Welcome to our opening week of the season at this pristine fishery on the beautiful coastline of Gabon. This week we welcomed 2 guests to come and enjoy what this wild fishery has to offer. The week started off with some bad weather and big moving tides which gave us a small window of fishing time. Even though the session was short we saw fish around, which kept us wanting more.
The weather cleared and a scenic run to our fishing spot in the morning, had our guests buzzing to see what may “lay” ahead of them and all eyes were peeled for tarpon feeding. Needless to say, it didn’t take long before we spotted a bunch of poons rolling and we knew great things were to come.
The fish were around and we were ready. It didn’t take long for Pete (who is no stranger to this fishery ) to hook up into a solid fish and shortly after, Antonio, who is visiting this fishery for the first time, was lucky enough to sight cast to a laid-up tarpon, which ate the fly with brute force and he was on. We were doubled up! Unfortunately, as tarpon fishing goes, Pete lost his fish after a big jump. Antonio proceeded to fight for a solid 2 hours, before landing his biggest tarpon to date, at 160+lbs! Huge congrats man! Pete in the meantime managed to hook 4 and land 2 solid tarpon.
The week progressed into some of the most exciting fishing we could have asked for! Our guests jumped more than 30 tarpon for the week and Pete landed an incredible 120lbs. The fishing scenarios varied between casting to laid-up tarpon and fish rolling around us. We used a variety of techniques, from casting floating and intermediate lines to rolling and laid up tarpon with small Tan baitfish zonkers, better known as, the “Whittaker Wonder”, to sinking lines with clousers that imitate the baitfish.
We landed some amazing fish and lost some in the 150-200lb range. Pete also managed to land a cracking African Threadfin, which was well over the 30lb mark and Antonio managed to land a Senegalese Kob of 20lbs. Both of our guests also had the pleasure of getting some awesome long fin Jacks and Jack Crevalle as a “by catch” while fishing for Tarpon.
The week was, without a doubt, a memorable one! Aside from the highly successful fishing, the beautiful boat rides through the jungle and the amazing bird life – this place will leave you in awe and keep you coming back for more. There is just no place like it!
We would like to thank our guests for the wonderful memories made. It was an absolute pleasure guiding you and we look forward to fishing with you again, in the very near future.
