20 minute read
THE FINAL FRONTIER
CHINKO
THE FINAL FRONTIER
OF ALL THE GIANT FISH SPECIES THAT CAN BE TARGETED ON FLY, THERE ARE FEW THAT ARE QUITE AS MYSTERIOUS AND COVETED AS THE GOLIATH TIGERFISH. THEY ARE FOUND IN THE CONGO RIVER BASIN, IN REMOTE AREAS THAT ARE INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO ACCESS FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS THE TEAM AT CAMP CHINKO (CAMPCHINKO.COM) HAS BEEN WORKING, WITH AFRICAN PARKS, IN THE CHINKO RESERVE AREA OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR) TO CREATE A VIABLE FISHERY FOR THOSE WITH THE BUCKS (AND THE BALLS). WE SPOKE TO HEAD GUIDE, GREG GHAUI, ABOUT WHAT HE EXPERIENCED DURING THEIR FIRST EVER SEASON.
Photos. Edward and Greg Ghaui
In a sentence or two, sum up the entire first season as a guide there.
It was both the first and my first Chinko season and I can sum it up as “perpetual relentless motion”! Two and a half months on location, six different camp set-ups, nine intimate Goliath tigerfish encounters and countless kilometres covered on foot and by boat and plane. All of this effort to try and shine some light on the hidden secrets of the Chinko system while catering for one fly fishing client, a scientific river research team and training with a ranger unit.
How do you get there?
The simple answer is by air. There are no other really feasible options. The basic formula is a combination of commercial flights to Bangui and either a charter with the African Parks (AP) Cessna 208 Caravan into the Park HQ, or a direct line to the strip nearest our camp in the private charter operated by my cousin Ed Ghaui and the Central African Adventure Company. We took the scenic route flying all the way from Kenya via Uganda in the private charter with the bulk of the safari supplies.
We understand getting planes in and out can be… challenging? What was your experience?
Getting planes in and out of the CAR and Chinko specifically is actually a relatively straight forward process. Our experience would be the exception! We had a forced emergency landing on our initial entry flight and managed to extract ourselves and still complete the whole season. That has to count for something. Flying is such a critical and established way of operating there that it is very well catered for. The number and quality of the airstrips and the knowledge, experience and back up on hand is immense. When all of that was aligned with what we needed to do and within a few basic parameters such as weather and load capacity, it was phenomenal what we could pull off. It is the default mode of transport and core to Parks’ operations but it also provides an unbeatable perspective to appreciate the Chinko’s size and force of character. Pilot chat almost matched fishing chat for volume over the season!
Central African Republic has seen some conflict over recent years. Between the logistical challenges of getting clients in and the prospect of conflict, how do you ensure client safety?
We monitor the situation in and around Bangui carefully. Chinko is a 60 000 square km area with no human habitation. This is patrolled by air and on foot within the park and a large team of transhumance rangers work with neighbouring communities well outside the park to ensure that information of movements of poachers etc is fed back to the operation. We only operate within the core area and are in close contact with the AP team.
You have a partnership with African Parks in Chinko. What do you do for them and what do they do for you?
It’s a working partnership where our company is a concession holder. The concession is granted by the government and AP. They provide a pristine game reserve and river and we provide a camp. They help with logistics where they can.
How specific is the season for Goliath tigers?
The single most influential factor deciding the Goliath tiger season is accessibility - as in being able to reach the river, and finding fish once there. The rainy season and seasonal river level fluctuations are formidable. The Chinko receives a full dose of rainforest precipitation in just six months. Optimising the lowest, cleanest water conditions for fly fishing against navigable water levels and healthy temperatures means that it will be pretty specific to a fourmonth window of prime fly and fish-friendly conditions.
This season saw you welcome your first guest, legendary Kenyan angler Jeremy Block. What was he hoping to achieve and how did his report card look at the end of the trip?
Jeremy is a pioneering fly angler and he certainly reinforced his reputation on the Chinko. I think what he was essentially hoping for was that we weren’t all completely mad and that it was indeed perfectly possible to travel to the Chinko in the hope of enjoying an incredible fishing experience. Proof of concept was what we were all hoping for - that would mean at least one Goliath tigerfish caught on IGFA specifications by Jeremy, and some indication that the whole procedure was possible, feasible and repeatable for us.
