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TROLLING FOR TIGERS
Trolling for
Tigerfish (the “hard-fish” technique)
The
tigerfish is a very aggressive and ferocious predator that will attack
just about any moving object smaller than itself when feeding. The use of
lures is ideal for catching this hard fighting piscatorial specimen but
sometimes spinning for them just won’t provide the goods and a
different approach has to be used.
Trolling
for tigers is mostly used over the months of September to December when
the river is at its lowest, cleanest and warmest, although I do also use
trawling over the spinning months if conditions become hard due to either
heavy wind or a severe change in barometric pressure. Although dragging a
piece of balsa behind you for sometimes marathon distances isn’t
everybody’s idea of exciting fishing, there is no doubt that this
technique has the ability to consistently provide fishermen with trophy
size hookups and is definitely the most successful of all tactics in the
“hard fish” season.
There
are many reasons and factors that contribute to making trolling the
technique of choice over the months of September through to December.
Over these months the water is at its lowest, is at its cleanest, is at
its warmest and is at its slowest. All these factors make for very hard
tiger fishing on the upper Zambezi. At this time of the
year the tigerfish move back to their home range territories and are not
in concentration as they were when the floodplains were dropping from
June to August. The tigerfish are very skittish in cleaner water as they
are preyed on by fish eagles and crocodiles. The warm slow moving water
becomes poorly oxygenated and tigerfish are just not as aggressive.
Trawling
gives the angler the opportunity to cover maximum water in search of
feeding fish and provide some distance between fishermen and lure that
could not be achieved when spinning.
Techniques &
Tactics
Although the equipment used for this method of
fishing is mostly the same as the equipment used for spinning, the
trolling technique is in fact a lot different to spinning. Trolling is
basically done by dragging a lure off the back of a boat at an idle
speed. Although this sounds pretty simple, trolling can be quite
challenging for a guide as a whole host of factors can affect whether you
are successful or not. These factors being: speed of troll, upriver troll
or downriver troll, colour of lure, size of lure, type of lure , and
length of line between fisherman and lure. This is where an experienced
guide can really give you a good advantage over the fish. Even still I
must admit I haven’t mastered the ways of successful trolling like
my fellow guides, “Victor Simapande” and “Simon
Parker”.
Where to Fish
A very important decision any guide has to make
before choosing a lure or colour is to decide what areas to fish and how
to target them. Trolling is mostly (95% of the time) done when the
fishing is toughest over the months of September, October and November.
At this time of the year the water is at its lowest level, warmest
temperature and cleanest visibility, the water levels don’t
fluctuate very much at this time so generally I will be targeting the
same areas. The reason I do this is because at this time of the year the
baitfish that are the tigers main food source are not concentrated in any
specific areas like the months June, July and August when the river is
dropping off the floodplains, this means that tigers are not concentrated
in one area of the river but rather spread throughout the system. What
the tigers will do however is look for parts of the river which are easy
ambush points where traveling bait fish will be at there most vulnerable
i.e. drop offs! What I mean by “drop offs” is areas where you
find a sudden change in water depth, usually shallow to deep. The result in a sudden change in water
depth is tumbling water where bait fish will get caught up in the wash
and become easy pickings for a hungry tiger. This is where I hope to
catch my fish by pulling a well presented Lure (usually an 11cm Rapala
Magnum) some 30 to 80m off the back of the boat at a reasonable speed
that you really have to find through trial and error on the day.
Unfortunately it just works out that some days tigers prefer fast moving
prey and other days slow!!
How
to fish
Once
again although this might have sounded like an easy and simple way to
catch tigers believe me its not! Once your guide has been able to put you
on the fish, it might only be 3 out of 10 bites that are landed as the
next set of governing variables and factors come into play. There are
many different ways a person can (and often does) react to the bite of
tigerfish on troll and I believe you have to find out what works best for
yourself as there are no hard fast rules about these things. There are 2
main methods that are used for hooking a tiger on troll and it basically comes
down to the setup of your reel and the strike:
The
Strike and Fight #1 – Tightish Drag = Big Strike
The
first option here is to tighten up your drag while trolling (not so much
that you run the risk of snapping you line or rod on the impact of the
tigers bite) and basically let the force of the boat and the tigers
momentum hook itself, then lay into the tiger with a big strike.
Generally this method requires heavier line and a heavier rod and
sometimes using a big single hook on the back of your lure.
The
Strike and Fight #2 – Loose Drag = No Strike
The
second option is the one I generally use, it requires that a relatively
loose drag is set, to the point where if a small piece of weed or debris
is picked up while trolling, line will be pulled from the reel. This is
one reason why I prefer this method of trolling because I will always be
able to feel whether I have a “dirty” lure or not. But back
to the bite – what will happen when a tiger strikes the lure is
that the reel will scream as line is ripped from it, then I slowly
tighten up on the drag lift the rod and start to reel, fighting the fish
with a loose drag. This method tends to work better when fishing with
trebles.
Boating
the beast
After
you have fought the opening rounds, don’t become another statistic
who said “Yeah, I hooked a beast…. but lost him at the
boat!” it is the last furious runs that the tiger makes when it
sees the boat that usually cause such heartache. Once you have it within
2 rod lengths of the boat, lift the rod so it is now directly in line
above the fish. When the tiger wants to dive let it, just drop the rod
tip down as it pulls away, then slowly lift and reel. Just remember that
with only a few meters of line out it has very little stretch and your
drag has to be loosened a fraction or else you run the risk of a snapping
off. Once the monster has done its last dance you can ease its head above
the water and “slide” the fish over to the guide where he
will safely net it or preferably use a boga grip.
