RIO LONGA

MARCH 2004

Our return trip to Rio Longa, timed for the end of the ‘summer’ period of 2003-4 coincided with Easter weekend, and the pleasure of meeting our old friends from Luanda, the Nicholson brothers – Cam and Iain. They had booked the lodge for the Easter period, and the end of our stay overlapped with them by just one day; great to catch up on all the angling gossip of the past year.

During the 2 weeks prior to the Nicholson brothers arrival, we had an very varied period of fishing; with a prior warning that summer had come to an end early, with dire warnings of ‘cold’ water – the nemesis of any blue water angler. And it was the blue water that we were wishing to concentrate on, as we wanted to sample some of the fishing potential we had seen in November when the fish had ‘lockjaw’. Thinking back, perhaps we were a little early for the blue water summer species, and although present, weren’t yet feeding well.

The trip down to Luanda, via Johannesburg was uneventful and boring; although comfortable, and the usual ‘scrummage’ at immigration did little to refresh our travel weary bones. Once through customs and out to met our driver, we found Ewert, the catering manager and Mimi talking to an old friend of ours, Eddie the former manager of Flamingo Lodge, and for a while we reminisced about past trips. Then we found out that there had been an unfortunate incident, and Eddie had been separated from his passport, and only a US$1,000 bribe (cash) would possibly avoid deportation. The problem then being getting a replacement passport in Luanda would be near impossible, so the decision was made for him to return to Namibia.

The trip down to Rio Longa through the Quissama National Park was a joy, especially as were we there at the end of the rainy season, and all the lush grass and growth really showed its potential, shame there is no game there, it would support millions of animals; though plans are still afoot to establish some kind of restocking programme. The road had not improved since the last trip, but it hasn’t got worst, so as we rolled over the last hill on the run to Rio Longa bridge we could see the sun shining on the bay. It felt like coming home!

 

Down the river to the lodge, and we were quickly guided to bungalow No 1, our home for the next 14 days. Unpacked, and introduced to the other guests; we found out that they were mostly from South Africa, with one larger than life character from Zimbabwe – Jimmy! The group numbered about 9, and they had a rota for fishing in the sea boat, as there had been a problem with the other boat, and it was out of commission. Angola is very hard on boats, the whole regime of fuel, maintenance and the environment conspire to make it near impossible to go reasonable periods of time without some problems, that then become ‘terminal’.

Stuck with the situation, just one boat between the two groups, we offered to take the afternoon shift, with the chaps from South Africa taking the morning periods. This worked fine, and it did mean that we had time for some trips up the river trying to get some of the bird life captured on film

Our first trip out was late, as the SA chaps had been trying with no real success for Tarpon, and wanted to get amongst the fish. They had really been having a hard time of the cooling waters, which also meant that the beach was fishing poorly. We had set up our usual gear, personal travel rods in 30, 20 and 16lb classes, and were geared up for some blue water fishing. A diversion on our trip down from Luanda meant that we had some fresh frozen Ballyhoo for baiting the lures we hoped to be running. Brendan our skipper had little experience of offshore fishing, so we elected to break him in gently with a first session on the current lines about 5-6 miles off the beach. Here we had seen Marlin and Sailfish in November, and caught Dorados, so it wasn’t really fishing without hope.

 

 

First fish of the trip went to Sue, a small Dorado on a baited Advanta lure that we were trying for the first time. It was quickly dispatched and a couple of belly strips removed – nothing like fresh bait. A couple more Dorados fell to various lure – no real size, but we were catching fish! The current lines were amazingly wide and well established, and the water was really blue, and warm!

Like anybody that has trolled offshore lures, when it gets quiet, and you have checked all the lures, repositioned a few, and generally tinkered with anything and everything, you start to get a little in attentive. We were very rudely awakened from our inattentive nature as three ratchets started to click, and then stop! Looking back into the 6 lure spread that we were running, we could see 3 Sailfish beating the bejabbers out of the lures. The pair of us looked a fine site, as we tried to feed the lures back to these 3 fish. The frenzy stopped very briefly, and then another lure started to get beaten up, though the bill looked larger than the Sailfish!?

