South Africa part 6 - Lake Jozini tigerfish and safari

We arrived at Shayamoya Lodge late in the evening on March 15th, checked in, and then joined the rest of the guests for a Friday barbecue. A few of the dishes included wild game, but I honestly can't remember what the cooks said they were. Everything tasted great after such a long day of driving, not to mention the running and fishing. We settled into our chalets (small cabins) and fell asleep quickly. The next morning we woke up early and met Lucky, our fishing and safari guide for the next three days. He drove us down to Lake Jozini in one of the safari trucks. A pair of wild zebras was waiting for us by the docks.

Breakfast was packed in a picnic basket, and we ate while we motored across the lake to the fishing spot. We asked Lucky a lot of questions about tigerfish, and he was happy to answer all of them. Lucky is Zulu and grew up in the area, so he knew his stuff. We were glad to have him as a guide.

We hoped to do a mix of lure and bait fishing, but the water was too murky to fish with lures. We had dead sardines for bait, and one thing we learned about South African fishermen is they love bait thread. Lucky would slice open a headless and tailless sardine, slide the hook in between the two halves, and then wrap it a hundred times with bait thread. Delicious!

Bait fishing for tigerfish is the ultimate combination of boring and exciting. We freelined our baits out, kept the slack out of our lines, and waited. The bites were infrequent. When you did get a bite, you usually reeled in an empty hook or a bait too mangled to reuse. On the rare occasion you hooked a fish, the fight was exiting and usually ended with the fish spitting the hook.

Three out of the four of us caught tigerfish during the morning session, but I was not one of the three. We tried several spots, and I got bites at each of them, but I wasn't able to connect with the fish. We did see our first wild African elephant though, and that was pretty darn cool.

After lunch we went out again for the afternoon session. The wind had picked up, and Lucky wanted to try a different part of the lake, starting off close to the submerged grass near shore and then drifting with the wind into deeper water. Whatever I did to displease the fish gods in the morning was forgiven, because I hooked up with a decent fish and guided it into the net. My first tigerfish!

Tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus) - new hook & line species #612

This was the fish we planned the entire trip around. It was perfect.

The windy conditions really turned on the bite, and I ended up landing four tigerfish by the time we finished. It seemed like each one was bigger than the one before, which makes for an exciting session. No they weren't River Monsters sized fish, but they weren't small either.

Here's the last tigerfish of the day. Those teeth and scales and stripes were awesome!

This is a good time to say thanks to Ken, Josh, and Eli for being such awesome travel companions. Thanks for all the planning, brainstorming, researching, and working together as a team!

We enjoyed a hearty (and very dimly lit) dinner back at the lodge. Our chalets had a nice view of Lake Jozini with the mountains behind them.

I had been fighting the beginning of a cold for the past day or two (thanks Josh), and the next morning it finally caught up with me. Since we had one more morning of tigerfishing scheduled, I decided to sleep in and focus on getting better. The rest of the guys went fishing again, and Eli caught a sharptooth catfish.

By the afternoon I was feeling better, so I rejoined the group for a short safari in the Pongola Game Reserve. Lucky was once again our guide, and we took the same truck that we took the docks to go fishing. The reserve borders Lake Jozini and Eswatini (Swaziland).

The safari was cool, definitely something everyone should do if they visit Sub-Saharan Africa. Mostly it was nice to see the animals have all the open space. I really don't enjoy going to zoos, so it was good to see the animals and not feel bad for them.

The most entertaining animal on the safari was the baby rhino. Pre-teen rhino is probably more accurate, since he definitely wasn't a little guy. He thought it was funny to ram his mom in the stomach, and she just ignored him.

We also saw hippos and crocodiles in the lake. The crocodiles (at least the ones we saw) didn't look particularly large, but the hippos did, and they looked like they meant business. We were thankful they didn't approach the boat while we were fishing!

The next morning was our last session of fishing for tigerfish. Ken had to head back to Canada early to start a new job, so he headed out in one of the rental cars for Durban. Josh, Eli, and I were satisfied with the fish we had already caught, but Josh and I really hoped to catch a sharptooth catfish. I left my rod in one of the rod holders, since I wasn't as concerned with timing the hook set.

We didn't come across any catfish, but I did pick up one more tigerfish, the smallest one of the trip. It was a handsome specimen though with the red on its tail more vibrant than the larger individuals.

Tigerfish were the reason we traveled to Africa, and we were really happy that all four of us were able to catch them. Lake Jozini is the only place in South Africa to fish for them, so if you ever visit the country and want to repeat what we did, we highly recommend staying at Shayamoya. The cost was reasonable, and the lodging, meals, and guides (thanks Lucky!) were all great.

http://www.shayamoya.co.za/

After we were done fishing we packed up, bought some souvenirs from the gift shop, and headed towards the coast for our next leg of the journey.