Santa Maria, Mozambique – 4th to 11th July 2009

[nico]

Location

Santa Maria is situated on a peninsula of the Mozambican mainland, directly opposite the southern end
of Inhaca Island. Kosi bay is approximately 100km away, and Maputo is about 40km in a direct line
across the bay.

[nico]

Getting there and back

From Kosi Bay to Santa Maria is between 95km and 110km (entering the elephant reserve via the south
gate is shorter than via the west gate). We have towed a ski-vee on this road before without too much
mishap. But reports of the road being in a worse condition than before, and since we were taking my
17” skiboat on a 7 meter trailer and wide axle, made us decide to spend a night in Ponta d’Ouro, launch
the boat there and then tow the empty trailer up to Santa Maria.
 
On the way up we went via the west gate as we had not been this way before and were curious about
the condition of the road. The road, though bumpy, is not too bad and could be done in a 2 x 4 if not
trailing, and provided that tires are let down to the correct pressure. We had to detour because of a
missing bridge between Ponta airport and the main Maputo road (I should have stayed on the main
tracks), and spent about an hour helping to recover a stuck vehicle with rock hard tires.
 
After entering the elephant park, the roads do get softer, but in general the going was still good. The
main worry here is vehicles coming at speed around corners -please take care when going over blind
rises and through bushy areas. We were lucky enough to see three herds of elephant. There’s been a lot
of reports of elephants chasing and damaging cars recently, but they ignored us (and we didn’t hang
around too much).
 
Once you enter the Santa Maria peninsula the roads get a bit worse. There used to be a helmet on a
pole here demarcating the boundary, but I couldn’t find it this trip? The trick is to take your time. After
many hours on the road it can be difficult to resist the temptation of gunning it, and the last 25km’s can
take you and hour and a half or more, but this is also the bit were most trailer axles are broken. Slow
down, have a break, enjoy the scenery and you will get there in one piece!
 
We left Ponta at around 9am, and were at Santa Maria at about 3pm, so total time including detours
was 6 hours, while total moving time was around 5 hours.
 
Coming back, we used the south gate (our usual route). Again, the roads were pretty good, possibly
better than going via the west gate, and the return trip was a lot quicker, taking us around 4 hours from
Santa Maria to Ponta d’Ouro.

A few other things should be said here:
1. When I describe the conditions of the roads, I am talking from the perspective of someone who
grew up in the Kalahari and I still spend a lot of time dragging a boat around beaches. Always
deflate your tires – please don’t be one of those stupid arses that keeps going until stuck and
then deflates. Not only are you wasting time and fuel, but you are also buggering up the roads
for the rest of us. Don’t try and tow on these roads with a 2 x 4, conditions are changing every
day. Always drive in convoy, you don’t want to be on your own when you get stuck or break
down!
2. I specifically dragged my empty trailer from Ponta to Santa Maria in case weather conditions
turned out for the worse on our return. The trip by sea is around 85km to 90km from outside
Ponta to Outside Hells Gate. I run 2 x 50hp Suzuki 4 stroke on a 17” Supreme Craft (cat hull).
Going up used about 45 liters of fuel running against the sea (there was some left but I didn’t
measure it), coming back used about 35 to 40 liters of fuel (running with the sea). Average
moving speed coming back was just under 40km/hour.

[nico]

Highway from Kosi to Maputo

[nico]

In the Elephant reserve you may find... elephants.

[nico]

South Gate Road - the road acts as a firebreak, creating the green/brown line

[nico]

Accommodation

You have quite a few options for accommodation in Santa Maria. We stayed at Nhonguane Lodge
(Previously called Ponta Torres camp, and before that called Anton’s camp). Other options are Carlos’
Camp -very basic, saltwater showers and communal kitchens, and I hear he now only takes people who
have stayed with him before at R400 pppn (update - Carlos' camp has been sold, don't know what the new owners are doing with it); and Earl Strydom’s Hell’s Gate Lodge – you would have all seen this on the Skiboat Magazine DVD at the beginning of the year, but he charges USD300 pppn including meals and drinks.
 
Nhonguane is brilliant for families; you are on the beach on the bay side, so no waves, shallow water,
and beautiful views. The houses generally sleeps 8 and you can expect to pay around R2,500 per night
for a house. Each house has everything you can ask for, aircon, fridges, freezers, oven and microwave,
ice machine, full electricity and water (not safe for drinking). The homes are privately owned but
managed by Anton.
 
House 3 at Nhonguane Lodge:

[nico]

The Launch (or: The Dreaded Hell’s Gate)

At every tide millions of liters of water rushes in or out of Hell’s Gate, the channel that is formed
between Santa Maria Peninsula and Inhaca Island. Have a look at the Google Earth attached snapshot below.