Free spooling, and then waiting for the pick up and run was almost painful – though not as painful as the burned thumb as the fish took off at high speed for the waters off Ghana! Drag pushed home, and we were hooked up into the first Rio Longa billfish. Brendan and Sue cleared the other rods, while the fish danced and leap across the stern about 150 metres away, then dived and sped off. Unfortunately the acrobatics were in the sun, and getting a clear view of the fish was difficult – but it was big! The real problem was that it had picked up a lure on the 20lb class tackle, with just 6lbs of drag pressure at full strike. Sailfish are known to be acrobatic fighters, but not the strongest of fish, even considering that the fish off Angola are all large when compare to the Atlantic Sailfish from the other side of the ocean – the local average is about 45kg. So a fight time of 15-20 minutes was really all that was expected of a Sailfish. But this fish didn’t have a watch! At 35 minutes the power being displayed by this fish was still awesome, and Jeri couldn’t even turn its head, despite the fact that it appeared to be cruising along parallel to the boat about 20-30 feet away. Looking through the water it was clearly not a Sailfish – but a small Blue Marlin – ouch!

What you cannot see here is the river of sweat running down Jeri's face, steaming up the sunglasses and what you can't hear are those lovely expletives coming from his mouth as he quite politely tells this most magnificent fish just what he thinks of it!!

The fact that we had changed its identity probably led to Jeri putting the fish/tackle under a bit more pressure, and at 40 minutes we had the short double line up on the rod, and the wind-on leader just past the first two rings- technically a catch, but the Marlin decided that it didn’t like the colour of the boat, and shot off for another powerful run. 45 minutes, and Jeri was complaining that it was ‘raining’ inside his sunglasses, the heat of the Angolan sun was beginning to have an effect. With the fish lying parallel to the boat again, and a little too much ‘line trapping’ by Jeri led the double knot to part. The fish swam away, and Jeri just sat down for a short while to collect his thoughts and have a long drink of iced water. Rio Longa’s first Marlin – perhaps not a big one, but a reasonable estimate would put it at about 200lbs (90-95kg).

This is the lure which caused us all our problems. An Allure Lure rigged and ready for Sailfish - but Marlin just haven't read the book yet!

After a brief while we decided that as the boat was still moving along we ought to be dragging some baits, so we started to set out our respective rods, and Jeri just shouted ‘Fish On!’ – both Brendan and Sue looked round to see a Sailfish prancing across the stern of the boat with Jeri attached at the other end. After clearing the decks again, and grabbing the camera – the Sailfish obliged Sue with some fine photos of its antics. Brendan in the mean time was voicing a small technical problem – he had never dealt with a billfish at the boat side!!! Despite the previous 45 minute fight with the Marlin, having handled the boat like an expert, he was in for a learning curve.

 

12 minutes after the strike and the fish was at the boatside ready for leadering. Being the first Sailfish at Rio Longa, we elected to have the beast in the boat for some photos, and this was soon achieved. Pictures taken, and a small white Remora removed from the Sailfish’s flank, unhooked, weight estimated to be between 100-120lbs (45-50kg) and returned to the water in just a few minutes. Brendan held the bill as Jeri ran the boat forward gently, to revive the fish. It didn’t seem like 30 seconds, and it started to get lively and was released to swim away. Two billfish over 100lbs in less than an hour – boy were we elated! After that it seemed to quieten down a bit with just the off small Dorado putting in an appearance – but we were all too happy to worry. We had achieved what we had set out to do – establish another couple of ‘firsts’ for Rio Longa.

This is what we perhaps find so exciting about this location, recognising the sheer potential of the venue, and then setting out to catch those fish!

We returned to the lodge very happy, and shared the news with some very long faced South Africans, and we certainly had a beer with Brendan to celebrate the catches! The South Africans cheered up a bit when they realised that they were going out in the boat the following morning, and that the fish would no doubt still be there – the prospect of some fish always brightens up a sad angler.

To say that we then had some outstanding fishing would be a fairy tale – it went a bit quiet for a couple of days, and there were even signs that the current lines at 6 miles were perhaps beginning to cool down, as we continued to catch Dorados in numbers, but found the odd Little Tunny and Atlantic Bonito – certainly cooler water inhabitants than Sailfish and Marlin. We continued our attempts at trying new methods, as trolling can be such a chore – that said it does cover a lot of water, but only lightly. We tried ringing the changes, to see if drifting live bits over defined areas would produce more reliable catches, but to no avail. Back to trolling.

About our third afternoon out, and our supplies of Ballyhoo were getting a little low, we trolled lures baited with belly strips off Little Tunny, and Sue got a screaming take. Sailfish - we all though, but then a larger than normal Dorado started a series of spectacular leaps at distance from the boat. The fight lasted a good while longer than we were used to with the small fish that we had been catching, and after the fish was finally landed, it weighed about 15kg. We had not been beyond the arbitrary limit set by Brendan as the effective safe range for the boat – at 7-8 miles from the beach; and we were still catching good fish, but the waters were changing – we did have quiet hopes of Yellowfin Tuna showing up, as they prefer slightly cooler waters than Sailfish and Marlin, but that required a different approach, and we were still hoping for Sailfish or Marlin.

