Captain Duarte Rato

Captain Duarte Rato

 

About Capt. Duarte Rato

Capt. Duarte Rato was born in Portugal and started fishing offshore at the tender age of eight, shortly after he moved with his family to Mozambique in 1982.

He started running fishing charters on weekends and school holiday´s as young as 15 years old and when he finished school three years later, he had his long range Captain´s license, and was running a 37ft sportfisher full time out of Inhaca Island.

He comes from a fishing family and his Dad run a tuna pole fishing for the UN in Mozambique and during his teens Duarte joined in a lot of long range trips to offshore banks off the Mozambican coast. During this time he also entered over 40 Sport fishing competitions and was one of the post war pioneers of Bill fishing in the Inhaca / Maputo area.

After graduating from a Tourism management degree in JHB and a short stint in the hotel industry he decided to pursue his passion for fishing full time. His dream had always been to fish the famous Big Black Marlin rich waters of the Bazaruto Archipelago. In 2001 he joined up with Indigo Bay Resort on Bazaruto Island (now Anantara Bazaruto Island Resort & Spa) and he has not missed a single season since. From 2003 he has been driving the 31ft Vamizi, Mozambique’s top billfish charter boat since, and he has become well known for his ability to guide clients to the Giant Black Marlin that swim in the offshore waters of Bazaruto. He has caught more grander (1000 pound plus) Black Marlin than any other Captain in Africa.

To fish and learn with some of the best Captains in the business, for two decades, he started to travel and fished extensively in other world-class destinations outside the Bazaruto season.

Nowadays, outside the Bazaruto season, Duarte travels to various destinations around the World mostly pursuing big Marlin. His fishing travels have now taken him to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Cape Verde, Ascension Island, Madeira, the Azores, Mauritius, Bom-Bom Island, Algarve, Kenya, Madagascar, South Africa, Thailand, Gabon, Morocco, Bassas da India Atoll, Santa Maria / Inhaca and others…but, he still rates the Bazaruto Archipelago as his favorite destination.

Despite his fame as a billfish expert, Duarte has a deep passion for the Ocean & all kinds of fishing and can be regularly seen tackling giant Marlin, to plugging for Giant Kingfish, chasing sailfish on fly, deep jigging for massive amberjack or fishing ultra light spinning tackle for the vast array of species that swim the in shore and off shore waters of the Archipelago.

Duarte also as a deep love for photography and his Sport fishing pictures are regularly featured in fishing and travel publications throughout the world, including Marlin, BlueWater and Ski-Boat magazine. He also worked and hosted a number of fishing productions including Wildfly, Robson Green, ESA, Big 5, etc

Duarte´s other passions are kite surfing, diving, traveling and obviously just spending time in the water!

Duarte´s biggest weighted fish to date were both taken off Bazaruto. A Black Marlin that was sharked and which remains weighted at 1107 lbs (the fish went 1418 lbs on the formula) and a 1098 lbs Black that got tail wrapped. He as purposefully chosen to released all other Black and Blue grander Marlin his clients have caught (11).

 

 

To contact Duarte, follow this link…