Which MYDOs to take to BD Point aka Bartholomew Diaz aka Nova Mambone aka Rio Save
Which MYDOs to take to BD Point aka Bartholomew Diaz aka Nova Mambone aka Rio Save: featuring Captain Duarte Rato
Captain Duarte Rato addresses a ski-boat MYDO-laden crew on their very merry way to Bartholomew Diaz. Aka BD Point. Aka Nova Mambone. Aka Rio Save. North of Vilankulos. And even Inhassoro. In Mozambique. This very month…of April.
Duarte lives and operates the most successful charter operation in this area. FishBazaruto.com. And has been since the war times. During which Duarte was doing charters out of Maputo and its surrounds. Duarte has settled now. From his globetrotting. Happy with taming the billfish off Vilankulos. With his lovely wife Gretha. And two fishing berzerk kids, Duarte Jnr, and Dario.
Who both feature in this feature as one of the clips features Duarte Jnr bagging his very first marlin. Being cheered on by Dario. And the other kid on the boat too – Diogo (Diablo). Off BD Point. At 7 years of age! Right at Bartholomew Dias Point.
BD is a lovely place to fish. And don’t even think about giving those rock salmon up the creek a miss. They are there and waiting for your live bait. But it’s the nature of the underwater topography out front that makes the place so much fun. Since it is the foot of a rather substantial delta, the area out front of the mouth is nice and shallow. You can see the bottom on most reefs that you fish on.
10 Metres or so is ideal for those wily gamefish like snoek and couta. They circle these reefs and pick off the bait as they go round and round. There are luckily acres of bait in the immediate area. They also like the shallows and the sediment coming down the Save River. And there is a surprisingly wide variety including pencil squid and cigar mackerel.
There is literally no limit to the species that might wander into these bait-rich waters. Sailfish and marlin abound some days. Small marlin are especially fun with their super-acrobatics. And snoek and small tunas shoal magnificently, causing whiteouts and things.
In the MYDO Box for BD Point
Are a couple of MYDO StripBaitSwimmers. Which are used to gauge what is going on right at the start of the day. Chuck a nice juicy fresh fillet on these rigs, and send one out far, and keep one about at about 12m.
Then take out the duster-fitted MYDOs and choose the exact right length for your halfbeaks. Halfbeaks are impeccable baits. They are easy to rig. They stay on (sometimes they need an elastic or some cotton or wax thread to keep then on the MYDO front hook/head). These guys come much closer to the boat. I like to hang them on the lower outrigger clips where possible. One each side, slightly staggered. With two konas/big baits out the very far back, leaving me the closer spread to work within.
Now with 6 offerings already, it might be time to slow down. But I would now build my fillet baits next, and run them right in the white water down the middle. A metre apart and staggered the same. By adjusting the angle of attack, and choosing the right weighted baitswimmer, you can get these guys down under the white water. Swimming in and out of it in a blurry flash that gets the better of confused and excited gamefish.
And now you can still turn sharply and chase a shoal of bait. And you can react according to whatever strike you get. Leave the back kona/big baits in until last. They also could be replaced with a big old strip baits at these speeds (3 to 4 knots). And leave them out there since most times you can just keep the boat moving forward (VERY NB), and fight your fish within the constraints of the now-limited spread.
If the big back baits get hit, it’s very easy to clear the front baits. In fact you can leave the halfbeaks where they are – right out of the way held there by the outriggers. At this point, I should reiterate that these two baits stay very close, at all times (6 – 8 m from the outrigger clip). You will be very surprised at how they perform. When the boat slows to a strike – these things drop in deeper and act as swim baits immediately. Transferring from surface skip baits in an instant. They do not need elastic bands in the release clip either, they can just run in the clip at 2kgs of drag. Or less even.
This is the MYDO Fishing System. Double-functioning. Contingency planning. Opportunity maximising.
Included in the box for BD, is a MYDO Spoon. Dont, need to say anything about that thing. And then a bunch of MYDO Silver Bullet #1 and #2 heads. That are for chucking little plastics and things. At shoaling snoek or bait.
More MYDO information can be found at…https://thesardine.co.za/mydo.
We can take you fishing at https://umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za and you can stay with us at the Umzimkulu Marina – right on the river at https://umzimkulu.co.za.
MORE YouTube Channels
Mydo Fishing Lures – https://youtube.com/@mydofishinglures
The Sardine News – https://youtube.com/@thesardinenews
Surf Launching in Southern Africa – – https://youtube.com/@surflaunchingsouthernafrica