Pre-season Bazaruto 2023 roundup
Pre-season Bazaruto 2023 roundup : The tail end of July and into the third week of August have seen some pretty good pre-season conditions with constant breeze from the SE, the first (late) signs of Yellowfin Tuna (including some nice specimens), big schools of skipjack in the deeper water and loads of big kawa kawa´s in the shallows… all of Marlin favorite snack´s!
Most of all there has been a good number of small Black´s caught!
Despite no one targeting them they are mostly being caught on smaller lures and halfbeak´s Sailfish combinations and the odd bigger lure the boys put out there.
Pre-season Bazaruto from late July to early August saw boats catching those small Rats on a daily basis.
Ryan Rolfe got 2 from 3 on as many days and then we had Peter Doubly come in for two half-morning fishing days. He had previously booked for the peak Season in late September but had to change his dates due to business but… at the end of those two days he had caught not one but two Black´s, one of which a 200-pound fish on the light tackle conventional bait outfits.
It’s always good to have good wind from the SE before the Heavy Tackle Season as well as lots of small rats around which have been caught in considerable numbers the last few weeks…
Hopefully this is good news for the upcoming heavy tackle Season which we are starting (later than usual this year) in mid-September. These rats and lots of mid-rangers will hopefully be around in numbers to be caught while we wait for the real deal and what we looking for those Giant fish which the area is so well known for!
Sailfish
As reported this year and especially from early May to early July we saw the best Sailfish numbers we have seen in years and along with the small Black´s they have been caught regularly in August as well. Many years they come on again thick in September so we might be seeing some good by-catch numbers while targeting Black´s as we start the heavy tackle season.
If they are around and guests want to catch the odd one that comes into the spread we normally have a couple light tackle spinning rods to pitch bait for them with a small halfbeak on a light leader circle hook!
August caught Sailfish of the Bazaruto Archipelago, from aboard both Vamizi and Ibo.
Wahoo
These speedster’s have been around in good numbers since May and their run should go all the way to October. This was not an insane mind-blowing run like we have had for some years, at least so far but it has been consistent and these lure skirts terrorizer´s can come thick and in XXL sizes in September…so watch out!!!
Michael with a couple of mid-size wahoo caught on a recent trip to the Bazaruto Archipelago in mid-August aboard our 38ft SuperCat – Drop Your Rods!
King Mackerel
We have also seen some of the best King mackerel (Couta) fishing we have had in years and especially with some serious crocodiles in the mix. We recently caught and released a couple which went just under and just past 30 kilos which are very special fish to catch these days and can put up a serious scrap on light tackle outfits.
Along with those a lot of darts and mid-size fish such as this one caught recently by Michael have been around…
That’s it for now.
Tomorrow we travelling to Zinave for a week of wild bush and tiger fishing – some quality time with my two little guys before heading to Bazaruto for 3 months of heavy tackle fishing looking after one of these beauties…
Between late August and mid-December of every year anglers flood the Bazaruto Archipelago in search of their dream fish – a truly Giant Black Marlin such as this one caught on a lure by Carl Jankowitz a few years ago sometime in October!
Duarte A. M. Rato
Fishbazaruto.com
Sportfishing Charters @ Vilankulos & Bazaruto Archipelago
MOZAMBIQUE
Email: dudas7mares
FB & Instagram: fishbazaruto.com
Post prepped and published by The Sardine News
