Mozambique Breakaway

Our yearly trip to Mozambique was slightly later than usual due to school holidays and work commitments. There has been a lot of concern about all the Chinese trawlers who have been licenced to fish the coast and we were not sure what to expect. The trawlers are not supposed to operate within 5 sea miles of the coast, but stories were rife of trawlers being spotted close inshore and especially after dark. Usually I go for a week but this year I decided that I would go for a full two weeks. The weather report for the first week was not that good and launching was tricky on some days to say the least. With the luxury of having two weeks, we avoided the bad days but the brave ones that launched were rewarded with a number of king mackerel (couta) and a few dorado. In contrast to my trip last year there were numerous birds around and I knew this was a good sign. Our crew consisted of Leon Krynauw, our skipper, his son Stephan and myself. The first day out we spotted some birds working and Stephan soon boated a skipjack tuna which we immediately put out as a live bait. The fish unfortunately died quite soon without being picked up. We managed to get two more that we swam without success. We decided to move to some pinnacles to do some jigging. I was testing the new Okuma heavy jigging rod matched with the Metaloid MS55S spooled with 50lb braid. On my third drop I got a small GT (giant kingfish) of about 6kg. Two drops later I hooked into a solid fish and after a dogged battle boated a GT of about 30kg. Stephan also boated two smaller GT’s and Leon got a GT and a green jobfish. The GT’s were all obviously released but the jobfish was put on ice for supper later. Charles recons this good size rainbow runner is one of the best eating fish in the sea The wind was up the next day and we decided to fish in the lee of Inhaca where we would be protected from the wind. We have often caught Torpedo scads in this area and have landed some good size couta on them. We were unsuccessful with them however and moved to the colour line where Stephen and I each landed a good size greenspot kingie. The wind persisted the next day and we decided to do an exploratory trip behind the island. We cruised close to the numerous mangrove swamps and found the birds sheltering on the lee side - hundreds of herons, cormorants and darters and we even spotted a large solitary pelican. Charles with his catch a wahoo The sea was still pretty lumpy the next day and we decided to do some trolling. We were using two Halco Giant tremblers and two Williamson SpeedPro’s which we could troll at the same speed. Leon and I had a double hook-up and the fish took quite a lot of line. Leon’s fish unfortunately came off, but I managed to boat a nice size wahoo. We trolled back along the current line and both hooked up again. Leon’s fish came to the boat quickly and I kept mine out, just keeping light pressure on the fish. This time my fish came off, but Leon boated a nice wahoo. Stephan hooked a strong fish on the flick stick and after a long fight boated a good yellowfin tuna—Sashimi and seared tuna at last! The fish was quickly bled and put on ice. Charlesw Stewart with his ±30kg GT The weather had improved, and we decided that it was time to head to the deep water to troll for Marlin. We had been given some new co-ordinates and also had some marks from previous trips. As Leon and I have both caught marlin before, we wanted Stephan to catch one. We had been trolling for quite a while when the one outrigger clip went. We immediately realised that it was not a marlin as we had a dorado jumping with the lure in its mouth. We had two further strikes, and both were dorado. The marlin had eluded us, and we were disappointed. We launched early the next morning and soon caught some small Eastern little tuna which we put out live. Normally a live bait like this is deadly but during the whole morning we only had one pickup and the fish missed the hooks. Leon Krynauw boated a nice wahoo We were recommended to troll for the marlin from an hour before the turn of tide to an hour after the turn. As high tide was in the afternoon, we launched a bit later in the morning. We decided to do a bit of jigging before heading to the marlin grounds. The jigging was slow, but I was fortunate to boat a good size rainbow runner which I rate as one of the best eating fish in the sea. We eventually headed for the deep water and proceeded to troll. Before long the Black Bart lure on the left short was picked up. The fish ran for a short distance and then the line went slack. The fish had doubled back and jumped close to the boat. On the second jump, the fish came off and I guessed it to be 80 or 90kg. A few moments later the same lure was taken, and the fish ran a long way. When it started jumping, we saw that it was a nice fish. After about 40 minutes, Stephan had the blue marlin of about 160kg at the boat thanks to the help of the Black Magic. The fish swam away strongly, and it was high fives all around. Stefan with two dorados I was instructed to take the next turn on the rod and after a few minutes the America Custom lure on the right short was picked up. The fish took about 250m of line on the 6kg strike drag and then started jumping. At the distance we could not see the fish clearly and I went up a bit on the drag. After a reasonably short fight we had the fish at the boat. Stephan had the fish by the bill, and I was trying to decide what type of marlin it was, when he suddenly exclaimed, “It’s a sailie!” and lifted the sail. It was probably the biggest sailfish I have seen and was caught in 320m of water on a 30cm lure. We revived the fish for a few minutes, and it swam away with only a small hole in its bill. It was agreed by some of the very experienced guys that it was a very old fish. Thus, ended our final day and the next morning found us motoring back to Maputo and ultimately back to the rat race. The biggest sailfish Charles have ever seen, probarly very old as well