S shows the main sand banks, and R is a rocky point. The channel on the south side of the mouth is
indeed always deep as shown here.
 
This snapshot was taken at a fairly low tide; the banks are not always that obvious. The white line is your
best route out. At the turn of the tides it can be as easy as launching out a harbor, simply looks for the
gaps between the white water and out (or in) you go. Between the tides though, you can have
“standing” waves, coming from at least three sides, for a long way out. It’s a bit like dodging trough
backline for half a kilometer. The trick is to take it slowly, gently push over the waves while keeping
away from the banks, and in general not rushing. I would suggest you avoid the temptation to do a
north coast bay type launch, where you klap a left before backline: you will be following that backline
behind the sand banks for more than a kilometer and then get trapped against the beach if you miss the
northern gap.
 
Coming back in, especially when the tide is running towards low, you need to follow a wave over the
bank running from the point, and then follow a course to port so you miss the next bank in front of you.
You will have some swell then coming at you from port side and sometimes you won’t be able to let
them run under you abeam, so start turning in early.
 
It is probably not that difficult once you know how it all works, if you are nervous run in and out a few
times at the turn of low tide so you can see how the puzzle looks without having to deal with the weird
waves and currents.

[nico]

Trip report

Our main aim for this trip was not fishing, but a family holiday (at least, that’s what we told the wives).
Our arrangement was that we would fish for a few hours in the morning and be back well before
lunchtime every day.
 
We arrived in the afternoon, and were given a gillie, Lucas, by the lodge. The Gillie is not employed by
the lodge, and costs R40 a day. After unpacking we had a quick braai and went to bed early in
anticipation of the next day’s fishing.
 
Next day we were up early, grabbed a coffee and down to the beach to launch at first light (which is only
at around 7am this time of year). Our gillie didn’t show up so a quick wade out to the boat where it is
tied to a buoy and off we go. We went straight to our usual livebait spot, but after trying for almost an
hour only had 3 maasbanker and some sand soldiers! The water was around 21.5 degrees. From past
experience we know that you can catch couta here on rotten sardines, so we gave up on catching more
bait and ran to Santa Maria reef, 5km outside of Hells Gate. To start with, we fished to close to the top
of the reef, and in no time 2 of our maasbanker were removed by triggerfish, so we started circling in
slightly deeper water. No pulls but bait gone, no pulls but baits gone, no pulls but baits gone… we
resorted to taking some rods out the water and each holding a rod in his hand to feel the bite. In this
way we managed to land two couta on sardines, and I got a small kaakaap on a live sand soldier. I did a
quick jig in about 40m of water and was immediately bitten off. Tried again with a new lure, got hit but
then nothing. By now we had run out of time and since we didn’t want to antagonize our families on the
first day, we decided to head back. About 3 hours of fishing and three fish… we thought that from now
onwards we will be klapping the fish.
 
Back at the lodge, we handed the boat to the gillie – who had now materialized -and I immediately
cleaned and fried the kaakaap for lunch, one of my favourite eating fishes! We spent the rest of the
afternoon jolling with the kids, finishing the day with a nice fish braai.
The next morning our gillie again didn’t show up, setting a pattern that would be repeated for the rest of
the week. We decided to go south this time, look for some new spots and fish more inshore. Mike
picked up a lovely prodigal of around 10kg to 12kg. We came back over reef 23, but there was 2 boats
fishing it already, and between them they hadn’t had a fish on deck. The water was still very cold, and
the southerly had now been blowing for 3 days, so with some dark clouds and the wind pumping we
headed home early.
 
And so the days repeated. Up early, no gillie, southerly wind, no or little fish, fantastic afternoon with
the family. Fishing north towards the lighthouse, we found one small bonnie that Mike put out and got a
nice yellowfin on.
 
Two days before we left a massive northerly wind came through. We took our families around the
corner to Ponta Briel in our bakkies, and spent a lovely day there playing in the rock pools and on the
beach. Later we went across to Inhaca island and went snorkeling at Coral Gardens (something you
should do EVERY time you are here). You need to pay a Mt200 island tax per week, and Mt200 every
time you snorkel, but it is worthwhile, and kids go free.
 
