Firstly let me start by saying that to my knowledge the largest tiger to come out of SA waters is from the Komati river. Just over 11 kg and 110 or 115cm if I recall. The mould was commissioned but as Komati tigers are longer and thinner that their Zambezi brothers, so they had to try stretch a Zambezi mould to get the proportions right. It's still to short and sits above my father's bar in Komatipoort.
To answer the question, I think it's for a few reasons but access to water being the biggest problem.
Mostly private farm land and the river also has many weirs.
Launching a boat is problematic, hippos are a real threat and Krocs are also a serious problem.
A guy was taken 2 months ago in front of my father's lodge. Think this a about number 4 or 5 in the last few years on the causeway bridge.
The public water there is is very dangerous and you can walk into a hippo, croc, elephant, lion, buffalo or Mozambican and the only one I haven't met yet is Mr lion.
So great fishing, tough access but just not advertised well enough. Keep telling my father he has a gold mine there that he's not exploiting properly.
I'm off there next weekend for a family visit, so will report back on how it went.
PS: my biggest tiger is 7kg and that was also out of the Komati, just not on fly though :-(
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