Written by Graeme Field and Anthony Diplock
"Gimme a drrink ya bastarrds, me mooth's as drry as a badgers arrse," Dougie the Scotsman muttered, sending everyone on the boat into hysterics for the umpteenth time that day. Dougie doesn't talk much, but when he does open his mouth his dry (sic) sense of humour generally results in the rest of us rolling around or sometimes even collapsing in stitches of laughter. When "the rest of us" includes the likes of Ant Diplock, who is literally a barrel of laughs, a large part of the day is spent clutching one's sides in a vain attempt to keep them from splitting with mirth. On this particular occasion, we were a mile out to sea off the lighthouse on Bazaruto Island, and poor Dougie had been connected to a rather large Zambezi shark for the better part of an hour when he politely asked for a drink as only a Scotsman can. Diplock was too busy clutching his (ample) stomach and laughing uncontrollably to get the poor chap a cold coke, but when Dougie, who had been turning progressively more green as the fight wore on, suddenly collapsed from heat exhaustion and over exertion (still harnessed to the shark) things happened rather swiftly. Dougie's prostrate form was stripped of the harness and he was quickly revived with a cold one, Ant took the reins on the shark and our second client (and Doug's cousin) Neil took the wheel, collectively saving the day, and in doing so completing a rather amusing picture that would be relived over a beer on more than one occasion in the bar in the long, balmy evenings that followed.
Ant and I recently had the pleasure of guiding together at two lodges in Mozambique, where we met up with long standing British clients and friends Dougie Taylor, Neil Ford, Lance and Nick Jeans for three weeks of fishing, camaraderie and fun. And did the magnificent archipelago deliver the goods! Starting with a relaxed week with our European friends Thierry Mosti and Anna-Marie Kerkhoffs at their new fishing camp on the mainland, we moved on to Bazaruto Island Lodge on the northern tip of the beautiful Bazaruto Island. With Ant and I skippering separate boats and our guests rotating between us, we explored the reefs and drop offs that surround the rich waters of Bazaruto, Benguerra and Margaruque Islands, consistently finding a huge variety of species that were willing to come to the fly. Weeks of near perfect weather, excellent water conditions and superb fishing complimented by endless humour and great company resulted in a highly successful and enjoyable trip for all involved.
For me personally, it was an delight to be guiding alongside a good friend and one of the best guides I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Incredibly knowledgeable, an excellent skipper and fisherman, Ant Diplock is truly a pleasure to fish with. Talking his own brand of South Coast slang, he is a source of non stop entertainment but takes his job seriously and works extremely hard to ensure his guests have the best possible time on his boat. He knows the fickle Mozambican waters like the back of his hand, and he can find you a fish in a mud puddle. I learnt a huge amount from him during the time we spent together on that trip, and am indebted to him for unselfishly sharing with me his immense knowledge, sound advice and even his hard earned GPS waypoints that mark his favourite reefs. I am definitely of the belief that the value of employing a good guide is immeasurable – and Ant is a prime example of this as he is worth his weight in gold to a fly fisherman. Which is quite a lot of gold I might add… sorry Ant!
Fishing the archipelago requires an intimate knowledge of reefs, currents, water conditions, tides and fishing techniques. Being able to adapt as easily as Ant does to the ever changing conditions is the single most important difference between success and bobbing around aimlessly in a seemingly desolate ocean. The waters around Bazaruto offer a wide array of reefs at varying depths that hold a myriad reef and shoaling species, long and well defined ridges perfect for sailfish and baby marlin, and channels and rips that produce huge schools of kawakawa, bonito and skipjack tuna. Find your own little oasis of floating debris or flotsam, and you are almost guaranteed a dorado, wahoo or prodigal son, or stumble upon a shark in shallow water and you are very likely to find a GT or two hanging around behind it. Ant is so in tune with these surroundings that there is never a dull moment on his boat – he just has a sixth sense of where and when to go, and more importantly, what fishing techniques to employ to ensure success. The first cast I made off his boat onto a reef, he actually counted me into the strike, starting a countdown from 7 until low and behold my line slammed tight into a big jobfish right on the count of zero. I looked at him in amazement and he just put his head back and laughed. Typical.
Although much of the fishing is done for the numerous species that frequent the deep reefs, it is the chance of casting a fly to hot and lit up sailfish that really makes Ant's blood boil, and a lot of time was dedicated to targeting these magnificent gamefish. And Ant doesn't mess around either when the sailies are about – he seems to find hungry sails with ease. Coming up to Ant's boat at 25 Mile reef early one morning, I could see the one of the Jeans' was into a sailfish off the bow of the boat, so I headed around towards the stern only to be shooed and waved away in no uncertain terms by a frantic Ant. It was only when I got closer that I realized both Nick and Lance were into sailies – the fish running in completely opposite directions off the bow and stern of the boat. Unfortunately Lance lost his at the boat, and although Nick managed to land his the missed chance of a sailfish double was a bitter pill for Ant to swallow.
