Tofo Peri-Peri Magic 2003

Spearo's will do anything for crystal blue water and big game fish. It took two hours of intense coersion (and a promise of small shiny things) to convince my wife that a 2 week gap between setting up a business and building a house was the best possible opportunity for us to join a long lost mate of mine on a trip to Tofo on the coast of Mozambique. I am sure a lot of you guys out there know what I mean.

Man! What a place! When I look back on the trip I am only now coming to terms with what my mate Tony and I experienced. Travelling up there is always full of surprises, such as being pulled over, boat and all, by the local policeman only to be asked if we could spare a few beers to liven up his Sunday afternoon shift. Priceless!!

A few miles down the road traffic control then stops us, and try to convince us that our boat and trailer are too large for the Isuzu 4x2 we are travelling in! You just have to smile and realise what they are after...a bit of a bribe and maybe a few cold ones. Nothing too much to handle ... just don't take it personally cause they can easily add another hour on to your travelling time!

We camped with a super bunch of people at a really friendly, comfortable Bamboozi Lodge. I seriously recommend the food there, Papa Luis is really sharp in the kitchen and we ate like kings for 12 days, and cheap is not even the word!!

Huge thanks go to the team at Manta Divers for fitting us into their schedule and helping us launch. Shame, they should have seen us coming with our 18-foot Invader cat and no breakneck trailer! Here's an endurance test for you guys out there, try to hand winch a ton and a half of boat onto a trailer! Luckily, as they say in South Africa, "a Boer maak n plan" and we managed to sort out a painless routine! One word, "Guzzler" describes the behemoth 4.2 litre Land Cruiser the Manta Team use to launch with. Man, the "Thing" chews 2.5 litres of gas for every kilometre, but will tow anything out of the sand, even 2 Land Rovers at once!!

Of the 8 days we dived, the water temperature was consistently around 25 degrees Celsius (exceptional for the middle of winter) and visibility was between 15 and 25m. Tony and I both reached the conclusion that "Death or Glory" would be our trip motto and concentrated our diving at a particular reef system about 2km offshore which dropped sharply off from 24 to 30m in places and then tapered off gradually into 50+ meters. We had both been dragged off to faraway parts of the world in search of fame and fortune, me to London, and Tony almost everywhere as he flies cargo on a 747. Both of us left at a stage where we were starting to break into the blue water spear fishing, so were determined to make up wholly for lost, but never wasted time!

Thanks also must go to our 4 separate top men!!! Yep, it was a case of trawling the bar at nights, not for women but for souls, drunk or stupid enough, to wake up at 5.15am the next morning, just to launch a huge boat and fight off seasickness whilst watching 2 crazy spearo's go about their business. Luckily for us both the girls in our lives and two class Aussies, Paul and Danny fell for our sweet tales a blue water game fishing!! Truth was, these 2 guys were our lucky charms as every time we had an Aussie on board the fish were thick and good luck was ours!! Not sure about Danny, but Paul's wife Tash had to fight him off the boat and literally threaten him with divorce if he did not get in their 4x4 to resume their trip. The guy way totally converted, and stoked with spearing, game enough to jump off the boat with one of us in 35m of water to have a go at it...getting better and better at it with each dive...unfortunately he missed a point blank shot at a dolphin fish!!

The guy jumps up onto the boat, with "that" look in his eyes and just says, "This beats anything!!” Really cool to see someone so stoked over something we love!

Intense currents on the reef system meant anchoring the boat was impossible, so we decided to drift over the deep blue. To be suspended over a sky of crystal clear water without the need for a parachute, was such an awesome feeling!!! Slap bang in the middle of the food chain doing 90 second bomb dives down to 20 metres slightly away to the left or right of the flasher...searching for a change in the hue of the water, looking "further" into the water for a straight line form or flash/glint...the telling sign of a blue water game fish! To me, as a spear fisherman, this is the pinnacle of our sport! Searching intensely for that one fish which will make the whole trip worthwhile...

Blue water spear fishing can be hit and miss...ask even the most experienced spearo. So to end 8 days of spearing with only one blank day is really something special! Not that we thrashed the fish though, we shot only 14 fish during the trip, but at an average 13kgs per fish! Selective shooting is seldom necessary in this type of environment, cause the fish are more than often scarce and also at the top of the elusive game...just ask any wahoo how he rates his chances against a spearo...bet he would just laugh in your face if he could!

To "connect" with pelagic game fish in deep water is really something to be treasured and can send a multitude of thoughts and feelings through a spearo. And I don't mean shooting one. Just to cross paths with these fish is something you will hold special in your heart forever! A permanently etched mental picture! Below I will highlight moments of the trip, which I think were special, and which inspired me to share this tale with you...

