Bazaruto Archipelago Fly Fishing
Bazaruto Archipelago Fly Fishing – can be a real treat and the diversity of species one catches here is absolutely mind-blowing.
However as productive as it can be it’s also quite specific and not the pure fly fishing one is used to.
Yes, one can cast from shore and in the shallow flats but to have the most action you want to be working the whole water column.
Dredging is basically using heavy flies and a very fast sinking line and then as we drift over certain pinnacles (normally between 6 to 40 meters of depth) one lets the fly sink to the bottom and then strips it up. This covers the all-water column and thus can be very effective on all species, from bottom dwellers to mid-surface predators to top water speedsters.
The standard equipment for dredging is a 9 to 12 weight with a 500 to 700 grain sinking line & shooting head.
Weighted (and heavily weighted for the deeper reefs) clouser minnows tied to 4/0 and 6/0 hooks seems to be the most successful flies with color really depending on conditions, especially water and sky clarity but chartreuse, white and a dark pattern always seem to produce the goods.
During Sailfish Season one can also target those great acrobatic fish on the fly and the visual excitement of teasing those incredibly beautiful fish within a few meters of the transom and then casting a fly to it is unparalleled.
We had Angus Selby and Connie Hayden for a few days of Fly Fishing with us recently and despite having some difficult conditions the boys got a good share of good fish and lots of fun. It’s been an odd June so far, it still feels like summer, the water is still at an unbelievable 26c+ and we have had loads of northerly wind and subsequently green water – both very odd features for this time of year!
The first couple of days we had a screaming current and thus even in the shallower reefs it was difficult to get the fly to the bottom and we mostly caught green job fish, a few of them real nice specimen’s and countless scads which are small but tough fish.
There were amazing showings on the deeper reefs, so thick the sounder could not get through them but all sitting below 25 meters and we could just not get the fly´s to them in the screaming current!
We used a few live on conventional tackle while drifting but the sharks made a meal of it!
Connie with one of many scads
we released. They were schooling in their thousands on the one pinnacle.
We used a live scad on a conventional light stick to see if we could get a good cuta but it ended getting eaten by this bronzie which gave a good scrap at the other end!
One of many green jobfish released over the pinnacles on the bazaruto Archipelago fly fishing!
We also spent a few hours out wide on the heavy Marlin gear and despite suffering from a rubber hook syndrome going 1 out of 5 bites we had good fun out there and Connie released his first ever Billfish!
The last couple of days the current subsided and the bite improved.
We started the day on a pinnacle up north which varied in depth between 16 and 25 meters and it was hot and good fun! Rainbow runners, green job fish, bonitos, scads and a number of different trevallies and as it comes with the program we got reefed by a number of the bigger species! The cuta were also on the prowl and we also got a number of cut offs on our fluorocarbon leaders.
We then moved to a deeper reef further south which was slower but produced the goods on a couple of good fish including this pretty nice Yellowspotted Trevally for Angus which gave him a really nice scrap.
Our last session was down south on a much shallower reef and despite having current and tide align there was lack of the normal baitfish that normally abounds on that pinnacle before the high tide. However, we saw some proper chases and despite having some difficulty on getting them on the fly we decided to throw a popper and that triggered some real nice bites and releases.
Really good fun, awesome people to fish with and looking forward to some more Bazaruto Archipelago fly fishing at the end of the month and looking forward to next year Angus and Connie…
Cheers
Angus with the biggest of a good number of Job fish we released during the few days fly fishing on the Bazaruto Archipelago.
Bazaruto Archipelago Fly Fishing
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