BAZARUTO - MARLIN SEASON 2011

Marlinmoz

Sealiner
When we had had enough I moved south elusively searching for better water!

Things wet quiet for a while until we spotted some birds in 80 meters out of V mile and as we got close we were givena unique show.

I have seen a lot of bait balls but this just took it to a new level!!!!
 

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Marlinmoz

Sealiner
This bait ball was insanely thick and I cannot explain the quantity and diversity of fish that were feasting on it.

There were big, medium and small sharks going apeshit on the surface gorging on this heavenly meal. It looked like a christmas feast.

There were dusky´s, blackfin´s and Zambeze´s.

Then there were zillions of other game fish....

Big eye kingfish, bludger kingfish, amberjack´s, bonito´s and yellowfin were going mild, absolutely insane, munching on this zillions of poor little anchovies!!!

Then it was every man for itself as I took the big lures out and drifted over the mayhem.
Everyone was grabbing the spinning tackle, there were spoons throuwn, jigs going down and poppers flyingas everyone on the boat hooked fish after fish...all of us simultaneously hooked up, releasing fish after fish...

Yeah, it was so crazy that I did not even take any photographs....one of the guests did and will post when he sends them to me. What a blast and experience, even better than the action and catching so many fish was just watching a absolutely miraculous feast of nature.

Yup, no billfish but I heard no one complaining as we made our way back a tad later, cheering with a nice double Black Jonhie Walker on the rocks!!!!
 

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Marlinmoz

Sealiner
This bait ball was insanely thick and I cannot explain the quantity and diversity of fish that were feasting on it.

There were big, medium and small sharks going apeshit on the surface gorging on this heavenly meal. It looked like a christmas feast. There were dusky´s, blackfin´s and Zambeze´s.

Then there were zillions of other game fish....

Big eye kingfish, bludger kingfish, amberjack´s, bonito´s and yellowfin were going mild, absolutely insane, munching on this zillions of poor little anchovies!!!

Then it was every man for itself as I took the big lures out and drifted over the mayhem.
Everyone was grabbing the spinning tackle, there were spoons throuwn, jigs going down and poppers flying as everyone on the boat hooked & releasedfish after fish...all of us simultaneously hooked up...

Yeah, it was so crazy that I did not even take any photographs....one of the guests did and will post when he sends them to me. What a blast and experience, even better than the action and catching so many fish was just watching a absolutely miraculous feast of nature.

Yup, no billfish but I heard no one complaining as we made our way back a tad later, cheering with a nice double Black Johnny Walker on the rocks!!!!
 

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Porra Newbie

Senior Member
Hi Duarte welcome back and compliments of the season to you. We made it out there once but things were very quiet with every charter boat coming past us scratching their heads as the fish were AWOL. We blanked in style but in all honestly we could of found the fish as the Indigo crew did at Vmile but it was a little far for us to travel as we still had to head back to BD point.  We worked as far as sailfish bay but then turned back as I was worried about fuel.

Even when we tried 25 mile reef on another 2 accosaions things were quiet and we only managed a coupled of lost YFT.
However the fishing on the flats was not bad at all, but all in all we had a fantastic time.

I spoke to some one else that is on this forum that fished out of vilanculos and they never fished Baz because they heard the guys complaining on the radio that things were tough but he manage to find some good water in front of Magaruque and got some good fish. I will ask him to post some of his pics here.

BTW please send me your rates & packages for 2012 my email is quadrevolution@telkomsa.net
 

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Grupper

New member
Good Morning

Well we just returned from Pomene.What a experience caught a lot of fish.To all fisherman out there please think twice before going to Pomene.Road is so bad it took us 5 hours to complete the last 65km.Faccilities was so bad and it actually put the beautiful Pomene in a bad mouth taste.Caught a lot of YFT and Cudas were plenty i will post some pics of the entire experience
 

Showtime

New member
Hi Duarte ....

Hope you have a greate new - year ...:beer
Well this is my fishing report for Bazaruto from the 20 th to the 1 of Jan .... it started of very well indeed . On the first day just of Lighthouse , 7 in the morning we had our first "strike" short coner Bonito smoker ... just to wake us up !!!! on for 30 sec. 10 min. later our second and third "strikes" medium sized fish missed two lures in the spred ......!!!

