The Tarpon of Angola: Sardine Correspondent Marc Lange has been deployed way out on the edge – mainly Angola, for quite a few years now. Working on the rigs gives him time enough off to explore for fish to target, and this is what he found recently, near Cabinda…the Tarpon!
It has not been an easy quest, but the following gallery features some of the super fish he has encountered along the long journey, to the Tarpon of Angola.
There is another story filled with dorado and big eye tuna, right here.
If it’s this kind of fishing and adventure you are into, get in touch with Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com or WhatsApp +27 79 326 9671. Angola now gives a three week tourist visa, so it’s time to take advantage. Let’s put something together, we have the contacts and the information.
Other options
You can check out the many other options we have going (seasonal), by using the Trips and Travel menu above. Right now it’s the blue marlin of Inhaca waters, off Maputo. Captain Duarte Rato is making the most of it returning a 5-3-2 for marlin on his first day out. More about Duarte and his marlin taming antics can be found right here – http://fishbazaruto.com.
At 4 am this early morning, whilst I was tossing and turning (dreaming of marlin perhaps) with another bout of the Big M. (Malaria) – I sensed some activity outside.
My brother Marc was back from Angola. And he had his son Brandon and his mate Tristan Roodt.
They were prepping the good boat Niteshift, and soon headed out through the Umzimkulu River mouth, into a rough and ready ocean. All confused from the day before as the south and north wind argued like they have been. From my angle, the wind just blew and blew, but with high tide all day, I knew they could return anytime they liked really.
But they didn’t.
The first Instagram video came through – wasting time with a shark.
But then silence. For ages.
The wind got right up again. 20 Knots or more. Ideal dorado weather. And marlin!
And so it was, the early birds, after spending a good few hours getting into the swing of the day, found the worm.
The dorado came screaming in and a total of five eventually made it into the hatch for a free boat ride. Many got away and lost out.
Delicious dorado for dinner! Reward for releasing the marlin!
At one point, Marc took a look at his plugging outfit looking all lonely. So in sympathy, he picked it up and gave it a lob. As it hit the water, without any sign or warning, a tasty little yellowfin tuna smashed it! Luck? I dunno?
Marlin!
Then all of a sudden, there it was. An angry 100kg plus marlin picked on the blue number 2 Mydo Livebaitswimmer, armed with those reliable 5x little black trebles from Mustad.
Not wanting to cause the fish too much distress before he let it go, Marc pushed the drag right up and gave the jumping, dancing fish the gears. In 25 minutes he had the fish beat and behaving in front of the boat?! Marc pulled the tiny trebles out easily enough, and sent it on its way a lot more wily and suspicious of those Mydos and how good they are rigged!
The Mydo LiveBaitSwimmer is just like a Baitswimmer, but it has a strong little single hook to pin the lively live bait with. There are two weights, 1 Oz and 2Oz, so you can keep your livies away from eachother, on the drift, or on the troll.
More about the lure Marc used to catch this marlin today…and details of which shops carry The Mydo range can be found at https://thesardine.co.za/mydo/
The big couta run continues down south where fishing off Port Shepstone, Marc Lange, Andrew Lange and Koos Viviers came home with these magnificent photos of their day at sea recently. Nice sized couta caught on MYDO Livebait traces with frisky mackerel attached. Marc, Andrew and Koos have been proponents of The MYDO Fishing System since it’s inception.
Taking surfboards, spearfishing stuff, cooler box, coffee, fishing rods etc…out off the picturesque KZN South Coast coastline is what life is all about!
Drop us a line on 079 326 9671 or email umzimkulu@gmail.com if you would like taste of the big couta run action.
We have boats waiting in the water and very cool self catering accommodation at The Umzimkulu Marina.
Tales of tarpon, Kingfish, salmon and more… The following gallery has been submitted my Marc Lange onlocation, fishing in Angola.
Marc has also reported some close calls with 80kg class tarpon, at a river mouth nearby! Having one on for 10 minutes is the record so far… these fish are renowned for being able to throw even the deepest set hook.
From Marc’s WhatsApp messages…
“Sean yesterday I hooked two , #%&£# man , these things are strong , like trying to reel in a 50L cylinder with the pillar valve just knocked off, the one was a quick 30 sec hook up but the other was on for about 10 minutes and I got him next to the side quick in about 7 minutes or so, then it was as if he didn’t even know he was hooked and screamed off and jumped like crazy and through my 9/0 kendel , Eish man it’s always when they jump and then he throws the hook, I’ve had 4 hook ups now, live mullet the last two , but these are 80kg I’m sure , will try source some circle hooks.”
