Tag: fishing

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Casa Algodoal for perfect waves…

Casa Algodoal for perfect waves

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Matt VW captured this sick shot of Dustin “Krusty” Volker sitting tight in the green room adjoining Casa Algodoal. Great shot Matt! Copyright Matt VW. All Rights Reserved.

Dustin Volker, in the proverbial green room, not far from Casa Algodoal, in Tofo, Inhambane, Mozambique, this week already. Casa Algodoal is top drawer modern holiday living…with unobstructed views out over Praia da Tofo.
Tofo is a favourite beach destination, and is scattered with backpackers, surfers, divers and travelers out in the warm winter sun looking for adventure.

The diving is world class and many Scuba operators offer all kinds of diving and all kinds of reefs. Humpback whales, dolphins and whale sharks frequent the clear warm waters of Inhambane, and you don’t have to blow bubbles to swim with them…take an ocean safari and snorkel if you like!

The famous calm clear waters of Inhambane Bay are home to seahorses, dugongs, starfish, panzy shells…all sorts, and the bay is great for swimming and snorkeling with whole family. And you can get a boat to the islands or Linga Linga across the bay.

The “manne” can book deep sea fishing trips to target tuna, wahoo, king mackerel and billfish…black marlin, striped marlin and sailfish are all taken off Tofo regularly…which is just down the coast from the famed Bazaruto Archipelago.

Inhambane town is a wonder on it’s own, attractive old buildings, some from centuries ago, characterise the overall state of Mozambique. The place can be challenging but if you maintain your senses and take it on…it’s extremely rewarding.

Contact Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com to make a booking.

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Red eye Sardines

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Submitted by: Sean Lange

Report:

Small baitballs of Redeye Sardines (Etrumeus teres) were reported by the Natal Sharks Board spotting plane. They seem to have moved northwards to the Waterfall Bluff area, and are confirmed not to be regular sardines, by a dive operator at sea at the time.

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Oxe-Eye Tarpon in the Umzimkulu: Reposted

Exploring the Umzimkulu might put you in connection with one of these guys. Ox-eye tarpon are highly sought after trophy gamefish that are spectacular to catch and fight and release of course!

Oxe-Eye Tarpon in the Umzimkulu: Reposted

This is a repost, since the first version was victim to some bugs…

Oxe-Eye Tarpon in the Umzimkulu: Reposted – With a boat full of tourists from Mantis ‘n Moon Backpackers in Umzumbe, we stuck two lures out, a Mydo Luck Shot and a imitation Rapala, by StrikePro, and in the darkening evening the imitation rapala screamed and in the distance we could just make out a violently jumping very fast and acrobatic fish. Garrick was the first guess, until the unmistakable flurry of a tarpon tail walking came clear. Oxe-eye Tarpon. The real deal (Megolops cyprinoides)! We had caught a small one years before, on a jig fly…and heard of a few being caught down under the bridge on flies…but had no idea they got this big in the Umzimkulu at all. And at about 4kg’s, it would have become the new Oxe-eye Tarpon world champion – the current record stands at 2.99kg’s! Anyway, after a magnificent fight we released it healthily after a few photographs and a good bye kiss.

After checking things out a bit further, and finding that although the biggest one weighed officially was 3kg’s, some 18kg specimens have been reported. But this is the crunch line. In Zimbabwe! This raised all sorts of eyebrows, as all of a sudden it dawned upon us, that these tarpon live in the river! They do not go into the sea, they go upriver, and down. They love the brown water, they love fresh water, and they spawn in saltwater! They are very, very hard to catch and to exploit, without nets. They are tough as nails, and aggressively attack anything! They might even survive the holocaust! They can even survive stagnant water by gulping air into their lung-like bladders?! Talk about a superfish. And in Australia it is rated as a higher prize fighter than marlin and barramundi (Australian National Sportfish Association) !!! Right here in the Umzimkulu River. As luck would have it…a camera rolled and the catch was caught on tape…

Oxe-Eye-Tarpon-by-Sean-Lang
The real deal – an Oxe Eye Tarpon, finally on the boat after all these years…and what a fight. The fish cartwheeled and tailwalked and sounded and ran and ran and ran…the first dash must have been 20 metres of jumping and tailwalking madness.

 

To join us for some serious fishing on the Umzimkulu River, call Sean on +27 79 326 9671 or email umzimkulu@gmail.com…or click here for more information. It’s great entertainment, all kids love fishing, it’s safe, it’s fun…the boat is also available for parties, corporate celebrations and team building type activities. We cater with delicious seafood and other Mozambican delicacies from Bela’s Mozambican Restaurant at Spillers Wharf, or we take a braai along.

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Duarte Rato in Cape Verde

Duarte Rato in Cape Verde

Captain Duarte Rato checked in with us, all the way from the Cape Verde Islands, where he is working a blue marlin season this time of year.

“First day out we started with hooking a double header 20 minutes after we set the spread and the action was hot the all day. We ended up raising a total of 6 Marlin, with 4 strikes, 4 hookup´s and 3 releases.”

More to follow as the season in Cape Verde gets underway…

“Man this place is insane…. yesterday had 5 up, got 4 bites and released 3.

This morning only fished 5 hours ´cause the clients catching a plane and got 3 bites and released 2, all on pitch baits.

Will send you reports and photos of last two days later.”\

Many thanks Duarte! Keep it up man!!!

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World Record Southern Bluefin on 6kg line: by IGFA

World Record Southern Bluefin on 6kg line: by IGFA

World Record Southern Bluefin on 6kg line…(COURTESY IGFA)

“Aussie angler Bernadette Pedlar caught a 31.34 kg (69 lb 1 oz) southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccyoii) on February 1st while trolling a Williamson skirted lure off Port MacDonnell, Australia with her husband, Michael Pedlar. Equipped with only 6 kg (12 lb) tackle, Pedlar was able to subdue the powerful tuna in only 30 minutes – quite a feat with such under-matched tackle. With the existing women’s 6 kg (12 lb) line class record at 21.69 kg (47 lb 13 oz), Pedlar’s fish is plenty big enough to qualify.” courtesy IGFA

 

Southern Bluefin Tuna roam the southern oceans and are caught readily off New Zealand and southern Australia. In fact, their population stretches itself right across the southern Indian Ocean, reaching as far as, yes…our South African coastline. And all the way across to south America.

So why do we not see these fish at all, off our coastline?

That question can only be answered by the fact that we have decimated the southern bluefin tuna population.

They only spawn in one area, off northern Oz, between Darwin and Indonesia…very warm conditions for the larvae to survive and grow in.

However, it’s not all totally bad news. Australia and Japan have joined in the quest to close the life cycle of a southern bluefin tuna (bred from larvae to sexually mature – a 12 year process), and Japan have successfully bred three generations in captivity. Clean Seas Limited in Australia are way out there with their aquaculture activities – they even breed the tuna way inland!

Unfortunately there are huge logistical hurdles to breeding and growing wild tuna in captivity, and nothing is cheap or easy.

More info on Clean Seas is available here…

If you would like to become part of a team that has the nigh impossible objective of catching one off South Africa’s coastline, please let us know on umzimkulu@gmail.com.

There are two legal long liners that operate out of Durban harbour, targeting Southern Bluefin Tuna. They have reportedly caught Southern Bluefin within 50kms of the KZN Natal coastline.

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