AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE: A story of a fishery, where no fishery has been before. Part 3

Our ˋTigers R Us’ operation. . .

WORDS: Dave Charly IMAGES: Supplied

Part 3

As 2021 rolled into 2022 we were impressively failing with the stocking of Tigerfish as only a meagre 30 fish had been released into the larger dam in half a year of trying. We had a 12-acre dam to stock with one of Africa’s most sought-after freshwater game fish, along with populating the carp dam with these incredible predators to ensure it never got over run with smallies. We planned to stock 300 Tigers in total, and you don’t have to be a math’s professor to calculate how long this was currently going to take. A rethink and a new plan of action was certainly necessary!

Six months of serious trying only resulted in 30 Tigerfish being stocked … not ideal!

One weekend I was given the contact number of the son of a lodge owner where I had stayed at its massive dam (over 37,000 acres) and had the immense pleasure to catch some small Tigerfish. He informed me he was due to visit on the 14 January, and that he could easily catch between 50-100 Tigerfish a day. 50 to100 a day?! I couldn´t believe what I was hearing, but he was adamant that that was what he regularly caught. He also said he was happy to take us out fishing over that weekend, and proudly stated he could guarantee 200 Tigerfish!

Plan A was failing; could this be Plan B? The logistics involved would be significant to say the least. If all went to plan catch-wise, to transfer the fish back to the farm we were going need a big truck, loaded with a generator to aerate a couple of large water tanks, each holding few tons of water, and hopefully loads of healthy, live Tigerfish. Even with a decent vehicle, the drive is a good 3 hours, so the truck could be taking in excess of 5 hours. Add to this that these fish are incredibly sensitive and highly susceptible to ˋkarking itˋ if they become too stressed.

We had to think ethically here, as none of us wanted a fish massacre on our hands just because we thought we had a great idea. Then Piet’s brother sent through a fisheries document he found from Australia about transporting live fish, and amongst these pages we found something that we all agreed might just make this crazy scheme work!

The use of netted cages attached to the side of boats is an extremely successful method for fishermen to keep their catches live and healthy, by immediately transferring the caught fish into the cages. The stress is very limited and quick for the fish, and they remain in their natural water inside the cages. The flow of water through these cages means there is never a build-up of toxic ammonia or lack of oxygen. This method was exactly what we needed, and now we were all happy for operation ˋTigers R Us’ to proceed.

In the days leading up to operation ˋTigers R Us’, Jack from the farm got busy adapting two 5,000l water tanks for transferring the fish, including making ring blowers for aeration and installing fitted nets inside the tanks for quick and easy removal of fish. A generator was secured to the truck’s flat bed, along with the tanks and air pipes. In the meantime, before our arrival, the lodge owners were busy building a 3m x 3m x 1.5m deep floating cage. This solid structure would be covered in shade netting, and then two separate nets hung inside. This was to avoid, or shall I say hopefully reduce, the chance of predation by the giant crocodiles and massive Tigerfish that call the dam home. The cage would be fitted with four 200l drums as floatation devices, and would be afloat in the dam for when we arrived in the afternoon of the 14th.

Four of us set off to the dam just after lunchtime on the Friday, and the plan was to only send the truck up on the Sunday afternoon, and we would transfer our abundant catch of Tigers to the truck around 4am on the Monday. I was buzzing, everything was planned, prepared and we were on our way to solve this huge stocking challenge. We had bets in the car about how many Tigers we were going to catch, and I put my money on 200-plus. Slightly concernedly, Piet said he´d be very surprised if we even got 50 . . . Shame on him I thought! This was going to work, and positive energy brings about positive results.

We only arrived at the lodge just after the sun had set, as we´d stopped for a bit of late lunch and a couple of cold ones along the way. The setting was spectacular; the African skies never disappoint with the depth of evolving colours as the sun bids another farewell by dipping beyond the horizon. We were finally here and everything was in place to make this happen. The evening’s conversations around a fire about the dam’s giant Tigerfish, along with the countless smallies we were going to catch, made the beers go down even smoother than usual!

My alarm awoke me from my fishy dreams at 04:30, and within half an hour we were launching the fishing boat, out for the day’s adventure. The only problem was: there was no floating cage to put the fish into! The lodge owner’s son explained that we mustn´t worry and it would be ready by lunchtime. Lunchtime?! Why wasn´t it in the water already, and why wasn´t this mentioned last night?! I didn´t want to upset anyone at this point, but we had made huge efforts to get our side ready for this weekend, and this wasn´t an ideal start!

Then, as the sun began to say hello in the east, something else caught my attention that wasn´t ideal to say the least. The water was the colour of pea soup! The algal bloom that was present in the water certainly wasn´t going to help us catch Tigers with small spinning lures. I began to think Piet might just have known something I didn´t, and was more than likely going to win our bet.

