Rio Azul

Rainbow

Mark

Steve

Sunset at "The Point"

Boats on the estuary

Andy

Fishing in the waves

Andy coming home in the sunset

Steve motoring in the estuary

Locals smoking fish

Silhouettes

Luxury

Rio Azul is a South African owned and run lodge on the Govuro River Estuary, about 30km north of Inhassoro. It is marketed primarily as fishing lodge, although its pristine natural surroundings and luxurious facilities make it ideal for anyone looking to get away from it all.

There is a small local population living around the estuary who subsists mainly by fishing. They seem to use a combination of traditional fish traps and fishing from dhows (simple elegant wooden boats) and dug-out canoes using nets or handlines. Fortunately, pressure on the fisheries is limited at this stage and the angling is still excellent.

We arrived in late afternoon and went down to “The Point” with our fly rods. There was a slight on shore breeze, and although the surf was small it was not easy to get the line out more than a couple of meters. Off to my right a spray of minnows broke the surface and then a few seconds later came the hit. It wasn’t a very heavy take at first, just a dead weight at the end of the line. Then he ran… and I really experienced need for backing (excess line to allow fish to run) for the first time in my fly-fishing career. I managed to land it on the beach after a few minutes: a small Kingfish about 30cm long more specifically known as a GT (Giant Travally). I removed my fly from this powerful broad bodied predator and returned him to the waves. I didn’t know it yet, but the excitement I had just experienced, and would be looking for again over the next few days, was to become known as “GT Fever” by everyone at the lodge.

Pretty soon we all had it. There were many other species caught over the next few days: rock cod, Kingfish and Queenfish of different varieties, Snappers, Garfish.

Much of our time was spent exploring the many mangrove lines channels of the estuary in the “Tinnies”, small powered aluminium boats. We also took a trip out to BD Island, about half an hour out of the estuary to fish some deeper water.

Mark and Andy flew out on Christmas Eve back to Joburg and we stayed to enjoy a wonderful Christmas dinner (yes, ham and turkey) and to soak up the luxury for one more day before we headed north up towards Gorongosa.

Many thanks to Pam, Craig, Innocent, Nick and Mat and everyone else at the lodge for a really fantastic stay!

Their website is http://www.rioazul-lodge.com/