Cameroon Fishing Trips
Cameroon Fishing Trips: “I could out-drive you any day of the week”, challenged Riley (handicap 6) to Chris ‘Stof’ Fleming (handicap 2). To my non-golfing mind this seemed perfectly reasonable, I mean six is bigger than 2 so he must be able to hit the ball further. Or maybe it’s all about who has the better bats? The facial expressions of Stof and the rest of the first group following this typically hubristic challenge suggested that I may be missing something, but this sort of kakpraat, fueled mostly by ice cold Doppel Munich beer, set the tone for week 1 in Cameroon.
A Strange Fish in the Faro
The fishing on the third evening had been uncharacteristically quiet. Chris Carter had managed a couple of small perch, but everyone else hadn’t had a bump and so I decided to take Stof and Joe downstream to a slightly shallower area. Maybe the perch had moved out of the depths to hunt in the shallows? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. We set up along the beach about 30m apart and started sending casts into the darkness, hoping desperately that none of the hippos that kept coming past would find themselves with an 8/0 gamakatsu piercing. All quiet. Not a touch for 20 minutes or so. “I’m ON!” shouted Joe as his headlamp came on, cutting through the night. I immediately ran over to see how I could help, but the fight was weird. It didn’t move much and then just came in, rather than the typical unstoppable runs to structure of a big perch. Into the shallows came a strange snake-like fish which took me a second to ID as my brain tried to be sure my eyes were not deceiving me. “Bloody Hell, it’s a knife-fish!” I shouted over my shoulder. It must surely be foulhooked, I thought, but no, there was the 8/0 perch peanut neatly in the corner of the mouth.
There is a good chance that this was the second African Knife fish ever to have been caught on artificial, and definitely the second on fly. I say the second because, unbelievably, the first had been caught that morning on a tigerfish fly. While they are predatory, they use electric organs to generate a field used to detect prey, presumably working on interference created by the nervous systems of smaller fishes. Flies do not emit electrical currents like the nervous systems of their prey, and so after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to sight-fish them in my first season, I gave up and assumed it was impossible to get them to eat a fly. And then our first group of my third season here caught two in one day and nuked all of my assumptions. Weird. Riley has managed to nymph one with a squirmy since then as well, so watch this space for more of these odd-looking creatures.
General Catch Report
The river is looking fantastic and is dropping fast. The cooler water in the early mornings kept the tigerfish a bit sluggish until the sun was nice and high, but as soon as the days warmed up some serious brutes were hooked and plenty of medium-sized tigers were landed. There was even a bit of topwater action on the last morning.
The perch fishing has been pretty good as well, with everyone getting a few fish and almost everyone getting at least one in the mid-80cm range, although nothing over a metre was landed this week. The really big perch did keep trying to eat hooked tigerfish though, so they were definitely around.
As is typical at the beginning of the season, the barbs were few and far between, although despite this, almost everyone managed to tick off the species and get some large tetras on the side.
In Closing
The season has now well and truly started. The fish are active, the tsetses are hungry, the beers are cold, the showers are hot, and the hippos, crocs and Riley have all been told to behave. We now eagerly await the arrival of our next guests.
If you’ve been dreaming of Cameroon fishing trips, now is the time to make it happen. Book your spot and get ready for an unforgettable experience!
