So after a long time observing by the sidelines, I thought I'd give a report back a try... 1 to share the fact that UA makes us all better anglers and 2 to hopefully add some value to the forum as well...
I rounded up a couple of mates (full time mates, part-time anglers) for a quick trip to Moz. I was planning to spend 5 days walking the beaches and reefs between Chizavane and Chidenguelle in the hope of spinning, plugging and dropshotting for Kingys. Dates were November 1-6 over new moon springs and I was pretty stoked to get into a decent
or 2....
Border was quite tedious on the way in (note to self - Saturday departure plus month end is a bad idea) so 3.5 hours delay at the border = lesson learnt. The drive thereafter was uneventful getting stopped twice between the border and the Moamba turn-off for the usuals but no bribes paid and we had alles in order so no issues. We took the Moamba road through Sabie which is a better quality gravel road and shaved off 40 mins of drive time to Xai Xai. The base for the few days was Zona Braza lodge in Chizavane, about 40km north of Xai Xai. I have been there before a few times so was keen to visit again as there are some neat areas within relatively short walking distance from the lodge and the lodge itself and owners are great.
I had spoken to Jaco a few days before departure who told me that the southerly had arrived and would be blowing for a few days which worried me. On arrival, we were greeted by some rain and a sea that had a not so lekker colour thanks to the wind which brought some colour from the Limpopo.
My plan was to pack a bag in the morning and cruise south early morning fishing the pushing tide on a spot I'd caught fish at before then have a chow and work my way north about 7km to wade out to the outside reef at low and fish some of the deeper pools and deep water until the tide pushed me off the rocks. I travelled with 2 outfits:
1. Medium - 9ft Shimano Aerocast with Sustain 5k loaded with 25lb braid for 1-2oz spoons plugs and dropshot (though I prefer my 11ft for spoons and plugs, I find it a bit long when working dropshots and bucktails so opted to move with the 9ft)
2. Heavy - 11ft Assassin Spinmaster with Shimano Biomaster 8k loaded with 50lb for 2-5oz work.
Tackle box consisted of a handful of iron candy, chase and halco twisty spoons (1-3 oz), some GTI (aka GT ice creams) plugs and a few dropshots and trusty bucktails. 40lb leader on the medium rod and 80lb on the heavy rod.
Sunday morning saw me on the beach working quite hard with not much happening on the plug or spoon side of things. I decided to switch over to a white bucktail jig and at around 6;30am got into 2 kingys which gave me some renewed hope especially since the colour of the water was not helping the confidence at all. Shortly after I went back to wake up the part-times, had a chow and started trekking north. We found an area with slightly cleaner water and waded out to the deeper reef to fish. This was my first time with the heavy stick and all I can say is that if anyone tells me fishing is not a sport again.. they will be getting the snot klapped right out of them! Walking a good 5km in the soft sand carrying a load, to stand on the rocks in 35 degree heat throwing the big stick is not as easy at it sounds!! Anyway, I threw 90g spoons until my shoulders and forearms were cramping with nothing to show for my efforts... the tide was pushing quite strong at this point so we decided to head back to shore and start the long walk back.
I spotted a nice break in the reef with lots of working water pushing through so decided to have a few throws in the area. Big rod first..... nothing. Put the trusty bucktail on the smaller stick and in quick succession landed another 2 nice greenspots.
The rest of the days went in a very similar fashion. Some greenspots everyday on bucktail and chartreuse jerkshad, no interest in spoons, got a small Bluefin kingy on a rapala skitter pop and threw the big rod with reckless abandon everyday in the hope of one big bite, but it wasn't to be. That wind not only brought the colour but I think the water temp had fallen as well so that just made it a tad tougher... I was still getting fish though so had no complaints...
On Wednesday morning fishing the pushing tide, I was throwing a pearl blue super fluke when I noticed some baitfish fleeing from the corner of my eye. That was a good 200m down the beach so without thinking went into a full sprint, as I got to where I had seen the commotion, they exploded again well within casting distance.... they were needlescale queenies... and they were not tiny so whatever is behind them must be big I thought... in the mad sprint, the big rod was lying with my kit 200m away so I made a throw with the fluke.......... 4 or 5 twitches in and I got smacked.... my drag was set pretty tight as I was pulling hard on whatever I had hooked for the few days to keep them away from the razor sharp reefs..... that didn't stop whatever ate the dropshot and it happily made the reel sing a very happy song! It made a few very powerful runs towards the back reef but I managed to stop it each time. I was pulling really hard on this fish as I was conjuring up images of a 10kg plus GT in my head......I must have fought it for 15 mins when the line just went limp....... at first I thought it had turned towards me so I took up the slack but the slack just kept coming...... it was gone....... whatever it was......my heart sank as I knew that was by far the best bite I was going to get. What I got back was my jighead, the hook bent open!! I couldn't believe it, my uni to uni held the leader, the figure 8 I tied to the jighead held... but the &*^% jighead hook opened!!! More school fees - there's a good reason those nitro jigheads are so much more expensive!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, a few lessons learnt as always and some fuel for the spirit to make me NEED to go back again.... here are a few pics.....hope you enjoyed the read....
