Inhaca trip Nov 2016 Little Hooker

[L Hooker]

Hi Chaps well our Inhaca trip has come and gone, weather was not great however we still managed to catch a few fish so all in all a great trip. Firstly thank you to Marcos and Pedro for the usual assistance as always you chaps are tops so thank you  We left Wed morning and headed through to Maputo. Went through the border with no issues and I was very pleased with the towing capabilities of my new Hilux, could easily cruise at 120 and fuel consumption was in the region of 5.8 kms/ltr rear tyres inflated to 3 bar. The first night we where to stay in Matola at our usual place Palmeiras , Antonio as always was a great host and we had a few R&R's and 2m to celebrate our arrival.

[L Hooker]

Thursd morning we headed through early to Inamar to do our inspection and get our navigation permit etc, the guys delayed us a bit due to some confusion in terms of who was going to do the inspection however we managed to finish the inspections and catch the hight tie to launch.

[L Hooker]

By the time we got to Inhaca it was low tide so Zito picked us up from Pestana Jetty and we headed to camp to setup the rods etc. We headed out that afternoon for some light spinning however did not have much luck. Next morning wind was up however manageable so we headed out to one of the further reefs. Current and wind where against each other so we decided to drift , first drift I got into a nice cuta however it was taxed beneath the boat. Lines out again a bit further down current and we managed to land 2 nice couta of 12kg each.

[L Hooker]

The sharks then pulled in and we mustve lost about 8 couta before we decided to stop the drifting. Changed to pulling feather as we had scene some tuna caught a few tuna only to have them taxed once again by these big brown sharks. Some of the sharks actually breached clean out the water when hitting the tuna  , we then decided to put out the konas and head out deep tp try for a big tune, bill , wahoo or dorrie. We only had one hit and landed a smallish dorrie of about 8kg and that was it for the day. Sat was a blow out so we stayed in camp and went for lunch at Lucas and headed up to the lighthouse for an excursion.

[L Hooker]

Sunday the wind was still blowing a bit however we decided to head out, we did a number of drifts and hooked quite a few fish however each one was taxed, we then decided to put out a few weighted macks , lures and trawl. We got a few bonnies and a ok sized YFT and the sharks then started hitting all the fish we where hooking, as we where about to call it a day we got a dbl strike two fish on, being my brother in laws first proper sea trip told him to take the rod and Sean took the other whilst I tried to keep the lines separated. The rods then went ballistic, I can only assume we had hooked 2 tuna and either a shark or big couta ? had taxed them anyway about 35 min later I saw a number plate and it turned out to be a great GT length being 132cm which puts it around the 40-45kg mark according to the tables, I did try weigh it with my scale however it only goes to 30kg and it was over that. The other fish turned out to be a shark

[L Hooker]

Bit upset about the GT pic as it really does not do it justice, it was a beast. Really stoked for Marco

[L Hooker]

Monday wind changed to a S SE and was gusting quite strong sea was on its head so decided to fish about 6kms behind Inhaca where we where a bit protected. Wind the Southerly wind a nice current line had formed so decided to work that with some lures and and also do some spinning when we saw some surface activity. Had an absolute blast we landed 9 couta lost another 4 or 5 at the boat, not huge fish however good fun none the less. We also caught 8 queenfish I caught my Pb of 15kg the rest ranged from 10 to 13kg. The queenfish we caught on spinning rods using a variety of lures as well as a few on raps.

[L Hooker]

We also caught another 2 x GT's Marcos one weighing in at 20Kg and Sean caught another dropping a heavy wax wing beneath the 2 x queenfish Marco and I where fighting on our spinning sticks. 3 Fish on, there where some choice words during the fight with us trying not to cut each other off however we landed all 3 fish. Sean GT weighed in at 18kg and he caught it on his 30lb rig assassin spinning rod paired with saragosa and 30lb braid

[L Hooker]

Tuesday we headed back to Inhaca and upon leaving the Island my one motor would not start, think my starter motor went. Took us 2hrs to cross the bay  ?Here a few more pics. On the way back through the border some jackass stole my cellphone, cut a long story short once we had gone through the SA border side, decided to callmy phone one last time and lone behold the bastard answered. said hed found my phone and how much would I pay him to get it back as he must now slep through to the SA side etc. Paid R1200 to get my phone back very clever scam  Anyhow hope you enjoy the report.
I don't usually keep Queenfish however my Ghillie and the camp staff had begged us for some fish so decided to keep 2 for them.

[John F]

Thanks for the report Sheldon. Some nice catches there.

What was the problem with your starboard motor?

[Bwana]

Great report and some quality fish there! Nicely done 

[L Hooker]

Thanks for the report Sheldon. Some nice catches there.

What was the problem with your starboard motor?

I think the starter motor either has a loose connections somewhere or its broken, need to get the boat to Suzuki agents to check.

[CRANKMAN]

Thanks for the report Sheldon.    Looks like you guys had another great trip.

[Nikao]

Nice one mate.. some good catches 

[Peter Gordon]

Awesome stuff there Sheldon Great reports and thanks for sharing Sonme very nice fish there

[Umpa Lumpa]

Nice report, great fish, cool pics.

[dugong]

Lekka report and some quality fish!! 

[SAfish]

  Great report and catches. I hope you get your engine sorted out quickly.

[Prego]

Again well done Sheldon really great fishing 

You probably have the same issue I had with my Suzuki's starter motor. Just the brush kit needed replacing, luckily a cheap fix. I hope its your case too

[FishStyx]

Great report Sheldon, thanks for that. Great Geet at 132cm