After Steve landed his first tigerfish last night, a 13lber, I made it clear that this huge fish was not the norm.  I didn’t want him to expect such incredible fish all week.  That’s never a good thing.  But after his second fish he must have thought I was joking with him.

Steve and I went out with guide Mark Murray and being that the Bus Stop produced last night we hit it again first thing this morning.  Like last night I kicked back and let Steve get the first few swings through the hole.  Lo and behold he got grabbed by another beast.  Steve’s second tigerfish was 16lbs!

Two hook ups and two big fish, that’s nothing but good news for me, the guides and Tourette Fishing, because now I can fish my butt off with Steve and no matter how Steve’s fishing is from this point on, his trip is a huge success!

The reality is that fishing has gone from decent to outstanding in the last 48 hours.  Last week was undoubtedly good but the results today were shocking.  The end tally for today were a 10lb, 13lb and 14lb for me along with eight others just under 10lbs.  Steve laid into a 17lb in the afternoon and Oliver and John landed an 11lb, 13lb and a monstrosity of a tiger, 19lbs!

There was some extra excitement today as well. The first was simply an encounter with one of the neatest snakes I’ve ever seen.  This part of Africa is loaded with snakes and that includes some deadly ones such as the black mamba and the spitting cobra.  Luckily the snake we found today was a green water snake.  The rascal barely reaches two feet and this guy was a mere 15”.  I spotted him crossing the river while casting from a beach (a safe distance from the edge of deep water because of crocs).  I was able to set down my rod and wait for him to arrive on my bank.

Naturally when he saw me he spooked and dove deep and I lost him.  I waited and waited thinking he had to come up.  Just as I gave up to go back to casting I noticed a suspicious leaf and piece of grass floating down.  It wasn’t grass; my little water snake was mimicking the grass.  Very good hide job I must say.

The second bit of excitement is less fun to talk about.  While I was out of the boat casting from a sandbar, Steve and Mark had the boat up on another sandbar.  Steve was in the boat casting and Mark was sitting on the side with his feet in the sand watching.  Steve hooked into his hefty 17lb tiger and the fight ensued.

With any big fish, the hardest part of the battle occurs at the end next to the net.  It was especially hard at the end of this fight because Steve was hoisting the panicked fish from the deep water up on to the shallows of the sandbar.  Every time he got him up, the fish pealed off back to the deep.  Mark instinctively went to the edge of the sandbar to net the fish.  Bad move.  Just as he netted the 17lb tigerfish an enormous crocodile lunged from the deep.  It looked like the crock was trying for Mark and didn’t seem to miss by much.  Realistically, Mark was in such a precarious place that if the crock was after him he’d of got him.  I’m sure it was after the tigerfish.

It was a terrifying moment that could have easily ended horrifically.  All of us were shaken and Mark, who collapsed in the boat with a net full of tigerfish on top of him, walked up to land and went into state of shock.  There will be no more chances taken for years to come – guaranteed.

For information about this incredible trip feel free to CONTACT ME.

Be sure and visit Tourette Fishing – Fight it in Africa.

And ask about my future hosted trips through Yellow Dog FlyFishing Adventures.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing