gambia boat fishing

[jw]

myself and luke aston decided to head for gambia and try out the boat fishing for four days

the predominant wind is the north easterly trade wind known as the harmattan

the boat we hired was an 8 meter cat powered by twin yamaha 150 outboards

[jw]

baits were prawns and small baitfish called yaboys caught on mini sabikis and stored in live bait
tank

[jw]

we fished almost entirely at anchor and caught maybe a dozen species, they were all disappointingly
small around a pound weight

[jw]

the butter fish can bite mono but not braid snoods,

tried a bit of trolling with large plugs and CD18 no takes

[jw]

the best fish we caught was a 9kg captain fish.

on the final day we headed to a tarpon mark in 20 meters near dog island.
To our surprise as predicted two hours before
high water the huge silver shapes showed up rolling about near the surface.

A pleasure boat hooked a huge fish near us, it jumped six feet into the air and landed
with a huge splash throwing the hook. one of the spectacular sights in fishing.

they ignored our yaboys fished mid water, we briefly hooked one on a light rod
fished on the bottom, reel quickly spooled

[MAC]

any more detail John... Any fish caught

[jw]

hi kev,

we float fished live jaboys at various depths, only two boats were at the mark,
and we each got one hook up neither held. The big tarpon are definately still
there. Very exciting fishing as they are visible rolling at the surface. i tried a
6/0 owner circle baited with 3 live yaboys on 6 feet of 100lb fluoro 4 meters
below the surface

jw

[MAC]

Excellent post John,

For some reason I only saw the first 2 sets of pis when I looked, hence the question of Any Fish....

Fishing from what I have read seems to be on or off over there......

Nice Winter Break all the same.

Kev

[jw]

we did spend quite a lot of time at anchor with nothing much happening. To be
honest we would have preferred to pay a bit more than the hundred and fifty
per day and burn a bit more petrol.

The water temp was around 24C and the boat was well capable of heading out to sea and
setting up a good rubby dubby trail which could have provided some interesting sharking.
Id agree things like this before booking here again

[MAC]

Gambia can be a bit like that. Seems it hasn't changed much since I was there last (10 year ago ) and managed to finish 13th in the First Masterline comp...

Trolling was the best tactic when I was there. We could get about 8 - 20 Decent Barracuda's in about 4 - 6 hours depending on the skipper.

The WSF forum has an international section with quite a few posts covering Arfica and Gambia expecially. That might be of help next time if you are looking for a decent skipper that will put the effort in.

Nice to see some sun again, even if it's in a picture.

Kev

[MAC]

BTW,

What did you lads think of the Cat? Bit costly to run with twin 150's though

Kev

[jw]

kev,

agree with you, great destination. there's shore rods for hire on the beach outside
ocean bay hotel and we saw a 4lb barracuda caught there.

I reckon a cat has more deck space than a monohull of the same weight but
can't handle quite as much weather. For the placid seas here she's a good choice.

the boat angling centre was once a fine setup, but now like a ghost town, pool drained,
bar closed etc., I guess whoever was behind it lost interest

[Tomaszek]

Hey jw, I was waiting impatiently for that report. I was even suspecting that ye guys have choose freedom in Africa

Why did you tried tarpon mark only on the last day? Anyway - what was the reel and line that got spooled? My understanding is that while fishing for tarpon fish needs to be chased by the boat while hooked - was that the case?

Sorry for many questions at once - surely will have more

Congratulations on captain fish and many exotic species - surely it was good experience - did you got there with no problems in air transportation (was that in the time when air traffic was affected by the weather)?

[The Austrian]

super report, time to get my passport sorted

[jw]

tommy,

we were told the tarpon only show up at this mark towards spring tides, so might be worth
taking this into consideration if booking next year.

the rod and reel we hooked up on had been wound up from the bottom on a previous trip by the
skipper

i thought it curious they ignored our five float fished rods but instantly took the yaboys
when fished on the bottom, but i dont really know enough about it to have an opinion

great destination, though the nightclubs are so full there's hardly room to swing a dead cat

jw

[junior conger]

nice tarpon
well done

[Viper]

nice tarpon
well done

Am I missing something here, I don't see any pictures of tarpon?

[jw]

im kind of wondering that myself

[Stan]

Gambia is a lovely place. Think the locals are fishing it out. Sounds like what happened to the bass here in 70's & 80's. Anglers will now seek to go elsewhere!!

[MAC]

I don't think it's the Locals Stan. More than likely the EU Super Trawlers. I believe rights (Bribes) were negotiated to the Gambia and Senegal waters some years ago and the fishing has been on the decline since.... Will they ever learn...

Kev