3rd jigging trip in up north tanzania november 2014

[trishul]

Hi guys hope you all been well, just wanted to put up a trip report of my third trip jigging up north with captain Steve, from my past reports im sure some of you may have heard about Steve, this guy is an amazing Captain and has huge knowledge of his fishing grounds and on the sport as a whole his also fun person to fish with, he runs an amazing setup and has very good fishing ethics that most operators in my part of the world don't seem to have. Also its just my 4th jigging trip since i got into jigging few years back Hope you guys enjoy it.
It started few months ago that we decided we must revisit Steve and try catch a 60kg amber on jig, once all that was confirmed the call was made to Captain Steve, a few emails send and things were confirmed and sealed, this was going to be a trip like no other fishing in some new waters around pemba island where over the past few decades the Kenyan charter guys have engraved their names in marlin fishing mostly trolling lures, but we were not there to troll we were going to work some jigs and try popping.
We started going a bit crazy on the tackle shopping, couple hundred jigs, some new rods, new stellas and I was keen to try popping this time so a light popping and med heavy popping outfit was also purchased it took a couple weeks to get all the gear from various online shops in 4 different parts of the world the best buy was deff the synit rods from Duncan in Australia amazing rods, Fast forward couple months and it was the day to depart, as usual we had more tackle luggage then clothes, 1 suitcase was clothes for me and my brother, the other 7 bags was tackle, cleaning supplies spares and any other thing any ocd angler would take on such and expedition.
Prior to departure we went out for a dinner with the family to say our goodbyes and all as we wont be seeing them for 2 weeks, got both the fuel tanks in the car topped up till the neck then went home and tried to sleep which I could not, I just keept looking at my watch for it to hit 3am so I can start getting ready and leave by 4am, at 3.45am we were down at the car and had a big ceremony to remove bad juju and bring good luck. In Tanzania such believes run very deep and its been working for us in the past so it was only right to have this ceremony.
The journey was some odd 500kms was a very pleasant drive no traffic and clear roads, no punctures or no issues, plus we had a cooler full of ice cold beers that keeps our thirst in control till we reached the lodge.
We reached the lodge and were very happy to meet all the familiar faces that we have come to know over the past years and it was also nice to Meet Steve's Family who were there. We had a quick lunch and a few more beers, and I was quite tired as I dint sleep much so I sleept like a baby on the hammock on the room veranda, when I woke up after few hours the day was turning to night so I took the opportunity to take a quick walk on the beach and take some amazing pictures that will forever remain in my memory, after that we had an early dinner with everyone few more drinks a bit of chit chat and called it an early night as we were going to start fishing tomorrow and it would turn out to be the best trip I have ever had soo far.
The things we saw out at sea was amazing the place was alive with rainbow runners, huge sharks taking our catch and some angry residents down below at the reefs who dint seem to care how tight our drags were or how much we spent on our jigs that just got stolen from us. In total we lost 48 jigs but it was well worth it, over the next couple days we caught in excess of 300fish and an amazing number of species I think the species count was about 30,  most were released apart from few that were unable to be released, we did not find the 60kg amberjack but we found something way better and meaner, plus at times the action was so hot that Steve, my bro and myself would be on fish at the same time it was literally like 1 drop 1 fish and we would reel the fish up or what was left of it and race to get our jigs back to the bottom either to get another fish or get dusted by the creatures that rule the reef.
I really could go on for a fairly long while writing about each day but im sure most of you guys want to see some pics so I will now post up some of the pics we got, we dint photograph too many fish as we had camera issues and at times it was just too hectic on the boat but we did get some good pics of the monsters we landed, the pics I shall post are start with pics of the journey, the lodge, the sea and then fishing  hope you guys enjoy.
Just a note on the side, the ceremony that was done at home really worked so did the other small ceremony's done on site and kept away the bad juju and brought us both quality and quantity of fish, offcourse some basic precautions are never take a banana on the boat and when you wake up to go fishing always get out of your bed with the right foot first otherwise you may not have the best luck   . All in all it was a fantastic trip, for me the best one soo far with some belly aching laughter and sore muscles and excellent company of all the people we meet there. Cant wait to do it again hope fully find that elusive 60kg amber and possibly a 100kg plus dogtooth.


