Tiger Fish Photo Page 2003 This is Eric Richardson with a couple of tigerfish and the fishing story to go with it......... From Gaborone, Botswana went up to Maun, rented a car and then drove 375 klicks beyond nowhere to a place called Drotsky’s Cabins (near the village of Shakawe) on the Boteti River where there ain’t all to do but fish, which is exactly what I wanted to do. Spent about nine hours a day on the water: 07:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 19:00. In bed by 21:00, 22:00 max, up early for a light breakfast, followed by fishing, followed by a light lunch and a nap, followed by fishing, followed by a shower, a couple of beers, dinner and bed again. Went after tiger and bream. Attached is proof that I can buy some of the best tigerfish in the river. These two are in the 6 to 7 pound range. Good fighters. Tail standers and bait spitter-outers. This picture must have been taken in the morning as there don’t appear to be any beer or tobacco stains on my shirt. And you should have seen the one that got away. We (the boatman and I and nobody else—three days of genuine peace) were bait fishing, floating down the river, when a tiger struck about 20 meters out. I set the hook and the guy (by the way, all fish are guys regardless of sex) took off down river and came to the surface about 50 meters away, thrashing on its tail, trying to throw out the hook, but he was set. Dove again, and reeled off about another 30 meters, when he again did his tail walk but still couldn’t lose the hook. So he dove again and it’s about this time I notice that I’m fast running out of line. I yell to the boatman (named Zebra but he was all black) to start the engine and chase the fish. I seriously thought about diving into the river with the rod, hoping maybe the big guy would drag me rather than break the line, but as we had just seen a 14 foot crocodile slide into the water about 5 minutes earlier, this seemed a rather radical maneuver to catch a damned fish. So the sucker took every inch of line and snapped that ten pound test like it was weak sewing thread. Zebra, who’s been fishing the river since the Cabins opened 17 years ago, figure it at about 12 pounds, which would have been pretty good as the largest ever taken was a tad over 15 pounds. Woulda, coulda but didn’t. Hell that’s the fun of fishing. And the other picture is just to show you the sheer beauty of the place and the peace and tranquility all around, except when the ensuing tropical storm hit with lightning and thunder and enough rain to drown the Ark. And you thought I was just a pretty face…….. Eric