The first special "moment" of the trip was seeing Tony develop as a blue water hunter...I at least had been home from London each year for a month to reconnect my love with the ocean and had been diving seriously for 6 months since coming back permanently in December...he on the other hand had not dived at all in many years, and was as stoked as the day he left to go to Florida in 1996 for his flying course. Luckily for him, I won't mention how drunk he was the night of his farewell!! The reason I knew he was stoked to be back in the water was that his love of a cold beer was overshadowed by a lust for game fish. The guy even had a crate and a half of beer to spare at the end of the trip! I reckon his mom, who was also on the trip, was hellova shocked!! The plus for me here was that I actually fed off his heavy enthusiasm and dove even harder than ever. He was always keen to try new breathing and stalking tactics which I had learnt and towards the end of the trip was diving just as well as I was...tough thing for a spearo to say as we are all innately so competitive, but here I will give him this one! There's your early Christmas present, mate!!

The second special moment was seeing my wife, Jo, develop as a competent top woman and thereby, set the precedent for the later years in our lives. When I get my boat you will always be no. 1 top woman!! A real class act on the boat...nudge,nudge,wink,wink! Now I just got to teach you how to warm the motors up at 5am in the morning and how to mix the 2-stroke oil with the petrol.

The third special moment was finding a huge drifting flotsam in 28m of water, seeing the myriad of creatures drifting with this huge mass, from a beautiful shoal of small rainbow runner, turtles, swimming crabs and most importantly many other types of small baitfish. As soon as we entered the drift, we could feel the anticipation and adrenaline building! Coming up from a deep dive I saw Tony closely enshrouded by a huge shoal of Queen fish and he made a superb shot into a 10.5kg fish. The fish hurtled for the bottom in true queenie fashion and knowing the shoal would hang around, I breathed up quickly and headed for the bottom. Halfway down I saw the queenie spinning in tight circles and then from the right I saw the shoal starting to investigate their injured partner and noted that there were a few big eye kingfish littered throughout the shoal. As they passed the speared fish I drew a bead on one of the closest queenies and made a reasonable shot. Chaos!!! Two fish on and my wife as a first time top man...can only be considered as chaos!! Ever tried to get your wife to gaff and club a fish on the head while you untangle lines...not many girls would have done it so I guess I have a very special girl at my side!

Five minutes later, with all our lines untangled, we relocated the flotsam and re-entered the fray. I breathed up and made a long dive down the flasher. Half way down I realised I had swam too close to the flasher and had it caught around my mask. A quick stop to untangle and then I continued the downward spiral. Right on the edge of visibility I see the tell tale black peduncles of a shoal of King Mackerel! The fish I chose as prey was smart enough to realise I was interested in it and sped up slightly. Right then I could feel the adrenaline pulsing through my head like a jackhammer and decided my best course of action was to try and cross the couta's tail in an effort to make a broadside shot. This fish was smart, man, and wouldn’t have any of that, just sped up a little. “Ha!” I thought to myself, maybe I should head up for a breath, cause after untangling myself and chasing the fish for about 15m, I was pretty cased! Just then it gave me a bit of an angle and I took my shot! After what seemed like ages, my rope began to rip through my hands at a huge pace. Tony reckoned that in an instant my first buoy was rocketing through the water about 4m down! That was the best feeling ever!!!! 5 Parts pure joy mixed with 2 parts spear placing uncertainty and 3 parts fear of the man in the grey jacket answering the shuddering and bleeding call being made to him!!! The fish made 2 searing 50m runs and pulled me through the water..."aaaaahhhh, this is great, man" was all I could think! I inched closer to the fish by pulling myself hand over hand down the buoy line until I could see the fish, thrashing and darting furiously through the water like only a couta can!! The shot, as I expected looked terrible...about 15cm ahead of the tail! I swam closer and realised the shot was very secure, as the spear has penetrated fully and the barb was set. Right then my first impulse was to shout for Tony as a second gun or shot was needed. I looked to my right and the guy was right there, having almost had his mask taken off by my buoys! Not the best at second shots, hey Bruce, Tony lived up to his past and placed a long shot nowhere into the fish. "F'n Lovely!!!” I think "I am gonna lose this fish!" But the man reloaded faster than Arnie and, in a flail of arms and a mess of Dynema,shot again and stoned the fish outright. Lose the 2 parts uncertainty and stir in 5 more parts fear of the taxman right then and wait 20 seconds to add 3 parts convincing wife to gaff the couta through head and then club it!! Funnily enough the gaffing and clubbing parts would not mix and so I decided to add 10 parts of hurl the couta onboard and bend both spears in the meantime. Insane!!!! First couta of the trip, and at 14.5kgs, it is an awesome start!!!

