My 6 day Gambia fishing adventure day 4

[SIMPLE MAN]

Up again at 06.30 and sober (this really is a record)and as we watch the locals going out on their fishing boats and have breakfast we have to move behind the bar as the wind is really blowing,still if it stays like this at least we should be comfortable today,Fafa arrives at 08.00 and complains that the wind was so strong last night that his corrugated roof flapped all night and he got very little sleep it really is blowing today,
Anyway drinks loaded and up the disco road to market to collect our bait and as we headed to the river the army decide that they want to check us out this morning so out the van and i am sure they were bored stiff and just wanted a murray mint and a chat (that's Africa) after 5min we are on our way and soon back by the river and again today it takes us 10min to get the boat off the bank and into the water,drinks and tackle loaded and we are off trolling down to the sea before turning and heading back up the river and just as i comment to Fafa and Brian that we have had no takes trolling in 3 days now my reel starts screaming and whatever it was had shed the hook before i really had a chance to play it lol still it did give us hope and realise that we were not just wasting time,Fafa said that today we would start fishing about 3miles up and work our way upriver today instead of going 6miles up and coming down also we would try some different swims just to see if we could find where these cunning blighters were holing up and at the second stop both Brian and me both caught what Fafa said was a frog fish only a couple of oz each and they really do look like a frog and constantly croak like one too


after trying a couple more spots we anchored up just behind a bend to try and strange as it might sound get out of the wind for a while and
Brian had a white snapper of 6oz and i had a red snapper of 12oz


and after a couple more moves and quite a way up river whilst fishing we had a osprey plummet out of the sky and dive into the river not 15ft from us WOW what a sight and although it didn't catch its prey and flew back to its perch just above us this really was a awesome sight and will stay with me for a long long time,we had seen them diving and sometimes catching fish all through the week but not at such close quarters and while we were still talking about what we had just seen Brian had a very strange take which stormed off for 4-5yrds and stopped and after Brian twice tried to tighten back up to the bait but couldnt he went to reel in and said he had a fish on and less than i min later he had a small female stingray of a 1lb and just as Fafa was saying that he had never in 16 years seen rays that far up the river blow me next cast Brian had another one of the same size but this was a male

We then tried a few more untried spots but without much luck apart from the pesky crabs and another of those strange little frog fish,so it was time to make our way back to the swim where we had had those captainfish on the previous two days but when we got there the tide although slow was still coming in and the fishing was very slow and although the tide eventually turned Brian blanked and i caught a red snapper of just under 3lbs

Still at least it was a keeper and Brian and me looked like we were having snapper for tea and poor Lamin was going to have to make do with crab soup so lines in and we trolled back to camp which was about 15min away and twice on the way back Lamin had to lift the engine and we had to bring our lures in as the locals had spread a net right across the river and a couple of min after setting the lures for the third time Brians rod bent over double with line screaming off his reel and to be honest i thought he had either caught the bottom or the mangroves but as soon as he lifted the rod yeeesssss fish on and after 5min and two failed attempts third time lucky he had his prize a nice chevron barracuda of 12lbs called because of the chevron type markings down its side and as it was one of the fish that Brian really wanted to catch and it certainly made his day


Just look at the smile on his face he really was a happy chappy and so was Lamin whos evening meal had just been upgraded from crab soup to snapper for dinner and although i shouldnt have to say if any of you guys doubt the size of the fish please take into account that Brian is 6ft7in (he is worried that people might think it was smaller) and blow me shortly after setting back of to camp we had another take but lost it after a short fight so back to the rainbow barracuda and chips for supper and a few of those julebrews to wash it down and bed at 02.30
day 5 to follow

[MRG2000]

Another cracking report ,love that lil stinger .....

[Portland Pirate]

Those frog fish look like giant sea scorpions

[SIMPLE MAN]

Hi portland you will have to excuse my ignorance but that is what we were told that they were called but the head did look like a frog and they croaked all the time they were out of the water,i have just looked at my photos of the trip and all though not that great i will post a different picture of one of them tomorrow
cheers john