Are you looking for a Holiday Home in Tofo? Check out Casa Frenzy…
Casa Frenzy is a super cool and big enough house for diving and surfing families – who want to take a relaxing break in a Holiday Home in Tofo
Ideally situated on the shoreline only a few clicks north of the marvelous Praia do Tofo beach and partying town. Casa Frenzy is set snugly into the indigenous vegetation directly behind the primary beach dune. It’s a 100 meter walk and you are in the warm clear Indian Ocean. Swimming or snorkeling your time away.
Then you might be prepared to hit the deep blue, and jump with the whale sharks, mantas, and dolphins that Tofo has become internationally known for. The reefs and ocean life in Tofo are rich and fascinating. There are heaps of reefs and dive spots between far Barra in the north, and Manta Reef, in the south. In between these two extremes, must be 20 named scuba spots.
Enjoy this cool video by ArtSurfer, shot by Renske Massing, with underwater companion Zito, a little while ago – in December 2017.
More about the enthralling town of Tofo…
Loads of dive centres to choose from
snorkelling or scuba
surf lessons for beginners and advanced
Island trips and dhow travels
Beachcombing
sport angling
vehicle and boat rental
Inhambane City visits
nightlife
local and international cuisine
fresh seafood daily
fresh foods grown right in Tofo
Coconuts and cashews
Tipo Tinto Rum and 2M cerveja
There are really so many things for everybody to do in and around the Praia do Tofo area. The Inhambane Bay allures with it’s enchanted islands and purple blue channels. Complete peace and quiet and accessible to everybody in the family or tour group. The swimming and snorkeling at Barra is terrific and you may even become a close acquaintance with a little seahorse or two.
So click on over to our newly updated Casa Frenzy page and connect through the easy as form…
Fresh in from Bazaruto Island: Captain Duarte Rato has been hard at all February, and rounds it all off with a fantastic trip he got together with his Dad and his son. Spanning three generations, the effort was serious enough, but with the help of Duarte Jnr’s mom Gretha, those yellowfin were really in deep trouble!
“As all who fish with us know my Dad, Jose Duarte, is a true salt, a real old man of the sea who spent his life in the Ocean, mostly on commercial vessels. He took me to sea from a very young age and, from a very early stage in my life, when my friends wanted to be Doctors, or fireman, or engineers, I knew I wanted to be a charter Captain. My oldest son, Duarte, who just turned 5, as definitely inherited the passion of the sea from us. Or should I say obsession! The boy dreams fishing, watches fishing videos as opposed to cartoons, spends huge amounts of time looking at my BlueWater, Ski-boat and Marlin Magazines and, at five, can easily identify between a Blue, a Black and a Striped!”
The yellowfin tuna have also made an appearance of Tofo recently. Acres of birds enjoying the feast of small sardine-like fishies all over the place right now. Judging by some of the smashes going on, visible over a few kilometres even, there were some big fish on the hunt. Voracious attacks on the surface!
In the backline at Tofinho were the bonefish again. They looked like they could have been spawning as every now and then one lolled over another and a flash of underbelly was occasionally seen. Very cool to see them all so tightly knit and floating along just shy of the waves. If they were not spawning, then I am not sure what they were getting up to?! And no, they were not lemonfish!
Along the beach at Fatimas the bonefish pros were baiting up with prawn and squid and getting a handful of foot longs each. These guys just seem to know exactly when and where these fish decide to show up. This was a few days ago, as a front came through.
The markets are overloaded with lovely gamefish like couta, kingfish and tuna. The weather has been crappy, but aytime the row boats get themselves out there, they bring back nice fish.
Catching Yellowfin Tuna in Mozambique
Well the biggest one caught up in these tropical waters here so far, has to be this 72kg monster, by Duarte and crew, taken on a marlin rig, a few years ago. This fish caused quite a stir, as on this same day, they were all over the place. These huge yellowfin tuna, out of nowhere! And on a mission to smash into everything they could. Luckily this fish held on right to the end. Quite a few got away!
This is the biggest Yellowfin Tuna caught in mozambique by anyone we know. Yes Captain Duarte Rato again!
At around the same time, bigger class yellowfin tuna were being encountered up and down the East Coast seaboard of Southern Africa. Even Durban got a fish over 50kg’s. A new club record for all the years of that clubs existence.
Traditionally, yellowfin tuna just don’t hang in these tropical and warmer waters at all. Once they reach sexual maturity, which is 35 to 40kgs, they shoot over the horizon and into the “tuna lanes”.
But, tuna, all of the species, are well known for their feeding patterns. They can stick to a regimen like clockwork, often traversing hundreds of kilometres in a day as they migrate between feeding spots. Feeding spots that these highly intelligent fish know are going to produce at those times. And they can change feeding habits and patterns, completely.
Bluefin tuna used to use False Bay as one of their spots. These fish were most likely Southern Bluefin, which we still get in quite prolific numbers, right off our coast. The Transkei Wild Coast regularly sees legal longliners from Japan, there are two of them, catching Southern Bluefin Tuna, within cellphone signal distance from shore. These ships are based out of Durban and can be monitored on any AIS app, anytime. They catch serious fish. Billfish and Southern Bluefin. but the Bluefin that vacated False Bay in the seventies – have never come back!
