John Wilson - Gamble on The Gambia

It's usually around this time of the year with the winter weather at the worst, that I am asked where an angler should visit with his family to enjoy both the warmth and the thrill of tropical saltwater fishing.

And because its average temperature is in the 90s and the package holidays are relatively cheap, I've no hesitation in recommending Gambia in West Africa where I have enjoyed some fabulous fishing over the years.

I made two of my GO Fishing TV programmes there when, during editing, the problem became not what to put in but what to leave out. The fishing was that prolific, with Yorkshireman Mark Longster my skipper and local guide.

Regular viewers of my shows will recall that we took lemon sharks weighing up to 300lb from a deep watermark at anchor, plus some large barracuda, catfish and even lost a huge stingray. Other interesting species encountered were the cassava, a bass-like fish which grows to over 100lb, and the strange kujeli, or captain fish, which has a transparent snout.

On subsequent trips I've also enjoyed some deep-water reef fishing which produced hard-battling jacks and cubera snapper of over 30lb. These Colourful fighters are equipped with immensely strong jaws laden with dog-like teeth, and unless you haul hard and quickly during the early stages of the fight, they will all too easily swim free.

What makes this particular West African location so unbelievably prolific in a galaxy of tropical sportfish sites is the wide and powerful Gambia River which spews into the Atlantic Ocean at Banjul, the capital, where most of the beach-front hotels sit.

The mouth of the river at this point is four miles across and it stretches upstream for 420 miles, where giant catfish and tiger fish live in a fresh water environment.

But it is the central river itself in the heavily coloured tidal reaches around Banjul which, through a mass of channels and sandbars plus interesting island features bordered on both sides by creeks and mangroves, offers truly spectular bran tub fishing.

Here, while creek fishing from bank or boat, you can catch red snappers, barracuda, angel fish, bastard halibut, small sharks and stingrays, plus a whole host of Colourful oddities. The best bait is fresh shrimp or fish strip.

Alternatively, you can fish the swirling waters of a deep tidal channel beneath the Denton road bridge where you are liable to connect with anything from barracudas to stingrays. Small, live shad for bait are easily taken on feathers beneath the bridge.

Beach fishing can be rewarding if you start as the sun starts to drop, which is when the big boys move close inshore to feed-species like small sharks, stingrays, that strange mixture of half-ray and half-shark.

These can top 100lb and, apart from a 2ft wire trace and size 6/0 hook baited with fresh mullet, squid or large shrimp, there is little need to go beyond that of a 12ft British beachcaster for any of the previously mentioned species. A reel line of around 25lb should cope.

RAVELLING south from Banjul there are several sandy beaches offering much larger fish than in the United Kingdom.

But perhaps the most exciting species to be caught in the Gambia is the high-jumping tarpon. These enigmatic nomads are around not only in catchable numbers, but in world record proportions. Tarpons to 380lb have been caught but not officially ratified by the International Game Fishing Association.

But there is nothing to stop visitors enjoying the tarpon's much smaller cousin, the ladyfish, which readily accepts artificial lures.