Bazaruto Heavy Tackle Season for 2023 winds down
Bazaruto Heavy Tackle Season for 2023 winds down: These are the last days of the Bazaruto´s heavy tackle season and although we still have a couple of groups fishing with the boys, we have just finished our last charter for the season aboard VAMIZI with father and son, Otto and Marcus Zerge from Germany.
This was their second visit to Bazaruto, the first being during the second week of November 10 years ago.
On that trip Marcus got his first Marlin on a live YFT fished on the downrigger on the first day.
Then two days later on the 8th November 2013 we missed two in the morning and then it went really quiet. It was a neap tide and we were working the bottom end of Giant´s. It was flat calm with a light breeze from the SE and on the long right we had our favorite flat-water lure at that time; the Black over Pink BB Kona Classic Tube – she caught us a lot of fish in calm conditions!
Just before noon she came up on that lure in 58 meters of water.
I will never forget that sight, she looked almost mechanical and the midday light over the cloudy sky was perfect with a tint of grey on it. She was there for ages, swimming effortlessly and quiet up high on the water, eyeballing this small lure.
Then she went dark, under and gave us a beautiful inside out bite and we hooked up!
Otto got in the chair for his first Marlin which proceeded to rip across the Ocean like there was no tomorrow! Then she sounded and about 10 minutes later we realized something was wrong.
She was still swimming but the rod tip jerks made no mistake she was tail wrapped. We loosen the drag, trying to pull from different angles to no avail so we come up to sunset.
She was deeper now but still manageable.
But to make matters worse, she now swam into an anchor dhow bottom fishing to the outside of us and we got so close we were really lucky not to have got in a jam on the anchor rope.
Then she stopped swimming and I had a word with Otto explaining the absolute terrifying and exhausting hard work we would have to endure to plane this dead fish up. I explained the program and what he had to do.
Later he told me many times he wished the line would just part.
But after a lot of hard work on the heavy tackle, and 2h12 after the hookup we got her up.
She weighed #802 pounds.
Not bad for your first Marlin!
An #802-pound Black Marlin caught by Otto Zerge, his first Billfish on his first ever trip with us aboard VAMIZI. Unfortunately, the fish got tail wrapped and died deep taking 2h12 to bring to the surface. She took a Black over Pink BB Kona Classic Tube on the SR with a 10/0 Bristow hook which actually never penetrated but was jammed and hitched around the bill.
This time around they come a bit later in November and for the last two weeks we had some pretty placid weather which is nice to fish on but the lack of a strong southerly was taking its toll on the water temperature which after a stable 26c was rising every day.
The fish were there but became really lazy!
Our first day started with some game fish on the inside and we then put the lures up north and worked in the lighthouse area which had been so good the past few days but turned out to be quiet this morning.
Work south with the current and at Nhangosse we have a nice fish on an aggressive bite on the short-left lure but it missed it completely and never came back for seconds. Worked the area for some time to no avail and then continued south and once we got to the top end of Sailfish Bay, we switched to the dead baits.
10 minutes with the baits and we get a bite.
This time on the swim bait.
It loaded for a few seconds but the circle, unfortunately, never stuck.
Again, work the area and about 40 minutes later and at the turn of the tide I worked to our best area there and on a really shallow tack and on the turn, we got another bite.
Again, on the swim bait!
This time we came tight and this fish went absolutely ballistic.
After that crazy greyhound that looked more like a Blue than a Black, she went deep and gave us a sluggish deep fight with Marcus on the chair doing a great job, especially considering this was his first time in the chair after 10 years!
I know there was something wrong just after the bite and thus was making sure we had good pressure and drag and when we finally got her on the leader, she was lassoed around the body but swimming strong and healthy and we quickly released her.
Just north of #400 she was Marcus biggest fish to date.
A #400+ Black Marlin jumps outside Sailfish Bay and a short while later released by Marcus Zerge aboard VAMIZI for his biggest fish to date…
That same day Alex was fishing on IBO with our Portuguese guests Jose, Ricardo and Mario who were popping and jigging.
While doing so in roughly 18 to 22 meters of water they had first a sailfish and then a small Black Marlin come on the poppers and stick baits but not hookup.
Later, they caught a couple of scads on the spinning rod and put them drifting on cuta traces while popping and had a 150-pound black take it but unfortunately broke the wire after a while.
They caught a few species, mostly trevallies and a few GT´s but unfortunately did not take many pics…
Our last day with the Zerge was slow and the water had now come up to a staggering 29c which is the earliest we have ever seen it so warm and that normally means the season is coming to an end.
But we could have ended it in style.
It was slow going on the flat calm seas and the water was patchy to say the least with a lot of surface Algae bloom on the top end. We made our way down south and found a good patch of water outside sharville. Eventually we got to the pinnacle looking for a live bait but none could be found except for zillions of torpedo scads.
We caught a bunch and put three live baits, two on top and one on the downrigger and worked south with the current. But getting to BIG C the water started turning green again so back to the lures and work back to what looked like the best area.
Within 10 minutes we raised one looking #400+ on the long left that was there for ages but got no bite out of it.
Lazy C&%$s!!!!
Then just before finishing the day and working outside sharkville I see a wave being the short left #pulsatorlures big tube and the nothing. Seconds later we get a real nice aggressive bite on it from a fish looking better than 700. The reel starts screaming in jerks and then the fish stops and starts wind shielding – a shore sign of a nose job and surely enough the hook pulled!
It was not meant to be!
That was our last fishing day and the few other boats fishing did not see anything.
It was slow but…
The next day Alex was out on VAMIZI with our next group, Anthony and Lauren from the UK and in going wide in flat calm conditions they managed to release a #350 Blue out of two bites as well as a sailfish!
Blue Marlin for Anthony´s first day aboard VAMIZI, missing another one, seeing a few lazy swimmer’s and releasing a sailfish to compliment the day!
On the same day the boys aboard Cujo also got into some action and released 1 from 2 bites and Little Pearl also released a Black Marlin and The Kraken released a Blue Marlin!
One never knows what´s going to happen out there and we have caught a bunch of good fish way into December….
The next day Veleiro got out there and early morning hooked into a nice one they called 750 lbs, the fish was hooked on a live YFT.
Around the same area, the next day, Game Changer also hooked into a nice one, this time on the lure but unluckily the hook came undone after almost an hour.
Out wide The Kraken released a 400-pound Blue Marlin!
Anthony Dugdale went 2 from 2 on his last day aboard VAMIZI on the 2nd December. Despite the warmer water coming in early and things being quite slow in the shallower grounds the boys fishing out wide have definitely found a bite out wide.
…and how´s this for a proper commercially caught slob in Angola!!!!
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Great reading as usual and was a privilege to meet you at Vilankulo airport on Tuesday, kind regards