I was recently invited to join my mate Peterblace in Maputo for the first Naval comp of the year, and since I had lined up some work in Maputo I thought I would make a weekend of it and kill 2 birds with one stone and unknowingly tick another species off the wishlist.
The day started off badly with engine trouble, but we were eventually able to get on the water albeit 3hrs later. We crossed the baixos area (low water area with strong current and breaking water) to find green water and millions of jelly fish, we managed 2 quick rat couta but because of the engine trouble we were a little late for the prime game fish hour. We headed out deep and on the way worked an area were we saw a small Black Marlin free jumping with no luck. Eventually we reached our desired area and we saw a few birds having a feast with some large unidentified smashes, as we past the area we had a proper screaming reel, Peterblace grabbed the rod while I cleared lines, before I could clear the last line the fish took off on another blistering run when I heard a school girl scream from Peterblace "PAULOOOOOOOOO" with line sreaming off at a rate of knots, I quickly turned the boat to chase the fish but a few seconds later the fish knicked the mono and another prize fish AND LURE was gone for Peterblace
, "WIND ON LEADERS, Wind on leaders" brother!!
we worked the area again but with no success, it was getting late and we decided to head to Poco on our way in.
Now I was getting excited as I have visited this area on 2 different occasions with this being my third. During our 1st 2 visits my mate Paul got his 1st Marlin on his boat's (Suzette) first outing, Clyde aka Johnny Nitro got bust up a few times and I caught my PB Dorado here. So was looking forward to my 3rd visit to this some what magical bit of water.
On arrival the Easterly picked up and the sea was alive with bait balls all over the area, the grin on my face grew even bigger
. I quickly grabbed my popping stick but the hundreds of green jobfish that were feeding on the surface were not interested in our offerings, Peterblace positioned the boat for the drift and he was quickly down and jigging, I dropped down my squiddy jig, as the jig was dropping I said to myself that I will have to change to a heavier jig as the wind and current were to strong for my 4 ounce jig and it was going down at and angle. Little did I know that as I turned the bail arm over and twitched the rod 2-3 times what I was about to achieve.
It took a while for the fish to realise it was hooked but when it did he was off to the races and it had myself and Peterblace dancing around the boat and even jumping on the bow to avoid being cut off, thanks for the help bru! During the tassle Peterblace said "its a big YFT" and jokingly I replied "no,its my GT". Well after around 10 minutes I saw colour and Peterblace shouted " ITS A BIG GT" boy now I started screaming and shouting like the school girl
. I took my time to get the fish up and eventually Peterblace was able to grab the fish and place it on the deck.
I looked at Peterblace after a few shouts and high fives naturally and said "I know we busy with a comp but can we release the fish" and he quickly answered & agreed
to you brother, we took some pics, measured the amazing beast of a fish revived the fish, a little to fast at times
and watched him swim away. See you soon when you 140cm MR GT.
On arrival at the club after the long haul back I was surprised at the response of the other competitors and non anglers "WHAT are you mad, you released what could of been the winning fish??"
Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Respect also to Marcelo skipper/owner of the boat Fourplay who clean swept the entire comp for BIGGEST GAME FISH- a 24kg Wahoo if I am not mistaken, MOST SPECIES for the day which comprised of wahoo, dorado, skip jack and the BILLFISH COMP with 3 Marlin. They had decided that if they caught a big Marlin over 200kgs that they would boat it, their 3rd fish of the day was well over 200kgs and when they got the fish next to the boat they decided to release
With Peterblace's Gopro we filmed most of the battle, on releasing the fish I really battled picking him up over the gunnel and in turn a little rough on the fish but I was super exhausted
enjoy the video to follow
