Young Dercio and a brace of couta, king mackeral or serra…as they are known here in Mozambique. These two fish in the 10 to 12kg represent the average size these hard fighting fish are coming out this time of year. Yesterday Meader van Wijk had a successful charter with 2 yellowfin and a skipjack. He reported many baitballs and jumping tuna. The water has been warming and then cooling again…but it should start hitting the top twenties soon…
Keith Cooke and Jose Rungu joined me on a hunt out deep yesterday. We were searching for a yellowfin for bait when after 2 hours a rod screamed and a yellowfin it was. But a big one (for these waters) gave us the gears, tangling everything in the rough seas and strong wind. And certainly too big for bait.
But there was no sign of the 5kg bait size tuna that have been so prolific lately. And not a bird in sight. Unless you count tunny ducks (Gannets) diving into the depths after the sardines and another baitfish around the Barra mouth area.
Then on our way into the shallows to try for a couta, a dorado jumped on a black feather at the back of a daisy chain. Jose Rungu made short of work of it and as got into 5m of water, we got our couta!
