Trevor from Dubai, Marcus from Sweden, Jorge from Miami FL and myself was looking forward to the trip after reading and seeing my partner, Sami’s report and pictures from October. A week before the trip, I received a picture from Mady and Jason (the owner of Sport Fishing of Tanzania) of Jason holding a giant dogtooth tuna on his lap, the photo and the report from them made us even more excited.
Time flew by and we arrived in Dar Es Salaam and met up with Mady.
Mady informed us that fishing has been slow and we will have to work hard to get a bite, we were a little disappointed after the short conversation but that’s fishing! Who knows what will happen!
Armed with excitement and positive thoughts we went to bed but neither of us could sleep…LOL!
Left the dock next morning in the dark and headed east towards Latham Island, we arrived to the fishing grounds around afternoon and set the first drift, no doggie but some nice sized ruby snapper, big eye trevally and small yellow fin tunas, after a couple of drift it remained the same, Mady and Jason really tried their very best but the fishes weren’t cooperating, the day was getting late and getting dark but it paid off when Marcus (first maiden trip) walled by beginners luck finally hooked up a fish that made the Stella screamed ZzZzzzzzzzzzzZzzzzzzzzzz, Jason’s experience knew right away it was a huge doggie at the end of the line, credit to Marcus as he fought the fish like a champion and finally brought it beside the boat, after some high fives and quick photo shots, we tried our best to revive and release the fish as fast as we could but sadly it didn’t make it, we then brought it back into the boat and it weighed 65kgs. We decided to call it a day.
The second day, we started the day with popping for GT but it was slow until we saw some fishes crashing on top water far away from us, Mady made a good move and put us in to some top water yellow fin tuna action. A big splash on Jorge’s lure and he was tight, after a few runs and some heat on the rod and reel, a fat 55kg yellow fin tuna was landed. We then jig for the whole day and landed a couple of GTs on jigs, some ruby snapper, emperor, a bunch of big eye trevallies and a couple of doggies. And of course we got the occasional “mysterious “cut offs by and lost some jigs as well.
It remained slow for the rest of the trip but we still managed to catch the occasional GTs on top water up to 25kgs, doggies, rubies, big eyes and emperors and many more but every day we have a small window of really amazing yellow fin tuna on top water, another memorable scene was when Jorge hooked up to a nine foot long and estimated at 280lbs shark on jig with his custom OBX400 rod.
Although the fishing was slow, the trip was definitely an enjoyable and successful one! It takes a lot of hard work and luck when it comes to GT fishing and you really need some luck for dogtooth tuna fishing (a hook up doesn’t necessary means you will land it), I learned it the hard way Although I did not land any dogtooth this trip, I really enjoyed the company of such a great crew and we really had a ton of fun, smiles, arguments and memories, not forgetting a big THANK YOU to Jason and Mady, you guys are top notch!
Tackle used,
Rod : Race Point150,200&250, Hot’s, Synit, MC Works & Carpenter.
Reel : Shimano Stella SW & SWB, Trinidad, Torsa & JM
Lures : Carpenter, Siren, Shell Shaping, Bertox, Hammer Head, Patriot Design, Smith Tobiika, Moutoukenmaru……..
Jigs : Shimano, Shout, Lamble Bait Haoli, Hot’s, FCL Labo,CB One, Deep Liner……..
Tight lines
Raymond
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