Mozambique Inhaca

[christo Stemmet]

Does anyone have any information on the fishing near Maputo and Inhaca Island?

[mr T]

going up there this weekend to see for myself

[gazzarowan]

in Maputo there is an inland lake that has an "opening" to the sea - sand bank you have to slide over depending on the tide; but that lake had good amounts of smaller GTs (2-5kg) and the odd monster. (lots of surface feeding early mornings) also lots of grunter and perch type fish.

if you on a boat, in the backline there were lots of gamefish.

not too sure of the surf fishing though? inhaca used to be great, but iv been hearing more and more mixed reports of the fishing. may be down to luck of the draw now.

[Circus]

A report back on the fishing etc at Ponta Torres (Santa Maria / Hell's Gate). The venue is situated on the northern tip of the Machungulo Peninsula in Mozambique, right opposite Inhaca Island as shown below. I make no pretense of being an expert, but given the broad lack of information around, I thought I’d share what we discovered in December 2011 as a reference piece. This was by far the best fishing we’ve had in 7 trips to various parts of Mozam and the only decent shore fishing where the environment hasn’t been raped.



Getting there: If you want to drive, the route is JHB, Komatipoort, Boane, Bela Vista, Elephant Reserve, Santa Maria. From the border, it is tar to Boane. From there it’s sand and you can’t average more than about 60km/h until the elephant reserve. Once in the reserve, it is 75km to Ponta Torres on heavy beach-sand roads. Proper 4x4 only as high clearance and deflated tires are needed, although if you have 1 real 4x4 in the crew, you can also take a soft-roader (Freelander etc) and pull it out where necessary. The 75km in the elephant reserve takes 2.5-3 hours. Do not expect to see game in the reserve. The alternative is to drive/fly to Maputo and catch the dhow across (about 3 hours sailing). Next time we’ll use this option. The dhow has space for your stuff even if you are self-catering.



The dirt road and the soft sand in the reserve

Fishing: In general, there was far more life at Santa Maria than anywhere else we’ve been in Mozam (Guinjata, Barra, Ponta Malangane, Ponta d’Ouro). This is likely due to the properly enforced marine reserve around Inhaca island.



From the shore inside the bay (Spot 1) we fished light-tackle artificial lures almost exclusively and managed to catch a good number of small kingfish (under 1kg) as well as lots of small barracuda and the occasional rock cod (also all under 1kg). Around sunrise and sunset, many balls of baitfish come past the rock ledges and fast-retrieved soft plastics in white of 2-3 inches or the equivalent fly worked well. So did 2-inch spoons. Here tide is less important than the time of day.

Spot 2 on the point worked very well at spring low, when you could wade nearer the ledge. We got snapped off a couple of times on big poppers, so use strong tackle only. Our best fish here was the 7kg GT my mate caught on an orange 4oz popper at sunset. It’s about a 20 minute walk along the beach from the lodge to Spot 2.

Between spots 2 and 3, the water really moves as the tide comes in/out, making decent retrieves very tough. The steepness of the beach also largely prevents flyfishing. Spot 3 has space to cast a good fly line and although we caught no fish here, other folks did well on bait.

Spot 4 is a 15 min drive or a 45-min walk and there is nobody there. Spoons worked well here on a dropping tide.

Charters: The lodge has a charter boat (about R2500/half day) that is worth going out on. There were mad schools of bonito and other baitfish which were regularly in casting range. Flyfishing was not feasible with a full boat, but if 2 people charter it, you can catch bonnies all day. As it was, we caught good dorado, tuna, couta and barracuda while trawling and lost various fish casting to the bait balls. The skipper also really loves to fish and knows his stuff.




Next time we will also look to charter a boat inside the bay and chase the bonefish on the flats as well as fish the mangroves.

[Circus]

Accommodation: We stayed at Ponta Torres (www.pontatorres.co.za), which was very cool and good value for money. The 4-bedroom place is magic – right on the beach, huge partially-covered patio, own pool, serviced etc.


The pool and patio



Views from the patio


View of the house and beach bar



Keeping the missus/kids happy: As you are inside the bay, the water is like a lake and thus the kids can have a great time in safety. Non-fisherfolk were kept happy by snorkeling at Inhaca (R220/p incl the dhow ride). Sweet accommodation and a great beach bar made of an old dhow did the rest.

Note that there is only 1 restaurant nearby, the beach bar is the only place to drink and the market is only of use for drinks, bread and some veggies. I highly recommend the area for fishermen organizing mixed-group holidays where people don’t need too much night life.

[schloshd1]

Brilliant report and great fish Dave!

[Korrie]

Thanks for your report.
Good to have first hand experience reports.

[Circus]

Brilliant report and great fish Dave!

Pity about no proper pic of the Dorado, but they're just too dangerous to get onto the boat for a pic if you don't want to gaff them.

A couple of days before we went on the charter, 2 fly-fishermen landed over 40 fish between them casting to the surface activity from the boat.

From the pic below, you can see how that kinda day can happen.