My 6 day Gambia fishing adventure day2

[SIMPLE MAN]

Up again at 06.30 breakfast on the beach as usual Fafa arrives and we are heading back up the disco road,today Fafa tells us we will be heading down to the river mouth for some bottom fishing before heading out to a reef for some bottom fishing and trolling so today we get bonga and some prawns for bait,But this depends very much on Brian who when we were in St Louis in Nov marlin fishing was not very good at sea at all so sea sickness tablets taken and time will tell,due to the tide it takes six of us 10min to get the boat off the bank and in the river and i am quite relieved that its still early and not yet too hot still we are in now and start trolling down to the sea again the bird life is something else but we have no takes as we get to the river mouth

And we are soon anchored up baits over the side and me keeping half an eye on my boy and as happened in Senegal in Nov after 10min he starts to turn green at the gills so unlike St Louis where we were fishing a deep drop off 17 miles out and had not taken any sea sick tablets with us this was more a rest and relax holiday with any fish being a bonus i told Fafa that we would have to fish the rest of the holiday on the river as Brian would not be enjoying himself if he was hanging over the side of the boat all day,so lines in and we troll back up river about 6 miles to where we started off yesterday,
Today its really hot again 39oc-40oc but unlike yesterday there is hardly any breeze and the fishing today is really hard after 3 hours all we had to our name was a few pesky crabs we did manage to catch a couple of small white snapper which we promptly used for live bait but on each occasion they were ripped of the hook by something but although it took the bait it never took the hook,and due to the heat we moved spot every 20 mins or so just to get a bit of breeze,about 11.30 Brian got a red snapper of a 1lb


And i don't think the skipper was over impressed that after pictures it was returned back to where it had come from but hey ho if i would let him he would of kept everything that we caught,an hour or so later Brian got another red snapper of a smidge under a pound and it seemed even the kingfishers were going to catch more than me also although not a very good picture there was a osprey above us eating his catch perched above us


talk about taking the mickey not only have i got my son chirping in my ear but now the bloody birds chirping and catching more than me,anyway about 3.30 the tide had turned and Fafa said that we should try a spot quarter of a mile back down stream that might be worth a try for the last hour and a half so we set off and on arrival there was a really nice breeze and we all perked up,for the next hour we had plenty of nibbles and a few crabs and i was just thinking that i was going to have a blank day and listen to my son chirping all night when crash this was no 1-2lb snapper and was screaming off down stream at a right rate,about 8-10min past before we got our first glimpse and Fafa said it was a captainfish the first 3 times we tried to net it it stormed off trying to get under the boat but at the 4th try Fafa had got it in the net a cracking captainfish which tipped the scales at 13 1/2 lb

So i might of had only one fish today but it was certainly worth the wait and a keeper too,we had nothing more in the last 20min so lines in and trolling back to camp which was also non productive,so back through the road blocks and back to the rainbow lodge the captain fish handed over to the chef and tonight Brian,me,Fafa and Val a volunteer school teacher that we had met all had captainfish with chunky chips or rice and it was a real treat and all for £6 and as usual washed down by a crate or two of julebrews
day3 to follow

[MRG2000]

Thats a cracking fish,well worth all the effort,well done that man.....