Tuna Mayhem & Lockjaw Marlin

Post author:Shonalanga
Post published:October 4, 2025
Post category:Captains Log
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Tuna Mayhem & Lockjaw Marlin: We just had Nico and his son Ross and daughter Sascha from SA join us for 2 days aboard the 38ft SuperCat – Drop Your Rods and who experienced the best and worst of Bazaruto – some Tuna Mayhem & Lockjaw Marlin.

It was absolutely mental as we raised a total of 7 Marlin plus a sailfish in those two days and only got 2 halfhearted bites out of them… but to compensate on the first day they experienced some wild game fishing and YFT and skipjack schools which had to be seen to be believed!

The first day we picked them up from Azura and headed north starting light tackle game fishing as we made our way north.

It did not take long before we had a sailfish on our right short halfbeak but this thing was merely billing the bait and never picked it up on the drop.

A tad south of us Becca, Azura´s boat hooked up and released this Black Marlin.

We headed north and shallow of Nhangoose had a big 20kg plus cuta take the brand newly re-skirted long left Ahi Pussy 😊 (for those who don´t know Ahi means Yellowfin Tuna in Hawaiian), sky rocket out the sky, absolutely tear those skirts to pieces and not hook up!!! ☹

At III tress we picked up some beast Kawa Kawa´s which pound for pound are just amazing power on the light sticks and the guys had their first taste of Bazaruto.

But the next pinnacle provided even better action!

We then got to Alladins and on the first pass had a triple hookup on big wahoo, the second and third pass a triple hookup on kawa´s and the fourth pass another double wahoo hookup.

But the taxman got wild on the scene and we decided to put the big lures out and not within 5 minutes of trolling we had a Black come and miss the short right completely, then tail behind it but no bite out of it.

We had decided to head out wide and we had no action for the next 1 ½ until we got to the area we wanted to fish and which has been producing some consistent fishing the last few weeks.

We did our first turn and the next 20 minutes were insanely frustrating!

First, we had a 400 pound Blue crash strike the long left, the fish missed the lure completely then repapered and trail behind it for at least 30 seconds before fading away.

10 minutes or so later we had two striped Marlin come into the spread on the short left and long right – the first merely opened the clip, the other had a better bite, took some line but never found steel!

Not 10 minutes elapsed when another Blue showed up, this one again on the short left, it was there for over two minutes, fading, coming back, lit up, darkened – by now I was tearing the little hair I have left and wishing I had a pitch bait…

We never got a bite out of it!

We waited another hour to work the area during the tide change except that when I was about to start heading in, I faintly saw a cluster of birds flying to the east.

Deeper we go…

As we got there it was an absolutely enormous school of skipjack and Yellowfin tuna mixed in. Actually, there were like three or four massive schools broken up.

Sasha & Nico with one of many XXL size skipjack we caught in the total mayhem of acres of them mixed up with YFT out wide on Sunday aboard Drop Your Rods.

We had two rappies out and straight away caught a double on very big skipjack and again and again – by then I had put another light stick and next up was a triple Yellowfin Tuna hookup…

That took a while and by the time we finished they were gone.

I had everybody skim the horizon around us from the tower and soon enough we saw them west of us.

Every time we found them the rods would go off again.

This went on as the fish moved shallower and shallower until the guests literally said that enough was enough and they could not catch another one…

We put the Marlin lures for another half hour as we headed towards home…

Tuna Mayhem & Lockjaw Marlin

The next day was not as eventful except that again the Marlin were playing hard!

In the morning we had a mid-ranger Black come on the long left; it chaffed the whole leader a half a meter from the lure but the clip did not even open.

At noon we had a memorable seafood braai extravaganza with prawns, crayfish and calamari.

In the afternoon we came in shallow water for the last 45 minutes and the Blue water had moved right against the edge and the skipjack started popping up.

It looked incredible and just felt that despite having limited time we had a good chance here!

I worked around a skipjack school outside Giants but nothing.

Started heading towards home when I spotted another school to the north of II mile.

Worked that but it was time to go so I turned towards home and we had some rapalas to try to get a fresh game fish for dinner.

Next thing this Black takes the rappie, runs at blistering speed, comes off then comes on the long right, then the long left and fades away!

Crazy fish!!!

To say that we had delicious sashimi, seared tuna and tuna carpaccio for the next few evenings is an understatement!

Great people and great fun who I am already looking forward to fishing with sometime in the future for Nico´s unfinished business with the Marlin.

How many times do you raise 7 Marlin and only get two stupid bites out of them!!!

Ryan on Reel Screamer, the only other boat we know that was Marlin fishing, also had two halfhearted bites from small Blacks on that day. Then yesterday they released a small Blue out of a double (don’t think anyone else fished in the crazy rainy weather)!