Jamie Edwards for DIVERSITY SCUBA
WHALE SHARKS are back!!! Yesterdays conditions were amazing, sea was flat and the sun was shining. We also had a total of 9 Whale Sharks out on the Ocean Safari’s, one being close to 11 meters! Other than the Whale Sharks we also had breaching Humpback Whales, one Leatherback Turtle and a Hammerhead Shark. Was such an amazing day out at sea and we hope to have many more 🙂
Karl Gouws and Elton van Rooyen went deep off Port Shepstone with live bait to load this hard fighting and heavy weighing Amberjack. Pulling these things from 60m on anchor is no joke…but they get up to or more than 60kg’s on some of the deeper Kwazulu Natal lower south coast reefs! Protea Reef has produced some boat winners. Hibberdene is a hotspot for very big Amberjack, and there are some crazy big ones up in Mozambique too. On the back of the diving reefs off Tofo they are reported to shoal and the locals get quite a few in the 20 to 30kg class, during the winter months. Hard to catch. Need live bait.
Check this massive grouper found flailing in the low tide pools at Praia da
Congiana near Tofo this morning.
The young fisherman who fortuned upon the spectacle made even more of a show as he dragged it the full 3kms along the
beach to the Tofo market!
It’s value is about equal to 2months salary at minimum wage here (R1000 or thereabouts), so the exhausted young fisher was over the moon.
The story is told in the photographs.
That’s a Shark bite! The puzzle is…how did the grouper make it to the shallows after his tail was bitten clean off?
Or did the drama unfold right in the shallows before first light and just after the scant moon?
Hunting time.
Fishing time.
This is how I have found fishing to be Mozambique.
And most places.
The tide turned and started coming in during these early and dark hours. Mr Grouper might
have been chasing kingfish and stumpnose (Porgy) and bonefish when Mr Big Teeth
ambushed him and bit his tail right off!
Shoulda…coulda…woulda…
As to the grouper species…any offers? There have been a number
of smaller ones in the market coming out of 36m plus water and one local claims
that there are many of these fish this time of the year.
During President Guebuza’s visit to China it was announced that they are looking to rebuild the Lindela to Tofo road.
(Courtesy AIM)
The road from the EN1 to Tofo is often flooded, and some sections are in need of repair. The road is heavily used by business, locals and tourists. When the road floods, it cuts off Barra, Tofo and Inhambane – and the only way out is by boat or aircraft!
The roads in Mozambique have improved dramatically since the end of conflict.
Fish Profile: Blue Tail Mullet – staple diet for communities in many tropical places throughout the Indo-Pacific, the blue tail mullet also puts up helluva fight on hook and line. Which in Mozambique and similar 3rd world countries, means hand line.
Life Underwater – Blue Tailed Mullet in the Umzimkulu Estuary (youtube.com)
Mostly though, these fish are caught in a huge net deployed from a dhow.
These fish above were netted.
But we saw an amazing display of fishing skills on the Inhambane Pier a few years back. Using handlines with tiny prawns as bait, local subsistence anglers expertly fight and subdue these fine-looking blue-tinged fish – they are so full of colour in the water. This guy must have run 3 or 4 kilos. However, we have seen some that look even bigger around here.
