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Sailfish released off Tofinho by 11 year old Callum

Sailfish released off Tofinho by 9 year old Callum

Young Callum and family joined us for a day out in the waters behind Tofinho Point, southern Mozambique, a few years back  – sometimes known as Whale Shark alley. Soon Callum’s uncle Angus was into a nice fish on dropshot, which turned out to be a trophy queenfish – and got it into the hatch and home for dinner, after a gruelling fight on super light tackle.

Then a sailfish grabbed hold of the Mydo sardine bait(#1 Baitswimmer and skirt) and soon was leaping and tail walking around us. It took about 20 minutes and eventually the fish was alongside and good for a nice healthy, yet slightly protracted release.

Inhambane waters are great for family outings like this one. You just got to organise a big boat!

We have the huge Inhambane Bay that is completely flat on the inside and sprawled with islands, sandbanks, channels and bays.

Then out behind the Barra and Tofo points is the famous crystal clear water known for it’s marine wild life population. Whale sharks and manta rays can be encountered on the inside while you are trolling for live bait and in winter time whales come out of the south looking for safety and calm for their new born calves.

Not to mention the sailfish!

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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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Fresh in from Cpt. Duarte Rato: Marlin Black ‘n Blue

IMG_5640Tim and Ross from CT had been here on a 3-day trip three years ago and in that trip released three Blacks up to 450 lbs in horrible conditions. Still today I talk about it as the absolutely more shity crappie water I have ever caught a Marlin. The water was not green, it was brown!!!

 

It is uncommon and not to such an extent but, three days before they got here the water went completely off-colour. The night they arrived it finally turned SE but not knowing the water had seriously moved in we spent a couple of fruitless hours in the early morning on the inside catching bait.

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We had enough of it and set a spread of lures and planned to go deep for Blues but as soon as we got to 90 meters the water turned an electric Blue (which seriously put a smile on my face). Fifteen minutes later a dark shade materializes behind the long corner lure and after trailing it for a while finally inhales it properly and stuck. Ross made short work of it and in no time at all we had this very frisky Black to deal with by the boat. We released it and called it 150 LBS.
IMG_5643The second day was alive at Lighthouse. We released a bunch of Yellowfin and bonnies and got a nice wahoo. Everything looked in place and early morning Big Bob hooked up and released a nice 600 pound Black just to the outside of us. An hour later we got a 350 come on the spread, knock the long corner and then come snake like billing the long left and fade away. Later we live baited and got sharked by a massive bull.

 

The third day started with a big YFT and a dorie. But it was nowhere as alive as the day before although we did get a lot of YFT on the blind. At 11am we decided to go deep for a couple hours and worked the 300-line counter for a while. I got a call from Steve on Wave Walker about a drifting commercial FAD they were working on a few miles down. When we got there it was gamefish mayhem and the boys had an hour of fun on bonnies, YFT and wahoo. We left to go shallow and work the afternoon incoming tide. On the way in 240 meters a very aggressive fish took the long left lure from the inside out and went off for the races. This Blue did all it was supposed to do, that is go absolutely insane after the bite, warping off at lighting speed, then turning and jumping towards the boat like Hell and then just decide to dash away into the horizon. This hysterical behavior soon settled down and we quickly got on top of the fish and released it at probably a dash over 550 LBS for Tim Bacon.

Very cool to catch a Blue as we, for good reasons, do not normally venture into their territory…

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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!!!

 

 


Duarte A. Moreira Rato

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

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EPIC start to the Bazaruto Marlin Season by Duarte Rato

Duarte Rato Bazaruto

EPIC start to the Bazaruto Marlin Season by Duarte Rato

Even though we only really starting the Marlin Season of the Bazaruto archipelago on the third week of September, we had our good friend and loyal client Carl Jankowitz come up with his family during the last week of August to have an early go. August is a windy month and this year was no exception and we only fished 2 days over the course of the week, but they were EPIC to say the least, especially this early. On the first day and after catching some game fish on light tackle we hooked a Marlin about 250 lbs on a #30 pound stick and a TLD 25. Unfortunately it broke off 55 minutes later. We set the konas on the heavy gear and got some yellowfin tuna and just before lines in had a crash strike on the short corner lure followed by a sizzling run. Carl got in the chair and brought in a frisky 250 lbs Black Marlin for a release. The next we caught some serious size wahoo, yellowfin and then missed a Marlin mid morning. We persisted and just before noon we hooked a 300 + pounder that gave us some awesome jumps and a really hard time. It took us just under an hour to get it alongside the boat for a release. 2 Marlin out of 4 for Carl Jankowitz in two days this early in the season is really encouraging and we cannot wait to get out there come late September!!!

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