My 6 day Gambia fishing adventure day 3

[SIMPLE MAN]

Breakfast on the beach as usual and still with a clear head (3 nights and still no hangover) i think that's a record,This morning when Fafa turns up he asks if we mind if our driver takes a group of Spanish charity workers to a near by school first at the end of the disco road and as it will only take 15 min i say no worries and we have another coffee,
He soon returns and we are soon collecting our bait from the market and heading back through the check-points and back to the river,just to make a change its hot but there is a welcome breeze so hopefully this will give some relief,and again we troll down to the river mouth before turning back upstream about 6 miles and as the last two days nothing shows any interest in our lures but although not great pictures i do manage to get a reasonable shot of a white heron and am quite pleased with this photo of one of the many ospreys that line the river



I just wish i had invested in a better camera and then i could of posted many many pictures of some of these beautiful creatures,still back to the fishing and at our first stop i manage to bag two red snappers of 3/4lb and 1 3/4lb


and again Lamin our skipper looks on in disgust as we return them back to where they came so i tell him to fill the well up with water and if we catch anything which i decide is a good size for the pot he can put it in the well but if we get a bigger one he returns the well fish and replaces it with the larger one,and i also explain to him that he gets about 25 euros a month in wages and that i give him 20 euros a day tip so its not like he has no money for food,and after that he seems more happy,
These guys really do not earn very much money and its not in there vocabulary to return anything and i do understand but at the same time i have my own principles and had to make it clear,to be honest i blamed myself for not making it very clear from the start,anyway he soon cheered up and gave us all a big smile while we trolled to our next spot

Brian then had a red snapper of a 1lb which Lamin expertly returned still smiling

and we moved again as the tide had slowed right down now and first chuck and seconds later Brians rod shot round and before he really new what had happened something had tore off with his bait and buried itself deep in the roots of the mangroves and in a shot Lamin had pulled the anchor,engine started and we drove straight into the mangroves beached the boat and before you could say boo to a goose grabbed the landing net and was soon ankle deep in mud

and after slipping and sliding about for a couple of minutes Brian had a nice red snapper of 4lb and Lamin knew he wasn't going hungry tonight

I then had two red snappers of 2 1/4lb and 2 3/4lb before Fafa suggested that we try the spot where we had the captainfish yesterday so lines in and a quick 5min down the river for the last hour or so,not long after Brian had another red snapper of 3lb Fafa had managed to get a small white snapper which was promptly placed on my hook for live bait and was just as promptly ripped off my hook again with nothing to show for it Brian then had what we think was a snapper shed the hook and almost straight after i had a red snapper of 4lb

and just as i got it to the boat Brian hooked in to another 4 1/4lb er

and as the day was coming to a close and Fafa said 3 more casts Brians rod took off straight down the middle of the river at a good old rate and 5-6 min later he had his prize a nice captainfish of 9lb which by the way the hook fell out in the net (lucky git)

So that's it for another day lines in and trolling back to the camp and Lamin was so busy trying to work out which two snapper that he was going to keep for himself that he promptly grounded the boat on one of the mud flats much to the great amusement of Fafa,Brian and myself in fact i laughed so much that i nearly fell in and i hadn't had a drink all day
Still enough of that back to the camp in the van and back to the rainbow for a captainfish supper again and a few more julebrews and strangly enough tonight when we arrive on the chefs special of the day is captainfish (now theres a suprise)
day 4 to follow

[bassmanrob]

Great reporting again, I'm enjoying these especially as I'm off on holiday there in November.

Good luck with the rest of your fishing there...