Offshore Fishing

Today was my first time fishing offshore Nigeria. Unfortunately Bob was not there as he was at work! ; ( I went with Jonathan (trip arranger), Sharon, Mike (fisherman friend with all the know-how and gear), Toussaint (S&J's cook), Steven (S&J's cook), Daniel (our cook, Toussaint's brother), and Johnson (Mike's driver). Lucky was our boat driver. We had a great day trolling for fish and snorkeling around some wrecks that were 0-50 feet below the water surface. The visibility was poor at the first wreck, which broke the surface of the water, and just got worse as the day went on. Here are some pics from the day.

Back Row (L to R)- Steven, Toussaint, Johnson, Lucky, Daniel, Mike; Front Row - Sharon, Jonathan
Here I am relaxing in the boat. Daniel is in the background as is one of the many wrecks poking through the water surface.

Toussaint (below) caught a small Mackerel, with Daniel and Mike by his side.Mike, smiling as always, and helping Daniel get trash off the line. We caught lots of plastic bags today and some water hyacinth!

Along with fishing was a bit of snorkeling and playing with the underwater camera. As I mentioned the visibility was poor so I took very few photos. Here is one from the first wreck with a fishing net and some colorful soft coral. While at the first wreck two guys came up with spear guns. They were catching all sorts of fish. We saw them again at the second wreck and they were diving down to the top of the wreck, at about 50 feet deep, then shooting a fish and slowly coming up. Mike had a spear gun that he was taking out for the first time into the ocean (he had practiced in the pool). We learned we all need to develop our lung capacity if we ever want to spear fish!

Just like in Dubai, they are trying to build some islands offshore by dredging sand and pumpng a sand slurry into the new island location. There were two Chinese ships doing this. In the background you can see that they are just offshore from the beach and I will be surprised if they can get the sand to accumulate with the currents here. Only time will tell!

The big fish award goes to Sharon. Great fight! She reeled in a 20 lb. Cobia, which was immediately put on ice and then bled and gutted soon after. Below is Sharon and Johnson back on the dock taking photos for proof (and having fun). Jonathan caught a Mackerel as did Toussaint.Toussaint and Daniel also wanted a picture to show off the catch of the day!
Once at home, we filleted the fish and grilled it up by the pool enjoying dinner outside.

It was a great day!