Just a quick report on a trip we undertook to the Komatipoort area recently. While there we decided to try and catch some tiger fish since neither of us have ever caught or even seen one in real life. After a very brief search we found and booked with Taurus Tiger Fishing, who offer guided fishing trips on the Komati River, and off we went…
Fishing
Luckily for us we had our own private guided barge on the river which was awesome, there was another larger rowdy group but they had their own boat. It didn’t take long for us to reach the first spot where we learnt how to rig and bait our rods and started fishing. It was our first time using chicken hearts as bait but not the last, we’re going to try them for barbel soon…
Fishing wasn’t easy. Not for a lack of bites, they were biting all the time, we just couldn’t catch them. They are surprisingly sneaky and strong, you have to pay close attention or you will lose your rod. No fish at spot one but lots of fun though.
The next spot was at a weir in the river where the bites were non-stop but we once again struggled to hook one. It was a hot day so Martin and our skipper decided to have some fun by climbing onto the weir. Crazy if you ask me (with crocs around) but at least they cooled off. Have a look at the video below to see what happened.
After safely returning Martin finally caught his tiger fish. It was tiny but it counts I guess 🙂
After that we continued trying to catch the sneaky buggers and also visited two further spots before our time ran out and we headed back. I blanked but at least Martin got the tiger fish he so desperately wanted to catch.
Summary
A great day out on the Komati River. We only caught the one tiger fish but it was an awesome experience nonetheless. It’s a beautiful part of our country and we highly recommend you try it if you are in the area with some time to burn. Having said that we definitely will be resuming our battle with the sneaky tiger fish in the future, I need to catch one, which will surely be bigger than Martin’s effort 🙂
I guess one thing we learnt is to give the tiger fish a moment to swallow the bait before striking. We often striked too soon and missed them that way. That is how we bass fish but those rules don’t apply to tiger fishing, you need to be more patient.
(1 day)
tiger fish x1 (tiny)
Hi Guys
What a lovely little video clip, very interested to do a trip like this. Thanks for the information. How do I see your blog more often?
Hi Barry,
Thanks a lot, that’s very kind.
We are busy perfecting our newsletter so subscribers get notified when we post anything but it’s not ready yet. So unfortunately for now I guess there is no other way but Google 🙂
Regards
Linky