Linene – Island of Kings, on the Fly, plugs and a little bit of everything
I was finally convinced to go on this trip by my good friend Marius Marais and his maladjusted brother Andre, we were also accompanied by Bruno Luigi who is not as crazy a fisherman and who would keep Andre company whilst rock and surf fishing.
I spent many a sleepless night daydreaming about Linene - Island of Kings and I scrutinized all the available articles I could find.
Marius and I were determined to use fly rods and only to switch to other angling methods in case of emergencies.
What follows is a short diary of events that followed!
Linene island diary - 29 March to 05 April 2006.
Day 1
We arrive at Vilanculous - the pilot makes a horrendous landing (in our opinion anyway) in pouring rain as he seemed to have made a small judgment error and aborted the first attempt at the last minute. No doubt due to the poor visibility. Fortunately the rain is lukewarm and the adrenaline at peak levels. On our way to the restaurant where we will await our boat there are locals selling huge prawns next to the road and I am slobbering like a Tibetan mountain dog. We have a lovely meal (I had the prawns of course) waiting for the tide to push sufficiently to make the journey to Linene.
We finally board the boats and meet our guide/host Adrian who seems quite a knowledgeable and friendly chap. We decide that the chalets can wait and that fishing is what we came for, on our way to the sandspit in the pouring rain we see a huge Zambezi shark and Manta Ray. We disembark and we stampede the buffet table as there is a lot of activity evident with fish jumping and baitfish fleeing everywhere. We catch a lot of fish on fly, mostly small Kings and Needlescale Queens, and most on a Chartreuse Clouser Minnow and white Salty Bugger. I landed 24 fish to be exact and we only had about 2 hours before dark.
Everyone caught small fish except Bruno Luigi; he was biding his time for the BIG one. His Carp Sensation always at the ready.
Our hands are full of small nicks and wounds from the spines on the Kings and Queenies and bleeding everywhere as we did not manage to locate our gloves in the rush to get fishing. But our smiles cut a huge swath from ear to ear.
Day 2
Arrival at the Spit, still raining but the air is pregnant with expectation as Andy used to say. Marius and I are into nice Greenspot’s of around 55cm that take us into the backing. Marius is left bleeding after tailing the Kingie without gloves and after rapping his knuckles which got in the way of his rapidly revolving spool. We also land and lose a few decent sized Kingies including some small Ignobilis.
Andre takes off on a quest down the beach with Adrian, gets back later with photo’s of a beautiful 84cm King on plug. We know we will never live this down but we are on top of the world, things are looking great! Low tide and we decide to fish with the change of the tide, we find a nice bay off the spit and Marius and I catch a huge number of smaller fish as well as a Greenspot of 62cm on a 2/0 Salty Bugger. Marius loses a good fish just as we are forced to leave by the rapidly pushing tide.
With the pushing tide I witness a spectacle I will never forget, and which Marius had told me about, the waves on the spit are black with juvenile Kingfish and they are not feeding, they seem to be fleeing the bigger predators with the pushing tide.
Afternoon-things look potent at the spit but nothing on fly despite our best efforts. André opens the account with a 73 cm Giant Kingfish and I also decide to throw a big plug in desperation.
Third cast and I look up just in time to see a huge splash and a big Kingie shaking his head like a Bulldog. I manage to keep my cool and I keep reeling till I feel the fish .After a short but dogged fight I land a 98cm (approximately 20kg) GT and after the photo session an 88cm fish By now it is already dark but I have another throw and get yet another pick-up but unfortunately the hooks don’t set. A perfect start to the trip!
I decide that taking them on fly at this venue is the preferred practice, as there are no reefs or any other obstacles to be concerned about , the only problem at that stage was the fact that the big GT’s were feeding just out of reach and when darkness fell the tide had receded too far.
That evening we all drown in rivers of Stroh rum with cream soda and a multitude of other mixes! Curse you - duty free shop! Marius and I smoke Rothmans and anything else that comes to hand as if we had never stopped smoking!
