Bazaruto Marlin May ´21 – Part II
In Marlin May 2021, Warren and Andrew come up to Bazaruto so that we would put some time into Bazaruto´s second Marlin run, that seems to peak between late March to early June. Despite having some really slow days to contend with due to unseasonably northerly winds and green water, what we saw when conditions where good was really nice.
This is the second part report of that great week…
To see the first report got to the link below;
https://fishbazaruto.com/2021/05/30/bazarutos-second-marlin-run-may-21/
Spooky morning
The wind had subsided that evening and the next day dawned flat calm but with such an intense mist that it was hard to see. Rare to see such winter conditions in mid-May but always pretty cool. Marlin was first and foremost on our minds but unfortunately, we had to go to Vilankulos for the guys to do the Covid test and other matters.
We left Vilankulos in the afternoon in flat calm seas. Beautiful light.
Those engines where going flat out.
The plan was to go straight out wide and work south for the few hours we had left.
As we went past Best pinnacle, we saw a bunch of birds working on it.
We stopped the boat, looked at the water and it was much better.
Nothing spectacular but fish-able.
Put the bait rods out and immediately picked two bonnies.
The tune lubes had stopped working so we put them out straight away, praying we would make it deep before the taxman come in and took its share.
We had the biggest bait close in, the Bimini about 2 meters from the transom.
The smaller bait longer.
We settled in a SE tack with the current from the starboard quarterback.
BIG FISH!!!
As we got to 86 meters, I see a big bubble break the surface as if a ginormous giant from the deep had just farted underneath out stern.
The elastic breaks and as I am feeding, I see a flash and the fish speeds up immediately before I have come up.
As the boys where trying to bring it in the second, long bait gets taken.
Justino opens the drag but lets it go haywire.
Not his fault, the guys still learning and have limited experience on this fishing & doing great considering the time they have spent on the water chasing these fish.
We still have some slack but I can see there is no way we can get out of that one…it’s a mess of a bird´s nest!
Close by the boat this enormous head comes out.
The fish is easily 800 but more like 900!
No one but me as seen a fish this big ever!
I can see one bait flopping about a meter to the right-hand side of the fish.
On the left we seem to be hooked solid.
The fish takes off and starts jumping. We come tight on the bird´s nest´s rod and the line obviously parts. I have come low on my drag and now pushed it.
A few more jumps and the fish come of; we see the bait go flying.
Looking into it all what I reckon happen was that the fish come on the first bait and got the leader wrapped in the bill. It could not eat it and went for the second bait straight away where it hooked up. Obviously once that line broke, we were only attached to its wrapped around bill and it come off.
Proper f%&/ up but no one´s fault, it happens to all…great to see such a nice fish in Marlin May anyway, proper one that!
We have caught Black Marlin in every single month of the Bazaruto Archipelago and there really is a second good run of fish between March and early June, outside the big fish season of September to December. Having said this, it’s not only rats one catches on the second run and we have caught fish to 800 pounds in March and April, an estimated Grander in May and fish to 700 in June. In Marlin May 2021 we lost a really nice one looking to be close to the 900-pound mark that took both our live baits! We did not get a pic of that fish, the pics above and below are of a similar one we had last year!!!
Next!
We had a stiff wind from the SE the next day but despite that it was nice to get out there and see Blue Water again and the Ocean back to its usual self…insanely alive!
The bait from #1 and #2, all the way to W.com was just everywhere….
The bait rods never ceased to stop and we had an amazing morning catching all sorts of game fish from Yellowfin tuna, to dorado, skippies, wahoo, bonnies and more jube jube´s than we cared for!
Taxman problemas…
We had no problems at all with the taxman for the all week so far…nothing at all.
One of the big attractions of fishing the Bazaruto second Marlin run is the lack of hammerheads, those sneaky bait stealing bastards that drive us insane.
Well, amongst all the mayhem there were plenty taxman. Not the hammerhead kind but of various sizes and plates and at all depths.
We put out 5 live baits ranging from YFT to Skippes, bonnies and even a dorado.
They were taxed pretty quickly.
The last bait we put out was after having a quintuple hookup on skipjack´s.
Landed all 5 but taxed again.
By now the wind was blowing merciless.
Unfortunately, we had been short on swim baits the all week and did not catch any 5-spotted queenfish. With only two left and being the last day we put the dead baits, with a bonito skipbait and a penny swim bait but just for a short while.
The wind was too much and we made an early day out if it.
Still amazing with all the action and surprise we never got a Marlin bite, but the taxman did not give us much chances.
We caught some great game fish during the week including some nice wahoo´s which Chef Torres made some delicious carpaccio from.
On the last day we only had a couple of hours before heading back, but we made the best of it releasing a Black for Warren. Showing how it’s done in the chair and celebrating!!!
The fish took a swim bait and we hooked it on the tail….but it was safely and nicely released, A great way to finish a superb week!!!
Last chance…
We only had a few hours on our last morning as we had to come in at 10am for shower, breakfast and ride back to Vilan-chaos.
Still some sporty conditions as we made our way out the mouth just before sunrise.
There were not as many game fish around but the jube jube´s where thick to the inside of wahoo. Think we caught 14 on the daisy chains and then finally a YFT which we baited but got chopped by a wahoo pretty quickly.
We still had 2 live jube jube´s out but they did not last so long.
Grand finale…
With time running out we set the dead baits out outside W.com to work south with the current for the last hour and a half.
Within 15 minutes we got a bite on the swim bait which was unfortunately a wahoo which chopped the bait in half.
With one swim bait remaining we set them out again and worked outside the pinnacles. I was turning at the 70-meter mark thus reducing our chances of being chopped off.
Then, there was not much time left so I decided to do a shallower turn outside #2, a shallow area that has been kind to us and as we got to 60-meter mark we got a bite on the swim bait and hooked up.
Straight after hookup I noticed there was something wrong on the way the fish was running.
The it did a much faster run and jumped once in the distance and went down.
Warren in the chair pushed up the drag. We did not get a clear view on the fish in the distance and the rolling waves but it was behaving as a nice one.
Finally, we inched him up and got to the leader just to have him go again.
Still deep we could see it was not such a nice fish but just tail wrapped.
Sunset it and we got him up by the boat.
The circle had actually hooked the fish on the tail.
Well as they say – rather lucky than good!
We spend some time with the fish and finally it went away happy.
What a grand finale and way to end a great week.
We still had one superb breakfast, the only one we had of the boat for the week and we made the most of it.
And that was it…
Thanks to Warren, Andrew, Justino and Charlie for the most amazing week in a setting that I can just not get over…and I live here 🙂
PS:
Tight lines,
Duarte A. M. Rato
Fishbazaruto.com
Sportfishing Charters @ Vilankulos & Bazaruto Archipelago
MOZAMBIQUE
Email: dudas7mares@gmail.com
FB: fishbazaruto.com & MarlinMoz Sportfishing
Skype: duarteamrato
Phone: 00 258 84 639 0466
