{"id":2746,"date":"2016-12-06T17:19:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T15:19:39","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-12-07T06:12:26","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T04:12:26","slug":"zambezi-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=2746","title":{"rendered":"Zambezi Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to fathom a river system as vast as the great Zambezi. Traversing six countries, it\u2019s epic 2500km journey ends by giving the Indian Ocean it\u2019s largest injection of fresh water from any river in Africa.<\/span> <\/span>There are several hundred species of fish throughout the Zambezi system and it\u2019s tributaries, some endemic, most indigenous, but they all pay homage to the Striped Water Dog.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only the Nile crocodile or flat dog ranks higher in the underwater food chain.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

It is a fish built for the kill,with a smile advertising it\u2019s intentions. Their huge tail fin and prominent pectorals tell you that they are designed for powerful, lightening quick lunges with camouflage that ensures it\u2019s prey doesn\u2019t see it coming until it\u2019s too late!<\/span><\/p>\n

                     <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s slash and grab, so the interlocking razor sharp teeth, equipped with an anticoagulant ensures that every attack can be fatal. And if that wasn\u2019t enough, their bottom jaw is hinged horizontally, allowing them to double the gape of each bite.<\/span> <\/span>Oh, and did I mention that their lateral line is acutely in tune with a middle ear that can pick up the slightest vibration in the water, just incase their keen eyesight is clouded by murky water.<\/span><\/p>\n

And if that isn\u2019t enough incentive to dust off your 9wt stick then you\u2019ve been spoiled.<\/span><\/p>\n

                     <\/span><\/p>\n

You<\/span> shouldn\u2019t be forced to choose between your fishing and your Mrs and fortunately for Jeremy and myself our better halves would probably elect fly-fishing over our company. So we were practically dragged by the scruff when they learned that is was to Chiawa<\/a> and Old Mondoro that our Zambezi adventure was taking us.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Brad\u2019s renowned \u2018Cartwright Comfort Rating\u2019 was allowing him to wallow in the luxury of this private lodge, while we focused on the task of outwitting this tenacious fish.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

The water was clean and flowing steadily, yet the first few hours proved tough on the strike front.<\/span><\/p>\n

                     <\/span><\/p>\n

We changed patterns repeatedly, until settling on red and black, being a combination that garnished some interest from juniors. The ladies seemed to favor Jer\u2019s fire tiger Clouser which kept them stripping, albeit just their lines. Typically they registered more fish than us in the first day.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

The fascinating aspect about working this river, is that you never ever fish the same piece of water twice. Aside from the volume that changes by the cumic every week, it also sculpts the sides and scours the river bottom, moulding new fishing grounds every day<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremy and myself were struggling to get a good fish to stick, until he figured out that the outflowing water into the main channel, around sandbanks provided the ideal ambush point.<\/span> <\/span>That coupled with the fact that a huge black streamer was what the big Tigers were looking for.<\/span><\/p>\n

                  <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course you can only keep Brad away from the fishing action for so long and he does have that annoying reputation of strolling on to the field in extra time and walking away with the trophy.<\/span> <\/span>In this case a 50 pound Vundu on 20lb tippet. You just can\u2019t keep him out of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

                   <\/span><\/p>\n

Surface action is the most entertaining form of fly fishing and although poppers don\u2019t always stick, the view from above never ceases to get that adrenal gland pumping.<\/span><\/p>\n

                    <\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s when excitement turned to panic.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

With a small tiger somersaulting, a knock on our boat went undetected. The ensuing commotion less than two meters from my rod had the skipper shouting that a Vundu had taken my tiger\u2026\u2026\u2026.but the reptilian tail out of the corner of my eye soon had us shouting hysterically.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

In a split second, I had a 3 meter crocodile barrelling away, tiger in it\u2019s jaws and taking my entire spooled rig with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

                    <\/span><\/p>\n

Brazen is an understatement, this cold blooded killer had stalked and savaged my fish right under my nose.<\/span> <\/span>Needless to say, I won\u2019t be leaning over a boat and releasing my fish underwater anymore. A wake up call of proportion. Yes, it was only going for the fish, but that rational is rather mute if your arms are in the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

                     <\/span><\/p>\n

That said it only added to the incredible wildlife expereince that can only be found in this part of the Zambezi and when it\u2019s time for the sun to depart, no better setting for a celebratory glass can be found on this planet.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Whether you are a fisherman or not is irrelevant, Chiawa and Old Mondoro are destinations that have no equal on the Zambezi Valley.<\/span><\/p>\n

                      <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to fathom a river system as vast as the great Zambezi. Traversing six countries, it\u2019s epic 2500km journey ends by giving the Indian Ocean it\u2019s largest injection of fresh water from any river in Africa. There are several hundred species of fish throughout the Zambezi system and it\u2019s tributaries, some endemic, most indigenous, but they all pay homage to the Striped Water Dog. Only the Nile crocodile or flat dog ranks higher in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/b2ap3_thumbnail_Jeremy12cu.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11939,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=11939","url_meta":{"origin":2746,"position":0},"title":"Targeting Tigers","author":"Gareth","date":"February 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Unlike the upper reaches of the largest river that empties into the Indian Ocean, as you cruise down stream, fishing in the lower Zambezi is more focussed on what you can see and throw at. Below Kariba the river spreads into many channels, with the largely controlled flow rate from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Airflo\"","block_context":{"text":"Airflo","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?tag=airflo"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-1-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-1-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-1-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-1-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-1-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-1-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3541,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=3541","url_meta":{"origin":2746,"position":1},"title":"Zambezi River God Adventures","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"November 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When conditions present a challenge, then sometimes we have to adjust our focus and our techniques, in order to make the most of our trip.This happened to us recently on a fishing trip to the lower Zambezi, where we had been invited to fish with a new operation called; Zambezi\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3239,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=3239","url_meta":{"origin":2746,"position":2},"title":"Lower Zambezi Tiger Fish Under Pressure","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"January 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the last few weeks of 2013 I did a few trips into some different parts of Africa which really highlighted the issue of our fish resources being decimated by unsustainable fishing. The areas I visited were vastly different in many ways, but one thing that every one of them\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"b2ap3_thumbnail_DSC_5628.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/b2ap3_thumbnail_DSC_5628.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3157,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=3157","url_meta":{"origin":2746,"position":3},"title":"Matoya Lodge, upper Zambezi","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"June 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Just back from an awesome trip to the upper Zambezi. Winter is definitely the best time for that part of the river, where the floodplains are drying up and baitfish are being forced back into the main river. It seems that all the big tigers gather there and are hungry\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"b2ap3_thumbnail_IMG_0281.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/b2ap3_thumbnail_IMG_0281.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6721,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=6721","url_meta":{"origin":2746,"position":4},"title":"Creatures Great and Small","author":"Gareth","date":"November 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"What draws any angler to a piece of water seems like a simple answer. I mean, if there weren\u2019t any fish to be had, why would we bother? How\u2019s the fishing been, is the leading question, but what we really want to know is how good is it expected to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fly"","block_context":{"text":"Fly","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Blog.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Blog.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Blog.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Blog.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14201,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=14201","url_meta":{"origin":2746,"position":5},"title":"Mixing It Up","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"November 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"When it comes to catching big tigerfish, one of the most important considerations is to fish in remote areas that don\u2019t get a huge amount of fishing pressure. 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