The morning’s fishing was slower than we had hoped, but the only favourable thing was that we anyway didn´t even have a place to put the fish into! Around 11:30 we got the call that the cage was ready and at the water’s edge. Finally, some good news, and we motored back to the shore. Upon arrival it was clear that their ready wasn’t exactly the ready we had agreed upon. There were no floatation drums attached . . . now I had a sinking feeling. Anyways, all we could do was suffer under the midday African summer sun and fix the four drums to the cage.

Obviously patience was somewhat thin at this point, and when our first cage launch into the water resulted in two drums coming loose and the cage close to drowning itself, a couple of heated dialogues were exchanged. Jack waded waist deep into the dam to help drag the cage out, and even the water did little to cool his temper! A quick re-tie of the drums and the cage was finally floating nicely on the water’s surface. But so too was a huge 4m-plus crocodile that surfaced no more than 20m away from where Jack had been wading in the margins just 15 mins ago! Africa is not for the faint hearted. . .

The floating cage at the water’s edge …

… and finally floating as intended!

Back out into the dam we went, now early afternoon, and nothing to show for our efforts. Eventually I hooked and landed a small Tigerfish, and we had a cage to put it into. I quickly unhooked it in the landing net and admired this wonderful fish. Maybe this was going to work after all, it wasn´t the start we were expecting, but we had a live Tiger ready for the cage. I dragged the landing net towards the cage still in the water, as I didn´t want to stress the fish by lifting it out of the water. Then much to my shock and surprise, it lifted itself out of the water by jumping straight out of my net and back into the dam!

To cut a long story short, we fished the rest of Saturday, and most of Sunday without even a bite! To say the weekend failed our, or maybe my, expectations was an understatement to say the least! The return journey that Sunday evening felt ten times longer than the route we had driven just two days earlier. What a disaster, and with so much time, effort and money put into it by the team, I was gutted. Sweet nothing was the result of our endeavours. I just couldn´t see anything constructively learnt from this mission. We returned empty handed, and the weight of pressure to stock the dams with Tigerfish was now weighing heavier than before. Both plans A and B had failed, that was the reality I faced and I honestly didn´t know what to do next.

Back at the fishery, another issue was growing, quite literally. The carp dam had been filled with water about 6 months ago, but now about 75% of its surface had shoots of grass protruding vertically into the air, rendering it almost impossible to fish. I needed to find out exactly what depths we had where this grass was growing, so on the last Sunday of January I decided to get in and find out.

I asked Jack to keep an eye out for me, as we knew there had been a crocodile seen recently in the far corner of the dam. I was heading into the middle of the dam, so was chilled about getting wet, plus I had a metre-long stick with me so I could prod the bottom as I moved further into the dam. I’d left my phone with Jack to take pics showing where the water was coming up to on my body so we could see what was going on. Most of the water was between waist to chest deep, and at around 50m out I turned to face him again for another pic. It was at this point Piet joined Jack, and jokingly commented that this might be the last time we see Dave Charley!

Apparently Piet hadn’t completed his sentence before Jack suddenly started screaming at me! I shouted back that he better not be fooling around, but he certainly seemed quite agitated and loud in his reply that he wasn’t. I pivoted to check my surroundings, and in a clearing about 15m away I saw a huge swirl as a croc tail slapped the waters surfaces and disappeared.

Bollocks!

I was almost chest deep in water and around 50m from the bank, with a crocodile in very close proximity! In all the fishery management documents I’d studied, nothing was ever mentioned about what to do in this kind of scenario. I genuinely don’t remember the following moments clearly, other than running/wading for my life through the weedy water in front of me. I do remember jabbing my trusty stick aggressively into the water behind me, not that that would have actually done much! Piet swears he did see another swirl and to this day is adamant that it was following me. Jack came down to the water’s edge to help grab me out, and I was só relieved to find myself safely back on terra firma! I’d just done my best aquatic Linford Christie impression and I was alive and in one piece.

Two days later, the guys at the farm managed to safely trap the crocodile, which measured an impressive 2.7m, and was released into the nearby river in a very remote area. A happy ending to what could have been a disaster . . . safety should never take a day off!

In the inverted C clearing 15m behind me there was a huge swirl …

… a 2.7m Croc!

Let’s just put it this way: 2022 wasn’t exactly going to plan and I wouldn’t be wading out again ever again if there was any chance there might be a croc in the water. I’d rather stick to a marker rod and float!

There are always positives however, and although I’d had a month to forget, the carp were growing incredibly, with many already exceeding 2kg, even though they were only one and half years old! Plus, the fishery was starting to mature and look amazing.

Now I just needed to find the solution to stocking the Tigers!