THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

What you needed to do was cast as far as you could, then
retrieve as fast as your arms would let you. Initially, all you
would see was the lure racing back in through empty water.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere like a torpedo, a silver shape
would come tearing in behind it, and in one swift split
second move would grab, take to the air, and start emptying
the spool with breath taking power and speed.
Tiger fish are spectacular creatures, and big tiger fish are in
a class of their own. Typically, these would average between
ten and fifteen pounds apiece. Absolutely amazing, and they
fought like tigers too.
Once we'd sussed the technique, we caught literally dozens
of the things, not only that day, but every day when we
stopped and had a bit of time to ourselves.
Inevitably, we also picked up an odd one trolling rapala's as
we progressed up the lake looking for nile perch while
moving from camp to camp. In the main though, we had
them from the shore, which in places was a bit dodgy, as
there were scorpions and snakes, not too mention
crocodiles and larger fury critters knocking about too.
Chris Barnard, decent Tiger Fish
One of the lads stood on a large loose rock from underneath
which emerged a cobra. We could also hear crocodiles crashing about at night on some of the beaches
where we'd set up camp, and every morning there would be dog-like foot prints in the sand between the
camp beds, for which reason, Dave Devine, Kevin Eardley and I decided it might be best to sleep on
the boat.
We had plenty of nile perch too, though not unfortunately any of the really big ones. For that you needed
to be based at one of the better permanent camping areas, which for whatever reason, the organisers
only offered to repeat customers. So we were on the move constantly.
The best nile perch we had was a fish of seventy one pounds by Dave Devine caught after dark. We
saw plenty of fish in the twenty to forty pound bracket through, and lots of smaller specimens on light
plugs and spinners cast from the rocks.
I also managed to find a quiet little backwater
at one location which looked like a small
lagoon. There I was able to try a spot of fly
fishing with some streamer lures I'd tied to
short wire traces, and managed to bag myself
a small tiger fish on the fly, which I was
especially pleased with.
Dave Devine, 71 pound Nile Perch
So a decent trip with all the main boxes
ticked, except for a freshwater one hundred
pounder, which we later discovered the other
party headed up by Barrie Rickards had
managed quite a few of at the permanent
camp. That it seems is most definitely the
way forward on there.
435