Bazaruto Dream Trip for Anrich - Part 1

Bazaruto Dream Trip for Anrich – Part 1

Bazaruto Dream Trip for Anrich – Part 1: a really cool story…

Ulrich Schnetler fished with us for many years. He was a great guy and I will never ever forget the first Marlin we caught together. It was their first day on their first trip to Bazaruto to fish with us many moons ago.

We ran down to the canyon early in the morning and must have had the lure out when we hooked a 400-pound fish on the long-left lure. Ulrich was in the chair and brought the fish in for the release. When we did so he started screaming with joy. The previous night Ulrich and his mate Frans had been telling me how much they fished Sodwana for many years so I had assumed they had both caught lots of Marlin and that he was happy but making quiet a big thing or this fish only to find out that this was his first ever Marlin after many many years of trying…thus the shouts of joy.

They had a hell of a trip that year and some great fish in subsequent years.

Well then in 2021 I tried but could not get hold of Ulrich either on his phone or email which was quite strange but I just thought he had changed them and would hear from him soon.

Then earlier this year I got a call from Sabrina, his wife, letting me know that Ulrich had passed away with Covid a couple years back.

And, that she really wanted to bring their 12-year-old son Anrich, who like his father was a keen fisherman and she wanted to bring him to his dad´s happy fishing place.

Sabrina, Anrich and his sister Anantasia arrived on the 24th of June, this was of course a very emotional trip and, in a way, I felt very privileged to be doing this in Ulrich´s memory and just prayed I could give this young man a great experience.

The previous day we had our good friend Mike Doveton with the Isuzu group @ Anantara fish on Vamizi for a half day and in absolute gorgeous weather and ended up releasing 2 Sailfish out of three bites and raising another one for a great morning.

We left the resort for Sabrina´s and Anrich´s first day early morning of the 25th and on the way-out Sabrina told Anrich that if he got a sailfish for the week it would be great but not to get his hopes up and that anything that come would be a bonus.

Well, we started the day fly fishing and light tackle jigging and got a number of small kingies (got busted by a couple GT´s), released a couple of different snappers and a bunch of green jobfish. Brilliant start, but the best was yet to come!!!

Put one of those job fish live on a cuta trace and next thing we hookup to a sailfish and Anrich released his first ever billfish!

Decided to put the Sailfish spread out and within 5 minutes raise two, and have a bite from one and Anrich released his second ever Sailfish in a space of 30 minutes!

Two Sailfish releases and a bunch of game fish on fly by 9am, the first two hours of the charter!

Talk about starting a charter in style!!!

Great morning fun and besides a few more game fish on fly and light jigging Anrich still had time to catch a Blacktip Shark that took one of the drifting cuta baits on the light sticks!!!

Early morning on the first day we found some great light tackle and fly-fishing action on a number of species and a lot of green job fish that took the fly and small jigs…but also some small kingies, bonitos, rosy´s, snappers and…

Within the first two hours of the first day Anrich released his first ever two billfish, two sailfish in the space of 30 minutes – one on a drifting live green jobfish and the second on a trolled halfbeak / lure combination. The boy could not have been happier with his first fishing day on Bazaruto.

The second morning we decided to change tack and go south and as such a much shorter ride and Anrich was hooked up as the sun started to show on the horizon!

What a cool sunrise fly-fishing session in flat calm conditions.

Anrich ended up releasing 4 different trevally species including a nice yellowspot along with some more green job fish, queenfish and a beast of a wolf herring….

…and pulled the hook on a nice GT and a Sailfish, cut off by a bus cuta and spent half an hour on a shark that took our cuta bait!

Very cool and busy morning for the young lad!!!

This trip was just going from great to phenomenal!!!

Anrich hooked up to a nice size Yellow spotted trevally on the fly at sunrise…the second morning provided us with a phenomenal early session with many different species!

On our third day, the 27th June we decided to try some reefs way north and although it was much quieter than the previous few days on the fly, Anrich continued his Bazaruto stride with some more green job fish, a few rock cod’s, rainbow runner´s and a couple other species.

But it ended really well when we decided to troll back to the lighthouse area.

Got into the jube jube´s and straight away we got a fairly large crocodile cuta on a live one.

Then we got another smaller cuta.

Out of live bait we put the trolling gear out and immediately hooked up to a 24kg wahoo, the boy´s first ever. Not long after we got another one at 16k kilos and and still had time for another smaller cuta!!!

What a way to finish the day and add some more species to the tally!!!
By

Anrich in the chair fighting his first ever wahoo at 24 kilo’s (see gallery). A tad later he caught another big wahoo this time on the small gear and stand up and this was after catching a number of nice cuta including a real nice crocodile.

This was the first amazing three days the young lad experienced with us at Bazaruto we wil report on the final three days shortly….
Anrich in the chair fighting his first ever wahoo at 24 kilos. A tad later he caught another big wahoo this time on the small gear and stand up and this was after catching a number of nice cuta including a real nice crocodile.

This was the first amazing three days the young lad experienced with us at Bazaruto we wil report on the final three days shortly….

This was the first amazing three days the young lad experienced with us at Bazaruto we wil report on the final three days shortly….
Anrich in the chair fighting his first ever wahoo at 24 kilos. A tad later he caught another big wahoo this time on the small gear and stand up and this was after catching a number of nice cuta including a real nice crocodile.

This was the first amazing three days the young lad experienced with us at Bazaruto we wil report on the final three days shortly….