Not too much time to write a full detailed report, but thought I'd share a quick report with you guys with some pics from our recent trip to Linene Island Resort in Mozambique in mid May.

JigStar Africa put together a short trip up to Linene with Barry Miller and a group of his mates in mid May. Was a fantastic group of guys, put together by Barry. An interesting mix of anglers and experience, as the group got together as they all have sons who play rugby together, so have got to know each other over the years from the sidelines of their boys school rugby games, and Barry decided they should put something together to go away and have a blast catching some fish.

Linene treated us to some beautiful weather conditions, and while the fishing wasn't red hot, we caught some great fish, had a bunch of great laughs, and it was fantastic to be involved with a group of guys which for most, were having their first exposure to Jigging and Popping, and to some, their first Saltwater offshore trip.

A big thanks to Adrian at Linene for hosting us, and to Barry and Co for having Roy and myself along for the ride.

While conditions for the trip were fantastic, we had very strong current conditions, with North Easterly winds, which meant heading out to the deep reefs to target the Amberjacks that reside on Adrians secret marks was out of the question, so we concentrated on the shallower reefs, and fishing topwaters in the form of Stickbaits and Poppers... and what a blast we had!!

Clear stand outs on this trip, as has been evidenced by previous trips to Linene, were the Starwalker STickbaits.. particularly the Pink & Purple.... so much so that the ghillie's on the boats would open my tackle bag ( which as alot of you will know, is FULL of every stickbait and popper on the planet ) they go straight for the Pink Starwalkers and say " STickbait, Stickbait, this one, this one!".... Like they always say, " Trust me, I'm a local!" and we did, and we scored...

Thats not to say they were the only lures that produced, as we had great success on DarkStar Poppers, both the GT Mania, Skipjacks and Cuberas, as well as Starwalkers in other colours ( Fish of the trip fell to a Green Kahwai Starwalker ) as well as we fished deepwater plastics, needle nose GT Ice Creams, and Sea Iron Sprat spoons...

Anothe rgreat discovery for us was the effectiveness of some new small prototype Starwalkers in 11 cm and 14cm lengths... these little lures absolutely tore the Yellowfin up on Topwater, and we looking forward to introducing these into SA, as I know they will be dynamite in both our inshore and offshore waters...

Add to the great topwater action, we enjoyed putting some live bonnies out on the jigging gear, which ended in a couple of great fish, some monumental bust offs, some awesome fights with the men in Grey Suits, as well as a Marlin hook up which chafed through the 200lb leader after a brief but spectacular fight...

We also had a great time fishing light dropshot and fly off the jetty at Linene which is absolutely drowned in life... Snapper, Flatheads ( by the hundreds!!! ) and even Lion fish which took a liking to the Dropshots....

One of our group decided to rather spend his days fishing off the spit with a fly rod in hand rather than join us on the boats, and he had a blast bashing a number of smaller kingies, Garfish, Mojarras and 3 Spot Pompano ( Wave Garrick ) on his 6 weight....

Thats enough typing, I'll let the pics do the rest:

As per usual, Linene delivered with awesome Bonnie action, on the light tackle armed with Sprat Soons, these little speedsters gave us hours of fun... This is Tim's first of the first morning from his usual perch in the Anchor hatch on the small boat.

Gazza was high hook for the trip, nailing some fantastic fish everyday… he fished hard and got the results… here he is tight on a beautiful Couta on the first morning, which ate a Starwalker, in pink of course!!!

The surface bite died down a bit after a couple follows and hit and misses, so we whipped out the light dropshot gear and went to work bashing some of the beautiful reef dwellers …

Me with a  couple colourful critters….

Gazza with a beautiful Swallowtail:

On the big Boat the boys were transforming their light tackle Bonnies into Heavy Tackle baits, and after a couple of absolute SMASHES which left them with broken leaders and mainlines, Donnie managed to tie into this beautiful Malabar Rockcod

Tim got into the swing of Dropshotting, and landed his first Kingy, on my ultralight  set up, a lovely little Blacktip Kingy that gave him gears on the 8lb tackle:

I managed “Fish of the Day” J

The next day saw us capitalising on a fantastic surface bite of Yellowfin Tuna…. It was classic run and gun action,  and this is where the little Starwalker Prototypes really came into their own.

Malcolm was in fine form, armed with a little Starwalker, and cleaned up on his medium set up, out fishing  the rest of us with a big old grin on his face:

Donnie, armed with the only other baby Starwalker on the boat got into the action as well, fishing one of my light set ups:

On the “Small Boat” the boys were tying into the Yellowfin as well, with Gazza back to his usual tricks of nailing the best fish every chance he got!

