By Malcolm Meintjes – Islands Quest Host | September 2009
Following on a very successful 2008, this year’s special flyfishing Tiger Quest packages, starting in mid-May, kicked off on a note of high excitement.
Record Zambezi floods earlier in the year provided excellent flyfishing opportunities for the ‘season’ (June – November) and the Quest groups, taking advantage of my knowledge of the river and unique flyfishing techniques for tigers, have been able to adapt successfully to the changing water conditions.
Happily, a number of double-figure tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus) of over 10 lbs. have thus far been recorded on fly with the biggest fish weighing 12 lb. This is somewhat short of the 17-pound monster that was netted in November last year but there are still a couple of good months to go to better that! A good flood season always produces a monster towards the end of the season….
Numerically, good numbers of medium-sized tigers ( 2 – 5 lb.) have provided sport with one Quest group landing over 100 tigerfish landed on fly in effectively 3 ½ days of fishing. In addition, while the ubiquitous catfish (biggest 16 lb. in 2009) does provide an entertaining diversion, what has been pleasing has been the quality of Nembwe (Serranchromis robustus) and Pink bream ( Sargochromis giardi) that have been recorded on the Quests. To date, Nembwe up to 7 lbs. and Pink bream to 5 lbs. have been landed.
While the Zambezi has dropped substantially since its May highs, the Quests that remain through to November are anticipating good fishing with the possibility of a tussle with a specimen tigerfish always in the offing.