Jeremy hooked and landed a superb Goliath tiger fish of 33lb on 20lb tippet on his first full morning. This catch is currently pending IGFA world record status recognition. He then spent the rest of the trip trying to repeat the feat on 16lb tippet, and tangling with bucket loads of Nile perch. There were a good number of very solid hookups to some strong Goliaths but, for reasons simply ‘tiger fishing’, they did not stick. One other smaller fish was landed by Jeremy. Considering the very singular focus of his particular mission, and his commitment to the light tippet challenge, I thought his report card was excellent,
and surprisingly well-balanced with Nile perch, Vittatus sp tiger fish and Alestes sp. It was such an exciting and ground-breaking ten days and it was even more successful than we might have hoped. Jeremy was deep among the Goliaths and we were able to cover a huge distance along two rivers, the Vovodo and the Chinko, with the mobile fly camping model that proved to be a great way to unlock some special corners.
We understand some advanced logistical manoeuvres went down in the bush. For example, you were assisting the AP Chinko team with some scientific surveys. For those of us sitting at home on the couch, can you explain how exactly one airlifts a camp? How often did you need to do it? How big would the satellite camps be in relation to the main camp?
To stay and fish or prospect in only one (or a handful of places) with just so much quality water along both the Chinko and Vovodo Rivers, would be massively underselling the potential of this place and ourselves as self- respecting fishermen. Mobility is key and that means finding a way to get to all these places with everything you will need to do them justice. And then moving on to the next one. The premise for each Scientific Survey camp relocation were complete madness: First, finish the cataloguing of the previous day’s net samples, pack the laboratory, tents, beds, entire kitchen, food, drinks and personal gear of 15 people and move them by pure, brute, human force out the steep valley to the nearest airstrip. Shuttle all the gear and personnel in multiple flights to the airstrip nearest to the next survey site over 100km away, and then porter it all back down to the river by hand and on foot and set it all up in time for setting survey nets again, often in pouring rain! It was a very stark combination of amazing technology and mechanical sophistication with the airlift aspect, and the basic and brutal manhandling of gear in between. We moved the Scientific Survey camp three times, and those were three of the most physical and tough working days I’ve ever known but, somehow, we always found a way. The key was a hugely impressive capacity for work from our crew of CAR nationals assigned to help us, and a very clear understanding of what needed to be done and by whom. The battle was always to get enough gear up to the airstrip in time to keep the Caravan in circulation, as it had to do many flights of reduced loads on the bush strips. The hard yards were getting it up to and down from the airstrips, with a smooth, quiet, quick, tranquil flight in between! The focus of a lot of the attention around these moves, and what went a long way in deciding if it would be successful or not, was on the availability and state of repair of a simple, single-axle, hand-pushed cart called a ‘pousse’ (push). This trebled the amount of gear (approximately a ‘pousse-load!!) that could be carried up or down the valley per leg, and became the symbol of a successful move for me, more so than the shiny 208 Caravan ferrying us between strips. The camps were basic and robust fly-camping setups: camp cots with a full bedroll (mattress, sheets, duvet, pillow) with either a mosquito dome cover in dry weather or inside a two-man dome tent in the rain (the default weather for the entire three weeks of the survey). There was an open mess under a canvas tarpaulin with camp chairs all round, where all the meeting, eating and drinking happened. There was a portable pulley shower with hot water every evening, and a freshly dug pit latrine with a wooden seat. We had a portable generator charging equipment, running a fridge and freezer, and running a battery charger that topped up a battery bank that was also fed by three solar panels. The kitchen has an amazing coal fired oven for bread, roasts and even pizza, and the rest of the cooking was on a grill over a flame, done by an experienced safari chef.
What did the scientists discover in their time there?
I couldn’t believe my luck in being present on the inaugural biomass and biodiversity survey of the Chinko River during my first season as a fishing guide there. Through their sampling, we were able to fast track so much knowledge accumulation, and get a much more complete picture of the whole system. The Mormyrid (elephant fish) analysis, using a specially designed probe technique to register the unique electric pulse that each species produces, was fascinating and there are a few interesting results pending on that front. Otherwise there was a pretty comprehensive
Camp Chinko’s first guest Jeremy Block, with a solid Nile perch (above) and a pending IGFA world record Goliath tiger (below) of 33lb on 20lb tippet
cataloguing of known Congo drainage species, marking off suspected species. The sampling techniques (gill nets) were designed to be very repeatable and were probably slightly more biomass than diversity orientated beyond a pretty broad spectrum. Really niche habitats were not really tapped, and the electro fishing aspect was very disappointing as the machine the scientists brought along was not suitable for the very low conductivity of the water. Their samples did still reflect a stunning array of size, colour and diversity of incredible fish, and there were a few holes in the nets from big fish that refused to be collected!
