Beach fishing for mainly sharks on Namibia's coast.
My flight with Nationwide Airways from Gatwick to Johannesburg South Africa was due to leave at 8.30pm on Saturday 12th April. I arrived at the airport early so that I could meet up with Neil North, the English agent for Adam Clark of
www.faroutfishing.org.uk who I booked my fully guided fishing holiday with. Neil and I talked about Adam and fishing in Africa and it was nice to put a face to a name.
Having previously been in a business that meant I had to make many flights to far flung parts of the world I consider myself a seasoned traveller and know a few tricks. In the old days I would book economy but turn up three hours before departure suited and booted with a briefcase to hand and this would usually get me upgraded to business class. I wasn't going on a fishing holiday wearing a suit so I hatched plan B.
I waited in an area where I had a view of check in and booked in at the last minute when everyone else had gone through. An isle seat was pre-booked but I asked the girl if the flight was full (it wasn't) and if not could I change my seat to the middle section of the plane if there were three seats together and all vacant, this would help my fear of flying and claustrophobia I said. That was no problem and so I had my bed sorted for the night flight. (Who wants business class when you can have three seats in economy to your self?) The flight takes 11 hours and as South Africa is within an hour of the Uk's time I was due to arrive early morning refreshed with no jet lag to look forward to.
My luggage was overweight and in case of complications at the desk, I asked Neil to hang on to my hand baggage which weighed 5 kilos more than it should and I hoped not having any would make a difference at check in as my main luggage was also 5 kilos too heavy. I needn't have bothered as they weren't and I returned to meet Neil in the bar and retrieved my bag.
As I was boarding the plane I received a text message from Neil that said Adam was already on Donalsons Dam fishing for carp and would meet me in the morning as planned.
I was going to plug Nationwide's flight and service but three days after returning home they ceased trading and the fleet was grounded! Oh well.
Sunday 13th April.
My flight to Johannesburg in South Africa arrived on time, customs and baggage reclaim was painless. I was not expecting the temperature outside to be only 10c and cloudy. I was met by Adam in arrivals and after pleasantries we headed to departures for our South African Airways short flight to Walvis Bay in Namibia. We were met by Simon McGowan, Adam's Namibian (He's Scottish) beach fishing guide. We were in Henties Bay, our base town by 2pm and after unpacking at the guesthouse we were off to the beach although we only had a couple of hours of light left.
Did I get a shock when I waded into the surf to cast? Flipping freezing, I'm sure the sea temperature was in single figures. Warm air from the desert meets cold air from the sea and this produces a mist, with the wind coming off the sea it was cold. Inland only a few miles into the desert it was 40 degrees centigrade.
I thought I was getting two guides for my trip but no, four! Including Sean, a friend and employee of Simon's during busy months and a local Namibian lad called Godfrey. Normally there would have been more clients but I had booked an exclusive trip and so was being spoilt.
When I'm being guided I insist on playing as big a part in the fishing as possible, not just reeling in a fish hooked by someone else. I told my guides "If you pick up the rod then it's your fish, you reel it in". It would have been difficult to do every thing myself and anyway they could all tie the complicated bait concoctions better than me. Rods used were one piece beach casters, the type with next to no handle and casting long distances proved tricky for me. Being severely right handed made it difficult to thumb the reels with my left hand and so I had to cast cock handed over my right shoulder, basically a backwards cast. This was ok when a short cast was required but I had to agree to most being made by Simon who is an expert at the job.
It wasn't long before I had my first fish and a new species was added to my 2008 list (29 now). A "Puff Adder Shy Shark". It only weighed a pound but it was a start, they make brilliant bait anyway.
See photo of me and a Puff Adder.
That was it for the afternoon and at Simon's home and guesthouse I met his wife Sharon and children Carla and William. There is a purpose built bar in the lounge so I was in my element. Dinner was Kudu steak, from a big African deer, excellent, as was all the weeks food cooked for us.
Monday 14th April.
By 10.45am we had made four moves, sea conditions were extremely rough, a strong left to right current and strong winds. We were fishing in rock and kelp. There were four other vehicles and about 14 anglers in the immediate vicinity and we thought a few fish were being caught. My middle and right hand rods were baited for sharks and my left rod for edible species. Two anglers to our left were bringing in what looked to be Black Bream but with hindsight they may have been Kabeljou, they can be very dark. These are similar to Casava I caught in The Gambia.
By midday we were away again and the standard Namibian 4 x 4 set up that takes all the rods sitting vertical on its bumper is brilliant for these regular moves. This new spot produced nothing and Simon was left with little choice he said but to drive to his back up mark. Roughly 126 km drive to the gates of the Skeleton Coast's National Park. Basically this is the ultimate "End Peg" and it's not permitted to fish inside the park itself. So for an ex match fisherman and carp angler like me, ideal, virgin water to my right for hundreds of kilometres.
