Gambia report and pics November

**stonefish** · 05-12-2006, 23:06

Well, here's my report as promised.

Date: 20/11/06 to 27/11/06.
Holiday Beach Club, Kololi
Cost: £220 b&b through Thomas Cook website
Weather: non stop sun, 34 c by day, 25 c by night.
Guides: Tom & Assan (again) £25 per angler per session plus a tip.
Tel: +2207781160

Having fished the Gambia twice already this year, it didn't take much persuasion, when my mate Dave rang me, suggesting a trip, having spotted a bargain on the internet. It was to be our first holiday without the wives since 1986 when we were single. The mission for the week was for Dave to catch his first double figure fish from the beach.

Anyway, bumped into Taff (poster on this forum) in the hotel grounds during the first afternoon, he said he had fished over the previous fortnight and that the fishing was quiet. Many thanks for the sinkers, taff.
First morning we headed to Denton bridge and paid a local for a few live baby mullet. We fished with carp rods, 15lb line and 2 oz bombs, flowing trace terminated with 4/0 mustad power hooks and 20cm of wire. Dropping the livebaits over the bridge, these were bounced back on the ebbing tide. We gave this an hour and a half and drew a blank. A local kindly offered to go and get us 1/2 kilo of prawns for £4 and keep them refrigerated until we were ready to head back to the hotel.
On getting back , we gathered a beachcaster and Penn 525 mag (25lb mainline) each and walked straight out on to the beach in front of the hotel. We used single paternosters, 24 inch 60lb hooklengths to pennelled 4/0 power hooks, clipped behind an impact shield. 5oz breakaways completed the set up. Two prawns were whipped to the hooks with bait elastic and lobbed behind the furthest breaker (60 to 90 yards or so ). Within 5 minutes Dave had a hard bite and soon had his first captianfish on the beach. It weighed 5 1/4 lbs. He rebaited and 10 minutes later, caught another about the same size. A small crowd of locals and holidaymakers gathered and watched. I then landed two captainfish of 5 1/4lb and 6 1/2 lb. We fished between 5.15 and 6.45 pm and were quite pleased with the warm up session.

The following morning we were picked up by the guides for a day session on Sanyang beach. This session produced my first jack crevalle, loads of butterfish to 6 lb , Cassava to 5lb, a small stingray, a nine-bones and a few captainfish in the 4 to 5 lb bracket. I also lost a jumping barracuda after being bitten off 5 yards out. Tides were far from ideal, low water about 3pm.
On the Thursday we decided to fish 'A section', a stunning bay immediately north of Sanyang. This spot had produced nice guitarfish during october and a 50 kg giant earlier this year. Again tides weren't favorable. We landed a few small guitarfish each, a few butterfish and a nine-bones. Fishing was generally slow so we moved a mile south for the final hour and a half. This is where Dave hooked a nice 'stingray' cunningly disguised as a plastic bag. I laughed my socks off, but I must give him some credit as it was a specimen sized bag. lol. We called it a day at 5.00pm.

For friday, we decided in a change of tactics and try a night session from 6.00pm to 10.00pm, from low water up. The venue was Bijilo Beach, just south of Kololi. There was a bit of surf running and a fair amount of weed for the first hour. Switching up to 5/0 hooks we caught cassava and captianfish early on. Assan had a couple of barracuda, and I was bitten off 4 times. Assan was fishing with wire, I stuck to 60lb mono snoods. At about 8.15 I had a 9lb captain fish. There was a steady stream of fish throughout. Then at about 9.30, Tom hooked a nice cassava of 11lb. It was while we watched this battle that we turned round to see Dave's rod bent over. Luckily the drag was off and the ratchet on as the fish had nearly stripped his reel. After a good struggle and a walk 100 yards down the beach, Dave landed a 17lb captainfish. He was beaming. Mission accomplished. A great session, we must have landed 80lb of fish and lost a good few others.
We packed up and celebrated hard on the town to the small hours.

Next morning Dave was ill with Banjul belly and I had to get the doctor. That was the end of his fishing.

