Nile perch & tigers

I always have an ear open for exciting new fishing opportunities and whispers of something new, something different came to me in Tanzania in 2016. Back in Tanzania in 2017, those whispers had more form, a West African river, home to three species of tigerfish. H. Vitatus, H. Brevis and H. Forskali. Possibly Nile perch. Possibly Niger barbs. Possibly many things.

In early 2018, I knew it was Cameroon. The fire was lit; I wanted to go. Escaping Colobus, farting tribesmen, majestic headsmen with many wives … years of Durrell pushed to the fore and pushed all practical considerations well and truly to one side.

By May 2018 I had my week. In February 2019, I was packed and ready to go. Sadly going to Cameroon meant I had to miss Tanzania but the lure of two new species of tigerfish to target was too great and H.tanzaniae were sacrificed for the greater good. I had no idea what I was getting into.

I stepped up my casting practice, entertaining the evening dog walkers on the local school football field and snuck in some casting lessons to straighten out the wriggles.

I stepped up my casting practice, entertaining the evening dog walkers on the local school football field and snuck in some casting lessons to straighten out the wriggles. It never ceases to amaze me how many people don’t practice before they head off on a trip.

Tackle wise, I had what I needed. My much loved Hardy Zephrus 9’ 9# with its predecessor, the Proaxis 9’ 9# coming along as a spare would take care of the tigerfish. Nile Perch were covered with my Hardy Proaxis 9’ 11# and as a backup, a Hardy Zephrus 9’ 11#. I also packed a Hardy Jet 9’ 5# for the Niger Barbs.

Reel wise, I packed my Hardy Fortuna X2 for the 9# and my Fortuna X3 for the 11#. The drag on those reels is nothing short of phenomenal and while they are heavy, I’ve not yet found anything I’d like to replace them with. I’d borrowed a Hardy Ultralite 5000 #5 from the office Chalkstream kit and a Hardy SDSL as my spare 11# reel.

As we were targeting Nile perch at night, I had both reels set up; one with an intermediate line and the other with a Scientific Anglers 450 grain sinking line. I personally didn’t want to carry two rods; I’m clumsy enough in daytime and two rods in the dark was asking for trouble.

One thing I wasn’t comfortable with? Casting in the dark.

Two bits of kit I should have had? A second empty Omnispool because I just didn’t have the energy when back in camp to remember to put the line back on its spool. Mono. I had taken Fluro with me but, for a variety of reasons, they prefer to use Mono. Two bits if kit not to leave behind? A spare head torch as you are at a significant disadvantage if you lose yours or if it breaks. Clear safety glasses. Not what you would normally think to pack but eye protection shouldn’t stop when daylight fades …

One thing I wasn’t comfortable with? Casting in the dark. My iffy back means that I can’t turn to watch my line as many do (too many heavy backpacks), so I have to cast purely by feel. Turns out that was an advantage in the dark. I do have a nasty habit of sweeping as I back cast and oddly, it I was more aware of it in the pitch black than during the day. Two hefty whacks to the back of my head sorted that out on the first night.

Camp, once reached, was far beyond what I had imagined.

Camp, once reached, was far beyond what I had imagined. As always a huge pleasure to see Stu and Greg, two of the most accomplished guides I have had the pleasure of fishing with. Ready, tackled up, I was as ready for the week ahead as I could have been. For me it was brutal. It took a while to get used to fishing from behind boulders, of keeping the rod high in order to keen the line free. Greg had imparted his little words of wisdom earlier; “with tigers, you have two chances. Two chances only”. No pressure then.

Dressed in full bush camo, we soon lost Gordon amongst the rocks and small shrubs. We thought we’d chance our luck with tempting yellowfish. With only a 9# to hand, we were a little over gunned with 4lb tippet on a 10# line. It would have been interesting to see how that battle had turned out had they been interested in any of the nymphs they were presented with.

Giving up on them for the time being, I returned to tempting tigers. Stripping fast, slow or mixed raised no interest at all so a change of fly was called for. Lifting my rod, BANG. And gone. It was so hard. So fast. With the new fly on, I cast, stripped, cast and stripped. Nothing. Nothing again. Then another mighty wallop but as quickly as it had come, it had gone. That was my two chances and in the quiet period that followed I was convinced that I’d blown my options. Casting a little further out but letting the fly swing right up close to the rocks, I stripped hard once. On the second, BANG and on. Whatever I thought I knew from fishing in Tanzania went right down river. Stumbling over the rocks and trying to keep tension, to keep the tip down, whilst at the same time having to keep the butt high and the rod at arms length over the rocks. At the same time stripping, line on the ground getting tangled in rocks and river debris. I had hooked myself a nice h.Brevis which expressed its dissatisfaction at being hooked by jumping straight off the bat. Not a pause between the second jump, or the third.

What a fight though, for the size of the fish it fought with an enormous amount of power.

Head shaking all the while and then the hook was free. My first Cameroon tigerfish was gone, not even a ripple to mark its passing. What a fight though, for the size of the fish it fought with an enormous amount of power. And height; those jumps were several feet out of the water and there was no pause between them.

Later that afternoon, I was in a fabulous spot; quite high above the water, nothing behind me to get hooked into although dropping a back cast did run the risk of simply snapping your hook. Having found a few discarded broken flies from the previous group, it was worth checking regularly that all was in order and I had an intact fly. I had a 45 degree angle to work including the river’s edge as it looked deep and inviting, pushing up against the rocks. It was beginning to feel like an evening of a thousand unresponsive casts when the earlier blood sacrifice from my nosebleed paid the first of its dividends. With a fish on, I had my first experience of the sheer power of a Nile Perch. What I learned quickly is that they are also dirty fighters.

Any ledge, nook or cranny is enough to see your Nile Perch viewing it as a refuge. No matter how big or small, they’ll wedge themselves in there. Helping me around the rocks – falling in wouldn’t be good – the rod was passed back and forth with Stu keeping it all calmly under control while I manoeuvred around. I can’t say I was calm or under control but after a hard – but not too long fight – I had my first ever Nile Perch, lying in shallow water between two smooth rocks with Greg and Stu getting ready to measure and weigh the beast.

I had just finished my count, and as I reached the end of my first strip, BANG. Fish on and running.

They haven’t yet caught enough NP to have a huge amount of data so over time, it will be very interesting to see what the correlation between length, girth and weight is. Measured in at 110 cm and weighing about 45 lbs, we released the obliging perch back into the depths before making my way back to my spot to carry on.

I had on one of Stu’s flies, a big yellow and black bumblebee. At that point, it had landed several NP, all of them over a metre so it seemed sensible to keep it on! I worked my way across the pool, from left to right until I was casting back up the edge. I had just finished my count, and as I reached the end of my first strip, BANG. Fish on and running. I couldn’t co-ordinate myself well enough to turn on my headtorch, manage my line and keep tension so with a huge amount of luck, the line was all back on the reel without snagging or wrapping before I managed to turn the torch on.

This fish was fighting harder, and dirtier, and the pole had to be used several times to try and push the line out from under the rocks and encourage the fish to move so I could gain some line back and bring it towards the surface. This fish was notably rounder but only a little heavier. Measured in at 113 cm, it moved off into deeper water, not even leaving a wake behind it. The downside of catching at night is that once you are wet, you get cold and I am eternally grateful that I was in the cab as we eventually called it a night.

The next morning, we split up and headed our separate directions. The target again today was tigerfish, yellows if we saw them feeding but tigers were on our menu and it was with that in mind that we picked our way across what looked like a moonscape. From ground level you really don’t get the scope of this river system; deep pockets of water are well hidden and whilst you think you are heading to the main river you can see in the distance, in reality you are fishing your way to that.

Greg put Gordon up high in a gorge with fast flowing water pushing hard down the inside, leaving calm pockets behind the rocks, perfect resting spots for an ambush predator. I was a little further downstream, on more friendly terrain, fishing up and across, working my way down river.

My second cast had a bit hit but I failed to connect and I stripped in, checked my fly and cast again. Working the pool on the far side, opposite the line that Gordon was fishing. As I stripped fast, trying to keep tension in the fast flowing water, I had another big hit. So big it made my fingers tingle. No connection; was I just not quick enough to react? Was it an uncommitted strike or tail slap? Who knows. Greg just laughed and said the h.brevis conversion rate was about 16:1 so I had a way to go. Just then, Gordon shouted and from his very lofty perch, high above the water, we could see that he had a fish on. He slowly made his way to a point where Greg could land the fish and soon we were treated to the sight of a nice h.vitatis. The tigerfish of the Zambezi, h.vitatis has very distinctive dark stripes and is probably the most colourful of the species, its fins sporting shades of deep orange and red, fading to translucent at the fins edge.

