OUR ADVENTURE BEGINS
When our departure date eventually
arrived we flew to Kigali and caught the
connecting flight to Libreville. At our
stopover at Hotel Tropicana, we quickly
learnt how to say important phrases and
words like “beer” in French. The flight
to Port-Gentil was a short ascent and
descent with a magnificent view of the
mangroves, rivers and very fishy-looking
water as far as the eye could see. One
couldn’t help but wonder what lurked
below those waters. A hot shower and a
good night’s sleep in an air-conditioned
room awaited us in Port-Gentil.
The following morning, after a short
ten-minute drive to the marina, we
boarded Nkissi, a 21ft Spear Orca flats
skiff (named after a Haitian voodoo doll)
equipped with a 140hp four-stroke en-
gine. Within minutes we were looking for
rolling tarpon with 12-wts and inter-
mediate lines in hand. Arno then moved
us to a junction in the river where two
streams meet and swirl. This spot just
screamed FISH!
By now the tropical weather was true
to form and it started pouring down.
Time to switch to a 10-wt for some river
fishing. Schalk, being theluckiest fisher-
man I know, was into a good African
threadfin, which prompted Arno’s com-
ment, “Probably the first threadfin caught
on an Avalon Crab.” By midmorning
the tide was rushing out and getting a
fly down wasn’t easy. Once again, this
proved no problem for Schalk, as he was
now into a West African spotted grunter.
Again Arno commented, “Probably the
first on an Avalon Crab...” Schalk and
Arno were in high spirits with two species
under the belt. I, on the other hand, was
feeling like I couldn’t buy a bite and was
looking forward to the afternoon low tide.The afternoon low was accompanied
by rising river tarpon. True to form,
Schalk hooked the first fish. The water
came alive and I, too, managed to hook
up on what must be the smallest tarpon
I have ever caught – all of 20lb, but
what a show! I quickly hooked two more.
Surprisingly, Schalk only hooked one.We were fishing in the wet season, so
the next two days followed a pattern of
diminishing tidal swings, a few tarpon and
other fish and some more bad weather.
We were praying for a calm and windless
day. This prompted Schalk asking again,
“Do you think there are big fish here?” I
chirped some choice keywords to skipper
Arno, to which he retorted: “Don’t anger
the boat. Nkissiis powerful!”On the fourth day, with the weather
still bleak, Schalk’s big-fish dreams were
crashing by the minute. I seemed to have
angered Nkissi with my insults to the
skipper. At least we still had an afternoon
low and although the “W” was pumping,
we were casting 12-wt intermediates in
the tarpon spot by 3pm. Schalk was
sitting and just casually retrieving when
he got the hit of his life. “I’m in, I’m in!”
followed by Arno shouting, “Stand up,
stand up!” Schalk was into a good fish
but it wasn’t jumping, which had us
speculating about what it could be. When
the fish finally came to the boat, our eyes
locked onto a tarpon estimated at around34 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFF“THE FISH WAS LEADERED, BUT THEN, RIGHT ON CUE,
JUMPED AND THREW THE HOOK.”