I slept like a rock so instead of chilling around camp before breakfast I grabbed my new 6-weight Winston Air and couple streamers and hiked up the Faro River from camp. The sandy river bottom is so clean I went barefoot. Wet wading barefoot in an African river early in the morning is far better than strong coffee.
I had a target fish in mind as well – the smallest of the tigerfish species here, the (hydrocynus forskahlii). He’s a cute little guy made for the trout rod. He has a much thinner profile than his cousins like the brevis I caught the other night. I caught about four of them before breakfast.
We loaded the truck and headed for the river before 10. Everyone was feeling good today. We planned to split up the group. Stu was going to take me, Jako and Nick which entailed a ten minute bushwhack. The truck pulled over and we hopped out to get ready.
Before we could leave however, Bebe had to do his usual sweep. This one would take longer due to the ten minute walk to the river. Stu went with. Stu and Bebe arrived back with news of potential poachers in the area. It was decided to fish another beat, and get the military to investigate further.
If you read yesterdays blog you remember the guys requested assistance from the military to catch illegal fishermen. The military arrived late last night and as we were leaving they were getting ready too also. Now Stu and Bebe were able to point them in the direction of suspected meat poachers. The bush meat industry in Africa is a multi million dollar industry. It takes year long anti poaching efforts and coordinated efforts from private sector and the government to keep it under control. It was great to see the synergy between the private anti-poaching team and the government in this instance. No messing around in Cameroon as they say!
The spot we ended up going looked more like a Montana river. Only its still tremendously hot. I found a good run to work while Nick and Jako went above. I saw Nick hook into a fish rather quickly.
We don’t know its common name but it’s a member of a large family of fishes called Labeos. There are a ton of Labeos in the Faro River and at least several different kinds. This one is the (Labeo coubie). Other than his knobby head it’s a gorgeous fish with its oversized dorsal fin and faint orange dots.
The amazing thing here is that Labeos are rarely caught – fly or bait. They suck algae off the rocks. After shooting some pics and releasing Nicks unique catch, Jako went into the pool and caught another. Absolutely amazing!
Jako hollered for me to come up and try and get one as well, but I continued in my pool and laid into a nice barb. I knew the chances of a third Labeo were over the moon. I’ve tried hard for other species of Labeo in the Himalayan foothills before and through an intense effort managed only one. It was a monster from Bhutan in 2014.
It was forecasted to get hotter in Cameroon each day we’re here. Today you could’ve boiled water on the rocks. We tracked down a shallow pool with no hippos nor crocodiles and soaked in the water for half an hour before lunch.
We were ready to fish again before Nile perch hour so I made a fast run downstream through some riffles with my 6-weight to catch a few more barbs. I absolutely love these fish. However, perhaps I should’ve been rigged for tigerfish instead. This nice Niger barb got bit in half by a large tiger as I was fighting him in. Its not just the hippos and crocodiles that are fierce around here.
A couple of the guys, Mark and Brian, still hadn’t landed a decent perch at night. This drought came to an end for Brian tonight when he nabbed a 74 cm 18lb perch with Keith. It’s a long way to come without laying into at least one nice one. Congrats to Brian.
Jako upped his fish size tonight adding an 84 cm fatty of 25lbs. We were fishing the same area we fished the first night and Jako was in the hole where Bill got his 17lb. I was watching the bouncing beaming headlamps from afar and all I can say is these bigger fish put on a show.
And the way it works, just like the Tourette guides Stu and Greg said, you catch one perch then the rest of you better be ready. The bite was seriously on and sure enough as I was doing my ever so famous, “streamer hang” just before I lifted my fly from the water to recast and it got crushed. It wasn’t a huge fish but the take at my feet – it doesn’t get any better. I landed a 72 cm 11lb perch to seal another great day of fishing in Cameroon.
We packed it up later than usual with hopes of more hook ups and perhaps a monster. But at 10:15 the temperature dropped and we’ve learned what that means – time to go home and eat. We did. Tomorrow is our last day.
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