Water Dogs of Kariba

Fishing in Deepest Darkest Africa

They get tigers in Africa don't they? Well the answer is actually no, especially if you're referring to the creature with the striped coat, the symbol of Richmond and Balmain footy clubs, which is actually found on the Indian sub-continent.

But Africa does have tiger fish which are every bit as aggressive (albeit on a smaller scale) as their larger animal counterparts.

The scientific name for tiger fish is hydrocynus forskatili which translates into "water dog", a very apt name indeed! Over the years I had read and heard many reports about the fighting performance of water dogs and as a result made a pilgrimage to Zimbabwe in search of one, or maybe more.

Garry Barmby of Angling Adventures put together the trip which also included some mind-boggling game viewing, particularly on the Masai Mara game plains of Kenya.

A couple of years back Garry experienced a dud trip to Africa in search of tigers - basically because he couldn't find a reputable ground operator who knew much about fishing. Fortunately in the intervening months he was put in touch with Mick Wilson.

Mick was, and many would say still is, a wild boy being a former forward scout with the Rhodesian army and well adept at living under trying circumstances - including low level (500ft) night time parachute jumps.

Thrill-Seeking Guide

The skills he acquired during his mandatory tour of duty now work to his benefit as he is self-employed as a hunter-fishing guide-thrill seeker. He operates two businesses - the relatively safe Sundella Classic Safaris and (at the other end of the spectrum) III per cent Adrenaline Rush Tours. The Adrenaline Rush part of the deal involves, amongst other things, bungee jumping from Victoria Falls Bridge, white water rafting and free-fall tandem parachute jumps.

As an optional extra (and then only for valued clients) Mick has the ultimate adrenaline rush of them all jumping out of a plane on your lonesome without a parachute, only to have Mick catch up a short time later, connecting you to his tandem parachute unit!

I couldn't help but think what would happen if Mick suffered a heart attack while the client soared away into oblivion! Yes, I like interesting characters and this was going to be one hell of a trip.

We flew from Zimbabwe's capital Harare (thankfully with Air Zimbabwe and not Mick who has his own private pilot"s licence) to the township of Kariba at the top end of the huge lake of its namesake. Then we took a smaller plane on a hour's flight along the full length of the lake to Binga.

Lake Kariba is a man-made impoundment, something like 200 miles long, bordered by Zambia to the west.

14-Berth Mothership

Our plan was to spend four or so days fishing using a 14-berth houseboat as a mothership. There were four clients in our group and we had the whole houseboat to ourselves, plus the staff of course! And how's this for service - five staff to look after us!

The houseboat was superb and much larger than I imagined as it included a huge open (yet covered) bar area on the top deck. Just the spot for the obligatory Zambezi Lagers and gin and tonics overlooking a fireball Kariba sunset - and of course, the hippos, elephants, crocodiles and lilac-breasted rollers! A veritable open plains zoo.

We made it to our intended anchorage at the mouth of the former Sengwe River (prior to the lake being flooded) Late in the afternoon before transferring to the twin-hulled dinghies to hopefully sample a water dog or two before last light.

The main fishing method is to berley the water with kapinta, a local baitfish (or more correctly known as the Tanganyika Sardine). Still conditions are preferred so as the dried baitfish will not drift away from the intended target area too quickly.

Within minutes of the kapinta being sprinkled around in generous handfuls, fish (bream and tiger) were rising to the surface. Some tigers could be clearly seen rolling on the surface as they gulped down mouthfuls of the easy feed whilst others made and audible boofing sound - although nowhere on the same decibel range as a barramundi.

Adorned With Sweeteners

Spinners in the No.3 size range were then cast and worked back from a slowly drifting boat in the vicinity of the kapinta berley. For variation, some spinners were adorned with several kapinta sweeteners.

Garry hooked and landed athe first two tigers of the trip while the rest of us shook our heads in bewilderment as we couldn't entice a strike, yet could readily see tigers munching into the dried kapinta.

I changed to a medium Cordell Spot as the sun sunk behind the hills, turning the landscape an eerie burnt orange. Surely the noisy lure would attract an inspection? A large crocodile cruised in for a look while the berley and our boats drifted towards its snaggy domain.

It didn't take long before I felt a solid rap but unfortunately no hookup. Within minutes a big tiger (in the 4kg range according to Phillip the skipper) nailed the spot and blasted out of the water, twisting its body and gnashing its teeth, and then the lure came flying back over my head. An inspection of the hooks showed a straightened set of trebles. Boy do they hit like Mack trucks!

My First Water Dog

Disappointed, I kept casting and then hooked a much smaller fish in the 1.5kg range. It spent just as much time in the air as it did in the water, being boated and released. It wasn't big - but it was my first water dog!

Tim lost a couple on the first jump while Nev (who is regarded by his mates as a yuppie in his home town of Port Pirie because he drinks in the saloon bar!) landed a small one right on dark.

We came away from the brief session enthused about the hard hitting and fighting antics of the tigers, yet frustrated at not being able to convert more strikes into solid hookups.

The next morning the Sengwe River was quiet so we moved into the bay looking for water dogs. The area was loaded with dead timber remnants of trees which died as the lake swamped the shores upon filling.

Impalas fed freely along the grass banks while elephant herds wandered down at regular intervals for a drink and play in the muddy shallows.

Trolling around the dead tree margins produced three tigers for Tim on a spinner sweetened with a strip of tiger fish flesh.Every one I managed to hook on the Spot jumped free!

We returned to the houseboat late in the morning to gorge ourselves on a big breakfast-cum-lunch before savouring a few drinks and then crashing for an afternoon siesta. While we were napping the seemingly unlimited supply of staff would tend to mopping out the boats, refuelling and re-provisioning the eskies. Hard to take.

Six Strike Purple Patch

The afternoon session had both boats working the river snags. In one 15 minute purple patch Garry scored six strikes, jumped a couple off and nailed two - at the same time as Nev the Port Pirie yuppie (as he has become known) picked and ugly backlash from his reel!

Tim and I moved back into the bay and worked the same trolling pattern as the morning session. By now the sun had disappeared and moon had risen. As an experiment we trolled into the dark.

I put on the large Cordell Spot and had three solid hits with one hookup only to have the tiger spit it on a jump near the boat.Talk about frustrating - none of us had ever experienced any other species with the ability to throw the hook like a tiger could!

New tactics were called for. Concerned about the weight of the Spot and the small size of the trebles, I theorised that a barra minnow with three large sets of Eagle Claws or VMCs would have more chance of taking hold somewhere on the outside of the tigers' heads.

When the spinners were quiet, the deep divers kept on producing hits as the fish had obviously descended in the water column. On the other hand when the fish were on the job near the surface the spinners were supreme.

Only A Couple Of Jumps

One interesting thing that we did note was the tigers taken on the troll didn't perform anywhere near as well as those taken casting. Generally speaking, after hooking up while trolling, the tigers would jump once or twice before being easily wound into the boat where they would usually stack on a bit of a performance before being netted.

On the other hand, fish taken casting were the opposite as they turbo-blasted every which way all the way to the boat. Ihave never seen such a dramatic difference between fishing methods. Perhaps the long belly of line when trolling affected their performance?

Tim and Nev fished the open bay and put up with a stiff 15-20 knot wind to be rewarded with non-stop activity. They managed four tigers to 8lb from 11 hookups and they lost count of the number of strikes.

They also blew two big fish as one managed to cut through a wire trace with its razor sharp teeth while the other amazingly opened the eye of the hook attached to the spinner. Figure that one out!

Hooked A Whopper

On the way back from game viewing elephants and hippos, I hooked a big tiger. After about 10 minutes the line went limp and I found on winding in that something had hit the nylon above the wire leader.Phillip the skipper suggested a school of tigers may have attacked the fluoro line!

With both boats fishing the open bay there was plenty of activity in the next session. I was buried twice in the snags but do not believe the tigers purposely dived into the timber - rather it was a case of inadvertently pulling the fish into the many submerged (and unseen) snags that lay between them and the boat.

After the first jump the fish were relatively docile. Nev managed a good fish as he wound in the lure. I mainly stuck with a blue and silver lure although color didn't appear to make much difference to the results.

We shared the area with another houseboat of South Africans and when we compared notes we found out that for the same period of time they had only caught two tigers wheras our tally then stood at 32 (and ended up at 35 with a 3.8kg fish being the biggest). I guess we must have been doing something right!

Sitting at the bar and looking out over the elephants and crocodiles and listening to the ever present grunting of hippos, I couldn't help but reflect on what a great trip it had been. Tiger fishing in the wilds of Lake Kariba is something that every angler should indulge in at least once in their lifetime.

Col Roberts is a Magistrate/Judge in the far North West town of Broome in Western Australia. In this remote location he has the opportunity to write and photogragh some of the unique features of the rugged North West in the worlds largest island continent. He is one of the country's formost photo jounalists and his works have been published world wide.