TigerFish Flies - Your GO-TO 5

[marno]

Water clarity was excellent when we were there. You could actually see the tigers chasing your fly, but LOTS of irritating rats and mice!!! The weather wasn't good when we were there, but we still managed to get a few tigers...

Take my advice!! If you see the wind start to pick up and "white horses" start developing, pack up and head back.... VERY VERY dangerous dam. The first day we were there, my boat took a bit of water from the big waves.

[rols]

what size hooks you guys using for the flies?

[marno]

I used size 1/0, 2/0 and #1 Gamakatsu hooks...

[rols]

I used size 1/0, 2/0 and #1 Gamakatsu hooks...

thanks for the info Marno

[chris williams]

A couple of tips for tigers which I've picked up over the years - some may be relevant/correct and some not!:

If there are baitfish present, you may care to experiment with flies to imitate their body shape/depth - i.e. Clousers for thin, Half/halfs medium and Deceivers with a thick forebody for 'rounder' baitfish. having said that the 'thicker' flies take longer to tie and are more likely to get chowed up quicker by the fishes' teeth.

If the water's dirty they the black and black/various colour combos will work as they incorporate both silhouette and visibility. Apart from black, purple then blue are the last colours in the water spectrum to lose their colour in depth/darkness so they are great if the fish are lying deep down. Black/yellow is great in the shallows in slightly muddy water as is black/red in the shallows in clear water. Red is the first colour to lose it's 'redness' at distance or depth. Apparently red appears grey to fish upto about a metre away then it 'turns' red. Maybe this acts as a aggressive stimulation to the fish or whatever? Black/chartreuse I've found's wonderful especially if the water's got a greenish tinge.

If the water's clear then obviously you are going to need more natural colours such as olive/brown backs, white/cream/yellow or whatever underbodies and maybe a touch of red around the gill area and a tad of flash, especially if the fish are near the surface. In clear water make the contrast of back and underbody more understated, natural and similar than if fishing in more coloured water

In this late part of the season I would also humbly try flies down to size 4 or 6's - these have certainly worked for me in the Lower Komati at the tail end of the season. That's if you don't see any baitfish to match your sized fly, and if the tiger are skittish or scarce.

Hope you have a ball, that Jozini can be magic!

Having the ladyfriend along should help - hope she catches a tiger as well!

[jock0]

Not sure what the problem with chumming is, as its accepted practice when targetting tuna, sharks and mullet just like teasing billfish and kings up with hookless crankbaits etc but each to his own.

If you're going next week you'll definitly need to avoid the rivers - when I drove past there two weeks ago the pongola river was the dirtiest I had seen it in years and its been raining in that part of the world for the last couple of days again. As you've said at this time of year the bigger females wont really be up the rivers anyway.

You seem sorted on the fly front just dont forget the paino wire or AFW stranded cable. As for conventioanl lures black fury's, effzet spoons and deep running rapalas will be fine.

[Scythe]

Lekker.

Thanks to all for the advice and comments.

Unfortunately for me the bank manager decided she would rather spend the weekend at home than have me fork our R1040 pn ... even though it's fully catered D/B&B

Bummer, will definately be going that direction sometime soon though.

[chris williams]

That's a shame, I know the feeling!

Always look on the bright side!:
Maybe you can dress up as a tiger at home and run round the lounge and let the missus catch you...

[rols]

That's a shame, I know the feeling!

Always look on the bright side!:
Maybe you can dress up as a tiger at home and run round the lounge and let the missus catch you...

eish,
i don't even want to begin to form a picture of that

[Scythe]

Actually she prefers me as TiGGeR not a tiger ... and it's the *bounce* *bounce* Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoooo ! *doublebounce* *triplebounce* that does it for her