“Boga’s”
are a Tigerfishing guide’s best friend – this neat little
contraption lips the fish and weighs it at the same time. I used to have
a problem when netting my fish that the other trebles of the lure usually
got caught in the net and caused even more damage to the fish as it would
stay longer out of the water and the net would remove a lot of the
antibacterial slime found on the body of the tigerfish making it more
susceptible to infections. The other big plus is that I don’t get
bitten trying to take lures out of the jaws of death anymore. Be weary of
the tiger’s teeth they are covered in an anticoagulant secretion
that causes immense bleeding even from the smallest wound. I found the
best thing for a nick or cut from a tigers tooth was a coating of lip ice
over the wound that then stung for a couple of seconds but then sealed
the wound and stopped it from bleeding (sorry to any doctors out there,
its probably not the right thing to do but its what works for me).
Now
that you know what to expect when trolling for tigers here’s what
you will need:
Trolling Equipment
Needed
Line
Just
like any other fishing techniques line characteristics dictate the
equipment we use. In this case it is imperative that you use nothing less
than a 20lb breaking strain monofilament line I like the Maxima Ultra
Green mono fishing line, the 20lb has a .40 diameter and extremely
abrasion resistant and tends to blend very well with the colour of our
waters. I am not a great supporter of any braided lines, although they
posses some extremely impressive properties, I have witnessed time after
time mono getting more strikes and landing more fish. The only reasons I
can come up with is that mono has more stretch which is critical in the
initial pick up of the tiger fish (something I will go more into detail
in regarding lures, hooks and techniques) and that its appearance under
water may be similar to that of nets used in the river that all fish
learn to avoid like the plague. Once again these are merely observations
and not gospel if anyone has any other views you are most welcome to
forward me your ideas.
Reels
Both
spinning and baitcasting reels can be used for trawling although I do
feel baitcasting or multiplying reels are a lot better, for the main
reason that spinning reels tend to get severe line twist after a couple
encounters with a running tiger. Line twist is caused by line coming off
the reel in a different direction to which it goes on, if that sounds
stupid have a look at what happens when you pull line off using the drag
system of a spinning reel and then reel it back on, it comes off in a
straight line as the spool unravels then gets put back on with a twisting
motion of the bail arm. At least there is no casting involved in trawling
so even amateurs can manage a baitcasting reel?
Once
again my preference is the Shimano Calcutta multiplying reel and the
Shimano Symetre 4000FA spinning reel.
Rods
OK
now you’ve spooled up and are looking for that stick that’s
going to help bring that big-boy to the boat, these are some things you
need to consider:
1.
You’re going to need a rod that’s
comfortable to cast and matches your reel size so usually a 6’6 to 7’ bass cranking rod will suffice.
2.
Definitely graphite that
has some backbone – usually a medium to medium heavy with 3/8 – 1 oz lure weight rod
will do, just remember not too much backbone you don’t want to be
striking with a broom stick that’s going to rip the lure right out
of the tigers mouth.
I recommend rods similar to the shimano nexave
range of spinning and baitcasting rods.
Lures
Basically the same lures that would be used for
Spinning but bulking up on the 11cm Magnums. There are 3 lure types that I will
always have in my box, these being:
11cm floating rapala magnums
7cm floating rapala fat raps
5cm floating rapala fat raps
The reason I use these 3 types of lures is because
they are all different in size and run at different depths
I use the 11cm when doing fast trolls and spinning
in deeper waters.
I use the 7cm when spinning in deep water holes and
current drop offs and when doing slow deep water trawls.
I use the 5cm when spinning in deep and shallow
water and doing slow shallow water trolls.
The reason I use floating magnums as opposed to
sinking is that a lot of times I encounter line bites and snap offs that
can be very irritating and costly
– the nice thing about floating lures is a fair amount of
the time the lure will rise to the surface to be recovered and used
again. I also get a higher strike rate using the floating version, it can
be 1 of 2 things, and either the steel lip of the sinking lure is off
putting to the tigers or the sinking runs at a much deeper depth than the
floating and out of the fishes range.
These 3 lure types will cover just about every
fishing situation when trolling for tigers but choice of colour is the
most important decision you will have to make.
Lure Colours
Colour becomes a critical factor when trolling for
tigers; I am always changing my lure colour if I am not getting strikes.
There are many factors which determine what colour should be used, these
being: water clarity; visibility; baitfish type; time of year; time of
day; weather and list goes on and on. Looking at all these factors I will
always have in the back of my mind an order of colours that I will be
trying throughout the day.
Unfortunately the successful colours change from
day to day and the narrowing down process has to be repeated over and
over so the best thing to do is have a wide selection of colours in your
box.
Herewith are the lure types and the colours you
will always find in my box: (picture of rapalas)
11cm floating rapala magnums - Fire tiger
Black/Gold
Silver mackerel
Silver
Perch
Green
mackerel
Red
head
Shiner
Purple
mackerel
7cm & 5cm floating rapala fat raps Red Craw
Fire
tiger
Black/Gold
Silver
Grey
shad
Silver
chrome (red lip)
Blue
chrome (green lip)
Trace setup
I will always use a plastic/nylon or carbon coated
trace attached to my lure. This will be between 30 – 40lb breaking
strains. Clip-on traces are a must for spinning but not for trolling.
Although they make lure changing effortless clip-on traces tend to run
skew causing the lure to do barrel rolls in the water – which is
obviously not going to be to the tiger’s satisfaction. I usually
tie a #8 swivel to the mono end of the trace and attach the lure to the
wire using a simplified rapala knot.
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