Our last day at Santa Maria we planned not to fish at all as we wanted to make the most of the kids
holidays. We spent some time playing at the point of Hells Gate, and then I took the kids for a long
cruise on the boat in Maputo bay. When we got back to the lodge late afternoon, Mike and I where
gagging for a last fish. We only had an hour or so of daylight left, so with the necessary permission
secured we raced out to Santa Maria reef. Here I have to quickly explain something. I had put my
medium rock and surf rod and reel together earlier in the day, but never used it. Coming back to the
lodge I stood it in a boat rod holder, and when we decided to go out I stuck it in Mike’s jetski’s rodholder
and told the gillie to pull the jetski to shore and take my rod to the house.
 
When we got to Santa Maria reef a totally different picture greeted us. Bonnies were skipping all over
the place, and we had a free jumping sailfish around the boat. We rigged up as quickly as we could, and
in no time I had a couta on board. We fished for maybe another 15 minutes, but it was now getting dark
and we still had to get through Hell’s Gate before we lost all light, so we sadly reeled in and headed
back.
 
Arriving back at the Lodge, there was a big commotion on the beach. Apparently Lucas, our gillie, had
decided that he would take the jetski for a spin. I guess he thought it looked easy, but according to
witnesses he started it, then went flat out and never let go (must have frozen with the throttle fully
open). He ended up driving straight over the lodge’s duck at full speed (and this thing does, breaking of
the steel skibar and transom. Amazingly, no-one was hurt. The jetski escaped with some cosmetic
damage, but my rod and reel that I had left on it was nowhere to be seen. We were really angry, as not
only was this guy useless, he had now cost us significant money. Apparently another gillie, also a Lucas
(or maybe Luca?), had spent the afternoon driving his employers boat around the bay, drunk as a skunk
until he ran out of fuel. Not a nice way to end the day. Anyway, the managers and the local chief came
down to apologize but that didn’t really make us feel much better.
 
Early the next morning, with a decent northerly blowing, I pushed Mike into the water and he went off
to Ponta de’Ouro. He was dead keen to fish the Jaou reef pinnacles on his way back as we knew his trip
would take much less time than ours. We got away a bit late, and only after hooking the trailer Mike’s
wife noticed that some #$%@ had ripped the lights out of my trailer during our stay. I was really pissed,
as I had spend a good few hours redoing the wiring for the trip, with nice contact blocks for easy
replacement etc. – all now ripped out.
 
We then had an uneventful trip back to Ponta, but on arrival there Mike wasn’t there. Called him on the
mobile (there is cell phone reception pretty much all the way up the coast when you are at sea), and the
reason he was late was that he hooked up a saily on a red head Halco, and had to fight it all by himself.
He landed it in an hour and twenty minutes, measured, took photos and released. Measure weight was
around 50kg
.
While loading the boat, Mike noticed that my trailer spare wheel was missing. Bastards! Not only did
they rip off my lights, they also unbolted and stole my spare. Damnit!
I had Mike follow me closely through the Kosi border to hide my missing lights (we’ve had a run in with
border police about broken lights before), and at Jan’s garage I jury rigged my spare lights for the trip
back home. We eventually arrived home at around 8pm, unpacked, and then I had to get ready for a trip
to London the next day!
 
In closing, this was probably one of my worst fishing trips, especially compared to the same destination
last year, but also one of my best family holidays ever. A combination of unfavorable winds and clean,
cold water might have played a role, or maybe I am just a useless fisherman!
 
Tight lines,
Nico
 
(more pictures below)

[nico]

Little Kaakaap

[nico]

Sailfin Rubberlips - handlined after the reelseat broke (it's becoming a habit)

[nico]

Mike's nice yellowfin tuna

[nico]

Coral Gardens

[nico]

Playful whale broaching around the boat

[nico]

We had to up lines as this fella wouldn't go away!

[nico]

Mike's beautiful sailfish

[Searaider]

Great report Nico and what did you catch the saily on?

[nico]

Was caught by my mate Mike. He was alone on the boat, and caught it on a little red head Halco, Shimano TLD Star with 7kg line on a Elbe Hurricane - big respect!

[eric cotton]

Thanks for a great report Nico, Thinking of doing a trip to Moz next year with the family. When is it the best time to go?

[Royboy]

Great report Nico! Excellent detail!!!!
 
We were at Hells Gate 2 weeks ago and had a great time - fantastic place! Even though the water was cold, the fishing was pretty good for mid-winter. We will have a Newsletter / photo-pictorial going out tomorrow.
 
Got to say - I have spent quite a lot of time in Mozambique recently, and have genuinely developed a "love" for this particular area. Will be back there next month when the water warms up a bit, and the fish are hungry again.
 
Kudos to you! GREAT report!
 
Cheers, RB 

[Tsutsuma]

Thanks for taking all this time and doing this report.
Santa Maria is our hidden paradise and the more
marine lovers come and visit the area - the better.
Well done once more
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