4th strike for the day , a good sized fish hits our "home made black headed smoker"... clears the water 6 meters behind the boat .... on for about 2 min ...pulls the hooks ....!!!!

Second day .... same story "very lazy strikes" 2 billfish in the spred for the day .... i had nothing they wanted to eat ...

3rd day ... the wind stars blowing , but its still fishable ... had one lazy strike early of Lighthouse . I moved down to three trees and sailfish bay ... where in the following sea in 50 m of water and on our "home made lure" we tagged a nice Sailfish ... not great sport on a 80 setup .... but a billfish no- the- less ..
 

Showtime

New member
Day 4 .... not nice "North Easter" turned every thing upside - down as duarte would say "peasoup"water for the rest of the week ....

Day 5 we decide to move down .... to 2 mile and Marlin pinicals ..... i dont know the area very well , so feel free to correct me ... down south , the bottom of Bazaruto theres a "huge" clean sand dune ... i started my first tack in 50 meters of water , moving away from the dune into deep water .... we passed a small baitball with about 4 or 5 birds .... wen " bang " big Mother of a fish in 120 meters of water .... "not so nice" with us being only 2 people on the boat "Skipper" and my never say dye !!!! rigger come leaderman . first nothing happend ...after about 30 second ... i think she realised that the pointy thing in her mouth was a very sharp 16/0 and it was attached to" small " 50 lbs setup ...... well she spooled us in under 60 second ....jumping three time .... just to rub some salt into our "wounds"
 

Showtime

New member
That was our last "nice" fish we lost .... nothing happend in Bazaruto for 5 days .... water was way to hot and dirty .... not a single "strike" in 5 days ....

I must say on our last day .... we saw what a "Black Marlin " is made off ..... the smallest Marlin i have ever seen alive ... tried to eat our "teazer" then moved on to the Bonito Smoker ...and was on for about 3 second ... wile doing stunts in the air with a "lure" half her size .....

Tanx again for the Reports from Baz. Duarte

My Big fish is still out there ...

Cheers Danny......
 

Porra Newbie

Senior Member
@ Showtime I found that the water was colder the second week. I recorded temps of 29-30 first week and second week 28-29.

Any how it seems that fish left with Duarte and seem to have now returned with him, lol.

I do know of some one on this site that came good in the Archipelego and found the fish I will try and get him to post here.

Cheers
Paulo
 
G

Guest

Guest
Hi Guys, we also fished the Archipelago over December, but fished mainly south and east of Magaruque, and then down towards Lenene. We had to work much harder this time to find fish and birds, but eventually caught some amazing fish.

 

There were loads of these torpedo scads (think that’s what they called) around, and rumors had it that those are not good bait, although we caught loads of them as they took any feather or lure. We ended up swimming them live, and caught a very nice size cuda, and had a marlin take one at the boat while reeling in, 150lb leader just snapped, not sure how that can happen.

 

We eventually found some bonnies, and battled to get them to take feathers, after trying different colors eventually got one on. We knew it was a bonnie and I frantically got the live bait trace ready on the big rod while my son brought the bonnie in on light rod with 6kg line. As he was about to lift the bonnie on boat, a marlin took the bonny, and swam off. We then saw a second marlin trying to get the bonnie off the first. The one was significantly bigger than the other. He stayed close to the boat with our bait in the mouth. We tried our best to get the bait back, but every time he let go, he would maul and grab it again. Finally we got our bonnie in, and rigged up this now dead, and pretty messed up bonnie. The moment it hit the water, the smaller marlin hit it so hard right at the boat, we were soaked. We had a hook up, unfortunately the big hook went right through the gill plate from the inside, and then fish was dead at the boat after about 45 minutes fight. Below a picture of the fish. See wound on gill plate in picture.

 

In the next 10 days we hooked up to another 3 black marlin, on lures (Pulsater Jet Heads) that were all safely released.
 

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Nice size cuda on live torpedo scad.......
 

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eventualy found the dorado in 150m, and double up with 2 big bull's. One came off at the boat.......
 

