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!
Bonito Bolognese: Catch ‘n Cook series – this was written in 2014 – The Sardine News has been publishing since 1986.
But ok, if there are any fish out there plentiful enough to be harvested, it would be the many bonito. Eastern Little Tuna. Skipjack. Sarda Sarda. Kawa Kawa. And others. They are all tunas. And in fact, skipjack tuna is the guy you buy in a tin from the shops. A practice I have stopped completely. Every time you buy a tin of tuna, you are directly filling the diesel tanks of the hated trawlers and long-liners we see even plundering along our very own coastline.
Bonito Bolognese
Bonito Bolognaise is a super healthy version of your regular beef bolognese spaghetti meal.
Step 1
Catch a bonito…
Step 2
Bleed, loin and grate/grind the bonito into mince form. A cheese grater does the job just fine. And removes most of the sinew efficiently. But a real mince maker if you have one…will save you some time and effort.
Step 3
The morning after the storm. An incredible place is Pomene. (c) Boa Gente
This is my simple campfire method. Since at the campsite is where and how we invented bonito bolognese. We had just sunk at Pomene. For real – the boat we had just purchased from a complete drunk for USD 1000 (sporting twin 115hp V4 Yamaha 2 Strokes) had some latent defects. The boat just couldn’t stay afloat for extended periods. Her name was Nikita, she sank right in the holding area on the point at Pomene. With me and Paul asleep in the cabin. We woke up in the early hours. Pitch dark and storming hard. Both soaking wet as the high tide filled the boat and our sleeping quarters.
We had travelled by sea from Tofo the day before. Wild sea. One motor spun a prop halfway. So we arrived in the dark. Sinking but not quite sunk. Yet. Paul and I took watch and slept on the mostly floating boat.
Captain Paul Cook on the helm for the first 6 hours to Pomene (c) BoaGente
6 AM the next day- it was cold that eventful morning. Soooo cold. Mid-winter cold front and exposed on the beach. And we were soaked. And sunk. Paul and I escaped the sunk vessel and tried to make a fire on the beach. Our victims (read guests) – most of our friends from Tofo, had all scuttled the boat upon arrival in the dark the night before. And eagerly settled in the beach camp. About 200 metres from where the boat had just sunk.
Luckily with first light – Chad from Tofo was also awake and saw our predicament. He brought us coffee and helped to recover all the flotsam and jetson strewn about the beach. Once the tide had turned to go back out again, and we had anchored the sunk boat and put her in recovery position (on a steep piece of beach to drain her out again), we left our post and headed to the salvation of the beach camp. Camp was buzzing when we finally made it across the beach.
I stumbled into the kitchen area, found a spot under a table and made a little bed. And cleanly passed out. It was an exhausting evening and morning. Sinking is never fun. Paul found himself a spot somewhere too and we got some deserved shut-eye.
The boat was a big old Interceptor from Invader and somehow we had gotten 9 people on board. And a helluva lot of stuff. There was so much food. Cooler boxes. Crates. Bags. BUT! Someone had forgotten the 2kgs of mince we had brought along for our first big meal together. A spaghetti bolognese.
Chad Leavitt’s first sailfish, released off Morrungulo, on the way to Pomene (c) BoaGente
When I woke at about 11, the mince was a big issue. And that’s when it came to me! Grate the tuna! We had caught so many fish (including Chad’s first-ever sailfish) on the drive from Tofo to Pomene, that we had been filleting some of them along the way. And keeping some beautiful tuna loins for sushi or sashimi. This stuff was perfect. And the cheese grater made short work of the loins. Soon we had far more than 2kgs of mince. Which was a very good thing.
Because, out of all the hundreds of bonito bolognese’s I have made thus far, every single one has sold out. There has never, ever, been leftover bonito bolognese.
Bonito Bolognese Recipe
Fry some onions a while…add the tuna mince about halfway to brown
Tomatos etc…
Garlic etc…
Done!
