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HISTORY ~ POSEIDON LURES

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Mr "BORRA BORRA"

 TREVOR OLDENAMPSEN ~10 YEARS  MARLIN FISHING IN WEST AFRICA

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"Captain Hooks" was originally a restaurant owned and run by Gerhart Houlis and his son Jean Pier on a mine site just out of Tarkwa town.

 

The picture shows the first marlin caught by Houlis in 1995/96 off the coast of Takoradi in Ghana. From there a group of expats, consisting of Germans, Austrians, Australians, and English officially started up the "Captain Hooks Big Game Fishing Club" in Takoradi in 1997. Houlis will always be known and remembered as the pioneer of marlin fishing in Ghana.

As an expat at the time, it was great to find other expats with similar interests, it made the odd days off worthwhile thus bringing together a group of people with a common interest. I would like to also add to the story that a gentleman by the name of Peter Ryle was born in Ghana (English Parents) Peter had lived there for well over 30+ years, fishing with his father and a private beach house in Miemia along the Ghanaian coast, with that Peter bought in invaluable local knowledge of the area and the potential Ghana had untouched waters and only fished by the local fishermen. 

 

Thus using this info and visiting some of the local fishing villages, the question was asked to some local fisherman how far out did you catch these fish! 9 times out of 10 the answer was ... We use  5-8 gallons of fuel to reach our place. Working it out they would only put in the required amount of fuel heading in one direction and when the fuel run out they were there and started fishing. (A unique way of working out how far to travel to the fishing grounds).

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To set the record straight ….There was and still is controversy to this date regarding WHO was the first and to start catching marlin in Ghana. I can honestly say I was talking and reporting to Peter Pakula himself and Marlin Bar in 1995/96, that we were catching marlin in great numbers, also raising the odd 1000lb monsters. However in saying this, the average marlin was around the 600+lbs and if we didn’t catch 3 marlin in 1 days fishing, we had a bad days fishing. I was also sending some photo’s to Marlin magazine at the same time winning me 1 year’s free subscription.

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Independently, a South African diplomat named Johan Zietsman who only just arrived in Ghana heard that Houlis was catching marlin from Takoradi, a few anglers (including myself) set out in 1997 to meet & greet. We all met up in the little village of Ada, at the mouth of the Volta River in eastern region, off course the main topic was Marin fishing. Mr Zietsman had big ideas to commercialise and expose the fishing grounds in Ghana to the rest of the world and wanted to turn this West African country into a hot spot for giant marlin fishing.

 

Back in 1995/96 as stated I was already reporting to Peter Pakula of monster marlin off the Ghana coast prior Peter & Jo who I got to know well, & visited them in Runaway Bay (QLD), thus by invitation attended Peters marlin school. This taught me some of the finer points regarding, tagging, game chair, and lure spreads. I found this to be invaluable information and took this back to Ghana with me and spread the word, to this date some 23 years later we are still in contact with each other.

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I must also note that Peter Pakula handed me a bunch of lures and hooks, & stated try these lures out, we fished with success. & by the way I set up all the lures with Peters double hooks setup’s with a small shackle, hey let’s remember that us blokes expats in Ghana were amateurs and went fishing for fun & NOT playing for sheep stations, of course the rivalry that goes along with it.

 

A year before that ….I was introduced by our local tackle shop owner to Chris Tsalamangos a young man who absolutely breathed & lived to fish, after some short discussions at the tackle shop, Chris invited me to come and look at some of his creations in the back shed of his parents’ house in Perth.

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From there the passion Chris had to manufacture lures for his own use was incredible and some months later Poseidon Lures was born. I was handed a bag full of homemade lures to try out in Ghana and of course like most things I had my favourites. Again with success Chris who thinks outside the box was sending lures to me to try out and I was giving him the feed back – I also took some photos of the modifications that I was making to his lures. He was mortified that I would do such a act, for example he started making soft resin heads and I was heating up a knife after running some lures and burning extra grooves and slots and reshaping some

of the lure heads but still using Pakula hook setup attached to the Poseidon Lures.

What comes to mind, there was one type of lure Chris sent me and I have to admit it was a favourite, a concaved hard resin rounded head with a purple and black, silver skirt. I caught many many marlins on this lure. It left a beautiful smoke trail and worked well in the water & I always set the lure on the left hand side of the boat. A story to tell here one particular day fishing I lost the lure after having a big fish on, my line rub through and broke away & lost the fish & my favourite lure. My fishing partner Bernd and I were fishing again 2-3 weeks later in the same area 28-35 miles of the coast and to the West of Takoradi. The first marlin we caught early in the day, it happened that once we arrived at our area, I started to put out the 1st lure still holding the 600 or 700lb leader it was suddenly ripped out of my hand without any warning, before I could even release the drag on the reel to set its position, we we were on and caught a 450lbs blue, we released it back to live another day.

 

The second marlin strike was 1 or 2 hours later, following a drift line the rod screamed we bought in the other rods. I sat in the chair while Bernd was still maneuvering the boat into position and we fought this fish for 35 minutes. You would NOT believe, 1 in a 5 million chance, we both noticed as the marlin was jumping and getting closer to the boat, the marlin had something in its mouth that looked like a leader and once we got this fish closer to the side of the boat, Bernd said – "I found your lure you lost a couple weeks back" - we had caught the same 600lbs marlin twice and got my lure back, stainless steel hooks and all, The lure now sits proudly with Chris still with the 500lb leader, hooks included. What a great score….! (the lure had been was beaten, chips cracks and other marking – well used) 2m of leader gone white from the stretch and tension from other captures.

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From there and 24 years later, I have watched Chris’s long time passion and enthusiasm (Live to Fish) go to greater heights. Thus the passion he puts behind every Poseidon lure is amazing and always thinking of bigger and better ways.

 

I do have to make acknowledgements to Chris and to Peter, for their contributions to Game Fishing. They both have made it possible, NOT just for myself BUT for thousands of anglers ALL over the world to enjoy the thrill of catching their first big fish (Marlin) and for the other fisho junkies who continue to fish the sport of Kings for generations of anglers to come and follow

in the footsteps of their heroes.

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Poseidon Lures ~ Borra Borra Slant 

THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL

  1.  What are you are trying to catch

  2.  Habits, what type of day sunshine dark, cloudy, overcast & water colour etc

  3.  Seasonal – where & how do they feed at night or during the day..?

  4.  What are they feeding on, can they be caught on lures or baits

  5.  Are they top, middle or BOTTOM FEEDING

  6.  Water temp plays a huge role in marlin fishing, so does water depth & conditions

  7.  Drop offs – depths of water, ground bottom action

  8.  Trolling speed

  9.  What sort of pattern (again there are no real right or wrong ways)

  10.  LAST BUT NOT LEAST ~ Local knowledge

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