Fishing with the Mother-in-law
A family go off camping and ?shing for a few days, taking the mother-in-law along for the trip. One
morning, the ?sherman’s wife wakes to ?nd her mother gone. She woke her husband, and they both set
off in search of the old woman. In a clearing not far from the camp, they came upon a chilling sight - The
mother-in-law was standing face to face with a ferocious lion.
“What are we going to do?” his horri?ed wife asked.
“Nothing” her husband replied, “The lion got himself into this mess, let him get himself out of it!”
CONTENTS - VOL 24#3
Kariba seems to have an “On” button, as once again over
Zimbabwe’s long holiday weekend in August, many sizeable tigerfish
were taken in the lake. In 2011, young Justyn Fowler hooked and
landed what would become the new Junior IGFA world record,
weighing in at 11,145kg, when, as happened this year, a sudden warm
spell activated the big tiger into feeding.
Over the weekend of 10-13 August, Steven Macdonald hooked and
landed a tigerfish of 12.2kg. While young Justyn was using live bait
last year, Steven was throwing a tiger spinner which he reports the
fish smashed hard and was well hooked. Steven recalls “My friends
and I went up to Kariba in the second week of August, over the long
weekend and stayed at OH Lodges in Charara.
“After a semi-heavy night, only three of us made it up early enough
to go fishing. After a little trouble with the battery terminals, we got
going and headed straight for the bream nets on the Charara side of
Antelope Island to try a bit of spinning. We were using the Fibrecraft
Riverbird that was won at the 50th KITFT Tournament (a prize for
the biggest tiger caught over 10kg), so we had a bit of luck on our
side, not that we needed it!
“Within about half an hour, we had one fish in the boat and had dropped
about five. About two minutes after I lost one, I hooked into a Mother!
I could feel right away that it was bigger than any tiger I had ever
hooked before. Only after it jumped did proper panic set in and all
lines were brought in and instructions yelled at me by the other two
more experienced fishermen - Brendon Pope and Justin Heymens.
“It jumped once or twice before it started getting tired and I was able
to bring it closer to the boat. We were then able to get a better look at
it in the water, and after seeing what a ‘pig’ it actual was, we were all
pretty speechless!! It jumped again right by the boat and then it was
time to stop messing around and get it in the boat. Only then did we
realise that we had no landing net, and will have to lip-land it. After
about 10 attempts to get it alongside the boat, it kept ducking away
as soon as it saw the boat, so we thought better to tire it out before
we bog it properly. Brendan tried to grab the tail only to realise he
couldn’t as it was far too thick to get a good grip. We then got a life
jacket and eased the fish into it, and then Brendon and Justin gently
lifted it into the boat. It had taken about 20-25 minutes to get it in.
“We couldn’t believe what had just happened, and after high fives
and congratulations all round, we cracked open a cold nutter, closely
followed by dozens more, and that was basically our fishing done
for the trip, as we had landed probably the biggest tiger all three of
us had ever seen.
“I was using a Sensation Im6 graphite, Bass Zone III, two-piece
rod, and a Magma, 8 bearing system, 7:1 gear ratio bait caster, using
Double X 7.73kg (17lb Plus) line and a simple spinner with a red body
and silver spoon (with three notches) - all tackle I got from famed
tigerfisherman Danie Swart.”
The African Fisherman is published six times per annum by Mag-Set Publications (Pvt) Ltd, as a service to the community, and is committed to the preservation
of the environment and its angling resources. We support junior angling and a policy of selective harvest of all species, and catch and release of certain species,
and the fostering of goodwill among all bene?ciaries of these resources.
Email [email protected], [email protected]
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