our jigging and popping reels, many are old but some new faces in there



he could not wait to be on the water so i got him a rubber boat to calm his nerves down a bit, we were to try jigging from this but after seeing all the sharks and big fish that plan went out the window



the simple things in life when both my cars tanks are full i know im going on an adventure



having a quick pit stop for and early morning bfast at the road side and a few cold ones.



another pit stop few hours down the line as my brother needed to use the washrooms and i took advantage of this opportunity for a few more cold ones



this is a spot we always stop by for the last few hours and have many more cold ones and take in the fresh air



this was of interest so i just had to take a pic ahaha, who came up with this name, why or how is still some thing i spend time thinking about. i have seen such things on tv but in my country its not normal.



the day turning into night at the lodge during low tide.



having few more beers before bedtime to empty our cooler and someone was feeling it now



one of many baby aj good fighters from the deep.



12kg rosy from the 150m mark. biggest i personally or the captain has ever seen im sure they do get bigger though



9 kg long nose emperor from over way over 100m. again this was the biggest i have ever seen myself and the skipper too, trust me the picture dsnt to this fish justice it was a beast and pulled some heavy drag in the start.



steves monster 32kg croc amazing fish as tall as me.



first big dog weighed in at 72kgs, the ceremony is working for sure



very nice gt dint weigh as he swam away but was heavy caught on synit razar 200 old saltiga 4500 55lb braid one hell of a fight.



my 23 kg croc



my beast of a a doggie weighed in at 75kgs and the biggest fish of the trip well thats what we feel as we dint boat or weigh any of the sharks



another view of this true monster of the deep. i normally dont smile alot in fish pics as my mind is elsewhere thinking of whats going on down on the reef, for this one i had to really smile or the captain and my brother would have tossed me overboard and left me there i think, i anyway did jump over board after that fish for a refreshing swim in the cool deep waters and to wash of the sweat and get back to jigging haha.



these are some of the pics that i sorted but will be posting a good few more once im done sorting them and hope u guys enjoy and have a good day.

warm rgds
Trishul

[Tightlines667]

Wow!  Nice fish!  Good adventure and a true show if sportsmanship on that tackle.  We'll done!  Living the dream there for sure.  Thanks for sharing the adventure with us.

[Shark Hunter]

Thanks for sharing Trishul.
Those are some Monsters!

[BMITCH]

WOW!! what a adventure! Beautiful country, and excellent fishing...what more could you ask for? Thanks for sharing.
Bob

[Newell Nut]

An amazing catch. I know you guys had a blast with all those monsters. After all of that you may need some new drag washers.

[DaBigOno]

WoW!  Those are some CrAzY pheesehes!!!!   

thanks for the report.  looking forward to you next one!

[trishul]

An amazing catch. I know you guys had a blast with all those monsters. After all of that you may need some new drag washers.

hi guys
thanks for your kind words

newell
i still need to check once i start taking all the reels apart for service but all our reels run carbontex drags and were well greased with fisherman and cals drag grease before the trip so i think should be ok,

t

[the rockfish ninja]

Completely awesome post!!! One of the best I've seen on this site, great job. I watched an "Extreme fishing" episode on Tazmania, the fishing looked amazing, you report confirms it.

[Steve-O]

Totally off the charts!!! 

Those dogtooths are just HUGE BEASTS!

great looking GT -- looks like 25kg or so easy


The only thing missing is the sound of screaming drags and the smell of sweat from the workouts.

great report Trishul, thanks for sharing.

[redsetta]

Another amazing report Trishul - they just keep getting better!
Tanzania's definitely on the bucket list
Thanks for taking us along.
All the best, Justin

[wallacewt]

amazing stuff,anyone of those is a dream come true
cheers

[Alto Mare]

Nice report, thanks for sharing it with us.

Sal

[Dominick]

Hey Trishul that is some adventure.  Save me a room I'm heading out right now.  Dominick

[alantani]

a visit is a possibility.  we had a young doctor visit us from tanzania and she did a rotation at our poison control center.  in the capitol, the have a large university campus with a medical school, a pharmacy school a hospital and a poison control center.  we have standing offer to visit.  it is tempting.

[SoCalAngler]

Dude,

All I can say is awesome report!!! But, I have to ask you didn't keep all those baby fish you caught did you? Haha.

Great looking trip for sure and man I'm jealous.

Thanks for sharing, and way to go.