Inhassoro - Cashewbay Lodge April 2014

[kleinboet]

It was that time of the year again and we were counting the days for our annual trip up north. This year we planned a long holiday in Inhassoro , from 17 April till 3 May. We were taking 2 boats up , both sodwana cat's. My mate Mervin decided to leave earlier and they slept over in Komatipoort on the 15th. They arrived a day earlier in Inhassoro on the 16th. We left at 12am on 16 April and made our way to our overnight stop at St Antonio , just before Maxixe. Except for the chaotic traffic in Maputo we had a very pleasant and uneventful journey to St Antonio.
After a braai and a few cappies we headed for bed and we were up early the following morning for the last leg of our journey to Inhassoro. We were once again greeted by Derek and Wendy at Cashewbay Lodge , a definite must stay if in Inhassoro. We arrived a bit after 9am and preperations for the next 2 weeks of fishing began in all ernest. Boats and tackle were prepped and the following morning was an early sunrise launch.
The fishing during the first week was excellent , the weather was amazing with only 2 days a bit of a blowout during our whole stay. We caught a lot of couta in the 5-8kg mark trolling deadbaits and halco's. The deadliest colour's being R15(Chrome purple) and the williamson speed pro 160 in blue and pink. This year we spent a lot more time jigging and were rewarded with a variety of species including GT's , jobfish and various other reef species. The hightlight for my wife was hooking and landing her first ever GT of approximately 7kg on a squiddie jig. This "made" her holiday. I managed to land a sailfish of about 35kg on a williamson tuna feather behind a bird on the 3rd day. Unfortunately and to my deepest regret , the fish was stone dead after the hooks were removed. We tried in vain to revive the fish but to no avail.
The one day I invited Derek to join us for a day out. Our plan was to head to the deeper holes of 120-130m for some big GT's and amberjacks. Derek was to show me how the big jigging boys do it , and boy what a day it turned out to be. My experience with jigging ends at 65lb rigs on 30-40m of water. Seeing PE7 rods and alutecnos reels loaded with 100lb+ braid and 400 gram jigs and bigger was a definite eye opener for me. We headed out past Baz to the holes and had some nice showings on the bottom. We worked the drift out and Derek started his stuff. On his second drop he managed to bring an amberjack of about 4kg next to the boat , before I cound grab the fish the hooks pulled and back down he went. It was my turn and I managed to catch some sort of snapper. I must tell you that my fitness levels are no match for this. reeling even a small fish up from 130 m is extremely tiring and back breaking. Derek went down again and caught the same species of fish as I did.After a quick drink and smokebreak , Derek went down again and was SMASHED about 5m from the bottom. His PE rod bending double.I have only seen the likes of this on tv. The fish was pulling so hard that Derek couldn'd get his rod butt into the gimble.I tried to help by holding him and trying to guide the rod into the rod bucket. It was a few more seconds and the rod broke cleanly in half , sounding like a gun shot.The fish stayed on for a few more seconds but the line went slack and fish gone.....needless to say it was a very quiet few minutes on the boat and the disappointment was huge.
Last friday was our last day so we decided to head out towards paradise island again and do some light tackle spinning. We were not far out when we came accross a hue feeding frenzy with birds diving into the water and bonnies jumping out. My son had his light spinning rig rigged with a small bucktail jig in his hands. We got close and with his first cast he hooked into what I thought was a small bonnie. The fish started stripping line at a rate of knots with my son holding on for dear life.He never once asked me to help him and believe it or not , he managed to bring the fish next to the boat all by himself. At this point I realised it was a rather big natal snoek next to the boat and were were stoked.I got the fish into the boat and I must tell you that there was a very proud mom and dad onboard at the time.High fives all around This was the biggest fish my son has caught off the boat up to now.Not bad for a 5year old!!He turns 6 on the 26th of May. He then got a full bout of "viskoors" and we chased the feeding frenzy. His very next cast into the bait ball he called out to me saying he has another fish on. It was after about a minute when he said to me , "Dad , kan jy my asb help? hierdie is 'n groot vis" The rod was bent double with line peeling off at a rate of knots. My friend Jan took the controls and I took the rod and we started chasing the fish. It was another 25 mins later that we landed the biggest bonito I have ever caught. Weighing almost 6kg on my lip grip scale.After all this pandemonium on the boat we headed out to paradise island for the rest of the morning.
We left Inhassoro on saturday morning , spent the night in Komatipoort at River hill lodge and arrived safely back home on sunday afternoon. The drive back was uneventful too except once again for the Maputo traffic.
This was truly an amazing holiday with good friends and our stay at Casheway Bay as always amazing. Big thanks once again to Derek and Wendy for everything!! See you guys for a braai next month!!
Enjoy some of the pics.
Shaun.
 

[kleinboet]

Sheldon fighting a couta with Ouboet

[kleinboet]

mom's first geet

[kleinboet]

sailie

[kleinboet]

rod broken jigging....please excuse ciggie in my mouth.

[kleinboet]

skipper in training

[kleinboet]

Sheldon fighting snoek and me fighting bonnie

[kleinboet]

The manne after a day out with Derek on his boat.

[kleinboet]

proud mom..
enjoy folks!

[FishStyx]

Nice going Mate. I still remember my first decent Cob at age 8... Awesome. Thanks

[ianf]

Nice report and nice pics. 

[CLS]

Love the "Skipper in training" priceless concentration.

[dugong]

Lekk report, nice fish for the lightweight as well!!

[kleinboet]

yip , fighting the bonnie for 25 mins on the light tackle felt like going to a gunfight with an okapi knife....

[Cashewbay]

Great report Shaun, always a pleasure to fish and have you stay with us. 

[L Hooker]

Well done Kleinboet nice report and congrats on the catches. Look slike you guys had some great fun

[Prego]

Yoh I got the jealoooooooous 


Awesome stuff Shaun congrats on a great trip to a beautiful part of the world and on some good fishing, that R15 is the business up there 

Glad you guys got to enjoy some jigging and mommy got to catch a nice little Geet.

You guys were definitely on the amber spots that little fella you got is a rosy job fish and where they are the AJ's are not to far.

PS. when is the braai I would love to taste sailfish 

BTW you're boy has good taste in football team......Forca

[kleinboet]

Thanks Paulo , if you in the area I would be more than happy to give you some sailfish fillets , or even some couta fillets?? We did some sailfish nuggets the same evening and I was very pleasantly surpised. Not very bad eating at all.
He loves that shirt , I was in Lisbon a week before we left for Inhassoro and I brought it back for him.
Thanks for ID'ing the fish , that explains a lot.I think it was a very big amber that smashed Derek.Unfortunately we only had that one heavy stick on the boat that day , and when I went back there again last week the current was too strong to get the jig down and I never had heavier jigs with me on the boat.
I have some awesome go pro footage of us jigging and hooking up but my IQ does not allow me to compress , edit or upload the footage.

[Prego]

I will take you up on the sailfish fillets offer for sure, thanks 

Open an account on you tube download it there then put the link here

[FishStyx]

I think it was a very big amber that smashed Derek

This is what those Ambers do to you up there... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLMVGRlp_gM