APRIL 2021 DJIBOUTI
Traveling with WSE equals adventure, exploring new places and memories for a lifetime! That is the reason I have been on several trips with this organization. Sudan, Gabon, Socotra, all remote destinations with excellent fishing. Our latest trip was to Djibouti and the plan was to fish the lake of Goubet and the Seven Brothers Islands.
We were staying on a local liveaboard, which in my opinion is the best option for this kind of trip. You can move everywhere and have the fishing spots close by, instead of having to travel a lot.
The traveling these days, with the corona still an issue, takes more preparation, but everything went smooth. A quick test at the airport and after 15 minutes we were on our way! Loading the liveaboard, enjoying a drink, and up to the Lake of Goubet! After a couple of hours, we spot the island in the middle of the entrance of the lake. Remembering the good times from our last trip over here, I start to think about what’s possible this time. More experience, so even better prepared, hope we have a bit of luck and catch some monsters!
After anchoring the liveaboard in a beautiful lagoon everybody is excited to go on the water. We start from the panga, others go on foot. It starts promising with a few GT’s, barracuda, and the shore guy’s spotting an amazing amount of Napoleon fish!
The next day we start popping near the entrance of the lake while the current is pushing the water inside. It’s a real whirlpool and the waves make it even harder to keep on standing in the boat! Despite the perfect conditions for predatory fish, it keeps quiet for a while. Until we are close to the island when I spot some big fish on the surface. One second later my big popper is inhaled and the reel is screaming!
A powerful fish, but not sure if it’s a gt. When the fish jumps out of the water we see it’s a big Mahi Mahi, beautifully colored and one I wasn’t expecting! The fish keeps on taking line and is jumping wildly. Unfortunately, the hook comes off after a few minutes, but there were a few more and they are still aggressively looking for a meal. One cast later I am on again and this time I am on the winning side. The waves and currents make it hard to land this Mahi Mahi, but with the three of us, we manage to get in on board. It turns out to be a 142cm long green monster and everyone on board is very impressed. The action is still not over. We don’t spot the Mahi’s anymore but we manage to catch a few powerful GT’s up to almost 20 kilos. So we all have our first GT’s and from the shore guy’s we hear the same story, lots of action!
The next day’s the circumstances change a lot, we get cloudy weather and some rain, which is extremely rare for this time of year. The guy’s sight fishing from the shore are having a difficult time but still manage to get into the fish. For the Dutch team, Gerard, Mark, and I, the fishing stay’s the same, searching and trying all kinds of spots. But most important thing is to follow the tides. Extreme current means extreme fishing! Waves over 1-meter crash into the massive current which results in a boat where standing is almost impossible. Take this and add it with fishing in the dark…It doesn’t get more extreme than this, but we did it! We were unlucky on a couple of nights with clouds but finally, we get just enough light to go out fishing. There is a strange feeling in the air. Popping and stickbaiting at night, monsters below the surface, and extreme conditions. Of course, resulting in broken lines when the gt’s reach the rocks…I am terrified to cast too far and don’t have a chance to block them. After two broken lines and a gt missing the stickbait it’s Mark’s turn again. Unfortunately, the strike is in the worst place you could imagine. Within seconds the boat is in the middle of the big waves and Nicola and I are trying to keep Mark on board! Fighting a gt with an almost closed drag in normal conditions is heavy, now it is almost impossible! For a moment I think we are gonna collapse but just in time the boat gets the right direction and we move into “easier” water. Out of the narrow entrance and in deeper water we can take the gt onboard, but Mark is still maxed out of adrenaline. It takes some time, and beers, to ease down…
We’ve had great fishing at Goubet with even the rare Napoleonfish boated for Mark and Gerard! Well, rare, here they are spotted every day, I don’t know another place which has such a huge stock of this beautiful species! The main thing is to keep them out of the coral. There were plenty lost, just like the snappers and groupers they hide in the coral which is devastating for our lines.
The next place is the Seven Brothers, a group of islands one day sailing from Goubet. We make a stop halfway and fish for a few hours. Besides a double hook-up on the first casts, which both got lost, there is hardly any action. Probably because of the neap tide. Because of that we stop a bit earlier and enjoy one of the many delicious meals prepared onboard.
The next day we sail on and we spot the beautiful islands. What an amazing looking place, rocky formations, large coral reefs, perfect conditions for predatory fish!
Here we learn that the tide is crucial, strong current means lots of action! When we start in the early morning the current is pushing and we spot a lot of baitfish. The conditions are perfect and the strikes at our poppers as expected, yet the massive explosions on the surface are heart-breaking! With powerful gt’s, big barracuda’s, and my first queenfish it is a great start at this new place.
When the current slows down, so does the activity, which seems logical. Still, we get some hook-ups but the fishing from shore at those times is better. But to stop the bigger fish from reaching the coral is difficult. The used gear must be strong enough, that’s for sure, something Mark learned the hard way. After a brutal strike, he sets the hook and a second later the handle of his reel breaks off! Resulting in a fish reaching the coral and a snapped line.
Another remarkable day was at what we later called “barracuda Island”. After catching several gt’s on popper that morning, we move on to another island. Straight away we get strikes from barracudas, popper, or stickbaits, there is nothing they won’t follow. I am on top of the boat and every cast I spot 5-10 barracudas behind my popper! Gerard has a stickbait they really like, getting even more action than my popper. He also has a couple of big spotted trevallies and Mark boats a big and fat barracuda, after breaking off on another. Think we end up catching 20+ barra’s that morning!