How many of the fish species found by scientists are viable targets on fly?
From a fly targeting point of view it was very informative analysing the sample catches, as we had the scientists examining the stomach contents of a few interesting looking specimens! There are the obvious and known candidates: Goliath tiger, Common tigerfish (Vittatus), Nile perch, the very large Chrysichthys cranchi (Kokuni or Suni catfish) and Vundu (Heterobranchus longifilis). Then there are the abundant and aggressive Large Scale Tetras (Brycinnus macrolepidotus) and Alestes macrophthalamus, a very distinct but reportedly viable ‘Makelele’ (Entropiellus, family Shilbeidae). There are some huge leaf eating Labeo lineatus that need more attention for sure, as well as another very dark Labeo that is easily sighted.
What sort of game did you see?
Game was an interesting one. Chinko is remarkable because, as one of the continent’s great game areas it is almost devoid of the macro fauna that earned it its reputation. There is a distinction between savannah species which have been severely depleted, and the forest fauna which has remained largely intact. All game numbers are only on the increase now. We saw Red River Hogs, Giant Forest Hogs, Blue Duiker, Yellow Backed Duiker, Bushbuck, Oribi, Red Flanked Duiker, Water Chevrotain (aka the fanged deer) and good primates: Colobus, De Brazza’s Monkey and Putty Nosed Monkey. We heard Chimpanzees vocalising a couple of times in the forest which was pretty surreal. We were also in very close contact with the head of research at African Parks, Thierry Aebscher, who would update us on camera-trap sightings and carnivore-calling results. These show stable and rising numbers of lion, abundant leopard, wild dogs, golden cats, caracals and servals. We saw roan antelope, the distinctive buffalo that is a hybrid between our Cape buffalo and the forest buffalo, and signs of the giant Lord Derby’s eland. We covered a lot of ground on foot and saw abundant signs of bongo but never actually laid eyes on one, which was one of the major targets! Natural mineral licks or ‘salines’ in the forest are truly magical places to which animals are drawn and all sorts of interesting tracks and signs can be found. The birds are worth more than a mention, and are spectacular, but the bees and butterflies might be what really set it apart.
Are Nile perch considered by-catch or do you spend time targeting them?
Nile perch could be considered as by-catch only because the allure of a Goliath is so strong, and they are picked up while targeting the big tigers. I was blown away to find how loose they are in the Chinko and the Vovodo Rivers especially. I’ve guided for them in Cameroon and know what it can take to get consistent shots at fish, so it was a real bonus to find them in a variety of hold ups and in long, loose windows throughout the day. We haven’t hooked anything the size of the Faro in Cameroon but, in a productive system like that, there is no reason why there won’t be some absolute specimens. I am a fan of perch in their own right and to find them in these rivers was a surprise for me, and I’ve loved having everything I thought I knew about them being tipped on its head!
Which barb/labeo species have you identified? What worked when fishing for these species? Streamers, nymphing…?
The barb question is an interesting one because it is a big black hole at the moment. The bizarre thing is that we didn’t come across an omnivorous or insectivorous barb dominating a zone that one would immediately throw a nymph at and expect some action. The barbs that came up in the research nets (Labeo linneatus) were all distinctly vegetarian with long convoluted stomachs, and the visible holding sighted fish have refused standard nymph patterns. I did hook a huge labeo that I had watched consume a floating dead leaf, and then inhaled my dead drifting baitfish which was in the leaf line! Unfortunately, with all the disruptions, we didn’t mount a dedicated assault on this quest but it is a priority and in the sights for the next chance.
Did you encounter any cool catfish species?
The catfish really came into the spotlight when we hit the ultra-clean water upstream on the Chinko towards the end of our stint - the lowest and clearest water conditions. In the shallow tail-out of the huge pool at the base of a gorge section there were some large Chrysichthys that were obscenely visible, but very difficult to surprise. These cropped up again just cruising in the rapid pools of the gorge while we watched from the rocks six metres above. I cast to a vundu that was also in the same mix, hooked it and had the large catfish shadowing the fighting fish for a spell which was very memorable. This specific section of river with shallow, sandy bottom and clear water should surely produce some almighty encounters as, for whatever reason, they are there in consistently good numbers.
How consistent have you found the fishing? Is it too soon to throw around averages of fish caught both in terms of daily numbers and size?
