I have just returned from my 11th trip to Namibia to do battle with the sharks and this time was accompanied by my dad and Barry Dulson.

After being messed around by Air Namibia with schedule changes before leaving we expected this trip to be a nightmare from start to finish and the 1st 3 days seemed to back this up as we really struggled. After that however we enjoyed some very good days and one or two more difficult ones but all in all it was another successful trip.

Upon arrival at Frankfurt airport my complaint letters to Air Namibia bore fruit as we were all upgraded to business class for the 10 hour flight



On the day of arrival we traditionally fish for the A to Z sponsored Lighthouse Open Trophy, only this year the sponsor let us down so it is now just The Lighthouse Open Trophy For this we used our own travel rods and fished on the local jetty for the most species. I was lucky enough to win with 4 species - goby, steenbrass, blacktail and St Josephs shark (the elephant fish you may have seen Robson Green catching last week in Tazmania).

The trophy presentation :



It was then off to the pub for a sociable beverage or 2 :



Anyway onto the more serious matter of the proper sharks. We arrived to find the whole coast was full of weed making it very difficult to find a fishable area and when we did find one there invariably wasn't a lot biting This was in contrast to 2 weeks earlier when conditions were perfect and fish were in abundance.

As I mentioned above the first 3 days were fairly quiet with us catching bits and pieces but nothing spectacular. The biggest fish each day would have been a spotted gulley shark of 50lb+ These look like big bull huss but the fight is incomparable as pound for pound these fellas fight amazingly well



Eventually on day 4 we got our first bronzies with Barry landing 2 of 132lb and 180lb whilst I landed one of 200lb (below) and lost another.



The following day we visited a spot which had produced last year, Popeye, and is where Emmo and Scummer caught their monsters. We initially went down to the left in search of gulley sharks and it was whilst fishing for these that I hooked into a rogue bronzie on a nylon trace. No problem though and a small 90lb bronzie was carefully played in and landed.



Just to show that you don't need big hooks to land big fish these little fellas are the ones that accounted for the above bronzie :



There were no further bronzies to be found at Popeye so we worked south and had an afternoon of being messed around. I hooked into huge bronzie which headed for the horizon and after 15 minutes it jumped about 500m out only to land on the leader and cut straight through it We had a further 3 takes between us but all 3 had the leader in their mouth rather than the hook so all resulted in bite offs.

We didn't catch that many fish on day 6 but what we did catch were quality. We landed 9 gulley sharks to 60lb and 8 smoothounds all around the 20lb mark in and hour and a half which was good fun. I got the only bronzie take of the day and again it was a huge one. It came within 30m of spooling me before I managed to get her turned and after coming in really nicely disaster struck when another shark attracted by the comotion got the leader caught in it's mouth and as it thrashed around on the surface it bit through my line So for me that was 2 massive sharks hooked and both lost which is not what is supposed to happen !

I'm blaming this for me going out and getting absolutely rotten that night, which I did on a few nights to be fair, but on this particularly evening I am told I actually fell off my bar stool and one of the bar staff had to make sure I got back to the hotel ok lol !!! Still, I woke up feeling fine the next day despite absolutely no recollection of the previous evening's events !!

The next day we fished the same spot, called Australia, and again had a few gulley sharks and smoothounds. I had the biggest smoothie of 38lb. I then landed a 175lb bronzie which Barry topped with a bus of a shark weighing 287lb. Unfortunately I don't have any of Barry's photos yet but I'm sure I'll get them to post in due course.

This was my 175lb shark :



Barry had an extremely lucky day, or unlucky depending on which way you look at it, the next day. He hooked into 4 bronzies while I stood there daydreaming ! Unfortunately he lost the first 3, one of them being another monster which headed out over a reef and cut through his line. Eventually however he landed the 4th one, weighing 110lb. I eventually got a take only to find that the reel I was using was knackered and the handle kept spinning backwards if I didn't hold onto it. This may not sound like too much of a problem but believe me when you are fighting a shark it restricts what you can do !! I was eventually able to land the shark which weighed 190lb so all in all it was a reasonable day.



Saturday night was the Pink Party at the local nightclub where 2 pink buses full of Swedish backpackers were in town dressed in a variety of pink outfits. We did our bit and dressed in pink which wasn't really a problem for me ! I don't have any photos of us at this party (yet !)

The following day was another quiet one with not a great deal to report so it was on to the final day. We had some great fun in the morning catching 9 blue rays to 22lb and 9 sandsharks to 10lb all on spinning rods. In between we were all into catfish which are the local vermin (like dogfish for us), so much so that we have a trophy which you do not want to win for the unlucky angler who catches the most. Barry had topped the leaderboard all week but the 2 of us battled it out cat for cat this morning both of us trying to shake them off on retrieve ! I came up with a cunning plan to go for a walk up the beach to investigate a dead fish which paid dividends as Barry ended up running out winner by 16 cats to my 14 phew !!!

Here's Barry receiving The Golden Pussy Trophy :



We couldn't find a bronzie on the last afternoon so made a late move to mile 32. Within 3 minutes of being in the water Barry had a shark on, and with 2 more beaching themselves in on the chum trail things looked good. 8 minutes later and I was into a bronzie as well. Barry's was another impressive shark of 220lb whilst mine went 187lb. Both of us went straight back out again and Barry hooked into another, this time weighing 143lb. With 3 minutes of fishing time left before we had to head back I hooked into the final bronzie of the trip and as time was of the essence it was beasted in to the beach in next to no time. A nice 143lb shark to finish the trip.





My dad didn't fish for sharks all week so the final scores on the doors were 6 sharks for Barry and 6 for me, not a bumper trip but certainly not the worst we have had.

Having a great guide made all the difference during a difficult trip without whom we would have really struggled.

Thanks for the cracking report Michael, although you said there was plenty of weed knocking about it was nice to see that eventually you all got some very nice fish.

Some great , and look forwards to seeing barrys photos when you get them off him.

Admin

A few action shots :
















And finally, the only photo which seems to exist (or can be shown !) from the pink party. See if you can spot me

Nice one Michael , some nice fish there,great ,

Admin

As promised here is the biggest shark of the week, Barry's 130kg (280lb) beast :



It's not all shark, shark, shark either. This is a good sized cool box of Kabeljou (kob) which are similar to bass, the biggest of which would be about 8lb. Good fun on a spinning rod

Are they just as good to eat Michael?

Admin

Kob are a firm favourite with the Namibians. That cool box of fish was for the girl who runs the hotel we stay in and it put a big smile on her face. We had to do something for her after certain people getting us a yellow card last year lol !!!

HA HA , i wonder who that could of been then.

admin

nice report michael, my back hurts just looking at the pictures