal. They got one or two – this was even about a month back. Check out https://masterwatermen.co.za for up-to-date intel on what’s going on in the ocean around here.

The Colour Line

The seam/colour line is the halocline representing where the Mozambique blue water meets the runoff rainwater of the KZN wet season. We have a few functioning estuaries left. The Umkomaas pumps out a beautiful plume. As does the Umzimkulu – the last free-flowing river of significance in the whole of Africa. Likened in ecological importance to the Okavango delta, this river still experiences the full effect of the flood pulse. There are attempts underway to impede this vitally important and functional flood pulse by building a weir 9kms upriver. This would impede both the flood pulse and the tidal pulse.

Ain’t gonna happen – if you would like to learn more, please visit https://thegreennet.org.za.

So right now, the flood pulse pulsed, and we have a beautiful halocline line to work. This is an amazing piece of structure that gives rise to a load of fish action.

Everybody comes to this party.

Baitfish

Concentrations of mackerel, shad, mozzies and even red-eye sardines hang in the shallows to feed. And to hide from the monsters. Who patrol up and down the line, looking to ambush anything that moves. So it’s simply a matter of getting a live bait or two, and slow-trolling them along the line.

Big baits for billfish

Dorado can’t really that easily gulp down a big shad. Or bonito. Or mackerel. Anything else just gets swallowed whole. So to get a billfish out of this melee, chuck out really big live bait.

And don’t mess around with the trace either. Use heavy leader (300 to 400lb) and a big old circle hook. And make the trace looooong (4m at least – so you can grab that leader and take control at the boat). The big mommas are also here. We saw at least one over 600 on the day this accompanying sailfish video was shot.

It goes without saying that you really need line capacity (1000 metres), a strong drag (12 to 15kgs) and good knots (bimini or any double line to clip swivel works fine – make a long double line too – 5 metres if you can)!

Phillip’s 1st Sailfish on video

Yip!

That was a fun fish to catch! In the howling South Westerly as we waited for the tide. The saily just swam right by us and gulped down the live maasbanker. Literally in front of our eyes. The solid hookup caused the fish to throw its stomach. This is a defence mechanism that these and other billfish resort to when something gets stuck in their throats. Successful release but I never got the tag in this time. And all recorded on video. The video is structured in a way that you can use it to learn how to handle your first sailfish when it happens.

In the meantime, come fishing with us here at Umzimkulu Adrenalin, in Port Shepstone. Where the sailfish featured was caught.

In the following gallery, is guest star Phillip’s first dorado too. All he needs now is a couta and he the South Coast Slam done and dusted.

Click to check it out…

https://umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za

But ok, The Sardine News is powered by TLC for your business. Where you can have a website built for yourself or for your business! All frills included.

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1000lb Blue Marlin off Inhaca Island

Inhaca Island-1000lb-Blue-M

1000lb Blue Marlin off Inhaca Island

1000lb Blue Marlin off Inhaca Island: Mozambiques first reported Blue Marlin weighing over a thousand pounds was taken recently. Captain Duarte Rato of FishBazaruto has been offering marlin fishing experiences, down off Inhaca Island, for the month of March of each year. This is the time the big blues make an appearance in good numbers in these wild waters.

Carl Jankowitz, who got a grander black last year too, off Bazaruto, was in the hotseat. But his years of experience in the chair and fishing with Duarte paid off, and his second grander came to the boat. Unfortunately, after 2 hours, the fish was tail wrapped, couldn’t move, and died on the disappointed crew. Who tag and release all billfish normally.

Also featuring in the video, is the hectic launch at Santa Maria. Between Inhaca Island and Santa Maria, it gets wild. Known as Hell’s Gate, this place is really mean in any swell, and is to be feared by most! But the excellent boat handling by the Captain of the good ship FourPlay, hops the crew through safely and out into the ocean.

Duarte tags and releases hundreds of billfish. He works with international partners who collate the data and formulate billfish management strategies worldwide. His tagging and DNA sampling that he does, is invaluable to these decision and policy makers.

April sees Duarte and the FishBazaruto crew back on Bazaruto Island, where he has an appointment or two with the seasonal striped marlin and sailfish, that will be runninng through those crazy waters any time now. Black marlin are still encountered in April, but mainly they are quite small. In fact, very small. Saltwater fly fishers absolute dream, as these baby blacks take to the skies with far more energy and speed than their parents. They are aggressive and take anything you throw at them. Such performances!

So whatever is on your menu? Billfish of all species and sizes. Seasonal appearances mean you can literally target the bill you are after, be it a sail, a stripe, a black or a blue. And in between an endless ruccous of ratchets screaming as the myriad of gamefish try compete with the bills for attention.

If this is your game, get in touch with Duarte via http://fishbazaruto.com, where you can see the many options available, as we tailor make your ultimate fishing experience.

More on FishBazaruto.com here.

More fishing experiences and options here.

 

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The Sardine News on TV – Inhaca GT and other stories

Julio Rito with a fiesty green jobfish caught on the jig somewhere between Inhaca and Macanete about exactly.

The Sardine News on TV – Inhaca GT and other stories

Getting a trip together with Bino Nordine, out off Inhaca and Macanete, made my entire last month in Mozambique! Fetching me from Fatima’s nice ‘n early, although almost not early enough, as we took a while to get ship shape and beyond the threatening low tide. But soon we were passing Xevina Island and it’s crazy archaic looking prison ruins.

