Lower Phongolo River Tigers
Having needed to do some work in the area from where the Pongola River flows out of the Jozini Dam up to and past the Mjindi area this weekend I could not resist taking a rod with to see what the waters at this time of the year would produce, I was very keen to see if I would be able to pick up some Tigers maybe even the odd Largescale Yellow or so. These sections of the river used to be my childhood beats and haunts and I have always returned to them with a warm feeling in my heart and fond memories of fishing from the banks standing in the shade of the big Wild Fig and Combretums that line the rivers banks here.
The waters have receded quite some since our last visit in December and most of the pools are very shallow and super clear, the fishing wasn’t easy either, due to the temperature of the water at this time of the year, but working out a pattern that exited the tigers appetites didn’t take much time and tigers will be tigers and small tigers have to eat to grow into larger tigers.
No fish worth taking a photo of were caught and all were rats and mice of up to 500 grams and nothing larger, yet we had tons of fun walking and wading upstream in search of the heads of the deeper pools and runs where the faster the current spilled into the deeper sections, whenever a small silver DAM spinner size 2 with the treble removed and replaced with a single Mustad Tarpon Red # 2 tipped with a small bass belly strip was cast into the fast water and retrieved into the slower deeper pools and eddies, it would be pounced on by a tiger, nothing beats the tigers take even when they are small they remain feisty fish. Casting tight up to the bank over deeper water and letting the spinner sink before commencing the retrieve produced the larger sized specimens.
Even though no trophies were caught just getting out of the cold and changing the target species was a great alternative to the cold water yellow fishing we have been doing the last month or so.
BTW does anyone know when last a survey of fish diversity was done in this section of the Phongolo and what the results were, or does anyone know where the yellows have gone and when last one was taken. As a youngster I recall taking Mozambique Tilapia, Sharptooth Catfish, Silver Catfish, Squeakers and Largescale Yellowfish the tilapia and catfish are still there together with the tigers but it would be nice to know about the yellows there.
Having needed to do some work in the area from where the Pongola River flows out of the Jozini Dam up to and past the Mjindi area this weekend I could not resist taking a rod with to see what the waters at this time of the year would produce, I was very keen to see if I would be able to pick up some Tigers maybe even the odd Largescale Yellow or so. These sections of the river used to be my childhood beats and haunts and I have always returned to them with a warm feeling in my heart and fond memories of fishing from the banks standing in the shade of the big Wild Fig and Combretums that line the rivers banks here.
The waters have receded quite some since our last visit in December and most of the pools are very shallow and super clear, the fishing wasn’t easy either, due to the temperature of the water at this time of the year, but working out a pattern that exited the tigers appetites didn’t take much time and tigers will be tigers and small tigers have to eat to grow into larger tigers.
No fish worth taking a photo of were caught and all were rats and mice of up to 500 grams and nothing larger, yet we had tons of fun walking and wading upstream in search of the heads of the deeper pools and runs where the faster the current spilled into the deeper sections, whenever a small silver DAM spinner size 2 with the treble removed and replaced with a single Mustad Tarpon Red # 2 tipped with a small bass belly strip was cast into the fast water and retrieved into the slower deeper pools and eddies, it would be pounced on by a tiger, nothing beats the tigers take even when they are small they remain feisty fish. Casting tight up to the bank over deeper water and letting the spinner sink before commencing the retrieve produced the larger sized specimens.
Even though no trophies were caught just getting out of the cold and changing the target species was a great alternative to the cold water yellow fishing we have been doing the last month or so.
BTW does anyone know when last a survey of fish diversity was done in this section of the Phongolo and what the results were, or does anyone know where the yellows have gone and when last one was taken. As a youngster I recall taking Mozambique Tilapia, Sharptooth Catfish, Silver Catfish, Squeakers and Largescale Yellowfish the tilapia and catfish are still there together with the tigers but it would be nice to know about the yellows there.
