MARLIN SEASON - BAZARUTO ISLAND MOZAMBIQUE
Submitted by: Duarte
August 2009

The precise reasons might somehow be unfathomable but probably it has more to do, amongst all other variables, with the cyclical intricacies of Mother Nature and its eternal flowing ocean rivers. One can also argue that there are more boats with crews that have learned the grounds better and which are focusing more on solemnly targeting the ultimate quarry. Or that the usage of new and unconventional methods in this area, such as bait & switch and lures, has opened new frontiers. But whatever way you look at it, the undeniable fact is that for the last few years the Marlin fishing on the rich waters of the Bazaruto archipelago just seems to be getting better and better.

Unfortunately for a number of reasons such as having a lot of sailfish, light tackle and fly fishing charters earlier on, a last minute six day charter cancellation and a planned two week boat overall maintenance, we only started to target Marlin consistently mid way through the season, but `WOW`, was it good then! First we had a number of unstoppable kingies bust us on the reef, then we started getting some nice kawakawa but the cuda kept chopping them up, after which we hooked into the cuda but the sharks appeared on the scene and just made a meal of it. It just got to a stage where at 5am you open your eyes, bloodshot from the previous evening prodigious celebrations and bulged up from the acute sleep deprivation you have endured from continuously long fishing days, your body sore, stiff, worn out and beaten up.

Still you jump out of bed with surprising energy and grinning - `cause you intimately know that later on that day a fish, probably more, IS going to show up behind the spread and that most likely one or more will be pushing 500 pounds or way better!!! It got so good it was ridiculous!

You know that sometime during the day other eyes will be bulging (this time from your charter) as that massive Black jumps from the inside out all over the short corner bait and heads at warping speed into the horizon, line peeling of the golden Tiagra sounding as if a thousand Siamese cats were being burned alive. And then already set in the chair, the charters expression grins in exhilaration. I mean, isn't that what it's all about?!