Guinea Bissau (part two)

[SIMPLE MAN]

So after brekkie we load all our bags onto the 2 9metre sport fishers along with fuel and supplies say our goodbyes and now heading up the river for i guess about 3-4 miles before we hit the open water,these boats have 2x Yamaha 100 engines fitted on the back and they go like s*** of a shovel and although i am not sure the distance to Acunda depending on sea conditions it can take anywhere between 2 and 3 and a bit hours to get there and i reckon these boats do about 30-35 knots and today it takes us 2hours 20 to reach our little bit of paradise,On arrival if you haven't guessed by now we head straight to the bar where we are met by Thierry and Marie who now run the camp and apart from stopping for dinner that is where i stayed until 02.00
At some time during the evening some of the guys seemed to think that they had paid for two boats for 7 days boat fishing when the rest of us had paid for5 days boat and 2 days beach fishing although i must admit that if the chance arises i will always pay extra for more boat fishing days instead of fishing on the beach,and then Thierry really threw a spanner in the works by telling us that all nine of us only had the use of two boats for the next 7 days so you can imagine that there was an air of discontent when we were told and Thierry was adamant that this was down to Richard Sheard who had not booked us enough boats,we were also told that there was nothing he could do about it and also that he could not contact Richard until the following Friday,I now know that both these statements were wrong and have received a email from the people who run the camp who have apologised for the c*** up and clearly stated that worldsportfishing and Richard had booked the correct amount of boats but in-fact it was the French who had some how f***** up so as we were in the middle of no where and there seemed nothing we could do we all agreed that we would have 4 days boat and 2 days beach with the last day being 4 on one and 5 on the other boat and we could air our grievances when we returned back to the UK
The other problem now is that normally even though you are beach fishing you are normally taken out to maybe fish of a sand bank or a nice island a few km out but as we now have only 2 boats the beach fishing will have to be done on the island opposite which is about 200 yrds away.
So anyway myself Ricky and Phil decided as we had been on the p*** for the best part of 36 hours we would take the first days beach fishing and let the others take the boats and just before i get onto the fishing i know i know i just keep babbling on we arrived the day after a nasty storm so the water was well churned up and conditions were far from perfect but that's fishing folks nobody can control the weather
So up the next morning at 07.30 and after brekkie us three head over to the island armed with 3 beach casters and 3 popping rods and also Marie from the camp who had decided to join us and blow me first cast and Marie has a 10lb jack and for the next hour or so we are all walking up and down the beach popping our hearts out but to no avail so Phil,Ricky and me decide to settle for a more leisurely pace and chuck out the beach rods and its not long before the rods are tap tap tapping but the trouble is these are ramoras they have a large suction pad on the top of there head and they fix themselves to larger fish and feed of the scraps that the fish leave they never seem to grow any bigger than a 1lb and to put it into prospective its like you beach guys getting pestered by doggies all day,they can get to be a real pain in the a***,about an hour later Phil has a small grouper of about 4lb
and a little while later Ricky has a barra around the 5lb mark and while we were having dinner Ricky's rod lurched over and he to had a small jack around the 10lb mark and still all i am getting is those bloody ramora until about 3 ish when at last although weeny i have my first proper fish of the holiday a pompano around 1 1/2lb

And although its the smallest pompano i have ever seen it wasn't a ramora and those two small kids you can see behind me took it home for there tea,the tide was receding fast now and just as we all thought apart from the ramora that that was going to be it for the day Phil's rod lurched forward and what the hell this things going of like a steam train and i confidently predict a nice size jack and about 10-12 min later Phil has this coming through the surf (jammy b******)i have been out in GB before and also Gambia and Senegal and its one fish that has always eluded my efforts and here is Phil catching one on his first trip lol

A18-20lb guitar fish(well done mate)you did ever so well lol and although i did manage a small barra towards the end of the day apart from a few more ramora that was it so back over to Acunda for a few beers and me NOT REALLY JEALOUS HONEST and as the other guys came in they had had a few jacks and a couple of snappers but with the sea so discoloured after the storm it was obvious the fishing was going to be slow for a day or two yet
part 3 to follow

[jasonh]

Looking good so far John, keep it up mate !! I didn't know Pompanos came that small though :-)

[MRG2000]

That pompano is a wierd looking little fish ....

[chris.oldgit]

i agree, looks like a ray/monkfish cross.