2 From 3 on Todd Moore´s last day fishing off Bazaruto
2 From 3 on Todd Moore´s last day fishing off Bazaruto: We just finished a four-day charter with Todd Moore from Texas and after three days where the fish were just lazy and picking at the baits. On our last day they changed their mood and we went 2 from 3 on Todd´s Moore.
Todd was here with wife Debbie on their very first trip to Africa and this was the last leg of their trip after doing some safari in SA and Botswana.
We had beautiful weather for his trip, a little choppy in the morning and really nice for the rest of the day. Although thinning out the humpback whales are still out there doing their normal breaching and Debbie joined us on the third day to see them.

From June to October one can see vast numbers of humpback whales on the Bazaruto Archipelago fishing grounds and these are some of the most active whales one can see, breaching, tail and fin slapping, sky hooping and tail sailing for everyone to enjoy!

We found some fish for the first 3 days but they were really lazy and just picking at the baits. On the first day we missed one on the swim bait and then had a small one miss the skip and not come back, not even pulling it out the clip. The second day we had one on the skip that got all wrapped on the bite and the same happened on the third day on a nice looking 600 pounder that took a live bonito and started jumping straight away leader all round.
The same was happening with everyone else and think in those three days the three boats fishing went 1 from 8 and there was another bunch of fish raised, including 4 on live bait, that would just not bite.
Frustrating!
Then on the fourth and final day it all changed…
The last day started with some wild game fishing in the morning. There were plenty of cuta and lots of bonnies and they were going at it. Really good sign.
We caught a bunch and finally decided we had a good size bonnie and went out deep but soon it died so we decided to take it out to use it as a skip bait but in the meantime went back in to look for more bait.
This time we caught an 8kg YFT, put in the tubes and moved out once again.
Started tacking at 6 mile and 40 minutes later we got the bite and hookup!
Alleluia!!!
The fish did not do much and we made short work of it, releasing the #350-pound Black in less than 10 minutes.

Back to try and get some more bait but all the game fish had sounded now so after an hour or so we decided to put the dead baits out.
12h34 and we get an amazing crash bite on the big bonnie skip bait.
It’s like a bomb went off on the right, left a big hole and we hooked up to a fish looking between 6-700 on absolute steroids.
Absolute blistering run!!!
Almost took us to the backing. We turn, chase and pick up all the line and once we get on top of it, it sounds.
Todd pushes up the drag significantly and we start picking line again when all of a sudden it went limp!
WTF!!!!!!
Looking at the leader, circumstances and the whole scenario the very best guess I have is that the bait slides up on the leader either a wahoo or shark took it and chopped the leader.
Very unlucky there…. and the third nice one we lose this season in very uncharacteristic circumstances!
Well, next!
Put the baits back out short while later a little guy came about messing on the swim bait, managed to scratch it all up but never even opened the clip.
Really did not want to leave the 6 & 5 mile area where we were getting the bites but it was late and time to start heading south when in front of giants…
….another bomb exploded on the right!
It was not a particularly big fish but it literally climbed on that skip bait and turned on a dime, tail out the water! Todd´s eyes almost came out their sockets as he screamed big fish!
It certainly looked on the bite but it was a good fun #250 that we released just before coming back!
What’s amazing is the poor hookup ratio everyone had the previous days and now we hooked all three bites we had, veleiro also hooked the one bit they had on the swim bait, releasing a #200 and Strenue released a similar size fish down south on a lure.
Nice way to finish it off with Todd, who was a real pleasure to fish with and hope to see you both back in 2025.

2 from 3 on Black Marlin on Todd Moore´s last day aboard VAMIZI on his first visit to Africa. After three days when they were just picking on the baits their mood certainly changed and they the hook stuck on every single one of them… although we were unfortunate to lose the best fish in very odd circumstances.

The second batch of beauty´s from Andy just arrived, BIG thank you to #moyesbiggame

Really happy to have Dave Tucker and his family and friends here – good to see you after all this time brother and hopefully we still get a couple nice one´s next three days…
It’s a pity that just as we started getting good conditions and a nice bite, we get a low-pressure system moving in with some wind and rain. We did manage to go out yesterday afternoon for a bait session as the guys decided to go for a double tank dive in the morning. Hopefully we will get out there tomorrow…

Flamingos chilling early morning on the sandbank, a common sight on the way out or in from fishing off Bazaruto!
Duarte A. M. Rato
Sportfishing Charters @ Vilankulos & Bazaruto Archipelago
MOZAMBIQUE
Email: dudas7mares@gmail.com
FB & Instagram: fishbazaruto.com
Phone & WhatsApp: + 258 84 639 0466
Post and SEO by The Sardine News.