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Bazaruto Blue Marlin in winter – again…

Bazaruto Blue Marlin in winter – again…

Hi Sean,

Seems incredible but every time we been going deep off Bazaruto, we getting into some Blue Marlin…and this is the peak of winter!!!
Went out on Friday night to fish for broadbill swordfish and we found very interesting structure dropping from 300 to 500 meters in less than half a mile. Except for sharks the night was uneventful but the next morning we decided to troll around the area with some Marlin lures and an hour into it we got a awesome strike on the short corner Black Big T – TT and hooked up. Charles Holsted brough his first ever Marlin for a release – a  fish we estimated at about 400 pounds.
We had another blue come up on the same lure a tad later but missed it and just before heading home hooked a sailfish that pulled hooks close to the boat!
Looks like we might have a winter fisheries in our hands that no one knew about!
Will be out there friday again, hope to have some news by the weekend!
Cheers mate,
Duarte
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To catch a tuna – with Brian Moulang

To catch a tuna – with Brian Moulang

Brian Moulang, up from Port Elizabeth, booked a charter with us on the Niteshift, for some Yellow fin Tuna action. It was a long hard day, but eventually a tuna showed itself after the entire day and many, many miles. Starting on the backline catching livebait, we saw Lawrence Wursnip and John Collinson show off two over 30kg tuna, taken just as we got there…and so the struggle ensued. It even took a trip out to Protea Reef, where we found the usual, big sharks, and big current!

So back to the backline. Luckily the bottomfish reefs kept us entertained while we waited for that elusive tuna strike…when that live maasbanker went away it sounded like U2 cranking up!

Enjoy the video…

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Head bangers tuna fishing…

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Joey Chetty, Michael Govender and his nice catch of a 12kg yellow fin tuna, Angie Naidoo, Brian Lange and Christopher Naidoo after a rough outing to Protea Reef, this morning.
This time of year the condition of the sea can be disagreeable but the winter game fish season is underway and the roving fish seem to like the big swells, winds and currents. In fact this tuna jumped on the lure a few seconds after it was let out…

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Easterlies, whales, ships, waves, amberjack, bonito and yellowfin tuna!

John van Reenen Yellowfin Tuna

It started out smooth and calm, with a nice launch at 7:30am, but soon the beasterly easterly started to whisper. Captain Brian Lange at the helm of Niteshift, from the Umzimkulu Marina, was driving, with John van Reenen and Sean Lange as crew. By the time we had 10 livies, it was up to 15 knots, but since the tide had run out half, we were stuck out there for the next 6 hours! The ride to Protea was like being in a skatepark, and when we got there, the wind was up to 20. But, there was very little current and we only had to deal with wind drift really – staying on the reef was easy. But the fish weren’t there. Our livebaits stayed live and the wind picked up even more.

We were only entertained by whales exploding all around us. So many of them, travelling north, south, east and west! After no strikes at all, we headed to a deep brick off Tweni, and got the anchor to hold. A ship came out of the south straight for us, but luckily adjusted course and passed on our inside, by a few hundred metres.

It was rough going on the anchor, with the boat going half airborne sometimes…we got a huge Bonito, an Amberjack…on the bottom with the livebaits, and then it happened. Tuna! Yellowfin! Coming up behind us. The home-made plug and the Mydo spoon went flying with the east gale, and both went away as they hit the water. Some 25kg class mixed up with football sized. Luckily we got a few smaller ones to start with, as the gas bottles hammered us…first the popper got annihilated, then the Mydo spoon… John van Reenen had his eye on the Okuma T30 as it started to growl…’wicked tuna’ style…he set the drag to max and strapped in. 30 Gruelling minutes, many close calls and two gaffing attempts later…one gaff got the tuna by the tail and the second gaff swung in…O.D.B…on da boat! So it was a great day…an awesome catch in the end…goes to show what Captain Paul Cook preaches…’Fishing is like school…good marks for good attendance…!’

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