The fourth special moment came the very next day. The current was really shunting and we decided to drift a bit further than usual. In about 54m of water we were making repetitive dives down to flasher level. On one of the downs, I heard a sort of muffled screaming, and looked towards the source of the noise. Up above I saw an awesome sight, 2 huge wahoo had apparently swam straight up to Tony and he obliged by stoning one of them. He was holding his spear line which was attached to the huge slab of shuddering fish...I knew he was stoked about shooting the fish but why was he still screaming and pointing?? I looked in the direction he was pointing and was amazed to see another huge wahoo literally glowing with white stripes...and the fish was just hanging there motionless, studying intently everything around it. I realised that was my chance, as wahoo often investigate wounded fish! I angled up from the deep, away from the wahoo so as not to frighten it. It worked like a dream, this fish was sooo close to me, actually between me and Tony's fish. I lined up slowly at the fish, which was hanging just below the surface. I fired, and for some unknown reason shot right over the top of the fish! Possibly the most demoralising moment of my spearfishing career...maybe the fish dropped down with the swell as I shot! I looked over at Tony and he was still screaming and pointing!! The missed fish has done a frightened arc and returned not even 10m away. I grabbed my spear and jammed it back into the trigger mechanism, not even bothering to sort the Dynema spear line and bolted at the fish. Once again it just sat there, as if mesmerised by it’s wounded, shaking comrade. I lined up properly this time and hit the fish high in the shoulder. “Whoosh” was the next thing I experienced, the sound of water rushing past my mask as I was being dragged through the water. I knew right then why wahoo were regarded as the fastest fish in the sea!!! Literally flying through the water, I held on for dear life…and fought the fish until Tony caught up with the second gun for the kill shot. The wahoo was making short bursts and I just managed to slow it down enough to put a spine shot into it. Back on the boat Tony and I started to realise the magnitude of what had just taken place…neither of us had ever seen wahoo in the water before and there we sat with a 21kg fish for Tony and a 20.5kg fish for me. We were just beaming with pride…smiling from ear to ear!!! Tremendous!!

The last day of diving was the most special for me…on my first down I glanced slowly to the right and saw a graceful manta lift off the bottom below and glide towards me, as if to greet me into it’s domain. After absorbing the wonderful sight for a split second, I looked to my left and saw a huge black marlin of between 100-150kgs. The monster fish was cruising languidly about 20m from me from left to right, its muscles pulsing behind it’s steel like exterior skin. I started swimming towards the fish, maybe there was a chance we would intercept paths … it, however had other ideas, and slowly eased away from me into the murk. At that point, I realised that I had just seen something so special I just kept quiet and did not even feel the need to share my experience with Tony. It was an almost religious happening, the truest thing I have ever seen in my life. So awesome it actually left me stunned!

Resuming the drift, we crossed paths with 5 beautiful, but extremely wise, wahoo and 2 shoals of king mackerel, before it happened!! As I levelled off in 15 metres of water, to the left of the flasher I sensed movement and turned slowly across. There in front of me was a brightly lit sailfish swooping towards the sharp glinting of the flasher. I reacted with fright and the sailie sensed this by dropping its pectoral fins and glowing with immensely luminous blue stripes on a backdrop of an iridescent coppery bronze body. I swear the fish was eyeballing me! This was my chance and in one swift movement I brought my 1.3m Rob Allen rail gun up from underneath me, lined up and let fly with the spear. Whack!! The spear hit the fish mid body with immense force and in that split second before the fish bolted off like lightning; I knew something hectic was about to happen…

Strong pulsing tail strokes of the Sailfish ripped the 25m-buoy line through my hands, until I reached the 20m-norprene bungee between my line and first buoy. Not sure how effectively the barb had opened on the fish, I let half the bungee fly through my hands before starting to exert pressure on the fish. Truthfully, any fish less than 50kgs stood little chance against the shock absorption and power of the bungee. Every time the sailfish took line in the form of stretching the bungee, it would be dragged back with extra measure. I shouted for Tony to get the second gun for me to make a kill shot. Within seconds he handed it to me and continued to swim by my side in order to help me secure the catch. Slowly, but surely, the sailfish was tiring and after 20 minutes of battling the huge fish, I managed to place a spine shot on the rear third of the fish. I then swam down 10m and grabbed the fish by the bill and swam it to the surface. Pure stoke filled me when I reached the surface…overwhelmed is not even close to the feeling that filled me right then. A 30kg sailfish was mine…the first and only I will ever shoot!!

Now back in the real world, I am struggling to escape the Tofo time warp! Even with the risks of contracting malaria, the place is still a pure gem! Real life, though, will never be the same, only better, as the lure of large game fish and beautiful land and seascapes will drag me back to Mozambique every year and ensure that there will always be a crystal blue light at the end of the tunnel. Next on the list is a 30kg plus Ignoblis Kingfish (GT) or maybe even a marlin. Just one, I promise!!!

Cheers' Was