On my boat one morning we had the teasers out for sails as we followed an underwater ridge near the south point of the island. Neil was in the pound seat with fly rod in hand, Dougie fully briefed on retrieving the daisy chain up the starboard side of the boat and yours truly managing the teasing stick, facing backwards and steering the boat with one hand behind my back. Recipe for disaster? Well having done this before I was pretty confident that I would have things under control if we raised a sail, but what I hadn't budgeted for was the searing hot, enraged and completely berserk black marlin that attacked my teaser after being lulled into a false sense of security after a long period of inactivity. Somehow I managed, amidst some truly colourful language, to keep that crazed fish on the teaser for a full five minutes of absolute chaos, finally enticing it into the wake close behind the stern. Amazingly, after behaving like the hookless pink skirt on my teasing rod was the last meal in the entire Indian Ocean, the marlin instantly and completely lost interest at the crucial moment that the teaser was whipped from the water and immediately replaced with a very similar pink sailfish fly. With a disdainful flick of it's tail it was gone, leaving us trembling and shaking and wondering what in the hell had just hit us.
Another incident that left us shaking our heads in disbelief took place when we were fishing a particularly sharky inshore reef that same afternoon, and got stuck into a big shoal of bludger kingfish. We managed to land a handful of these hard fighting kingies before the big Zambezi's moved in and ruined the day. Once these sharks get wind of the easy meal, the scenario is pretty much the same. Fish on, heads for the reef, settles down to a slog then suddenly tears off with a sense of unbridled urgency when the shark spots it. The fight doesn't last much longer after that and usually ends with a dead, heavy pull followed shortly by the parting of the leader deep below the boat. We had just lost a couple of fish in this manner and were just about to move off the reef when good old reliable Dougie hooked into another decent fish on the fly. Instead of heading for the reef as the fish mostly do, this particular fish turned and shot straight up towards the boat at top speed. Thinking we must have by pure chance hooked a free swimming sailfish, we expected a jump but weren't really prepared for another bludger and the 300lb Zambezi shark that exploded out of the water behind it - only meters from the boat. The huge shark cart wheeled clean out of the water, the bludger clamped firmly in it's menacing jaws, landed upside down, drenched us with a huge flick of it's tail and disappeared into the depths - leaving us for the second time that day wondering what on earth had just happened! Dougie's colourful and enlightening expletives that followed are probably not suitable for publication in this upstanding magazine – but let's just say that this Scottish salmon fisherman who is at home in his waders on the banks of the River Tweed "ain't never seen nothing like that before"…
And so it went, for a full two weeks. From vicious marlin attacks, shark acrobatics, dorado fests under floating debris and even tangling with prodigal son's and big GT's behind whale sharks in shallow water, the Bazaruto Archipelago threw everything at us and showed what a fantastic saltwater flyfishing destination it still is. For our British friends, the rugged African continent provided the goods again, and I look forward to seeing both Neil and Dougie in the Okavango soon for a freshwater tigerfish bonanza.
FISHING THE ARCHIPELAGO
Fishing out of Bazaruto, Benguerra, Paradise or Margaruque Islands one has access to a large and productive fishing area incorporating reefs, channels, dropoffs and underwater contours that produce a wide variety of fish, and often big fish. 12 to 14 weight rods, fast sinking depth charge lines, chartreuse Clousers minnows and a good GPS are essential tools for tacking the offshore fishing around the islands. The main method of fishing the deeper reefs is to locate an underwater reef, mark it on the GPS and then do a number of drifts over the strike area, casting up current and letting the lines and heavy flies drop down into the strike zone as the boat drifts over the reef. Timing, boat positioning and accurately interpreting the GPS readings are crucial to success. Knowledge of water temperatures, currents and tides of the area and understanding which areas, what reefs and even which side of the reef will be most productive is the difference between success and failure, and this is where the services of a top guide are invaluable in ensuring that your fishing time and effort is optimized.
A typical day fishing out of Bazaruto Island would normally entail some shots at schooling kawa-kawa or bonito in the channels between the islands, followed by a few hours fishing deep on different reefs incorporating trolling some sailfish teasers along the dropoffs as the boat moves between reefs. As the afternoon tide pushes in, fish rise up from the reefs and one can often enjoy some frantic surface activity in the afternoons.
For affordable guided fishing with in the Bazaruto area contact us.