Duarte and Dario chopper ride Vilankulos to the Islands

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Well ok then, we are back up in Vilankulos. Mozambique. At the start of the big fish season this 2023. The black marlin that make this place so infamous, have already arrived. In numbers. But they are all mainly small fish right now. Very small in fact!

Pre-season Bazaruto is the time to be chasing after baby blacks. And sails. With your fly rod. They are plentiful. Taking swimming lures and all. If you had to actually focus on these small fish, man oh man, would you have some stories to tell.

Baby blacks can jump like 20ft or more into the air. They have amazing power-to-weight rations at this size. Huge tails. Outsized fins. And so FULL of energy.

Yeah, so the lead-up to the big fish season, is the small fish season. Luckily, this bite is also augmented by a late sailfish bite. In fact, wherever there are baby blacks, there are sailfish too. They predate on the same type of opportunities. Stalking small baitfish in the shallows is their game. These small bills, same as the sailfish, often come right inside and patrol the channels. Can you imagine the fun to be had!?

Back to the big fish...

In the next couple weeks or so, the big mommas will arrive. With her consort of eager suitors following her every move. Picking up the scraps as she goes along marauding her way to eventually arrive at Bazaruto. For the next three months, these swimming gangsters will cruise along together, attacking anything that moves.

Nobody has ever witnessed an actual marlin spawning. But this is deduced to be the reason they come all the way over the great oceans to congregate here each year at this time. By December its kind of all over and life goes on as usual in the sleepy town on Vilankulos.

Get in touch on +27793269671 or umzimkulu@gmail.com if you are keen to get into this kind of action. Big or small. The blacks are waiting here for you! This time each and every year!