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West African Shore Fishing Festival - The Gambia
Introduction
The History
The 2003 Event
Day 1 – for starters
Day 2, 3, 4 – the main course
Day 5 – dessert
Summary
Fact box – World sport fishing
Introduction
No Floatation Suits Required – The 2003 Masterline
International West African Shore Fishing Festival
It’s November, the nights are drawing in fast and the
beach casting fraternity of the UK prepares to don their floatation
suits, walk miles to hot spots, and then under the cover of
darkness with just a Coleman light for company, blast huge
squid and lugworm baits to the horizon in search of the holy
grail of shore fishing – a double figure fish!
 It’s
cod time but have you ever wondered how many hours you put
in, how many leg miles you do, how much petrol you burn, and
how much money you spend on bait and tackle just to sit a
fishless night under the stars with only the dream of pulling
a double figure bucket mouth from the surf!
Don’t get me wrong here, as I’m far from running
down UK winter fishing as I have put many hours in my self.
UK winter codding is a seriously important part of the big
picture and may it never die. What I am saying though, is
…. Have you ever thought about the odds for and against?
And have you ever thought about how much money is spent during
this period in relation to the amount of double figure cod
caught?? Let me just say that our UK winter cod are an expensive
fish! So expensive in fact that if I were to approach my bank
manager with a business plan in search of funds to catch a
cod during this period, he would probably roll around in tears
laughing! I would hazard a guess that depending on your location
and how far you have to travel to your mark, that each session
on the beach including a tenners worth of bait, ten quid in
the petrol tank, plus tackle losses and breakages costs around
£5 plus per hour!
So let’s look at this time of year from a different
perspective. It’s cold and we dream of somewhere warm!
I want to exchange my flotation suit for shorts, t-shirt,
and sandals! I want to put in fewer hours and have greater
piscatorial returns! I want a high chance of big double figure
fish! And if it’s possible I would like the chance to
return home with more money than I went with!
Welcome to the seventh annual Masterline West African shore
fishing festival! Costing not much more than £5 per
hour including flights, accommodation, fishing, and with a
£50,000 total prize fund….. Now my bank manager
starts to smile! And there’s only one main rule…
leave your floatation suit at home!
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The History
It all started in the mid to late 90s with John Prescott,
an Irish tackle wholesaler and a group of like minded individuals
who travelled to the Gambia on a yearly basis for some time
out, and to take full advantage of the unrivalled shore and
boat fishing offered by this small part of west Africa. With
high temperatures, quality fishing, deserted rarely fished
locations, and cheap food and beer, it’s very hard not
to fall in love with the place!
John and his like minded crew fell in love with the Gambia,
its people, and of course its fishing!
Apart from the fact it’s cheap, very friendly, and
offers excellent fishing there is one important thing to know
about the Gambia. Although nobody who lives there is starving
or dieing, it is a third world country! Wages are poor and
in the region of just thirty pounds per month and this means
the Gambian people survive on just the bare arse basics each
day!
You can’t keep taking from life without putting something
back and with this in mind John and his group decided to set
about organising probably one of the richest shore competitions
in the world today. Now fastly approaching its eighth year
the competition has achieved what it was set out to do in
the first place… it brings a huge amount of money into
this very poor little west African community, it helps many
orphaned children and other Gambian charities, and for this
side of the world it gives north European anglers one serious
value for money holliday/competion, and with the chance of
coming home a lot richer than you went!
Oh yeah and I may have mentioned it all ready but in case
you missed it - there’s no floatation suits required!
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The 2003 event
Since the beginning in 1997 the festival has grown and now
has a working committee of six. The Irish side of things is
still headed up by John Prescott but all the major organising
for UK anglers is done by Richard and Kerry Sheard of World
Sport Fishing. This dedicated team of organisers teamed up
with the Gambia’s major tour operator – The Gambia
Experience and Masterline International fishing tackle to
create a flawless program of events over a 7 day period!
Generally flights to and from the Gambia are on Tuesdays
and Fridays departing from London Gatwick, and after the short
flight touching down in the Gambian capital of Banjul it is
clearly obvious that the committees year long logistical nightmare
hasn’t gone to waste! Coaches pick up the travelling
anglers and deliver you to your chosen hotel. It maybe worth
a quick mention here that all the hotels used back straight
onto Atlantic beaches that offer some excellent fishing…..
