Fishing in Gambia

Anybody ever been creek/river fishing in Gambia? Just booked a 9 night hol and want to get a day or 2 out on the river Gambia. Just wanted to know if anybody knew of any guided tours out there.

Are you staying in Banjul, James ? We were there 3 years ago, lovely place .

flying into banjul but staying at Kotu beach

There are stories of Goliath tigerfish in deep holes upstream of Banjul and big tarpon downstream - all from boats.
This clip is of normal tigerfish.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgv06DmP9PQ"]YouTube- Tigerfish Fishing with African Angling - The Gambia River, West Africa[/nomedia]



This is their website: http://www.african-angling.co.uk/ there are several other outfiters.

I know its an old thread but thought I would add if for nothing more than future reference...

Fishing the mangroves of Oyster creek can be very rewarding they are packed with juvenile fish that seek refuse in the mangroves and you also get better fish patrolling and feeding on these.
We also spent a good bit of time fishing off Old Denton bridge.. A right melting pot where we caught the likes of Barracuda,Sting ray and a lot of that the locals call Cheoff (if thats how it's spelt) I would have it down as a brown snapper.

There is also a galvanized pier by the African Village hotel another good shore mark.... One evening I caught what I thought was an eel...swinging it in I cleared the locals off the end of the pier as I swung it in...it turned out to be a sea snake hanging it back over the edge The wife burnt the line with her cigarette...I thing we caught everything that could hurt ya off that pier small Sting ray, catfish with razor sharp fins and even a moray eel.

Boat fishing as you can expect does go up quite a level.... The last time we went I was connected to a Sting ray for over a hour and a half...got the leader up but still could'nt see the fish myself however the skipper and deck hand said they could see the fish.... shocking when they were on different sides of the boat...All I can say is I was releived when I went flying back as me and the fish departed.

We love the country just a shame we ain't been back for a little while now

[FONT=&quot]I’m sure It’s well organised now but I fished the upper reaches of the Gambia river a couple of times before it was ‘known’ in the early 80’s. There were only seven hotels in the Gambia at that time and we stayed at the Kombo Beach. Facilities outside the hotels were VERY primitive then but from the feedback from friends who have been recently it’s a completely different ball game now with well organised sea and freshwater packages. If you want to fish for IMO the hardest fighting freshwater fish, Tigerfish, spare a couple of days in the upper reaches of the Gambia river – I still remember the white knuckles to this day.[/FONT]

barbelboi said:

[FONT=&quot]I’m sure It’s well organised now but I fished the upper reaches of the Gambia river a couple of times before it was ‘known’ in the early 80’s. There were only seven hotels in the Gambia at that time and we stayed at the Kombo Beach. Facilities outside the hotels were VERY primitive then but from the feedback from friends who have been recently it’s a completely different ball game now with well organised sea and freshwater packages. If you want to fish for IMO the hardest fighting freshwater fish, Tigerfish, spare a couple of days in the upper reaches of the Gambia river – I still remember the white knuckles to this day.[/FONT]

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We first went in 92 and when we went back on the second time in 95 it had changes a lot there was good an bad in that I visited Africa for that raw experiance and within 3 years for me some of the essance of the country had gone..... there was'nt a massive change when we went again in 97-98 other than they are more in tune with the £ and $

jollyboy said:

We first went in 92 and when we went back on the second time in 95 it had changes a lot there was good an bad in that I visited Africa for that raw experiance and within 3 years for me some of the essance of the country had gone..... there was'nt a massive change when we went again in 97-98 other than they are more in tune with the £ and $

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There was only one ‘organised’ boat then that took you on the long trip upstream with one bog onboard. Banjul belly was rife at the time and I lost count of the times we banked to have sh1t with no concern at all for the crocs, snakes, etc. – it had to be done. I don’t know if they’re still there but in their brain challenging wisdom the EEC provided two trawlers(at a substantial cost) for the local fishing villages?? After one trawler went out for a day and caught the same quota that all the villages caught in a month the locals were somewhat pi$$ed off. They had obviously no way of keeping so much fish and asked if they could be provided with a cannery. This request was turned down and the trawlers remained rusting in the estuary by Banjul providing a nesting place for pelicans.
PS Do you know if Guinness is still brewed in the Julbrew brewery.

barbelboi said:

PS Do you know if Guinness is still brewed in the Julbrew brewery.

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I think so.... I do know they have a new airport terminal though