The difference that we noticed this trip, as compared to our trip in November, was that we were not getting the visual sightings of the billfish, just the occasional blitz of baitfish being attacked but Dorados, small tunas and West African Spanish Mackerel. There were few weed lines, and very little debris for any reference points, just miles of apparently featureless ocean.

Approaching the last day of the South African lads visit we got into the routine of dropping off spare bait species that we caught offshore, onto the beach as we re-entered the river. Some of the chaps were convinced that there were still good fish to be had off the beach, and they missed quite a few good bites on Bonito and Portuguese Sardine baits. We finally elected to re-acquaint ourselves with the Rio Longa Tarpon.

There had been a serious change in tactics for the Tarpon since our first visit – mainly due to the brief, but successful visit of one of the world’s leading lights in Tarpon fishing – Tom Gibson. The new tactic is to use live baits on large circle hooks, freelined off the back of a drifting boat. We had used a similar method in other locations around the world, though not with circle hooks. With freshly caught Mullet from the river as bait, we set out a couple of lines, but further offshore than the normal fishing area, reasoning that if the cold waters were coming from the south, and holding closer to the shoreline, then it might well be warm enough for the Tarpon further off from the beach.

The new tactic had been getting a near 90% hook up rate to strikes, as the method is to have the rod set in the rod holder, and set on full strike – just let the fish set the circle hook – then join the battle once it is firmly hooked. Our first strike missed, despite following the standard ‘circle hook fishing code’ of not striking, and when we inspected the bait, we found that it had twisted round and impaled itself on the hook twice – hence masking the point of the hook. New baits, and a short wait before the ‘Herring from Hell’ inhaled the mullet. When we first wrote about Rio Longa Tarpon, we estimated that they were strong for about 1 minute per kilogram of body weight. Well a slight revision to that estimate, as we were now fighting the fish from a proper boat, and with our new design of travel rods, it is possible to put some real pressure on the fish. That is not to say that they do not fight back, no we are convinced that they know exactly where the engines are on the boat, as we fought this fish from side to side for 25 minutes, and must have swapped sides 3 dozen times, despite Brendan even taking the boat away from the fish. It mainly fought deep, with little surface jumping, except on the hook up. Leadered and into the boat for a quick photo, and a tough struggle getting the circle hook out. Back in the water, and estimated at about 85lbs (40kg).

The change in location of the Tarpon, probably due to the cooling waters was in part supported by our findings while trolling along the back line of the beach, the waters appeared significantly cooler in the southern half of the bay, and there was less activity from the Jack Crevalle. The small Guinean Barracuda were still present at the mouth of the river, feeding on anything that passed through the water, but with the changing configuration of the river mouth, the coloured water of the outflow seemed to define some of the colder water pattern.

We all often forget the dynamic nature of the sea, and the fact that it is constantly changing, even from week to week, and what might be true one month can completely change the following month. Rio Longa lodge is in a transition zone between the cold waters that are more usual off Namibia, and the tropical waters off Congo. This does however explain the rich diversity of fishing that is available, but it does mean that there are very distinct seasons to the fishing, and it means that during the end period of one season, there is probably a lull before the next season starts it full effect. Fish are very temperature dependant, and they have a very exact ‘comfort zone’ of temperatures that each species enjoys, they will sometimes stray outside that range for a brief period, but never for long.

By the end of the first week, we had experienced the full and wide range of fishing that Rio Longa has to offer, and we started on a wider range of ‘let us see’ fishing experiments. Brendan was very willing for this change, as it gave him an opportunity to experience some of the areas that he rarely gets to fish. We found a reef area, well to the north of the bay held some real surprises. While drifting freelined live baits near the bottom, Sue had a classic Tarpon bite, and the J hook just never had a chance. Changing over to circle hooks, we noticed that the shoals of Portuguese Sardines that we were occasionally catching were getting closer to our drift. Eventually, we were totally surrounded by probably millions of fish, and then in amongst them were those ominous boils, and wide flashes of silver – Tarpon. We had found where the Tarpon had moved to – they had moved 6 miles north of their normal haunt at the river mouth. Probably driven north by the cooling water temperature. Our baits were relatively safe once we were surrounded by the shoals of Sardine, as they were just lost amongst there other millions of fish.

During the second week of our stay we were joined by another group of South Africans, all from the Johannesburg area, but a small incident that tested the lodge’s emergency procedures saw two of the chaps head south for home, after a brief hospital visit in Luanda. The evacuation procedures worked very well, and the quick trip up to Luanda worked well – it is amazing what can be organised with a satellite phone.