“A quick wetting of a line before dinner maybe???”
The next 24 hours are yours so make the most of it!
Saturday evening arrives and it’s time to sign on for
the week’s events at the Sailors bar, have a few beers,
and find out who you will be competing against!
Upon arriving at the the bar the first thing I noticed was
the amount of angling celebrities that the competition had
attracted. Big names from across all disciplines of angling
included Alan Yates, Bob James, Tony Kirrage, Bob Nudd, and
many more.
My initial thoughts were – what a fix up as one of
these is bound to win it, but I couldn’t have been more
wrong as the rules and point system was read to the competing
anglers!
The point system is deliberately aimed at making the competition
as open as possible and with 5 points per fish plus 20 points
per kilogramme it would certainly be an any mans game. Whereas
the above big names in angling maybe very good at catching
many fish, one big fish at 20 points per kilo could throw
the captor right up on the leader board. And as you all ready
know - big fish really are an any mans game!
After a nice social evening, a barbecue, and just a few bottles
of Julbrew it was time to hit the hay and get ready for the
first days competition and with a full 3 courses of competition
angling over the next 5 days, no angler was going to return
home hungry!
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Day 1 – for starters
As a light entrée , an open competition was held on
day one with the prizes being totally comprised of the optional
pools. With less than 20 entrants this became more of a friendly
and a time for competitors who hadn’t fished the Gambia
before, to ease themselves in to the general swing of things.
The location was to be the famous Atlantic beach and the competitors
had plenty of time to familiarise themselves with their opponents
en-route to the location whilst travelling in the 25 seater
safari lorries put on for the duration of the 5 days by the
organising committee.
As with all the fishing prime baits including fresh prawn
and bonga {Gambian mackerel equivalent} were handed out at
the start of the match.
Constant action throughout the tide with butterfish, small
ray, various angel fish, and one West African pompano kept
all the competitors amused, but it was in true brit style
that Alan Yates stole the match with one huge butterfish that
when weighed the 20 points per kilo added to his catch of
other species, put him way above the rest!
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Day 2, 3, 4 – the main
course
The next three days were fished on two beaches, Kartong and
Gunjar. These two beaches lie next to each other and the whole
stretch was divided in to three zones – zone a, b, and
c. The idea of this is to draw for pegs each day but also
to draw for daily groups, each group rotating on a daily basis
so that every group got to fish each zone over the three day
match!
As usual bonga and prawn baits were collected in the early
hours of the morning by the organisers and dished out equally
to the participating anglers after the chauffeur driven safari
lorry service to each of the zones.
Over the three days the action was fast and furious. There
were no real rules of thumb to what caught and what didn’t!
It really was an any mans game…
One testimony to this was from Irish competitor Mike Mannion
who had never fished before in his life but was dragged to
the competition by his angling buddies. Mikes pals made him
a handful of rigs, of which he wasn’t to sure which
end to attach to the main line, and they equipped him with
a beach caster and fixed spool that allowed him to hit distances
with a max of about 60yrds! With his innocence Mike went on
to win his section for day 1. It just shows that really anyone
can win this comp!
So back to the nitty gritty! All the sections fished well
with many species including butterfish, tanjura rays, guitar
fish, grouper, sun pats, angel fish, threadfin salmon, cassava,
9 bones, catfish, and many more species rearing their heads
to provide entertainment!
The action really was astounding and to walk the beaches
as an observer it was very clear that innocence to Gambian
beach fishing was as good of a tool , in the battle, as the
many years of knowledge that some of the more experienced
anglers had.
At the end of day 4 it was so close between competitors that
nobody could guess who had won till the presentation evening.