Consistency while talking about any tiger fish is a sensitive subject. The fish there seem to respond conservatively to all the usual disruptions and changes in a relatively
small system. What became pleasingly consistent was identifying potentially promising Goliath water, based on a few specific criteria, that increasingly delivered positive results. We either hooked or saw fish throughout the sections of river we covered, including a lot of new water. We seem to have a pretty solid knowledge base on which to fall back and also to launch from and to add a lot more to, which is hugely reassuring! It is too soon to be talking about potential daily numbers at this stage and, probably, sizes too. There is quite a tight grouping at the upper end of the scale of the fish that have been caught - in the 3040lb bracket - but I don’t for a minute believe that is the ceiling. Finding a solid answer to this question is going to be a journey to keep an eye on.
How much pressure do these fish get from local communities? Is poaching a problem?
Amazingly, the Chinko is completely uninhabited for all except the last 40km of its 700km length before it joins the Mboumu River. Until pretty recently, in the last five years, sections of the Chinko have been fished by local communities established far downstream. These were the most opportunistic and dedicated people who would push as high as to where the core park area is now, and they would only have done so periodically and seasonally. They would have been able to exert some pressure on a number of links in the food chain, but this has been tightly controlled for four years now, and the current and forecasted poaching pressure is completely negligible for the entire core park area.
What does your tackle look like for Goliaths? Is most of the fishing on foot wading or do you fish off boats too? What sort of tactics do you employ?
A Goliath tiger fish setup is exactly what you would expect for targeting the biggest tiger fish you would hope to catch - 10-weight rod, robust reel, definitely a tropical fast sink tip line, but also an intermediate line. The leader material would be in the 40-60lb range, with a long trace section of coated multi strand knot-able wire. Anything less than huge flies are comprehensively consumed, so biting over a short trace is a risk. Large, but not outrageously big, baitfish patterns are a good starting point, although there have been indications that there is plenty of room for exceptions on both the large and small ends of the fly size spectrum. Big eyes really seem to be a trigger, and seeing many of the baitfish and what they have to avoid, it adds up pretty quickly. Proven patterns from other big predators are a great starting point, although I have been fascinated having to rule out some of the best tiger flies I know from Tanzania as nonstarters for these Central African specimens. I am determined to find something they will eat with the same conviction that they refuse these trusted patterns. I would want to cast at water attached to a significantly deep pool (6-20m deep) - whether fishing the deep pool itself or some of the features such as rocks, a sand shelf or tail-out nearby that might concentrate baitfish and could be buzzed by a patrolling Goliath. I prefer to sink the fly down and fish from deep just to cover the column, although a take often comes most of the way through a retrieve. A surprisingly benign and steady strip will do a job for you, making for really taut and suspenseful fishing rather than a rabid frenzy of casting and ripping! There are some very different and dynamic sections of rapids and pools, or gorges that throw things wide open. These can be fished on foot off the rocks and fish can be found deviating far from ‘predictable’ behaviour. If you have found the right water to fish, you will often be rewarded with a visual of a Goliath slowly and deliberately rolling on the surface, usually just unmistakably enough to short circuit some hard wired synapses. This, for me, is their most distinctive and signature behaviour and emphasises how unique and enigmatic they really are.
Tell us about a few specific special fish that were caught this season.
In a low intensity fishing season, with all the other projects happening, there were not huge numbers of fish caught and, being the first season, all of them were an event and pretty special. We did hit a genuine article purple patch that turned up some gold. Deep into an unchartered section while on the Ranger training mission, we made a strategic campsite on an island at the base of a ridiculously tight and narrow gorge channel that we immediately went to work fishing. It was stacked up with fish against the edges of the pumping channel, and we were raiding the Vittatus hard. Ed was dangling his fly directly below him trying to get a small fish to ditch caution, when suddenly the decks cleared and a Goliath appeared and picked his fly off the surface! I was metres away when I heard his shout and watched him hold onto the biggest fish I saw all season. It performed three full body breaches before it fell over the leader on the last one and broke off. What it was, where it came from and the way it went back there were all just awesome and, seeing Ed have to sit down on the rock right behind him and gather himself, summed it all up perfectly!
After two and a half months on location, when you get out of the jungle, what’s the first thing you treat yourself to?
We returned safely via Bangui with a quick stop at Relais de Chasse for an Ubangi Pizza and some passion fruit sorbet (if you know, you know!). There we were taken in once again by the Mararvs, friends of ours who are behind the Chinko Project, and given some serious post-season feeding and comfy beds while waiting for Covid tests before we could go home.