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we also did quite a bit of deep jigging when the gamefish went quiet, and got broken off badly on deep reefs by big fish, fish that keep running even with the Stella's 18,000 on almost full drag...... we eventualy caught a number of nice yellow fin tuna on these deep reefs near the bottom. Very strage that they went down that deep. Maybe that's were the fish went those days it all wnent quiet on troll.
 
G

Guest

Guest
sorry about all the repeats, but the Malawi internet is very challenging. I had to keep re-writing the bloody message several times as it throws me out, meanwhile it went through.
 

Marlinmoz

Sealiner
Paulo – thanks for the report & all the best for 2012 hope we do get to fish together for a BIG MAMA!!! What a pity you did not have great fishing. I was not here but from what I have spoken to the boys and guys that were fishing in Vilankulos over the season it seems the fish were running better down south during the time. But it seems overall the fishing was pretty quiet during the time, especially into the last week in December.

Grupper – I have been to pomeme a few times the last 8 years but by chopper. The last time I did that road was back in 2001 and it was a nightmare, seems it has not changed much. Where did you stay at Pomene? Send us some fish pics…

Hi Danny, just like everyone else I spoke to it seems you had good fishing and it tapped off later in December. Can be so damn frustrating when the fish go into that sluggish strike mode, exactly what I experienced in mid November during the comp…16 fish up and not one release.
Yeah, that area with the big dune down south is a good place, top end of II mile…what I call ´the corner….and where big mama´s live. If you further down to the big dune on Benguerra north side also very good…the bottom end of II mile.

Sorry to hear about the spooled fish…do you use a Dacron backing on your reels at all Danny? You say you had a 16/0, was that on a lure? Fish might have been fouled hooked on the shoulders or dorsal and thus the lighting run…Yeah it never stops to amaze me how this little fellows want to eat a monstrous lure or bait, like the 20 kg fish trying to eat a 12 kg live yellowfin tuna for four times!!!Thanks for the report Danny, big mama still out there, just keeps us coming back….a great year to you!


Eran, thanks for the report and a great 2012 to you…
Where were you guys based, at Vilankulos?
Those are torpedo scads alright and although they are generally not regarded as good baits I have caught a good number of Marlin on them both here and at Inhaca. I have used and caught fish on them on live, skip and swim baits. Fao can justify to that, he caught his first Marlin years ago on one…and also another fish on the comp a couple years ago. But they are my favorite bait for big crocodile cuda here. Not sure if you did, but you should always have one down deep on a downrigger, that’s how you will catch the bigger cuda – learned that from my spearfishing days, bigger cuda always deeper. Have caugt a few good GT´s as well on downrigger scad live baits.
150 lbs or any other size mono leader can snap easily if it get’s locked right in the scissors of the jaw.Must have been an awesome sight with those two fish fighting for the bonnie. I can see the wound, were you not using circles? Where was this?Well done, even if it was not as good as it gets here it sounds like you had a good time.
Hey, fully understand about the internet, not much better or faster on the islands!!!

Cheers guys, thanks for the reports

Here’s an awesome morning of cuda fishing with live torpedo scads @ lighthouse…this was less than 2 hours fishing before we had to run for shelter!!!
:SSS:SSS:SSS:?_seal1_
 

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Marlinmoz

Sealiner
Hey guys, I am in Vilankulos but been speaking to the boys daily and despite the green water and not so lekker weather they have found some good fish the last three days aboard Vamizi.

The half-day charter on Friday wanted to specifically target Marlin and was instantly rewarded when they hooked a 350 lbs Black early morning, which they tagged and released.

A tad later they hooked up to a beast of a fish that the boys reckon was about 900 plus lbs.
Apparently and unlike most big fish that do not tend to do much after hookup this one was on steroids and almost spooled the 80W. They managed to turn and chase with only a few turns left on the reel, but unfortunately once all was once again in control the fish come undone.
My guess is that the fish was foul hooked on the shoulders and thus the high speed run!!!

Just before coming in at noon another fish around 300 come on the long rigger express and despite whacking the lure 5 times it never found steel. All the fish were on lures in better water patches deep out of V and VI mile.
 

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