Vilankulos Sailfish & Wahoo Madness…
We had more of the same as we got into mid-May with good size wahoo dominating the fishing with a few Vilankulos sailfish starting to show along with a few other species such as cuda, YFT and dorado.
Over that week, Martin Van Niekerk from SA brought along 8 friends and work associates for 3 fishing days. They stayed on a couple of villas at VDP in Vilankulos and divided the group between two to fish aboard Game Changer doing light tackle conventional trolling with me and aboard Veleiro with Morgan to do some plugging, jigging and light tackle live baiting.
We went south on the first day, the 11th of May, and had some fantastic fishing in absolute pristine weather. We had good action on wahoo, dorado and Yellowfin and also a couple lazy Vilankulos sailfish knocks. But the wahoo action in the morning was absolute chaotic with non-stop action on some really good fish. It was insane and double and triple strikes where the norm with even a quintuple strike of which we landed 4. The wahoo averaged between 14 to 18 kilo with the best fish topping at about 24 kilos. The good size dorado we caught just before noon went straight into the braii and everyone agreed that was the best fish anyone had had in a long time.
The boys fishing with Morgan also had some action albeit a tad quieter on the jigging and popping, but they did get some small cuda on the live carapau along with a few bludger and yellowspotted kingfish, a couple green jobfish and some other species.
The wahoo have arrived in Vilankulos / Bazaruto early but in big numbers and good sizes. The wahoo run should last up until September, peaking in July the las two years…But, the next day the boys aboard Veleiro started with a BANG with a very special early morning plugging session. They found the big GT´s feeding like mad and managed to release three really good fish, the best at over 30 kg´s. Later in the day they also had good action catching school cuda on the live carapau right on the back line. They finished the day plugging where they started and again had some good action, and despite no big GT´s they got a real nice yellowspotted kingfish.
For us, after that insane first wahoo day it was a tad quieter but we did manage to get a few good size wahoo and the highlight of the day was the sailfish we released out of two bites…
After the previous day, insane GT action, the guys where pumped up for the plugging session in the morning but this time the fish did not play ball or showed up, not even a boil. It was pretty much the same with Morgan getting a few cuda and green jobfish here and there on the live baits and a few small kingies on the jigs. The also lost a big wahoo that got sharked after having taken a jube jube live bait. We, again had some wahoo action although with the spring tide they were not feeding as veraciously as the previous days and we missed one and pulled on a Vilankulos sailfish.
That night we had a farewell dinner, seafood extravaganza, tequila penalty´s for everyone, hilarious speeches and great company with a very special group of guys. What a great few days and big thanks for Martin for making it happen, choosing us and we already looking forward to having you all next year…
But, they say pictures speak louder than words…
All pictures above courtesy of Morgan O´Kennedy from Big Blue in Vilankulos….
Cheers,
Duarte A. M. Rato
Sportfishing Charters @ Vilankulos & Bazaruto Archipelago
Email: dudas7mares@gmail.com
FB: MarlinMoz Sportfishing & fishbazaruto.com
Skype: duarteamrato
Phone: 00 258 82 805 7160 / 00 258 84 639 0466
Very nicely done all round Captain! Keep up the good work!