As we made our way upriver, I had several more hits, several connections but nothing stuck until we reached a small pool, swinging wide to our right and disappearing into a narrow gully that Gordon was covering like a man possessed. As I stripped fast across the pool, I saw a swirl and stripped faster. Two more strips and I had a hit.

Determined not to lose this fish, I kept the rod tip down and walked backwards up the sandy, playing the fish on the line as there was too much line out to want to get it back on the reel. The water was so clear that we could see the flashes of red as the tiger shook his head, rolled and tried to shake the fly.

The mouths on h.brevis are relatively small and they don’t have the upper hinge that h.tanzaniae have; perhaps some of the difficulty in getting them to stick is that we were fishing too big? As Greg readied himself to land the fish, we decided to try for some water shots before bringing the fish in and that change of tack wasn’t a bright one. With one last head shake and sideways flip, it shook the fly and we were treated to a tail flick as it retreated back to the depths. Live and learn.

By the time evening came around, we were all keen to see yet another part of the river and to get set up for the evening session. Our spots for the evening were slightly more exposed than the night before and as the sun set, we all had lines in the water, working out our casting pattern, making sure we knew where we had put kit bags and didn’t have anything to fall over. A few Nile Perch were on and off in quick order “IN” “OFF” echoing down the river until we heard Martin shout “IN” and I could hear his line zipping off.

As he fought his fish and Stu and Greg went to help keep it clear of the ledges and bring it in, I had a small bump. It might have been the bottom, I might have bumped a fish with the fly but re-invigorated, I re-cast, varying my strip and on a long, slow strip, had an almighty take. Before I could do anything my line was on the reel, I was fishing in complete darkness and conscious that they were all busy getting Martin’s fish in, I hung on and tried to keep the fish up, trying not to give him room to run and hide. Eventually, I knew I needed help and my rather apologetic “Chaps, when you are ready” brought Greg and line pole up to help.

After a few short but hard runs, a few sticky moments when a convenient ledge provided shelter, we had my fish in and Martin and I had the pleasure of a Nile Perch double up. Weighed and measured, Martin’s fish was 95 cm and mine was 104 cm. Not as round as either of the fish I’d landed the night before, but still deep in the chest; it obviously had some filling out to do.

The author with a hefty nile perch.

My main reason for coming to Cameroon was the three species of tigerfish – the Nile Perch turned out to be a huge bonus. While Cameroon tigers hit hard and unbelievably fast. They don’t settle in the same way that the Tanzania tigerfish do and they learn very quickly. On a new stretch, that I’d not seen before we settled in to observe.

The water was very clear, moving through at good rate but not too fast to be able to effectively strip. I cast and stripped, recast and stripped faster. Nothing. Recast a little higher up and stripped then repeated the process again. We changed fly as the original obviously wasn’t flavour of the morning and repeated the process. Moving forward slightly, I recast and on a somewhat bored strip, had an almighty BANG. It went off like a rocket, keeping the rod low as the line tightened, I prayed that this one would stay attached. After some heart stopping moments, I finally managed to land my very first h.brevis and what a beautiful fish it was. The colouring is more subtle than h.vitatus but no less eye catching. I tried to be cool about it but inside, I was leaping about, yelling and hollering in delight …. Stu just grinned at me, gave me a hug and a high five; he knew there was a party going on in my head.

Would I go back? Yes, I’d pack up and go back tomorrow if I could. It was a truly special experience, a pocket of hope in conservation terms and one that I can only hope others will want to experience. These rivers already offer so much to a travelling angler but the reality is that there is so much more to discover as there are species there that we have no idea yet how to target. Now with access to more water, there will be even more to discover

TRIP CONTACT

Aardvark McLeod specialise in fly fishing holidays worldwide, in both freshwater and saltwater. Closer to home, they offer day tickets, guiding and multi-day trips. For more information you can contact them:

mail@aardvarkmcleod.com aardvarkmcleod.com