Fishing Vilanculos – late August ´21 report
It’s been an eventful and busy fun month on the Rato´s household around the rivers and oceans of southern Mozambique with some excellent Fishing Vilanculos.
Zinave
Started the month with a trip to Zinave and you can read about that here;
https://fishbazaruto.com/2021/08/08/mozambique-tiger-fish-zinave/
Fishing Vilanculos
Then back for a 2-charter day with Craig Edwards where we went 2 for 2 on Black Marlin plus a few other good game fish, on the 38ft Game Changer fishing out of Vilanculos.
You can see that report here:
https://fishbazaruto.com/2021/08/10/vilankulos-2-for-2-on-light-tackle-marlin/
Pomene
The off to Pomene we went, such a pristine and untouched place – probably my favorite on Mozambique´s south coast and a mere 4-hour drive from home, the last two on beautiful red sand road. There was a cold front over most of the time so fishing from the surf was hard. But, a great time was had by all, especially the little one´s!
Back to Fishing Vilanculos
Then it was back to Fishing Vilanculos again to start a three-day charter with Bruce Wintson from the US and his gang, all 7 of them, which even with three crew is a breeze on Game Changer´s 16ft beam deck.
Reports where real slow from everyone from the previous week so I did not have much hope as we left Vilanculos and made our way south on the first day, the 18th of August.
Fast start…
I hardly had to worry as shortly after we set the light tackle game fish spread and still making our way to Marlin pinnacles, we had a triple YFT hookup. From the it was chaos and a triple YFT strike repeated itself three times.
We were also unlucky to have lost a much bigger YFT after a Mexican standoff lasting a while when the light 60-pound leader on the daisy chain chaffed off.
In between there where dozens of bonnies to keep is busy…
We then had Bruce release a nice GT and Katherine land the remains of a beast of a wahoo that was unfortunately taxed…
While fishing on top of Marlin pinnacles we caught a 4 jube jube´s on the same daisy chain and proceeded to put them out as slow trolled live baits.
We missed a bite on the deep trolled one but then hooked up on one of the dead ballyhoos fished of the riggers. After a hard fight Bruce brought in this GT for a release.
Then it was his wife Katherine´s turn on the rod and she hooked this massive wahoo. The fish come on the Black & Purple Islander with a horse ballyhoo and gave us a great bite missing the bait twice as it jumped clear out the water. It found steel on the third attempt and we hooked up.
After a great fight the fish was taxed by the man in the grey jacket…
Slower afternoon…
The afternoon was much slower but we still caught a bunch of bonnies to keep everyone busy and we then live baited a couple and caught a nice cuta (king mackerel) out of two bites.
It had been a beautiful sunny flat calm day but as forecasted, there was now a swift breeze from the north. I decided to head against current and wind while we had a barbecue lunch fit for a bunch of kings and queens.
Wahoo & YFT sashimi for starters followed by king grilled prawns, wahoo and YFT steaks and peri peri Mozambican chicken… one can get fat running that boat!
Grand finale at Best
The idea was to work deep while having lunch and then have the last two hours at best reef.
It was slow but we still picked up a few bonnies.
Between jube jube´s, bonito´s and kawa kawa we had released well over twenty by now.
But these where not the ideal jube jube´s we like to bait and when we did put one out, we got stuck into a man in the grey jacket.
That kept us busy for a while but eventually we got the 150-pound shark next to the boat.
No easy fit on #30 tackle. We broke him off and set out the trolling spread again.
At just after 2pm, while on a deeper tack, Katherine came up to the bridge and said we could start heading home – and jokingly, as she was on the next strike, said;
But….
…we can hookup on a big one on the way!
I turned the boat and started heading in, doing one more pass on the reef.
Literally not 4 minutes had passed and just on the outside of the reef one of the shorts TLD´s #25 went screaming.
A hard-deep dodging fight sailfish that was foul hooked on top, and thus kept us busy for another while.
Eventually Mrs. Katherine Winstom let it got for a grand finale.
Her first sailfish
…and a great way to end a rather busy fun light tackle day…
Unfortunately, due to personal issues I could not make it the next two day so the boys took the party out and did really well.
They had to cut the day short as they had to come back earlier to go for their Covid tests to fly out on Saturday. But once again some big wahoo, YFT, cuta and lots of bonnies where on the cards.
Vilanculos Fishing – Double, triple and quadruple Yellowfin tuna strikes provided great fun throughout all three days and obviously fresh meat for some sashimi and seared tuna…
It’s great to see all this yellowfin around just as we about to start the heavy tackle season seeing more than us those big girls love eating those things….:-)
Last day of Fishing Vilanculos…
It did not slow down for the last day and once again there where some double and triple YFT strikes, some big wahoo to content to and loads of bonnies a a few cuta around.
Then, hookup on a Black Marlin of about 150 pounds which unfortunately pulled the hooks with the leader 5 meters from the rod tip.
But that was not it for the day and it finished off with yet another sailfish release for the party…
Three great fast action days…
Looking good for the
Bazaruto Heavy Tackle Marlin Season
Despite the water still being in the 23.5c range, it’s nice to see so many small Blacks around already and more importantly all this Yellowfin arriving … big girls will be not far behind.
That´s it for us fishing Vilanculos, now we getting ready and from next week will be based at Bazaruto for our heavy tackle Season extending all the way to mid-December…
We still got two open slots due to a recent cancellation;
10th to 15th September 2021
&
10th to 13th October 2021
Anyone interested contact us at:
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
