Tour Guide, Johannesburg, South Africa
| 9 mins read
“TIGERS ON THE MILE”
(Wayne Sinclair has been sport and fly fishing in Southern Africa for over 30 years. He guides, trains clients and facilitates corporate fly fishing events. His speciality is Tiger fish on dry fly on the Zambezi (Deka Tiger Mile) and small stream fly fishing for large scale yellow fish. He is the Managing director of Sundowner Zambezi Lodge.)
There have been many articles written on a multitude of destinations and techniques for Tiger fish but none that focus dry fly fishing for Tiger fish on a world renowned section of the Zambezi River know as “Deka Tiger Mile”. Imagine pitting yourself against Africa’s most notorious fresh water angling species, in a play ground of fast currents and rapids only armed with a fly rod. But that’s not all, what if I told you that you would be sight fishing for the Tiger’s!
This section of middle Zambezi River is 75 km below Victoria Falls and 65km above Mlibizi. It is a sport and fly fishing haven for fast water species such as Tiger fish, Chessa, Nkupi, Vundu, Zambezi Yellow fish, Purple Labeo’s etc. The specific area is known as Tiger Mile and is a 1.5 km section of river close to the confluence of Zambezi and Deka river’s. At the end of September the female Tiger fish start heading up into the rivers flowing into Lake Kariba to prepare to spawn. The main water source into the Lake is the Zambezi so the fish move in large numbers up into the river. Tiger fish need specific structure to lay their eggs when they spawn and this normally requires round rocks slightly smaller than a rugby ball that must have adequate water flow over them to provide oxygen for the embryo’s. The area from Deka up to the falls is regarded as a rapid/pool system and it is in these pools that you find the ideal spawning habitat. The Deka area is famous for the large number of female Tiger fish that move up from Lake Kariba. The river suddenly narrows from 300 m wide to 50 m (up the Deka rapids) and bottle necks into the Deka pool which is the first stop for the spawning Tigers. This is the centre of the Deka Tiger Mile. The Tiger fish feed like crazy from beginning of October until End November and then spawn at the end of November (rain season starts). They then hang around until March when the colder water arrives and they move back towards the deeper volume of Lake Kariba.
The ideal areas where we would target the Tiger fish on the fly are:
1) Bottom section of Tiger mile which is characterized by Black Rock (an edifice of basalt rock which marks the top of the Deka rapids). This area is also known as aluminium alley because of all the boats that have tried to run this section and bashed their props & gear boxes in the rocks when the river is low. The Tiger fish prey on the myriad of fish that reside amongst the structure of the submerged rock outcrops.
2) Up river from Tiger Mile on Pratincole Island. The island divides the river into two channels and there is a hole aprox 100 ft deep on the down river side which has proven to be home to some huge Tigers. The around the island and the narrow river section down river (over the “hole” ) is a prime location for the dry fly technique.
Note: The river is very challenging to navigate and can be dangerous. An experienced local guide is recommended and can be arranged from Sundowner Zambezi Lodge.
When – at what time or season is this application best applied
Typically the best fishing on the middle Zambezi occurs from September through to April. The rainy season (Dec-Feb) can cause some of the Zambian rivers (up- river from Deka) to wash mud into the Zambezi and then fishing is very unproductive for Tiger, chessa etc but very productive for Cornish Jack, Squeekers, Bottle nose etc.
With what – be product specific as if addressing entry level anglers
I prefer a 9 weight 9 ft fly rod as it provides some back bone for fighting the fish and bringing it in as fast as possible in order to effectively release it. A large arbor reel is ideal as a 3kg fish can strip 150 metres of backing off a line in a few seconds. We use a floating line with a 10 ft leader (15 pound). The Mach 3 kapenta fly (Original Sinclair pattern) is attached to the leader with a 40 pound fluro carbon trace (Wire trace does not work because it causes the fly to sink).
The Mach 3 Kapenta fly is an imitation of a dried Kapenta fish. The Kapenta is a small silver fish that is caught in huge quantities in Lake Kariba. It is regarded as one of the staple diets of the Zimbabwe locals. Kapenta have started moving higher up the Zambezi river in recent years because of the Lake pushing back and creating more water volume. The Mach 3 Kapenta fly is tied with beetle foam wrapped around a long shank Gamagatsu worm hook. A few pieces of flash tinsel are tied in as a tail and a section of floating fly line is wrapped four times around the body of the fly.
Use a foam finger guard on your stripping (trigger) finger
How – show and tell about the technique on how to catch the mentioned species
This dry fly Tiger fish technique requires a lot of patience and some intermediate fly fishing techniques. It is only recommended that a maximum of two fishers fly at the one time. The Tiger fish are drawn to the surface and therefore are easily spooked by any loud noises. You cannot have one person fishing with a spinner and one person with the floating fly because the splash of the spinner and constant movement in the boat (from casting scares the fish away).
Here we go…
1) Identify the section of river where you want to fish (Normally where there are rock pinnacles or submerged islands.
2) Position the boat up- stream from the target area and throw out two or three handfuls of dried capenta
3) It is important that you drift at the same speed as the kapenta and it should be within casting distance (15 metres) from the boat
4) Cast the fly so that it lands close to the kapenta and keep mendin g the the fly line so that you always stay in contact with the fly. It is critical that everyone in the boat stays quiet and you don’t keep casting. This is a patience game.
5) As you get close to the target zone you will start to see Tiger’s taking the kapenta off the surface. Sometimes you just see a small swirl under the surface but most of the times there will be big toothy splashes as the fish literally go into a feeding frenzy. There have been times when we have seen over 10 fish rising all around the boat at the same time.
6) Watch and focus intently on your fly because as you see the splash on the fly you must strike. You almost have to anticipate the fish.
7) The exciting part is that the Tiger may be anywhere between 500g and 6kg. So once you have struck, allow the fish to run..and he probably takes 50 metres of line (charging away at approx 50 km/h !) on the first run.
8) You will normally be able to fight the fish off the reel. Remember to keep tension on the Tiger fish the whole time as the slightest amount of slack will allow the fly to come loose from the fishes mouth.
9) Sometimes the bigger fish gulp the whole fly and trace and cut the leader. Keep a keen eye open because he will normally spit the fly out and because it floats can be retrieved.
10) Once the fish is landed (ideally with a Boga Grip) don’t handle with dry hands. The chemicals (after shave, cream, soap) on your skin can “burn” the membrane off the fish and expose the scales to parasites. We have seen fish that must have been caught previously and incorrectly handled which had hand marks on them. Take a quick photo, then resuscitate the fish (don’t push/pull it backwards and forwards). Just hold it in the water and allow the fish to move the water over its own gills.
11) This dry fly technique is unique and is also very effective. The fish is hooked just behind the teeth in the softer part of the mouth. The long shank hook basically acts as the trace. In our experience we have found that you land a ratio of 8/10 fish hooked which is excellent when compared to the normal ratio of 2/10 for spinning and bait techniques.
12) Eco friendly techniques make such a massive difference to the conservation and sustainability of this species (especially since we are targeting egg carrying hen fish in an area like Deka). In the past there have been to many fisherman that will arrive and load up the cooler boxes with the Tiger fish that they catch. Sure, netting by local black fisherman has an impact on fish stocks but every fisher has the choice to decide what impact they personally want to have on the wonderful natural environment that provides us which so much fishing entertainment