Contribution by Rob Scott

(Tourette Fishing – www.tourettefishing.com)

Fighting fish on light spinning gear, a not uncommon sight when casting lures in Gabon.

Rob Scott with a giant African threadfin. As the name suggests, this species grows big—over 45 kilograms. Threadfin strike hard, then take off on a long, fast run.

Gabon fishing pioneer, Ed Truter, with a white fin jack. These are the more numerous of the two common jack species found along Gabon’s coastline. White fin jack often amass in numbers that are hard to comprehend and it can be difficult getting a lure past them in an attempt to catch something else.

A jack crevalle, the other common jack found in these waters. Pound for pound this might just be the strongest fish that swims.

Rob Scott holding a baby tarpon that ate a bucktail jig. Tarpon could often be seen rolling and cavorting just beyond the shore break. Gabon doesn’t have a consistent, day to day fishery for tarpon, but they’re not uncommon eitherand usually a lot bigger than this baby.

Gavin Selfe with (sigh) another white fin jack. The simplest lures like 2 oz Sea Iron spoons and various leadhead jigs produced a near endless supply of jacks. Large schools of jacks feed aggressively in the extensive expanses of the estuary. They’re easily seen from a distance, thrashing the water as they chase sprats, mullets, herrings and prawns.

An African cubera for Ed. This is just a whippersnapper, the biggest Ed’s seen was 75 kilos.

More action in the shore brake. The off-colour water is from the mixing of tannin-stained freshwater draining out of the rainforest and mangrove swamps. Generally speaking, the more the freshwater inflow, the hotter the fishing.

Heavy-boned (strange how fish and anglers can look alike). One of five threadfin that Gavin Selfe caught in ten casts (plus three jacks) in a break in a thunderstorm. When it rains it pours!

Sunset over the equatorial Western African coastline, some of the longest stretches of pristine, uninhabited beach left on the continent.