Tigers and MS1 Boilies - A personal account of up-river fishing (Richard Sheard, World Sport Fishing)

The plan was to explore the fresh water reaches of the Gambia River with a team of crack anglers in an attempt to catalogue the sportfish available in the McCarthy island area. In the absence of a team of crack anglers, I went with the Gambia Sport fishing boys and girls (only joking). This works outing consisted of Mark Longster, Steve Robinson, Tracey Day, Farmera, Assan and myself. All superbly ill equipped to exploit the fishing potential of this beautiful stretch of river due to their almost exclusively saltwater experience.

Our 200-mile journey to Georgetown was not uneventful. We had to use all our ingenuity to fashion a bush jack in order to replace a blown tyre, after the two jacks on board the landrover failed to do the job. Africa strikes again!

We arrived at Bird Safari Camp just before dusk and it truly was an idyllic setting. The camp specialises in birdwatching and nature safaris and is run by ex-pat Stephen Jones who has built it up out of the bush together with his British partner Mark Thompson. Nestling in a bend of the river, the camp consists of 10 small but well-appointed cabanas with a central bar and restaurant area. Past the communal area is a path leading down to a bamboo jetty, the perfect spot to wet a line.

So that's exactly what we did. With only cut fish baits available, we started ledgering with sliding and Paternoster rigs. No sooner had the bait hit the bottom than it was descended upon by a horde of small catfish {approx. 1-2 lbs}. The succession of taps and knocks was non-stop, so we scaled down the baits on one rod and scaled up the baits on the other. The smaller rigs carried on taking a series of different species of catfish {small Vundus, channel type and Hard Heads} and the larger rig fell silent.

After our third bottle of Julbrew the big rig began a series of positive knocks much firmer than the rattles and taps of the small cats. Then the knocks developed into a run and as I felt the fish move off I hit it twice to set the hook. Whatever it was did not like it one bit, as it headed for the other bank with a series of leaps, the fourth of which separated us. Another hour to no avail but at least we knew there was something big and hungry down there.

At the end of fishing that evening there was time to just sit and listen. Unless you have heard it you cannot possibly believe the cacophony of different sounds that emit from everywhere. Baboons barking, hippos snorting, frogs making more different sounds than you can take in, not to mention fish splashing and birds calling. This is part of the wonder of Africa that so much different life can be going on within one earshot.

6.30am and off to the fish market, always an invaluable source of information to the travelling angler. Having been used to the hustle and bustle of the big Banjul market, this came as a bit of an anti-climax to say the least. Georgetown fish market consisted of one table with about fifteen fish on it, the largest of which was about 8 oz. There was however a large array of different species and we managed to identify talapia, the three catfish we had caught the previous evening, elephant fish, freshwater sole, a bream-like fish with an elongated body, a pike-like fish with huge teeth, and a scaled eel. Also more unusually we found fish which we knew from the salt-water areas at the bottom of the river including Captain fish {with the clear nose}, Joto, and Ninebones. This all helped us to begin to fill in the jigsaw and create a map in our brains as to how the river worked. Whilst at the market we retained the services of one of the local fishermen and one of the local trip boats.

Back to the camp for breakfast and while we were waiting for that, a quick fish off the jetty. I must admit that when I got there, I wasn't expecting the river to be flowing backwards, obviously the tidal effect is still strong even 200 miles from the sea, causing the river to stop twice a day and run away from the sea. This gave us a bit of a pattern to investigate, so we fished the turn as hard as we could and were rewarded by much more activity than before, but still no big fish. However, we did discover that, as with most rivers a piece of bread floated along the edges will soon have fish jostling for a feed. Some things are the same the world over. So on with the size 16s and soon we were snatching what to all the world appeared to be small roach and dace but with big teeth. I was later to find out that they were members of the Characin family. Anyway, they looked like livebait to me so the cool box was quickly converted info a livebait bucket and we looked set for the boat trip.

The boat left something to be desired, to say the least, it was of steel construction and, a bit like the Janitor who has had the same broom for 20 years, must have had 10 new heads and 5 new handles the amount of welding that had been undertaken just to keep it afloat. Luckily speed was not an option, the 15 hp outboard had seen better decades let alone days, so we set off with some trepidation, but unlike the sea the side was only 50 yards away so we were not too worried, until he told us what the best bait for crocodiles was {in case you're interested it's a monkey's head apparently).

