Last weekend, I decided to make good on a New Year’s resolution to explore this country – in 6 months of living here, I still have not slept outside of Monrovia (work always calls, unless I make an effort). Early on Sunday morning, I set out on a beach run with backpack, machete and fly rod strapped on – a journey to find salt flats holding some of the great saltwater sport fish: tarpon, bonefish and permit. A couple hours of wading through mangroves and shallow tidal areas yielded no results (just the wrong place…several hours up and down the coast, reportedly some of the highest concentrations of these game fish in completely pristine waters). I switched to fishing the pounding surf and soon was locked into a 20 minute battle with a 10 lb jack, which I gave to the local fisherman to supplement their small buckets of 5 inch snapper.Liberia still hasn’t been discovered in the world of water sports and eco-tourism. The rainforests are untouched and full of wildlife, including chimpanzees, bush elephants and many other exotic animals. The rivers are full of mind-blowingly large catfish and the aggressive tiger fish. The salt flats are unparalleled for their concentration of game fish. The sport fishing in-shore yields jacks, grouper, barracuda and snapper that rival any place in the world. And even deep-sea fishing yields big results here – marlin and ahi tuna in good numbers and size (as long as we can keep the international commercial fleets from raping Liberia’s territorial waters, as they do today). My one jack on Sunday morning makes me wonder: when will Liberia fill its house with tourists to enjoy all these great natural wonders?