Weirdly enough, Bluefin started pitching up off Ireland a while back. After a very long absence. Local anglers were amazed to see these huge fish coming right up to them, as they plied their regular fishing techniques right offshore. Soon, these guys were posting online, questions on how to catch Bluefin Tuna. And sure enough, they caught quite a few!
So the influx of bigger tuna to these shallower and more tropical waters, could be seen as an adjustment to their feeding patterns. An adjustment to the adjustments made as so many variables have to line up for natural events like sardine runs to occur.
So tackle up this next season. Keep that heavy duty popper at the ready!
Bonefish, bluebottles and easterlies in summertime Tofo
Surfing Tofinho in the predominant easterly winds of summertime can still be a blast. The sand on the point still sends little wind swells reeling along just fine.
The clean warm water has also enticed shoals of bonefish and blue-tailed mullet. They were swimming right into us as they porpoised down the face of the very waves we were catching. Chasing hapless little anchovy looking fishies all over the place. The boneys use the free power of the wave to ambush with. Spectacular.
Bonefish are a staple in this place. Using handlines and small hooks baited with prawn or squid, local anglers know exactly when and where to get a bag full of footlong boneys. They get really big here. World record size. See featured pic of Jimmy the local angler from Tofinho with a bus. Sometimes they vie for attention with the magnificent milkfish. Chanos chanos. A slab of muscle adorned with a huge tail. Which can be seen as they hunt right on the surface. They seem to enjoy the same feeding conditions as the bonefish. Small creatures right on the surface.
Both species will chase your spoon or dropshot. But they always turn away at the last minute. But they will gorge your tiny white fly.
Best have at least a 9 weight for this battle…
Rounding off…this is officially the details of the largest ever bonefish caught…just down the way in Zululand…
Weight: 19 pounds
Line Class: M-30 / All Tackle
Angler: Brian Batchelor
Location: Zululand, South Africa
Date: May 26, 1962
Fight Time: N/A
Lure/Bait: Prawn
Tackle: Atlas line; Penn 49A reel; Sealey Heavy Surf rod
If you’re looking for a backpackers in Xai Xai – you’ve found it!
Watch the video…
Bamboo Beach Backpackers is right on the beach at Xai Xai! It features a value restaurant and fun pub. Dorms, singles and doubles at the usual rates. Free tea and coffee.
But the main attraction is certainly the location. Right on Xai Xai Beach itself. The idyllic lagoon style bathing out front is safe and tranquil. The beaches stretch for miles each way and are adorned with features and attractions like rock pools and sandbanks. There is a protective barrier reef which at low tide is completely exposed. This reef runs for miles along the entire stretch.
There is all sorts to do and many activities available at Xai Xai. Deep sea or shore fishing. Scuba diving. Snorkeling. There are many places close by that you can visit by foot.
The infamous Limpopo River joins the Indian Ocean at Zongoene, down the beach to the south. Trips can be arranged. If you’re an avid sport fisherman or fly-fisher, then this is certainly a bucket list type destination. It is wild down there!
Getting to Bamboo Beach Backpackers is as easy as catching a bus. Bus travel in Mozambique has been upgraded phenomenally as of late. Safe and steady, the prices are also completely reasonable. You could get from Maputo to Xai Xai for about R200 or less, on these big new and comfortable busses. Maputo to Inhassoro costs about R300 one way, as a side note.
Getting in touch with Bamboo Beach from the outset of your travels is a good idea. They will arrange your pickup in Xai Xai and transfer to your new beach location.
Catch that sunrise!
“No eternal reward will forgive us now, for wasting the dawn.” – Jim Morrison
Surfing Sathanes with an energetic Dustin Volker aka Krusty, and a polished Chris Leppan, this film with camera lady Riz Laine and edit by Xonalanga, tells the real story of surfing the fabled Mozambican point breaks.
A fickle coastline at best, Mozambique surf spots much prefer east swells, which start hammering though as the cyclone season kicks into gear. The swells in this clip were south swells, and as you can see, the wave seems to warble a tad.
It’s great surfing as usual. Krusty kills it on his backhand whilst natural footer Chris is just loving his time up here in the tropics. Right hander after right hander after right hander.
It’s been a good summer so far. And with the first Cyclone, “AVA”, having already caused mayhem on the east side of Madagascar, it looks to be a good season into 2018. This cyclone made landfall half way down Mad, and the steep mountain escarpment that side broke it’s speed from 150kph right down. Where it careened off south-east and out to sea.
But not without sending us some of it’s juices in the form of a punchy east swell, that lit up the Tofo Bay at high tide, with some perfect shore-breaking waves, for quite a few days. It wasn’t big enough for the Barra sand to come alive. But that’s coming soon!
There is a tropical depression way up top, in the cyclone factory right now. Will it form up into a real spinner? The ones we want are not the ones that come into the Mozambique Channel at all. Those randomly cause havoc and chaos, and are literally completey unpredictable. No, the ones we want spin-off and hang around the very tip of Mad. Those are the conditions to watch for.
Get your paddling arms on! These swells are short period and very strong.
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