The rest of the group soon agreed to the boat sharing regime that we had offered the previous group, and we all were catching fish, though the current lines at 6 miles were decidedly the favourite, and attempts at catching Tarpon by this group were initially poor. Then on their last day, two of them decided that it was all or nothing, and they would spend their entire allocation on waiting for the Tarpon to attend their hooks. Well, after listening carefully to all the local wisdom, they did finally manage to get attached to one of the Silver Kings. To say that Woerie didn’t need the boat to get home would be an understatement. He could have walked on water he was so happy. A good fish, about 30kg,m though the size didn’t matter – he had caught his Tarpon.

Offshore we found that by straying a little further than Brendan’s mileage limit, we started to find some floating debris, and a pair of Papyrus logs provided hours of fun over a couple of days for every body. Jeri even saw fit to offer a small live bait on 8lb line, and spent the best part of 20 minutes subduing a small Dorado. Sue managed another stranger to the list of species with a Guinean Amberjack from the same logs, a couple of days after the South Africans went home, and trolling the backline on the return home saw Jack Crevalle, Cubera Snapper and African Pompano.

 

One last trip offshore, during the last days before we were due to return home, saw us definitely challenging Brendan’s mileage limit – he took us out to the 17 mile waters where we had spent so much time fruitlessly trolling in November. He hadn’t told us that he was heading out that way, but when he started to shout about a Marlin repeatedly jumping up ahead, we asked where were we? Just coming up to all these waypoints on the GPS, the one’s Jaco had taken during our November activities. Before we got to the Marlin jumping zone, the rods started going off like fireworks, ratchets screaming on 3 or 4 rods, and the stern of the boat looking like an ariel display of flying Dorados. Everybody had a rod, as we quickly brought the small fish in and resumed trolling the area, but alas no Marlin. Brendan estimated it to be at least twice the size of the one we had hooked earlier, and given the number of Dorado strikes we kept getting in the area, we should probably have stopped and freelined a couple of live ones!!! Hindsight – isn’t it wonderful. It was no doubt refreshing to know that we had initially found an area that has some significance to the well offshore billfish, that the April fish was within ¼ mile of the earlier marking from November, and that the whole area was a contained mass of floating debris, almost like a huge whirlpool of current lines. We will have to investigate this spot on our next visit.

Our fishing came to an abrupt halt just two days from the end, as Angolan fuel finally ‘fixed’ the port engine on Sea Ducer. Running one cylinder very lean, and then ceasing the piston meant that we had to limp home, and curtail our sea fishing activities. We did try beach fishing, and although some of the better South African shore anglers had succeeded in difficult conditions, our brief attempt failed to yield anything other than a wonderful series of sunset pictures.

At the end of the 2 weeks our final bill for boat use was half that of our November trip, and this reflected the sharing arrangement that we had to endure; sure we would have preferred our own boat for the full time period we were there, but making the best of the situation seemed to work out ok in the end. Sue had a relatively poor fishing holiday, as she didn’t get as many strikes as she would have liked, and definitely missed the billfish potential, but she did get some astounding photographs, both of the fishing and of the local wildlife – especially the birds. Spending half our time on the river trying to get pictures of the elusive Angolan, Pygmy and Malachite Kingfishers did yield some real fruits. Perhaps we should book for a longer period next time?

The new designs of rods worked exceptionally well, though perhaps we rated them a light lighter than they would really stand. The trial lures from Advanta and Blue Ocean seemed to be favourites amongst the fish that we caught, and one in particular seemed to be ‘looked for’, fish moving through the spread for that one lure. We were also testing some new hooks that are being marketed by Advanta, their Miriabu range, very good, in fact excellent.

The return journey was equally boring, except that we had to get to Luanda airport earlier than normal, as the flight is always overbooked, and you have to make sure of your seat. Our last evening at the lodge was spent fishing for Catfish in the river as the ‘baby’ Tarpon are still as infuriating as every. One of the second troop of South Africans was an accomplished fly fisherman, and by the end of 4 days trying for the ‘baby’ Tarpon, was considering taking up golf!!! The fish almost knew he was there, and boiled on the surface at his rod tip at every opportunity, and even boiled in front of the fly, alongside it, and then moved around to the other side; to say that he went home a defeated man would be an understatement. While enjoying sundowners one evening, he suggested that he could make a fortune out of those fish, with them being the target for a ‘stress management’ course; - after a few days of fishing for those, you certainly know what stress really is!!! One drawback to his idea – the customers might end up suicidal – as the fish aren’t!

Rio Longa Catfish. Brendon our intrepid boat handler was convinced on the virtues of 'chicken' for bait. we stuck to Mullett. Net result Brendon 1 - Jeri 3. This catfish was probably in the region of 7kg