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Something Fishy
To wake, to a
clean crisp winter’s morning, the sun also struggling to rise, a
Fish eagle’s mournful cry gives promise to an eventful day of
fishing.
Now one just
cannot just jump on the boat and take off at this very cold hour,
unless of course dressed like an Eskimo, and hey this is a relaxing
weekend not “C” for serious!
The ritual of
condensed milk coffee needs to be practiced, and this in itself has
now become an art form. Fresh beans, compliments of a certain
farmer, roasted in a home made tumbler, mixed blend of medium to
well roast, if you do not mind, ground to the perfect texture,
whereby to release the full flavor, brewed over an open fire with
the sweet waters of the Kafue! Finally desecrated with a large
amount of condensed milk and all this before we have even caught a
fish … Imagine!!!
The Kafue River,
I refer to above Itezhi Tezhi, gives an inkling of how, unabated by
dam walls etc, a river changes so much according to the seasons. As
the season (Fishing of course) opens, a trip to the Kafue is like
doing a miniature “White Water” rafting tour. This year the river
was at least 2 m high, and thundering. The diversity of species that
will readily take a lure, spinner or bait in the Kafue is
astonishing. To be honest I’m still not sure what the difference is
between a small mouth, big mouth, hump-back and slide jaw, not
really worried either, just as long as they keep biting...
That time of year
makes for some very interesting fishing. Trying to drift leisurely
down, casting to likely looking spots, was pointless, as by the time
your lure landed, you had of course moved on a few metres and had to
get your lure out of the trees and if you blundered the cast, well
going back up stream to retrieve your lure from the apprehensive
branch is a task in itself.
Trail and error,
is the name of the game, the fish are there, just hiding. They too
are trying to get out of that fast water, cos’ trying to fight it,
uses a lot of energy, so seeking the quieter water, deep in the
trees or behind islands and in the big eddies created by the large
rocks, is where they will be sitting.
This is very
entertaining fishing, and if one is brave enough to throw a lure,
laced with a couple of treble hooks into the thick of things, then a
fish is certain. Using a sinking lure or jerk bait is perfect, let
the lure sink for a while then a few jerks … hold on … cos that is
all it will take to get that “Slab” to come up and snatch that lure.
I like throwing a spinner bait or bream spinner or better still a
plastic grub or crawdad. All these type of bait are designed to stay
in the strike zone for a time, which is what you want. The target
area is small, so we want a bait, that once in the spot, can stay
there thus attracting a fish that may be holding there.
In the bigger
eddies a crank bait can be worked through the eddy, always try from
different angles, that is say from up stream, sideways and down
stream. Eddies will be holding fish, they may not be hungry fish,
but will take a lure with aggression. So be persistent, but not to
the point of boredom of course.
As the waters
recede so the fishing becomes easier; well from a leisurely point of
view, however those rocks that were hidden are now showing, so
boating becomes far more hazardous to say the least. That’s were a
trusty electric trolling motor comes in very handy, trim the old
motor up and use the bass motor to move around from spot to spot.
Ideal. Although the banks are still great target areas to fish,
remember that the water is much shallower now and the bigger fish
will move into the deeper water and sit around rocks, stumps and
other structures in the actual river. Finding these spots will
certainly produce a better quality fish.
If throwing a
lure, do not be scared to throw the bait way past the structure, the
idea being that when the lure gets to the structure, it is already
down and in the strike zone, one will feel the lure hit the rock for
example, slow the retrieve down and let the lure float up a bit,
then work the bait over the rocks, with a couple of jerks, fast and
slow retrieves. This sporadic movement of the lure is identical to
say a small struggling bait fish and will certainly evoke a strike.
If a fish is hiding on your side of the rock, the noise of the
coming lure will attract the fish’s attention, then all of a sudden
this bait arrives over the top of the rock and into the fish’s
strike zone ...“I’ll have that…Thank-YOU” and you’re on!!!
The Kafue River!!
Even the name sounds majestic. This is an awesome River, with some
incredible fishing (I won’t go into the wildlife and birds). The
facilities along Her banks cater for everyone from camping to luxury
lodges. One can fish the River not 50 kms from Lusaka. However this
is a resource that needs to be nurtured not plundered!
So remember
practice “Catch & Release” & “Selective Harvest”
Tight Lines.
River Rat.
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July
2007