We reached the first spot which was apparently a shallow sandbar. Fish baits went in all around the boat and within 2 minutes, both of the left-hand rods were hit hard. The ensuing spectacular fights meant only one thing - Tigerfish. These fast acrobatic predators are prized by sport fishermen the world over and the proof that they were in the river was excellent news for us. If you have never seen one of these fish it is difficult to believe that it can even eat, because its teeth are so large, it would put a great white to shame in the denture department. They also offer an excellent fight on the light spinning outfits we were using and spend more time in the air than in the water. The two fish caught were not large but the captain assured us that they grow much bigger and shoal up after the rains. Sounds like a good excuse for another trip.

Second stop, a large fallen tree right alongside the bank. Looks catfishy to me and I was not wrong as soon as the baits touched down the taps began. The succession of small hard heads was broken up by a wrenching bite which resulted in a decent sized Vundu Catfish, a species which in other African rivers have been known to reach 100lb plus. This pattern carried on with us moving to various spots catching several fish relatively quickly and then the disturbance driving the fish off the feed.

As the day wore on the local guys became more informative and began to tell us of their secret formula, which they used to catch many different fish in this river system. After some financial inducement our guide agreed to supply us with some of this killer mixture. No more ado, we pulled up alongside a tree-lined bank and he disappeared into the bush. Five minutes later he returned with some black objects resembling shriveled berries. He handed these to Steve and told him to knead them into a paste with some soft mud. It was a messy operation, but it certainly paid dividends as the midwater fish seemed intent on stopping this paste from ever reaching the bottom. This truly was a superbait if only we could find out the ingredients. Later that evening we did discover the true nature of the wonder bait - it was Monkey shit, and Steve's hands will never smell the same again! I wonder what the carp boys would say about that, we could rejuvenate half of West Africa by exporting MS1 Boilies to the UK for 4 pounds a bag.

On with the fishing, we trotted, ledgered and freelined our live baits but to no avail, although we did not seem to be in the right positions to take best advantage. A pattern seemed to be emerging, we fished either moored to the bank or in shallow water and we finally sussed out why, because the boatman could not afford an anchor rope more than 6 ft long. This meant that we could not actually fish 80% of the river. Then another pattern emerged, all the locals told stories of big fish in the river, but there were none at the markets. It was obviously because they did not have the equipment to catch them. They seemed to expect that when they returned to check their baits and nets that they would be smashed or broken or only contain small fish. All the time I was there, I did not once see a decent net or long line; these guys cannot catch the big fish because they would never land them.

With this in mind it was no surprise to find that the biggest fish in the market the next day was my Vundu Catfish. I had gone from rank amateur to top local fisherman in 24 hours. These guys have not got the resources to exploit the asset which is right on their door step and all it would take would be a few hooks some line and a decent length of anchor rope.

The last day brought one final opportunity to fish the turn of the tide, so I went straight to the jetty on my own. The bites were ragged and annoying, the fish would just not take cleanly and every time I wound in, the hook contained just tattered fish skin. So I skinned a piece of Bonga fish, which has a rougher more resilient flesh and dosed it with fish attractor oil. This produced much better results - the first bite was a long positive pull as the fish took the bait and ate it rather than ragging it. I struck and was rewarded with an Elephant fish of about 4 lbs, a species which looks like no other fish I have ever seen. Unfortunately we did not bring a landing net and it fell off as I was trying to land it. Don't you just hate it when that happens, when there is nobody there to witness it!

Time to grab an orange juice from the bar, tell Steve to get down to the jetty and join in and back into them. The next cast was hit almost the second it touched down, a good progressive run and I stuck. This was much bigger than anything I had encountered so far. The fight was long surging dives and runs for any snag available, and I made the mistake of bringing the fish in too green. It then proceeded to dive straight round the leg of the jetty I was standing on. After 2 minutes slack line treatment it swam out much to my relief, as I really wanted to see this fish, just to know what it was. Another 3 minutes and a beautiful 20lb Catfish was hauled onto the jetty. What ensued was nothing short of hysteria, the local guys were running around, people came from everywhere to inspect and be photographed with the biggest fish they had ever seen.

The funny thing is I know there are fish in there at least 3 times that big, and it's only a matter of a little fine tuning to catch one, not to mention the 50 or so other species there must be in there. The next move is to set up some trips with some of the best fishermen I can find. Try all the different techniques we can think of and perfect the art of sport fishing for each and every one of these species. This is one of the most interesting things I have done and mapping out the fishing and making it available for travelling anglers is certainly a challenge. There are certainly some huge fish in this river and the sheer exhilaration of fishing these waters where you never now what's coming next is just riveting.

Anyway, I love it, it is one of the most exciting and yet relaxing places I have ever been and I will be back there soon if you want to join me.

Click here for further information and bookings