![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/4fd8a9b5dfe07.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhile spinning for tigerfish in the Ruaha river in Tanzania near Kilombero, I caught this unusual fish. It took a copper Blue Fox spinner out in the main current of the river, and jumped just like a tiger. It was only when I landed it and saw the head that I realised that it was not a tigerfish at all, but something completely different.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here is a closeup of the fish’s mouth and head area. A small round mouth, with stubby little teeth.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/4fd8aa1008ac2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Compare that head with that of a Tanzanian Tiger below.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/4fd8ac27804bd.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
On my return to South Africa I sent pics to the guys at Rhodes University and they confirmed that it was a species known as Alestes stuhlmanii, but quite a bit bigger than they had thought it grew to. I thought I would just post it here, as it is an unusual catch, and if anybody is going fishing in that part of the world they may also come into contact with one of these strange fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While spinning for tigerfish in the Ruaha river in Tanzania near Kilombero, I caught this unusual fish. It took a copper Blue Fox spinner out in the main current of the river, and jumped just like a tiger. It was only when I landed it and saw the head that I realised that it was not a tigerfish at all, but something completely different. Here is a closeup of the fish’s mouth and head area. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":4527,"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":[51,71],"tags":[323,322,324,239],"class_list":["post-2857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations","category-tanzania","tag-kilombero","tag-tanzania","tag-tanzanian-tiger","tag-tiger"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/4fd8a9b5dfe07.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2981,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=2981","url_meta":{"origin":2857,"position":0},"title":"Tigers of Tanzania","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"July 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Tigerfish are Africa\u2019s own freshwater game fish, they occur nowhere else in the world. There are five species of tigerfish on the African continent, of which three are considered to be prime angling species.\u00a0 The best known of these is Hydrocynus vitatus, the species that is caught in the Zambezi\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Destinations"","block_context":{"text":"Destinations","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?cat=51"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2542,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=2542","url_meta":{"origin":2857,"position":1},"title":"Tiger Blues and Jackpots","author":"Rhuan Human","date":"September 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Tigerfish are fairly easy to catch, aren't they...? Television programs and viral videos always paint the picture of Tigerfish feeding constantly, aggressive and hungry all the time and eating anything and everything that dares cross their path. This is what I used to think until I got my first taste\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2611,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=2611","url_meta":{"origin":2857,"position":2},"title":"The Blue Tiger","author":"Gareth","date":"September 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite man\u2019s appetites, the Kilombero valley in Tanzania remains one of the last great frontiers to explore. The Kilombero is the largest tributary of the Rufuji river, which from it's source in the Livingston Mountains to the Indian Ocean is more than 600 km long. When flooded, at it\u2019s peak\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/b2ap3_thumbnail_Tiger-Duo2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3176,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=3176","url_meta":{"origin":2857,"position":3},"title":"Kilombero Blues","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"September 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been fortunate to fish a number of areas which are unspoilt, undisturbed, and where the fishing remains as good today as it must have been at any stage in history. Last week I returned from another one of these special trips, where we had been fishing for tigerfish\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/b2ap3_thumbnail_DSC_8365.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3302,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=3302","url_meta":{"origin":2857,"position":4},"title":"Tiger Talk","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"April 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If I could say one word to a tigerfish in a language that he could understand, it would be; \u2018respect\u2019. Tigers are one of the most lethal underwater predators that we get to encounter as fishermen. They have a set of teeth that strikes fear into the heart of any\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2861,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=2861","url_meta":{"origin":2857,"position":5},"title":"Tigerfish on Surface Lures","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"June 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"On a recent trip to Barotse Tiger Camp In Zambia I decided that I was going to dedicate a fair bit of time to catching tigerfish on surface lures. My mate Gerard Simpson, who is one of the co-owners of the camp told me that they had been having some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Destinations"","block_context":{"text":"Destinations","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?cat=51"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8sv9-K5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4530,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2857\/revisions\/4530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}