There used to be so many sharks here, that it was the ultimate prison. Free enforcers! From a reliable source, I heard that Samora himself hid out on this forsaken little island – here was the safest he could be – in full view of Maputo!

A quick stop at the “turning buoy”, a few casts and a few chases, but off we had to go, in lieu of a beasterly easterly that was forecast And never came!). It’s a good 20 miles to the reefs. But eish, what reef. Scattered over a large area, kind of joined though, and dropping from 20 metres to 40 and more, in no time. Reef and pinnacles, all full of showings, all over the place. It was a question of finding the fish that were feeding, rather than finding the fish. There were fish everywhere! We caught a bunch, letting most go. A couta and a kakaap for the pan came home!

When we got a live bait out finally then, a stupid hammerhead came knocking, biting the tail right off our hard earned hapless bonnie. Getting the bonnie away from the shark, we teased him for some fun. Aggro little hammerhead!

Tottering around, from showing to showing, reef to reef, eventually, we were finding more and more promise on the  underwater TV Channel (by Garmin). Bino, from years and years out here, knows exactly how to position for a drift accounting for all the many variables that this takes. Then it happened, Bino went away solid. In fact, the fish was so aggro, it hit and missed twice before Bino found jaw and hooked up. It was a long hard fight which turned out to be Binos biggest GT, by estimate. Enjoy the video…! Like and subscribe and whatever tx!

Fish Inhaca with us

Check out our many fishing experiences available all over, including Inhaca, at…

https://thesardine.co.za/product-category/fishing-experiences/

Let us know what you kind of fishing you would like to experience in the Inhaca area. Amberjack. Marlin. Wahoo. Sailfish. Snapper. Tuna. Dorado. Kingfish. The list is pretty impressive and it’s all tucked in nicely around the Inhaca s Island System.

With the new bridge about a year away from completion, get your fishing slots booked now already. It’s gonna be a short hop from Durban up to Maputo. Where we take over! We arrange the whole lot. You avoid the tangles and hang-ups that can be experienced trying on your own.

Our boats are top notch and versatile. Options from The Joker, a lovely YeldCat at 19ft, to Sholay, the huge marlin purposed rig that at 28ft can go anywhere, very fast!

Follow us on Facey…

The Sardine News on Facebook
The Sardine News on Facebook

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FishBazaruto’s game-fishing video playlist getting bigger and better

Light tackle game-fish is just so much fun off Bazaruto

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.

FishBazaruto – https://web.facebook.com/fishbazaruto/

The Sardine News – https://web.facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/

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.

 

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The Daisy Chain

The Daisy Chain fished on a 30 for just in case

The Daisy Chain

Many rods actually vie for the mantle of being the most important rod on the boat. The live-bait jig sticks? The spinning stick? But there is one rig that really covers all bases and every situation – the good old Daisy Chain.

South African style. Three 3 or 4 inch feathers / min-eyes / jube-jubes / dusters…rigged in a row, about a half metre apart. Each with a single hook. I rig mine with wire…explanation to follow. But first let’s get clear that this ain’t no IGFA compliant rig. No sir! In fact, I got in touch with IGFA, and asked for clarification. Here with the cordial and timeous answer I received from Mr. Vitek.

“Thanks for the message. Based on your email, it does not appear that your rig would be IGFA legal as you mentioned that each of the feathers has a hook. IGFA rules only allow anglers to fish with a single hooked bait at a time. That said, if you were to only put a hook on the last feather, that would be IGFA compliant.”- Jack Vitek

So it seems we can fish the Daisy Chain in IGFA rules, so long as only the last feather has a hook in it.

So why all the fuss?

Billfish to bonito. That’s why. A sailfish or young marlin eagerly chooses the Daisy Chain over the other purpose rigged lures. Dorado smash them. Natal Snoek (Queen Mackerel) love them. Bonito – the pulse in our veins on any trip – devour Daisy Chains – even multiple baits on one chain sometimes. Couta of all sizes. Skipjack. Kakaap. All sorts…

In fact the Daisy Chain not only catches anything and everything, even shad – but they give you back another advantage – intel. You can glean data from the daisy chain, as to what is going on, and act accordingly. They are like feelers out there, just letting you know what’s going on at that present moment.

Daisy Chains can drag fast too – really small form factor – they kind of keep each other in the water and not flying about like a single lure rig at the high speeds we sometimes try at. Natal Snoek love the higher speeds as much as billfish do.

And now, if you rig the Daisy with an extended wire tag end that doubles over and back, to become a clip for piece of fillet, and a real strong hook with real strong wire – you have a Strip Bait Daisy Chain. I say strong wire (#8 at least) – mainly for resilience because the Daisy is normally going quite fast and is always in the white water, playing second fiddle to the tag lines and outside rigged lures. So it can’t even really be clearly seen – so it’s fine to rig up on wire. Especially since the Daisy is lying just in front of the inside konas, and right above the deep diving rattlers – and just behind the second teaser.

The middle of all the action!

The two uprights back corners are where the Daisy Chains run nicely. If the wind blows, put them flat next to the deep divers
The two upright back corners are where the Daisy Chains run nicely. If the wind blows, put them flat next to the deep divers.

These modified and wired Daisy Chains will soon be available from Mydo Lures. Look out for The Mydo range at a tackle store near you. If your local tackle store doesn’t stock The Mydo, try https://thesardine.co.za/mydo/.

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