Classic Gazza Fight Pose!

The Pink Starwalker again doing the damage!

Another one for Gazza and his pink weapon! 

Rory then got into the action…. His first fish got upgraded by the Taxman which put an awesome bend on the Jigging Master GT Monster 80 of Roy’s he was using:

But the next fish managed to avoid the Taxman, but not our plates, and a first for Rory!

Of course Roy shipped in as the “One Cast Wonder” between helping the other guys, he had one cast on one of our DakStar Bopara 100XX prototypes and nailed another nice Yellowfin:

Gazza finished the day with a lovely Yellowspot Kingy which ate a Darkstar Cubera under a beautiful Sunset:

Nice way to end the day….

And a nice way to start the day…. It really is hell in Africa!

Not much that can beat an African Sunrise or Sunset!

The last day saw us out chasing the Yellowfin again, which had turned very skittish overnight, so we settled for a bunch more Bonnies which got sent down to the depths….

One got converted to a big Zambi which gave Barry an awesome workout on his Jigging Master Fallings and PE 8 combo…. Another got converted into something massive which gave Gary H a hiding when he ramped his drag up to much and unfortunately his braid wasn’t spooled tightly enough… the result was the braid burying down into the spooled line and burning off… tough lesson to learn, but a lesson none the less… ALWAYS spool your braid as tight as humanely possible… A quick rerig and another Bonnie sent down resulted in a beautiful Bohar Snapper for Gary, a great way to christen his new Jigging Master Evolution Titanium 350 and PE 6 combo:

Surface action slowed down a little, so we moved out to the 40 metre mark, and Barry’s second drop resulted in this beautiful 18/20 kilo GT on one of our Knockout Jigs:

Roy was working his “ One cast wonder” magic and managed a beautiful Couta on a Green Kahwai Starwalker and JM GT Monster 80

And followed that up with fish of the trip, a beautiful 30 kilo GT a few casts later, also on the green Kahwai Starwalker and the GT Monster 80, which is a medium light popping set up, a truly fantastic capture…. This rod was fished hard by numerous members of the group, and performed incredibly!

Late afternoon saw us get into a wonderful Yellowspot Kingy smash a few hundred metres off the beach, with us landing 8 in about 40 minutes on Linene 1, and dropping another 4 due to pulled hooks, and one which got converted by the Taxman again unfortunately…

Here is Gary H tied into the Taxman after his Yellowspot got converted! The JM Gt Monster 80 again doing the hard work!

I got into the action with my Carpenter Coral Viper ( maiden voyage!! ) and managed 4 beautiful Yellowspots, 2 on the DarkStar Bopara 100xx Prototype before it got donated to an over zealous Couta, and then another 2 on the Pink Starwalker….

Gary H recovered from his hiding by the Taxman and him and I managed a lovely double on the Yellowspots:

Mine eating the Starwalker again, Garys eating a Skipjack 120…

Barry joined in the action and after unfortunately pulling hooks on two Yellowspots, before quickly making up for it with two more beauties in quick succestion… both on the Purple Starwalker and GT Monster 80.

Over on the “Small Boat” the boys were having their own fun, with Tim bashing a lovely Couta, his first, on Dropshot:

And yet another big Bonnie on the ultralight gear:

Of course, Gazza, not to be outdone, tied into yet another Couta on topwater… this time on the DarkStar Cubera:

While Gary H put in a few more casts under a VERY fast approaching westerly buster and was rewarded with another beautiful Yellowspot on a purple DarkStar GT Mania 130.

The westerly buster smashed us in ultra quick time, with winds pushing 40 knots when 2 minutes prior it had been breathless!

We decided to call it quits, finishing on a high, and ran for home….

Another awesome trip, and while the fishing wasn’t “RED HOT” , the guys fished hard and got good rewards… too often I think angelrs expect that because they are in Mozambique that the fishing will be easy, and the fish will literally jump onto your hooks… while this is the case at times, those times are few and far between, and one needs to be prepared to work hard for your fish… Try not to have a false sense of what the fishing will be like… rather be prepared to fish HARD… and you will be rewarded.

A big thanks to Barry, Gazza, Tim, Rory, Malcolm, Gary H, Mike, Donnie and Brian for having us along on the trip with you guys.. was an awesome trip, and so great to see you guys all get familiar with the gear and techniques, and watch the progression, and the huge smiles of satisfaction on your faces when you got it right, and were justly rewarded!

A big thanks to Adrian and all his staff ( Albano, Selso, Domingo ) at Linene for taking such good care of us, and putting us on the fish….

Can’t wait to go back!!!

Dre