Day 3
Early morning, we arrive still slightly inebriated but the Spit looks potent. We plug away and I lose a big fish on the lip as my line parts on impact. Marius loses a huge fish after it took about 150 meters of line. My trust in the Kings abilities is restored.
Low tide trip and Marius and I visit the bay again, we manage quite a few small Kings and Needlescale Queens on Salty Buggers. A white Clouser Minnow also manages to land a few Wolf Herrings. The locals are intent on cleaning out our honey hole with nets! Not a welcome sight. Adrian vows to lodge a complaint with the local governing structures as no netting is allocated on the ocean side of the spit.
Bruno takes a Queenfish of about 4kg on his Carp Sensation further down on the spit. We made a few casts at the reef in the lagoon and caught a few small Kings and a Snapper on small Crazy Charlies.
Day 4 to Day 8
April fools day never had so much relevance!
Early morning is a disaster, the water is coming over the spit everywhere and it is extremely dangerous, the wind hasn’t ceased and has created a strong rip all along the Spit making bait fishing difficult and almost impossible. It seems that it was the biggest spring tide in the year.
Andre manages to take two Largemouth Queenfish later that morning on bait but we are left stranded.
He has also finally lost his mind completely and is permanently communicating to all and sundry in a foreign language that nobody understands. The son from Babel!
The spit has changed radically and is no longer a viable proposition as the channel has moved out of reach and the water surging over the spit is extremely dangerous. We see a Shark feeding on the spit in less than a meter of water. We are afraid – very afraid!
We try another Island called 104 but the water is not working at all apart from some small fish. We focus on the low tide midday fishing which turns out surprisingly good, with Wolf Herring, Needlescale Queens and small Kings as well as two small Queenfish coming to the fly.
We are again witness to an amazing event; a Dolphin chases a big Mullet onto the sand and then fetches it by sliding completely onto dry land. We have a poor MPEG recording of it but the memories are seared into our minds for eternity.
Marius discovers a nice channel at high tide and we take a lot of small Bigeye Kings from it. We also go out on the boat and Marius gets a Cuda on fly while I get one on Rapala, they were extremely disappointing in the fighting department but lovely on our plates after some special treatment by Bruno.
Bruno also takes some nice fish on the reef closest to Linene, he is now happy and whiles away most of the remaining time in bed (long suffering insomniac) or in the bar.
It is with heavy hearts that we pack the boats for the return trip with Andre and I in the one boat and Marius and Bruno in the other. As fate would have it the Skipper on our boat overestimates the amount of petrol in the tank and we run out as we are rounding 104 island in the face of huge breakers rolling in.
It feels like a lifetime as the crew hand frantically tries to change the fuel tanks. Needless to say the Skipper was made aware of our unhappiness in no uncertain terms! This is soon forgotten as we see some birds working and Andre grabs a rod and spinning reel and nabs a decent Serra on a small spoon.
What a way to end the trip!
Closure
The trip met and in some instances surpassed all my expectations. Although we experienced bad weather we still managed to catch a lot of fish with close to 200 fish on fly between Marius and me. We only managed to go to sea once and although not my preferred method of flyfishing, it can be awesome according to Adrian and others I have spoken to. All Kingfish are released alive after selective tagging but Adrian will keep some fish such as Couta for the pan if requested.
Adrian and his lovely wife Michelle were the perfect hosts and we had tasty meals taking into account the logistical nightmare in providing fresh food in this part of the world. Adrian is always at the beck and call of anglers and guests and will go out of his way to make your trip a success.
Subsequent to our trip and during early 2007 the whole Mozambique coast was ravaged by tropical cyclones which caused a lot of damage in the Archipelago and which apparently flattened almost everything on the island. It has subsequently been rebuilt and I would love to see the new chalets and main lounge.
Linene has a web site you can visit by clicking here. Adrian can be contacted via email and I suggest you discuss current conditions and advice with regard to bookings with him.
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