Fly Fishing for Tarpon in Africa – A Tough Week

Fly Fishing for Tarpon in Africa

A big brown snapper at last light. A baby tarpon from chocolate-brown water. A bull shark on the final night. This week at Sette Cama, on Gabon’s wild Atlantic coast, every fish was earned.

The Crew and the Setup

This week’s group of eight brought together friends from the USA and France, reunited from past fly fishing trips. Mornings were worked on 9-weights, with each angler carrying two rods, one rigged with an intermediate line and one with a floating line. Evenings switched to 12-weights on intermediate lines throughout.

Conditions: Spring Tides and a Big Sea

The moon had moved from new into a waxing gibbous, bringing spring tides and a high tidal coefficient. The season’s rains are still late in arriving, and this week added another factor working against the anglers: a big sea pushing murky salt water into the estuary.

Tough Fishing in the Lagoon

By any measure, it was a tough week. The heavy swell drove churned-up water into the lagoon, turning it an unappealing color and making the morning sessions hard going. Only a handful of fish came to hand before midday all week.

On paper, the evenings looked better: the tides lined up well, and the group fished at anchor in conditions that should have produced. The fish simply didn’t show up to match them. It was the kind of week where the numbers alone don’t do the effort justice.

What did come out stood on its own. Sam landed two solid jacks in the lagoon, and Aticha added a tarpon to the tally (more on that one below). Given how hard fish were to find, every catch carried extra weight.

Two Fish Worth the Wait

Two moments lifted the week above the conditions.

Kevin’s brown snapper. Fishing the sandspit at the mouth of the lagoon from the beach, Kevin worked a red and white fly on a slow strip. Just as the light was fading and the tide was ripping hard out of the mouth, a big brown snapper ate. Fishing a fly that slowly in that much current takes real patience, and it paid off at exactly the right moment.

Aticha’s baby tarpon. The next morning, at the mouth of the Mouile Mouile, guide James Bader spotted small tarpon rolling in the chocolate-brown water draining out of the tributary on the last hour of the dropping tide. He put Aticha in position, and from the boat she hooked and landed a baby tarpon. It’s the kind of moment that defines fly fishing for tarpon in Africa: reading the water, timing the tide, and making one good shot count. After a week this slow, it mattered more than usual.

A bull shark to finish. The week had one last twist. On the final night, Kevin and Phillip teamed up on a good-sized bull shark, a strong way to close out a trip that asked a lot of everyone on the water.

Beyond the Fishing: Wildlife and River Life at Sette Cama

With the fishing working against everyone, the week leaned into Sette Cama’s other side. After a trip to Bird Island, Aiden caught a dwarf crocodile, keeping camp’s run of croc encounters going. The group also had lunch on a sandbank in the middle of the river, served straight off the boats while everyone stood ankle-deep in the current. It’s the kind of setting that’s hard to find anywhere else.

Looking Back

Some weeks are won on numbers, and some are won on what you remember afterward. This was the second kind: a brown snapper on a perfectly timed slow strip, a baby tarpon from chocolate water at the end of a dying tide, a bull shark to close things out, and lunch standing in the middle of a river. The fishing was hard, but the week gave plenty worth telling.

Ready to try fly fishing for tarpon in Africa?