Eish Marc… Sounds like crazy fun you having there!
Another fishy story, this time a Red Steenbras, in Seal Point…
Meandering across to Seal Point from J-bay, through the pastures and fields of green, accompanied by Brucifire, a few surfboards and some fishing rods…we drove past a crew unloading their boat, after a trip to sea at Seal Point, and pulled over. Since I am down in the Cape distributing and promoting Mydo Lures, I was hoping these guys would recognise the Mydo’s for their versatility and adaptability, and try them out in these waters.
It turned out to be Sheppy boy Mark White, now living in St. Frances. And he had just returned from a dive. Greetings were exchanged and soon I had the Mydo lures out on the table and Mark was ogling with enthusiasm. Mark had worked with by brother Marc, in the Natal Sharks Board, and is one of those…
After dropping a liberal helping of spoons and luck shots on the table, Mark pipes up – “Hey Sean, do you want a fish?!”. Ha ha ha, here we go again. But I nearly fell over when he hauled out a beautiful Red Steenbras, or Copper, as we call them in Natal.
Diving on his own, in 60 feet, Mark had an amazing catch of fish – all the right ones too! Baardman, reds and one Red Steenbras. You see, it’s not just the fact that these are almost the hardest fish to shoot in the world (they really like to hang out in deep water), they are also one of the most delicious!
And so it was, that without casting a line, we had caught another fish! Thanks Mark White!
And so, we have another Catch ‘n Cook series instalment for you…the rare and fabled Red Steenbras!
Red Steenbraas for dinner tonight at JBay SurfView! Hell, these Mydos catch fish!
The fish may have gone 6kg’s, and was a cinch to fillet, leaving us with two huge slabs of white flaky fresh fish to play with. And a skeleton and a head – which were quickly popped into a huge pot and boiled up. When the fish was falling off the skeleton and the head fell apart, we removed as much of the meat as we could, and then strained the rest through a colander, into the same pot. Then we fried onions, peppers and garlic to golden brown, and chucked that into the same soup pot. And that cooked away on a slow boil.
Our hosts in J-bay, Dr. Kurt Mariano and his wife Noma, at JBay SurfView, are very health conscious people, and so we decided that, alongside the fried fish I was planning , we would also grill a chunk, using much the same method as that of when we cooked the kob we caught (ha ha) last week.
The rest of the fillets were cut into 1cm thick cutlets taken across the grain.
Noma had some Tempura batter, fresh from Thailand, which is simply a healthy version of the batter we make with regular white flour. She also had some exotic nut oils which we mixed half with butter and got the pan up to heat. Leaving the cutlets soaking in the Tempura (which featured added flavour of Italian Herbs and Spices and anything else I could find in the spice rack – but no salt), they were fried one by one in a light layer of oil and butter. Very light, this is NOT deep frying.
The soup was prepared by boiling the huge head and skeleton, for a half an hour. Manually removing the chunks of meat from the head is time consuming and hot work but there is no way around this task. Eventually, when you have gotten most of the meat into a new pot, you can strain the remains through a pasta colander, also into the new pot. In the meantime, onions, peppers, garlic and all those nice things were glazed in a bit of oil in a hot pan. Add this fry up to the new pot, and start to simmer – the longer the better. In this time you can taste test and twist the flavour the way you like it. Chilli is a great partner to fish soup, so we opened a tin of seshebo like chillied up onions and tomatoes and bombed that in too. The secret ingredient – a piece of orange rind…just chuck it in whilst cooking. Salt is almost necessary in this broth, but there is no need for MSG!
The Red Steenbras soup on the simmer…JBay SurfView has all the cooking facilities you need for storm cooking.
The grilled fish was done exactly like the kob we cooked here last week, that story is here.
Noma had prepared salad and mashed potato, and all the various dishes from that one fish were laid out for devouring.
Salt added to flavour, a glass of white wine and…what a meal!
Grilled, fried and souped – Red Steenbras!
Sean – “Ok, the touchy bit…Red Steenbras are endangered!
Red Steenbraas have been classified as endangered before, but all of a sudden, limited catches are now allowed again. Very limited. One per person per day, and over 60cm. Responsible people are keeping an eye on the stocks, but since they were reduced to endangered levels before, are proven sensitive to over-exploitation. It’s a fantastic fish to “Catch n’ Cook” but not so clever to buy and cook, or eat in a restaurant. Check out Sassi’s report on the vulnerable Red Steenbras. Sassi are affiliated to WWF and are a cool bunch of peeps really dedicated to preserving fish stocks.”
