Feedback from Paradise View
Roads
The Xai-Xai section on the hill is being addressed. They are busy grading and widening the road. There is a new red gravel section out of town which should be completed by December.
Venue
30km north of Xai-Xai. (
www.paradiseview.co.za) The resort went out of their way to accommodate the club and they really looked after us. No request was too much and their friendliness and eagerness to help and assist was clearly evident. They even made a tractor available to assist with the launching and recovering of boats. Early morning coffee and rusks were provided on the beach. The small things that they did for our club has fostered a very good relationship between the parties.
Accommodation is upmarket and the general home based comforts are standard. There is an area to store your boat with night time patrols and security present
A fishing map with co-ordinates of nearby reefs is available from reception.
Fishing licences and launching permits are obtainable from the official at reception.
Launching
Launch into a protected area – thereafter one has to negotiate a gap in the outlying reef. Not a difficult launch by any means but be careful of the in- and out-flow of water through the gap during the tidal movements.
Fishing
Fishing was hard, very hard. Couta reef, which was extremely active and productive lies approx. 20km from the launch site where the reef comes up from 50m to 36m. Good couta battles were had with the largest landed fish coming in at just under 23kg and taken on bait. Much tackle (vertical jigs, drop shot and conventional rigs) were lost to some of the monsters on the reef. Vertical jigs either had their assist hooks cut off or even worse, the entire jig was lost to the toothy critters – even once we had resorted to using cable and wire to save the last remaining jigs.
Many species of kingfish were abundant and they hit the jigs hard. I got totally spooled using 10kg braid on a big fish that I just could not stop. Cranked up the drag to maximum but the fish just kept taking line. My fellow crew members could see the inevitable and just started to laugh as I tried all tricks to no avail.
Nomads caught in excess of 141 weighable fish between 12 boats over a 5 day period. The weather was fantastic and we even extended the fishing hours on three days just to make the most of the time on the water.
Couta accounted for the majority of the weighted fish with the largest being just under 23kg.
Some wahoo were weighed in the 18kg class with many lures lost to these speedsters.
Some very large Natal Snoek were around (11+kg) and these fish accounted for much fun on light tackle. Yellowfin tuna in the 5-8kg were also weighted along with some of the other tuna species. O Over the week, only one GT was weighted (13+kg) with many of the other kingfish species being released. Other species’ included greater barracuda and dorado.
No billfish were hooked during the week with only one boat having a pack attack of 3 sailies hit their spread.
Wrap up
A great venue with plenty of fun to be had targeting multiple species. If going out to couta reef, be prepared to loose tackle as there is no friendly fishing store up the road to replace lost equipment.
Would I go back – sure thing.
The only thing we would do differently is hit the SA-Moz border on a Thursday afternoon and not on the early Friday evening.
