Like you guys know from previous report where I had met Chris "aquadementia" Caine at the river Kwanza lodge, that is located on the mouth of the Kwanza and +-70Km south of Luanda, I had decided to bring the family (wife and kids) for a weekend there and eventually try to fish a couple hours before breakfast while the family was still asleep.
Last week report link
http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php/topic,5652.0.htmlWe arrived there Friday by the end of the afternoon with a couple friends that also took their children along, dinned and after dinner stayed chatting with Chris and a couple of other people.
I do not know how it goes with you guys but here in Luanda and after a long working week when we meet for dinner Friday night it is not that difficult to loose a bit of control and let wine, after dinner drinks and conversation flow freely.
To cut a long story short Friday night after the kids went to sleep we had a bit of a wild nigh and I personally went to bed around 3 o'clock in the morning.
We had agreed that we would breakfast at 8AM and then would pick up a small boat and try target Giant African Threadfin until 11AM where we would come back to the lodge and take my friends and family for a river sightseeing trip.
Woke up at 7:45 with a terrible hangover and slowly slowly went to meet up with Chris have breakfast and then prepare our tackle for the short fishing session.
Had to take things slowly and, after breakfast, and after some hangover pills finally managed to "straighten" myself and focus on tackle preparation and talk a bit about African Threadfin tactics ideas with Chris.
One problem arise (on top of the hangover) we had never targeted Giant African Threadfin before, Chris had caught one very small one in the surf when targeting Corvina/Kob and had seen another one being caught as by-catch when targeting tarpon on live bait.
The weekend before while going for the bird watching trip we had talked a bit about some sand banks not far from the river mouth and that go up near the Kwanza river bridge and in our minds the drop offs from those sand banks to the navigation channels seemed like a good area to target fish.
So armed with willingness, zero knowledge and some tackle around 9AM we went up the river decided to land some of those famous Giant African Threadfins that usually, every year, visit the Kwanza River near June and July.
To make it even more a challenge we had decided to do it with light tackle and artificials mainly bucktails with soft plastic tail and jig heads with soft-plastics.
Water as usual on the Kwanza is really murky be even like that I rigged a clear colour plastic on an green jig head, the idea was letting it fall and then slowly retrieving touching the bottom from time to time to pick up some sand and try get target fish attention
Chris decided to go with a Williamson 1/oz Bucktail jig
I was using my 8'6" St.Croix freshwater salmon rod paired with a Sustain 4000 filled with 14lb braid and Chris was using a Shimano Vengeance rod paired with a Sustain 5000 loaded with 25lb Mustad Ultra braid.
When we arrived on our target spot we found my friends and Kwanza fishing legends, the Nicolson brothers, already on the water and that gave us a bit of confidence on our designated target area
Planned our first drift and started casting around
Suddenly I'm on and at that moment I realized that I had forgotten to check my reel drag and because I had just spooled it with the 14lb braid it was way to loose, afraid of setting the drag on that light setup while fighting the fish I had to thumb my way around all the fight.
See my thumb on the reel?
The fish made some incredible long runs always shaking its head, after all the long runs when I finally managed to bring him close to the boat he would run again, and again, and again.
What a fight!!! After what seemed like an eternity and always very afraid of loosing what could be my first Giant African Threadfin we managed to put the fish inside the boat for a couple of pics
Then the release, actually the fish was quite tired and it took quite a while to revive him but eventually it managed to swim away.
We were jumping around like madmen inside that little boat with joy for having accomplished our target and on top of that safely releasing such a beautiful fish.
To make it perfect we would now need one to bite Chris bucktail, and after a couple of drifts and loads of casting around it finally happened
Chris was on and boy this fish was fighting even harder than the one before.
Again very afraid of loosing Chris fish I managed to put it inside the boat but loosing my sunglasses in the process
Bigger than the one before
Releasing the fish
And this time making sure from the first moment the fish was properly revived, actually it took so long that Chris had to go in the water with the fish and drive it into deeper waters.
For us the day could have ended there, we had goten what we came for, with a bit of beginners luck on our side transformed dreams and willingness onto tales of successfully landed and released fish
What a morning session, around us my friends Nicolson were also fighting Giant African Threadfin on that beautiful Kwanza river scenery
But it's only over when it's over we still had some time before my family would awake and call me back for breakfast with them before the bird watching trip.
By then my hangover was also killing me and I would need another pill to handle it, but even like that, we decided to extend the short session a bit more and were rewarded with another fish.
Again on the 14lb braid and the freshwater rod that, by now, Chris was telling me I should definitely upgrade it's rating to saltwater and with some degree of high sticking involved
My personal best Giant African Threadfin (well any fish would have been my PB it was my first time targeting them)
What a beautiful fish!!!
Released the fish and had to call it a day.
SECOND DAY
Next morning before I leave and again while my family was still asleep we went for another quick session this time after a proper night sleep.
When we arrived on the spot our friend and Kwanza River legend Carlos Moran was also there
While Chris was helping me out with my rod rigging I was holding his rod for him (actually not only holding but also retrieving the bucktail) BAM a small Jack Crevalle
Later on Chris got another fish
Another beautiful baby Giant African Threadfin
Had to pack things up and leave early, I had to go back to the city for my mother-in-law 40th wedding anniversary lunch.
Thanks Chris it was great finally meeting and fishing with you, next time we will go fishing in South Africa and you will have to teach me proper casting from the beach.
