Tiger Fishing on the Zambezi River

For years, when I lived in Rhodesia, I'd visited Lake Kariba on numerous occasions and dabbled in a spot of fishing for tiger. In more recent years I discovered the pleasure of tiger fishing on the Zambezi River in Zambia. Quite a contrast in both style of fishing and in size of the catch. There are ENORMOUS tiger fish in the Zambezi River!

For the uninitiated the tiger is a game fish which puts up a real fight. Even the smaller ones don't get landed without some considerable effort. On the river one goes out in a small boat with a boatman who doubles as a gilly. Sometimes he fishes for the bait, sometimes the bait is already loaded in the boat. Having chosen a likely spot he baits the hook for you, then you cast off - and wait. The tiger is quite wily and will often nimble your bait away without you noticing. Once you feel him on the line you strike and, with luck and a bit of skill, you're reeling him in. The fish will go wild to get away and it's then a battle between you and him. If you can get him up to the boat, your gilly will net him and you get the chance to see your prey close up. Just check the teeth! Thankfully I've never had to put my hands near them - the brave gilly tackles them and hooks a weighing scale into his mouth. The weight is announced and you have your picture taken.

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It's not over yet! With great dexterity - and considerable gentleness - the gilly removes the hook from the mouth of the fish. It's quite a skillful operation as care must be taken not to harm the tiger (and not to get bitten!). Next step is to release the catch by lowering him gently into the water until he's ready to swim away. Policy along the river - and I think it's a great one - is "catch and release". All the camps and lodges adhere strictly to this policy and the result is excellent fishing with good size catches. I suppose because the fish don't get killed they stick around and grow!

My best catch was a remarkable 15 pounder - not bad for a small woman in her late fifties, who had gout in both feet at the time! I must say this monster catch was the highlight of my fishing "career" and certainly good reason to go back to the Lower Zambezi Valley for more. On that occasion my boatman was a particularly nice chap called "Thousan". It's certainly a small world in this part of Africa - when I went back last year my boatman, Sam, turned out to be Thousan's cousin! And he remembered seeing the photo of this auspicious occasion that I had posted to Thousan a few years before.

So, if you fancy a spot of tiger fishing, head for Zambia and the Lower Zambezi Valley. There are some wonderful places to stay on the river, and you'll not find a friendlier bunch of people anywhere.

Tiger Fishing on the Zambezi River

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