Fishing Trip
The highlight this week was a fishing trip on Sunday. Lynn organised the trip with Ray who she has met through the Fajara club. We were to be picked up at 8.30am to then be taken to Denton Bridge where a pirogue was already waiting to take us on the river. Unfortunately Ray was delayed at one of the check points by the police who made him empty his car. Twenty minutes later he turned up so we were on our way. We arrived at Denton Bridge which is where a number of pirogues and boats are moored. Ray loaded the barbeque and food onto the boat and we were soon sailing down one of the many tributaries to the river Gambia. On board were a few Gambian crew members as well as Brian and Dave from the Fajara club both of which have young Gambian girlfriends, Dean who is Gambian has lived in the UK most of his life he has come back because his father is ill. Finally there was a lady called Petra who was in her sixties and very much mutton dressed up as lamb. She was tall and slim with long blonde hair and wearing a miniscule mini skirt, we were all privy to a flash of her knickers. I thought she was a bit stuck up until we got chatting and she proved to be a very nice lady who has been coming to the Gambia for years. Her and her husband had decided to move out here only to then have him die last year. As for our gang only Tom had decided to come along as the others were having a scrabble competition at Brikama. As for the scenery there was not much to see other than a landscape of mangroves, however there were plenty of herrings on the riverbanks as well as a group of pelicans. After a thirty minute journey the boat was anchored and we started to fish, even Abigail was given her own fishing rod. Prawns were hooked on as bait and one of the Gambian crew members showed me how to cast the line over the side. I did find it a little difficult at first especially because there was not enough head room as we were on the lower deck. At one point I did manage to get my hook stuck in the hair braids of Dave’s girlfriend oops. We stayed in this spot and were having no luck so we moved on to another spot. Eventually the first fish was caught although it wasn’t very big. I was really enjoying myself as was Abigail although I think Bradley was getting a little bored because no fish were getting caught. Whilst we were fishing Ray, Brian and one of the crew were busy upstairs cooking fish on a barbeque for our lunch. We ate in two sittings and I must say the fish was very tasty served with salad and jacket potato. We went back to fishing whilst the others ate. As we sat there we noticed some very dark clouds heading our way, the anchor was quickly pulled up and we made our way to Lamin Lodge hoping to outrun the weather. No such luck the heavens opened and although we were on the lower deck the rain was running through the cracks and drenching us all. Along with the thunder and lightning which Lynn hates it was very scary. We arrived at Lamin Lodge only to have to wait until the weather front had eased. Eventually we moored and then had to climb over another two boats to get to the jetty. We were soaked to the skin so we went straight to the toilet where I took off all our clothes and rung them out including knickers Abigail was finding it a bit cold so we rapped her in one of Lynn’s towels. Lynn and I had a sneaky laugh when we saw Petra she had streaks of mascara running down her face and looked like Alice Cooper. I gave up on mascara a long time ago as it is just too hot. We sat down and ordered some drinks whilst the rain eased a little and watched a huge spider on a nearby table. Within the hour we were back on the boat and set off to find another spot to fish at. This proved to be a good spot as we were soon hooking fish. Lynn managed to catch five fish and was able to feel them biting at the bait. As for me I just kept on looking at the end of the rod to see if it was bending. I suddenly felt a pull so tried to reel the line in thinking this feels pretty heavy. I had only caught a sea snake this was cut free by the crew and thrown back in. I then managed to catch another couple of small fish. As for Paul and Tom they didn’t catch anything but overall thirty fish were caught. We set off for Denton Bridge arriving back in the dark, but what a good day we had all had and is definitely something we all want to try again. We took four of the fish home and ate them the following evening tasty just not enough meat.
A BIG HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY TO DALE!
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