The daily results were as follows
Day 1
- Section A winner Kieran Begadon
- Section B winner Kevin Curran
- Section C winner Mike Mannion
- Heaviest fish Kevin Curran
- Heaviest bag Kevin Curran
Day 2
- Section A winner John O’Brien
- Section B winner Neil Veck
- Section C winner Len Spence
- Heaviest fish Len Spence
- Heaviest bag Joe Ryan
Day 3
- Section A winner Kevin Curran
- Section B winner Marco Power
- Section C winner Liam Griffith
- Heaviest fish Marco Power
- Heaviest bag Dave Morrell
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Day 5 – dessert
Day 5 the organisers had something a little different instore
for the competitors. During the whole length of the competition
there is a constant banter between the English and Irish competitors.
To settle scores once and for all or till the next year ,
Richard had laid on two pirogue boats capable of fishing 20
or so anglers each - The Lady Parrie 2 and JuJu William! Beer,
food and bait was provided and in that order and contestants
set to do battle fishing for mini species in the mangroves.
Born in the UK but with O’Donnell as my surname it
was hard to know which team to support. In the end the Irish
team dragged me aboard to be their adjudicator for the day.
The action and the temperature in the mangroves was hot –
so trust me there was much beer drinking done to keep cool!
Every possible species to be caught in the Gambia hit the
sides of the boat at sometime during the day and it was a
real success!
The scores were tallied at one point per fish and by the
end of the match the totals were:
Ireland 284
England 140
Well done to the Irish and Better luck to the Brits next
year. The real winners of the Pirogue match between the Irish
and the English are the SOS children’s charity as all
the proceeds from this day are given to this charity for helping
orphaned children.
The Final Results and top 10 anglers
Over the 5 day events, 75 anglers took part and there were
over 70 prizes divided over nearly 35 of the contestants.
Here is a list of just the top 10 and what they came home
with!
- Kevin Curran £4000 winnings plus £1945 from
pools and £750 for heaviest fish
- David Morrell £3000 plus £1295 in pools
- Liam Watson £2000 plus £1365 in pools
- Marco Whittle Power £900 plus £925 in pools
and £350 for second heaviest fish
- Mike Mannion £850 plus £575 in pools
- Alan Yates £800 plus £705 in pools
- Kieran Begadon £750 plus £430 in pools
- Jim Obrien £700 plus £360 in pools and £150
for third heaviest fish
- Bob Nudd £650 plus £590 in pools
- C Hughes £600 plus £220 in pools
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Summary
I would just like to say thanks to Richard and Kerry Sheard
of World Sport Fishing, John Prescott and his team of Irish
organisers, The Gambia Experience, and Masterline International
not only for putting on a world class competition but also
for putting back into a community that has given British and
Irish anglers so much fishing pleasure over the years.
I personally would describe my self as somebody who isn’t
really a competitive angler but whilst I was there I did feel
the urge to join in. Anyway maybe I’ll join in next
year!
Well done and keep up the good work
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Fact box – World sport
fishing
Here’s a little information about the husband and wife
team responsible for the successful organising of the West
African Shore Fishing Festival.
Name – Richard and Kerry Sheard
Years fishing – since the age of five but won’t
let on his current age!
Most memorable catch - equal first 28lb jack crevalle from
the rocks in the dark on a 2.5lb test curve carp rod and a
190lb Tarpon on 20lb class gear in the dark from the boat
in the Gambia river.
Angling ambitions - To open up new areas all over the world,
to UK traveling anglers {trips next year to Eastern Senegal,
Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde islands}
Personal Angling profile – Richard would describe himself
as not a purist, but a pragmatist fisherman. He will use whatever
method it takes to crack the fishing. Richard says “most
clients when faced with a fishless day or changing method
will normally swap faster than you can say knife. I personally
am as happy with a 50lb class boat rod in my hand as I am
with a fly rod as long as the size and type of the target
fish tests me and the gear I am happy”.
Behind every big man there’s an even bigger woman and
Richard will happily admit his wife Kerry is a very important
part of the team. Although she’s as hot with a rod in
her hand as her husband Kerry looks after the accommodation
side of things rather than the fishing.
There you have it – Richard makes sure you get your
line pulled and Kerry makes sure that everything else runs
smoothly. One top team!
For further information Richard and Kerry of World Sport
Fishing can be contacted on
Tel: 01480 403293
Email: richard@worldsportfishing.com
Website: www.worldsportfishing.com
Richard to supply comp details etc for 2004
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