See photo of me at the gates.
See photo of the fence and the "End Peg"
Just before 2pm I was into my first proper shark and after a good fight in the fast flowing current and big waves I landed a near record Spotted Gulley Shark. It weighed in at 67.5lbs just 3lbs short of Simon's own PB, the 4th biggest in Namibia at 70.6lbs. This was from 18 months ago and as far as he knows mine was the biggest one landed in Namibia since that time. It was also the biggest ever landed by a client in 6 years and was somewhere between 5th and 10th biggest ever caught in Namibia. The Namibian record is 80.7lbs. I was elated and everyone was pleased for me.
See photo of me and my 67.5lber.
While I was fighting my shark on the "End Peg's" right hand rod the left one produced a smaller fish of about 20lbs and shortly after these two had been tagged and released the middle rod screamed off and another shark was quickly snagged in the kelp. I gave it some slack line in the hope it would swim out but it didn't and I had to go for the pull. I got my entire rig back but the fish had escaped. Never mind it's better than a tied up fish.
Not long after this I landed a small spotty weighing about 4lbs and fish of this size make excellent bait, say no more.
This spot was certainly producing the goods and it wasn't long before I was into another shark, a spotty. 1m 19cm long and weighing over 30lbs. All these fish fought so well in these poor sea conditions.
At 3pm I landed my third new species of the trip, a Kabeljou weighing about 4lbs and as they make excellent eating it was a keeper.
See Photo of me with a Kabeljou.
South Africans travel to Namibia to catch these and I presume they have fished their own waters out. This fish was shortly followed by a smaller one which was returned.
About 4.15pm we moved in a homeward direction as it would get dark at 6pm and its better to be close to base by then, as would be confirmed later in the week. We fished a mark for fifteen minutes just south of the famous Winston Wreck on the infamous Skeleton Coast. We caught nothing and drove the hour journey back to base.
On the way home we saw some "Black Backed Jackals", on their way to the beach. They eat things such as dead seals of which there are many washed up and nesting Pelicans if they can find any.
On our journey of about 100km we saw only one other vehicle and that was a sea fisheries inspector heading for his night patrol of the national park.
An interesting fact is that most of Namibia's main roads are made of compacted salt which is great until it rains and becomes like an ice rink. Talking of the roads, the ones in town were three times wider than I expected and one has to wonder why because there was very little traffic.
This night Adam and I decided we would go to a local seafood restaurant. Food was more than acceptable and at less than £3 for a big portion of Hake, chips and salad, good value. Also cheap were drinks and a glass of wine was less than £0.50 with soft drinks at £0.40.
Tuesday 15th April.
We had a late start today because I had to change money at a bank in town and we took the opportunity to visit a local tackle shop and obtain for Adam a fishing license allowing us to fish 5 rods if we wished. We didn't actually ever fish more than four which was enough for me to handle.
Yesterday's small Spotty was used today and a life like bait was moulded and tied from the tail, gills and liver, as they contain a lot of blood.
After looking at some nearer marks we headed to the "End Peg". The sea was rougher today than yesterday and at least as windy. The strong currents from the Antarctic were bringing very cold water with them and my guides were concerned the Bronze Whaler Sharks would go off the feed and with this being my third day of five I would have to target them on the last two but we needed the sea and wind to calm down. We carried on fishing for Spotties and edibles.
I wanted to try one of my much loved methods of attraction and added Halibut paste to the 6oz gripper leads. Whether it makes any difference is difficult to prove. Adding Belachan to leads in the Gambia only produced more small fish for me than my guides caught. At least it didn't put the sharks off because it wasn't long before I was into one and I landed a Spotty weighing about 27lbs.
Making tea has more often than not produced a bite for me and this time was no different because no sooner had the mug touched my lips a rod roared off. Oh well nothing new there then.
The fishing wasn't as productive as yesterday so we headed back towards base at about 2pm and went off road to take a look at marks by the Winston Wreck. What happened next is a good reason for not being in the middle of nowhere after dark. While following tracks already made; our heavy 4 x 4 and trailer bogged down in soft sand and damp clay beneath.
See photo.
We tried for two hours to get the truck out and then in the distance we saw a vehicle heading towards the Winston Wreck. Adam went jogging and got the occupant's attention. It was a Spanish couple on holiday from Majorca and they kindly helped us out of our predicament. We were only minutes away from calling out someone from town to help.
Simon is a passionate guide and angler, he insisted we try one more mark on the way back! We stopped at a sheltered bay where he thought I might catch a Sand Shark for my species hunt, no luck though.
To be continued.
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