Big Meal
Making a huge bowl of gourmet bonito mince is my best plan. It fridges and freezes well, so you can make a whole bonito’s worth and stash it away for things like Spaghetti Bolognese, Mince on Toast, Samoosas and even Vetkoek!
Make a heap and live good!
Sardines and Sighting Maps
It has been a fantastic sardine run this memorable 2024. And all the action has been logged right here on The Sardine News. This year’s map has been viewed 191,000 times and just keeps growing.
Which led us to decide to keep the map live. And keep adding unique marine animal sightings and events. That occurs non-stop all year round. This year we started to log more whale and dolphin sightings. And we even had a shipwreck! And a freaking tornado! And recently a capsized KZNSB boat! We have been updating the map with recent catches too…
These events will from now on be included in the Sardine News Sightings Map for 2024. And on the 1 January 2025, we shall start all over again.
Here are the links to existing and past Sardine Sighting Maps. Great for a windy day like today to research. With instructions to install The Sardine News right on your phone or desktop.
It’s not a good feeling…that thud, and thump as the taxman grabs a-hold of your fish, shaking it around and tearing it up. It must have been a big shark that halved this nice yellowfin, off Bazaruto! There are some monsters swimming those waters…big enough to start to eat a 1200 pound marlin right at the boat, after a five hour tussle…which is what happened on Vamizi, skippered by Captain Duarte Rato, a few seasons back! Talk about the top of the food chain.
Or is it?
(c) Johnny Cash
A “brown marlin” – aka Hammerhead Shark get’s a taste of it’s own medicine…at the hands of mere men! This is on the beach at Tofo. Nature sure is cruel, and we are certainly a big part of it all as we devour and demolish…much like the Tiger Sharks and Zambezis of Bazaruto…
This Bazaruto Zambezi is neatly hooked in the mouth with a huge circle hook. These hooks have revolutionised the tag and release scene, as they miss internal organs and possible injury, and hook neatly in the side of the mouth – every time (almost!). This shark and all other sharks caught on Vamizi, are released healthy and ready to destroy another prized live bait!
The first drift yielded not a touch on our awesome spread of live baits. Until we reached the southern pinnacle on Protea Reef, off Shelley Beach. Funnily enough the first beating was taken on a plug with the drag set to 8kg’s the yellowfin swam around the boat as if it was still hunting. Only when it went right around us and behind the motors did it take off. Mike Stubbs and I wrestled the rod between the other sticks with the huge Finnor spinning reel smoking and screaming blue murder. The hooks pulled out on that blistering run and all of a sudden the bait sticks started screaming.
We were three sticks away dancing around the boat each with his own set of problems. Luckily mine came off and I was able to help gaff and boat the fish my Dad (Brian Lange) and Stubbs were fighting. The moon was silver bright and we never needed a light as the sun disappeared in a sky of red and the fish went wild. Free jumping and swimming tuna all around the boat but the bigger ones were just being so violent as rod after rod screamed. I was beaten up by a monster eventually handing the rod to Stubbs who in turn gave ot to my Dad until the line parted. We hooked and battled many big tuna and luckily a few small ones which were easier to boat. Protea Reef is an incredible place but very difficult to fish with a 3 to 4 knot current prevailing, huge sharks and jagged reef – not to mention the outsized fish. Even though the yellowfin seldom get over 35kg’s here, they fight double as hard in the shallower waters and tackling up is the only solution.
Subsistence fishermen have been working the Umzimkulu River for decades. As the condition of the river has deteriorated their lot has been reduced year after year. But there is something very noble about their ignoble existence. Targeting barbel chiefly…they also catch rock salmon (mangrove jack), grunter, perch, salmon and even gamefish like kingfish and garrick. Sometimes shad move into the river and the bounty makes for celebrating. But mainly…it is hard going. Pollution. Brown water. Cold. Wind. Hours with no bites… Yet what else could they do? Their lifestyle is all they have. Their fishing is all they have. The Umzimkulu is all they have. Respect to the subsistence fishermen of the mighty Umzimkulu…
