Tag: duarte rato

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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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Kids with guns

By Captain Duarte Rato on Bazaruto Island

21.11.13

We just had a 3 very cool days fishing with Tim Bacon, Ross Johonson and their kids. We mixed up a tad between Marlin fishing and some game fishing and ultra light spinning for the boys.

On their second trip here the guys from Cape Town fish heavily for YFT and the new Marlin fisheries in their neck of the woods. And it shows on their hard core boys who were a pleasure on the boat and worked that Black Magic stand up harness like a machine.

Karen (11) and Luke (9) got on lots of yellowfin& wahoo on conventional #20 and had great fun catching bonnies, kingies and queenies on light spinning rods.

That smile on a kid on a nice fish just absolutely beat anything…

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500 pound Black Marlin for 17-year-old Billy Brake by Captain Duarte Rato!

Hey Sean,

Another report for the sardine from this morning…this place is just EPIC!!

Cheers,

Duarte

 

500 pound Black Marlin for 17-year-old Billy Brake

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500lb Black Marlin released (c) Duarte Rato
500lb Black Marlin released (c) Duarte Rato

 

Richard and Billy Brake have been fishing with us every single year since 2001. In that time they have caught numerous Marlin up to 850 pounds. Billy caught his first Marlin with us when he was about 12 and four years back he fought a fish for 3 hours that was sharked on the leader that we estimated at 6oo plus pounds. Well, they have just arrived on the first of their two trips to fish with us at Bazaruto this season and after an initial slow first day, we got a great fish for 17 year old Billy today.

We started the day game fishing and caught a few cuda and Yellowfin tuna. At 8h30 we put a live bait out which was sharked within a few minutes. After catching another 2 yellowfin we live baited another and after a 2-hour wait Billy hooked up to a nice Black Marlin that we eventually released and estimated at 500 pounds.

All in a half days fishing off the Bazaruto Archipelago!!!

 

 

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Duarte A. Moreira Rato

Cel (Mozambique):            + 258 82 805 7160   /   + 258 84 639 0466

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GT´s stand for GIANT Kingfish…

Can you just imagine the sound of the line being ripped off the reel here? (C) Rato
Can you just imagine the sound of the line being ripped off the reel here? (C) Rato

The boys were well under gunned for most of the GT´s we encountered. The tackle they brought was way to light to stop those fish from reefing us and all of the really big Giant Kingfish we hooked were just to strong to stop!!! The boys did however release some decent fish up to about 12 kg on poppers and stick baits as well as some other species.

The pick handle...(c) Duarte Rato
The pick handle…(c) Duarte Rato
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