Guinea-Bissau

Destination: Guinea-Bissau, Bijagos Archipelagos

 

Season: November to April





Package includes: Return International flights from Gatwick to Bissau. 10-day trip with 8 nights at Orango Parque Hotel and 1 night at Hotel Artissal (on the Mainland). All road and boat transfers in Bissau are included. Full board with 7 days guided fishing (5 days boat fishing, 2 days beach fishing)

Itinerary: From Friday to Monday in order to synchronize transfers and return flights from Gatwick to Bissau via Lisbon. On arrival in Guinea you are met at the airport and transferred by minibus (approx. 20 min.) to our mainland transfer Hotel Artissal. After an overnight stay and breakfast, there is another 2½-3 hour boat transfer to Orango Island, our base for the week's fishing.

The Lodge: Offering a highly exclusive experience, Orango Parque Hotel is ideally situated as our base camp on the outer island of the archipelagos. The food is excellent with fresh local produce served in a lovely thatched restaurant nestled under the trees with a breathtaking view of the Bijagos Archipelagos. There is easy access to enjoy both the exceptional fishing and the wildlife, and you will get a view into the fascinating and relaxed Bijagon way of life.

Accommodation: Accomodation is based on two anglers sharing a modest and comfortable chalet with twin configuration including private on suite bathrooms with simple showers. Rooms have 220- 240V (European twin plug outlet) powered by generator that is switched off around midnight.

The Fishing:
The impressive list of suspects attacking your lure, fly, bait or jigs are to be marvelled at! With 5 species of barracuda (some of the world’s largest to swim these waters), 6 species of snapper, 20 species of shark (5 of which commonly exceed 400 lb). Crevalle jack, amber jack, senegalese jack, cobia, cassava, cob, bonefish, permit, pompano, grouper, guitarfish, ladyfish, leerfish, sierra, tarpon and triple tail fish are all caught throughout the season.

 

Choose from over 200 sandy beaches, rugged lava points, mangrove inlets, tidal river-like channels and barren private sandspit island to cast your line from!

Popular fishing techniques range from popper fishing, fly, vertical jigging, trolling, bait and live baiting all resulting in multiple quality fish being caught and some monsters inevitably lost.

During calm wind conditions you will have numerous sight fishing opportunities targeting the region’s remarkable crevalle jacks; a sight to see as these ferocious predators ride the waves in ‘hunts’ crashing into shoals of baitfish. Anglers can fish off the beach and rocks in calm conditions, sight fishing for barracudas, needlefish, snappers, african sierra and corvina. In less favourable conditions these same species can also be targeted blind, casting off points, ledges, from beaches and low submerged structures. Tarpon-fishing becomes a high-stakes game since Guinea-Bissau holds the world all tackle record, with some of these fish well in excess of 150 lb and averaging over 200 lb.

For the fly-fisherman there will be limited opportunities to sight cast at these beauties (never say never …) as the vast majority are hooked using baits suspended 3-4 ft beneath the surface. One of their favourite foods is a deep-bodied shad about 7-10 inches long, followed closely by mullet around the 6-8 inch range.

Do not forget your standerd flies for Jacks, Cobia, Leerfish, Barracudas, Bones and permit and many more if you are interested in targeting them on fly! 

  

 

 

 

 

Tackle: With the fly rod in hand we recommend large flies in the shad or mullet or other baitfish patterns with good quality saltwater circle hooks ranging from 5/0-8/0. Have several of these patterns in standard colours and have some bill fish flies as well. Offshore deceivers in darker colours can work to hunt the murky waters and add some big poppers and gurglers for surface fishing. Larger tarpon flies will be hard to cast and the majority of the time will be fished in the tidal current on a drift.

On booking one of our trips we will send a comprehensive tackle list and if required we can supply tackle packs for hire for the duration of your stay.