Janine´s Hohne´s first Marlin
On the 15th July we had our last charter before heading off to Europe on a R&R with the family before starting the Bazaruto heavy tackle Season in early September. It was a great way to finish it with Janine´s Hohne´s first Marlin ever release.
We had last fish with the Hohne´s in March when we had a great afternoon of many game fish and then finish it off with a double header on Black Marlin out of a triple strike.
You can see that report here.
It had been flat calm for 2 straight weeks.
The fishing had been fairly good with a few wahoo, yellowfin tuna and some other odds & ends including a couple Sailfish. Despite some problems with the taxman, we had also been enjoying some excellent jigging sessions.
But then, as the weather settled and water temperature dropped it slowed down.
I had been down south for 5 days but everyone reported extremely slow conditions the last few days. I told Peter Hohne so when we spoke to Wednesday and advised we change the charter from Saturday to Friday as there was a fairly strong front coming in towards mid-day.
It was flat calm when I picked them up aboard the 36ft Drop Your Rods @ sunrise at the Sanctuary but, as we made our way out the wind started to pick up.
By 8am it was blowing a good 20 knots so the front had moved in earlier and it was tough going as we made our way upwind, working all the reefs on the way without a single pull.
9am on the dot I decided to do a deeper tack of wahoo.com and looking forward on the bridge to deal with the maelstrom I never even saw the bite but did hear MARLINNNNN even before I turned around.
Surprising enough it was not one of the heavier outfits that was screaming its guts out but one of the bait rods I had with a #pulsator Black & Purple / ballyhoo combinations.
Only a #150 or so but ohhh boy…..
this was going to be fun!!!
The fish was screaming off and jumping in the chaotic sea so we turned and chased it.
Despite being a stand-up small outfit Janine got in the chair and could not really blame her seeing it was really difficult to have any balance on the deck.
The fish then went deep and it went into a bit of a stale mate.
Up on the drag and after a while it come up again and we chased it hard.
To everyone´s delight there was some great jumps close to the boat before we eventually grabbed the leader, tagged the fish and released Janine´s Hohne´s first Marlin…ever!
Bucket list….check!!!!
We only fished another couple of hours catching a bonnie and a couple jube jube´s, one of which was chopped of by a nice wahoo…
By noon it had become quiet chaotic and we decided to go into the shelter of the sand spit, bring out the bubbly and barbecue some steak, prawns and fish…
Another great day with awesome people @ bazaruto´s Paradise.
And check what just popped in our memories….
A 72 kg tuna YFT which we got this time of year 8 years ago, the biggest ever at Bazaruto.
That day we were also fishing the 36ft SuperCat. Chasing sailies, but green water on the inside made us decide, after speaking to our charter, to put the big guns out and head wide.
We found the green / Blue water line in about 350 meters and shortly after raised one of the biggest Blues I have ever seen here but never got a bite out of it.
Then working the Blue spot out of Sailfish bay in 45 meters we had a double strike.
One fish pulled the hook after a while but the other which we initially tough was a Blue but was fighting rather strangely!!!
Turned out to be a proper butter ball, the biggest one we ever saw here.
We saw those big Tuna´s come on the surface twice again that day, there were some fish looking close to 100 kilos…
Now it’s a family trip to Europe and back at the end of August to get everything ready to go for the Bazaruto heavy tackle Season beginning early September…
´til then…
Duarte A. M. Rato
Fishbazaruto.com
Sportfishing Charters @ Vilankulos & Bazaruto Archipelago
MOZAMBIQUE
Email: dudas7mares@gmail.com
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Phone & WhatsApp: + 258 84 639 0466
