Bazaruto Marlin Season report
Finally got to Bazaruto a couple of days ago & got a short 10 days to get boat and gear ready before the first guests arrive for the first charter of the season.
Pretty booked up – actually back-to-back charters all the way to the end of December with only a couple of available days in late October and the third week of November – which for my own sanity I should just take for a rest…
The plan was to concentrate on boat & gear….it seriously was 
, but then yesterday the 2 ladies below (promising to wear G-strings on the boat and all) got really persuasive and after pulling my arm really hard (yeah right 
) convinced me to take them out for a few hours of light tackle game fishing in the morning…
I am glad they did, what epic fun and what a welcome to this beautiful & rich part of the world.
We started just before 7am at III trees and within minutes caught a couple of bonnies and three small yellowfin.
I swear I heard this particular YFT say something like…
`Ohhhh boy, I have just died and gone to heaven!!!“
Drifting, as we fighting the yellowfin, something takes one of the rigger ballyhoo´s and a sailfish starts jumping in our wake but throws the bait before we can come tight!
We work the area and soon after we get double strike with Ali hooking and releasing his first ever sailfish that gave us an awesome show…
We work the area hard and move slightly south to an area full of porpoise and jube jube´s. We right in front of Nhangosse now when the tip of a sailfish bill appears behind one of the short´s. Then a long rigger clip comes out. All of a sudden there is bill and sails behind every lure…we raised a whole lot of them, had at least 5 strikes and manage a triple hookup…
Except for Ali that is now on his second sailie for the day, it’s everyone’s first but they do a great job 
and after a lot of dancing around the deck and a few crossed lines we do manage to release all three fish…
The first one we let go is Ali´s…
Then Vanessa brings her in for a quick release…
Ross´s one is playing really hard, fighting deep and ducking under the boat every time we get close. No wonder as we see that it is foul hooked on top of the head – and on top we can´t really put much pressure, afraid it will tear out.
It’s another hard 15 minutes of work for Ross – the poor chap had to wait for everyone until we could concentrate on his fish and now this under a blazing hot sun.
But eventually Antonio grabs the bill, we take a quick photo and let it go…
Well, less than two hours of fishing we got 4 out of 7 sailfish bites and a load of YFT and bonnies. I know its kind of crazy to leave a bite like that behind but, everyone is happy, I am keen to look around so we decide to start trolling south towards home.
We all chilled with a crispy bottle of white chardonnay and savoring some sashimi when two rods take off to the races…
The second had almost spooled the TLD 25 on it’s first run – has I had obviously concentrated on the lady’s fish first.
We now chase after it but it’s at least another 20 minutes before we see colour down below. After a few more light speed runs we eventually get a gaff in and bring a beast of a ´hoo onboard that later weighs at 31 kilos…
The first one turns out to be a beautiful 22 kg wahoo for Lee…
Shortly after we get another 2 BUS wahoo but unluckily they both take small konas rigged on mono and chop us off. We still get another two Yellowfin IDB and then make our way home…
The flavors of the day was the legend´s 12´merlin and the infamous one eye Enki that not even Lee could leave it alone…yeah no wonder I am smiling
!!!
Still some time for a refreshing swim @ pansy island (how beautiful is this place???) and back at the resort before 11 for some Mojitos & Pina Colada´s by the beach bar…
Yeah, what a welcome back home…in under three fishing hours, most of which was spent fighting fish, we got a bunch of YFT and bonnies, two wahoo of 22 and 31 kg and released 4 sailfish out of 7 bites…all on 30 pound tackle on TLD 25´s.
It´s good to be back…
Between all the work on the boat and gear, the great fishing and the snail pace internet it´s been difficult to post what´s happening this side…but it´s only been five mornings on the water so far and, to say the least it´s been truly epic.
Here´s a few photos of the these last few days.
I wish I was reporting mega fights with colossal black Marlin but the bloody gamefish has been so good that my guest have chosen to rather target those on light tackle, a pity as conditions look absolutely faultless for the big ladies!
After the big SE cold front over the weekend going beyond 30 knots stupid deep blue looking water has mover right into the edge, current is exceptionally strong and baitfish are aplenty.
What else can you ask for…well someone who wants to target them exclusively!!!
Still we mostly doing light tackle and having a ball of a time at it!!!
We got the boat ready to rock last week and went out on Tuesday for a couple hours trial and the quantity of YFT out there is just phenomenal…
yeah it´s been sashimi all along….
The next day took the resident pilots out for just a couple fun hours and as we setting lines @ sunrise we hook into a big fish that William fights for over half an hour but pulls…think probably a big GT.
We have great fun once again with yellowfin galore for couple hours…
Guess what was 4 dinner……SASHIMI!!!!
Thursday we got our clients – first charter for the season – five really nice chaps from Kimberley who are just fishing for two days and despite great fishing the previous days I want to find something with a longer nose and decide to go all the way south to the canyon.
But boy ohhhh boy again we just find a bedlam of yellowfin and the guys arms are stretched for the first two hours…
Mid morning we set a spread of Marlin lures and within 10 minutes get a Black around 300 lbs aggressively coming from the inside out on the long left blue & white express…unluckily after stripping some 50 yards it come undone.
We get a wahoo strike, some more YFT and then raise another small Marlin about 200 lbs on the shotgun legend´s Piper but never get a nibble out of it.
Before noon we start making our way home and have a double sailfish strike with Riann Pretorius hooking and releasing his first ever billfish…
On the way home we still get another half dozen YFT!!!
Friday was just EPIC!!!!
The guys were flying out early and still wanted to do some snorkelling before getting back so going back to the canyon was out the question and instead we went out north to lighthouse / III trees and Nhangosse area.
Yeah, quiet for the first hour with only a couple bonito and 3 YFT, but we then get two mysterious strikes which I am sure are sailies…so put some halfbeaks on the spread and work the area hard. Sure enough out of the blue we get a pack attack of at least 5 fish on the baits….we hook three but one comes off…
After some tango on the deck Bernard and John release their first ever billfish…
With such perfect looking conditions I am hyped to do some `proper´ fishing and ask the guys…should we go Marlin fishing now???
NO, WE WANT MORE SAILIES!!!
HUmmmmmm, OK!!!
The sea is alive all around us, humpback whales are jumping here and there, we see a couple leather back turtles…
a whole school of bonnies and yellowfin is surrounded by a few hundred spinner dolphins…
and in between this mayhem we don´t get a chance to try for sailies or anything else as with only two rods with halcos we can barely go 5 minutes without a double strike of YFT and we get 14 before I casually and smoothly move out the massive school….enough is enough!!!
We start working south and also pick a couple of nice wahoo…
We heading home now has the guys got to get back to fly out at 2pm so we put some Konas to make way and soon have a mysterious strike on the LC smoker that does not connect. Not much longer we get another wahoo and 5 minutes later the Tube is once again taken but this time a small rat jumps on our wake.
Good think itº´s only a small fish of about 120 lbs as they guys got to get back, but still the first billfish / marlin for Craig Edwards and the guys are now over the moon…what a morning…
Has we are about to pull lines out in shallow water to make our way home the long right is taken, then the short left…well all the lures come out the clips as a sailfish pack tactfully bill the plastic…
but as it so often happens on big konas we do not hook up on a single one of them…and with no time to work the area we pick up and head home…
It was a very happy bunch that left the lodge…