That night we returned to Bijilo, minus Dave. A big surf was running and it was hard going. I was bitten off early on by nice barracuda and switched to wire. I had a couple of captainfish of about 6lb, Tom and Assan had cassava, captainfish and barracuda. But it was slower than the previous night.
We cancelled fishing the final night to go out on the lash. Tom and Assan took another guest to Bijilo, where it produced a fine 16lb captainfish. Wish I went now !!

Hopefully this will become an annual jaunt for us now and I would highly recommend the Gambia to anyone.
I urge anyone going to use Tom and Assan as your guides. They use a Landrover to access the marks, so fishing is easy. Many go it alone or use local 'guides' with no experience, on the promise of " catch a big barracuda", and return disappointed.

So, the 35 lb stingray I caught in February didn't put in a show, nor did the big guitars, but we had a fab time and the look on Dave's face when he caught the 17 pounder was priceless. Well done mate !

**stonefish** · 05-12-2006, 23:09

**stonefish** · 05-12-2006, 23:11

**stonefish** · 05-12-2006, 23:12

**glenyates** · 06-12-2006, 10:23

Nice report Stonefish. Some good looking fish there. Thanks for all the info and i will give the guides a call.
I will let you know how i get on and pass your regards to the lads.

Weather looks good!

Cheers

Glen.

**taff2** · 06-12-2006, 12:07

well done mate it was nice to meet you when you go again i will try to come withyou it will be nice to try and get a lot of the lads of the site to go and al fish togetherhope one dayto see you again

**afcbman** · 07-12-2006, 21:44

I had a great time in the Gambia with Tony (Stonefish). I like the idea of getting a few anglers together for a fishing session out there.
The hotel (Holiday Beach Club) I would recommend cos although it is basic accomodation, it was clean and the location was good. Nice pool, bars and Kololi nightlife with its bars and restaurants only 2 mins walk away.
The hotel is located right on the beach and although we only fished outside the hotel once for an hour and a half on the first night (dusk) it produced 4 fish averaging 5lbs each. You cannot compare fishing bare foot in shorts at night (with mossie repellent of course) with codding on the east coast in winter. The locals were very friendly and although we always returned the smaller fish (not many) we always gave the locals and our guides the bigger fish which they took home to their families. Not many of the locals would ever be able to buy fish that size. It was clear they appreciated the fish and after the first night on the beach outside the hotel, the word got round that we were master fisherman from the UK. We were recognised in the street all week.
A word of warning, the gambia is a poor country and it was a culture shock for me. The people are genuinely friendly and tourism is very important to them and for some it is the only source of money for them. Unfortunately, "bumsters" (locals offering various things for a price) can be a nuisance as soon as you are outside the hotel grounds. A firm "no" or "no thank you" normally surfices. Obviously, if you intend fishing further afield, using guides like Tom and Assan will stop this happening.
Tony didn't mention that we took our own beachcasters, tackle and reels. There was no additional cost with Thomas cook as long as everything was within your 20kg per person luggage allowance. He has a proper flight case for rods (about 9ft long) which comfortably took 3 x beachcasters, 2 carp rods. We also took 2 x 36" long and 2" diameter plastic pipes which we used as rod rests. We left the pipes with Tom and Assan so others could use them in future.
All in all, if you want to take the missus for a bit of guaranteed winter sunshine, with guaranteed good fishing, the gambia is a good choice. If you haven't got a missus, what are you waiting for?
PS Sorry about the length!

**stonefish** · 07-12-2006, 22:45

Nice one Dave, hope the arse has recovered, lol , be in touch soon. Tony

**stonefish** · 07-12-2006, 23:39

Good point afcbman, good eaters were kept, but the locals could only dream of fish that size to feed the family. A big point of the holiday was to see their smiles and gratitude for our catches. Most locals can only afford 6 inch fish from the market. Everywhere we went, we were recognised as " Mr. Fisherman". lol

It would be good to organise a trip with other anglers on here. Any interest , let me know.