As was to be the norm, on day 2 we awoke, had a quick breakfast and hit the water. Pete and I headed for the back eddy that we started on the day before and set up to drift round the eddy casting into the slack water in the middle, same as the day before. Once again it did not take long for me to get interest from the fish but i was having the same problem – getting takes but no hook ups. Eventually one slammed me and seemed to hold on! I grabbed the line with my stripping hand and yanked it as hard as i could three times and then Pete shouted “NOW YOU’VE GOT HIM BUT DON’T GIVE HIM ANY SLACK!!!”. The battle was on and I could also feel that this one had a fairly decent hook set. He made a series of short bursts off in different directions with a whole bunch of head shaking jumps, but the hook stayed where it was and after a spirited fight of a few minutes Pete “Boga’ed” my first ever tigerfish! He weighed in at 3lbs and for a fish of that size really put up one helluva fight on an 8wt rod. I was so chuffed and after a few quick snaps I had to sit down and have a smoke before carrying on fishing. Pete was just as ecstatic that i finally landed one of these buggers. So I finished my smoke and started fishing again. On the first cast I got hit hard again and i hit him hard back and he was on! I was getting the hang of this now but this fish was not running off. He felt a bit heavier than the previous one but he stayed really close and was only keen to get back to the bottom and after a short while he came into sight and we realised it was a good ‘ol Barbel of about 2kg! We landed him and took some snaps before releasing him to the depths. 5 minutes or so later I was vas into a fish again and again it stayed close and Pete and I agreed it was not a tiger and probably another barbel but when we got it close to the boat he shouted “Angusticeps!!! What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere???”. This third catch of mine for the morning was a Thinface Largemouth Bream (Serranochromis Angusticeps) of about 3.5lbs! Apparently they prefer structure close to the edges and drop offs so getting him out in the open was a bit of a rarity. Anyways I had a fantastic trifector of fish for the morning and was quite content when we eventually headed for the camp at lunch time. Pete had also caught a few bream on spinning gear and things were starting to look up. The other boat had not had any success in the morning though. The afternoon was equally tough and none of us managed any fish except for Pete who was now evident as a bream slayer of note!
Unfortunately the pics of my first tiger are on Pete’s camera so i am unable to show you those pics at this time. Here is one of the Pope Ellis Brothers riding out as the sun rises:
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