Discoveries

Tigerfish: the jaws of the Okavango

Today we're going to be talking about a very special fish, part of the Alestidae family, the Hydrocynus vittatus, commonly known as the Tigerfish.

Not to be confused with its big cousin the Hydrocynus Goliath, which is much bigger than our main interested party. Rodmaps went to hunt him down in Botswana, on the Okavango Delta. This delta has the particularity of flowing into the Kalahari Desert, unlike the others which normally flow into the ocean.

It is a magical place that has an extraordinary flora and fauna, hundreds of kilometers of papyrus where dozens of endemic bird species nestle in this region of the world. You will come across hippos, Nile crocodiles, antelopes, elephants etc ...

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Morphology of Tigerfish

Our Tigerfish has an impressive four part jaw, a row of canines that fit perfectly into each other, a tapered body built for speed. He also has a silvery robe, horizontal black lines all the way down the body, and orange fins. This species weighs on average between 1 and 10 kilos, but can exceed 15 kilos. It all depends on the geographic region where you will be looking for it.

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Tigerfish behavior

Like any predator, it spends a lot of time resting and hunting other fish in its ecosystem. It tends to stand in the feet of papyrus, to ambush tilapia (its favorite prey), but also to escape the big African catfish and the Nile crocodiles who are happy to eat them.

How to fish for Tigerfish?

A few months of the year, an incredible phenomenon takes place in the delta: "The Barble Run", when catfish come to eat the forage fish fry that have hatched in the aquatic vegetation. You can hear the sound of the predators' jaws closing on the defenceless prey. The tigerfish are not far away, standing just outside, chasing any survivors who try to escape.

Egrets don't hesitate to join in on the feast, which will give you a great visual cue for where to throw. If you don't have any of those things, power fishing is a great way to trigger keystrokes while letting yourself drift down the river, which has earned us some great specimens.

Another way that will help you locate them is the presence of crocodiles. If you see any, fish around as the saurians readily devour them, it is a big part of their diet.

Prepare your equipment well

This fish has an extremely strong "weight/power" ratio. Precise, careful tackle is needed to fish it properly. Because of its teeth, we advise you to fish with steel leader because we had our 100lb fluorocarbon line cut. As you can see, you have to pull out all the stops. We also recommend changing the original hooks.

The canes:

We also recommend multi-strand rods.

Lures:

Rubbers jigs: surprising to fish this fish with specific blackbass lures, and yet they were formidable in efficiency with weights of 21 and 28 grams.
Cranckbaits: the shallow-dip (SR) and moderately-dip (MR) crancks are extremely popular with these predators in open water when throwing blind.
Jerkbaits: take small models to throw in the catfish balls, and you will catch the 2 species by bringing back slowly and erratically.
Surface lures: They worked but only during times of tigerfish frenzy, I would recommend wooden lures notwithstanding the plastic ones work just as well. But generally, an attack = a decoy! So it is you who see.
The models: OSP blitz max, OSP Blitz mr, DEPS evoke, DEPS balisong 100SP, Jackall aska, OSP durga, OSP asura, OSP dunk48, EVERGREEN wildhunch, RAPALA flat rap, LUCKYCRAFT staysee90, OSP bent minnow 106, DEPS flatback 28gr.

Enjoy!

Discover our other articles on exotic fish: peacock-bass, golden masheer, snakehead

Rodmaps

Rodmaps is first and foremost the story of Nicolas and Matthieu, two friends with a passion for fishing. Ever since we were children, our passion has driven us to travel all over France and around the world in search of adventure and trophy fish. Through Rodmaps, we want to share our passion for fishing with as many people as possible and help them discover the joys of this sport, because yes, fishing is a sport!

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View Comments

pit says:

23 November 2023 at 11 h 26 min

Hello,
I'm leaving in April to fish for tiger fish in Namibia, and I'm looking for advice on leaders.
steel, titanium?
Thank you
Sam says:

4 September 2024 at 11 h 13 min

Hello,

I'm bouncing off this old post to add my own little touch. I fish them relatively often in Chad on the Chari, the maximum sizes that I have been able to catch are around 50 - 55 cm but already great fights when you manage to hook them... It's extremely complicated because their mouths are so hard, so there's a lot of unhooking. The local fishermen use bicycle brake cables. I use a medium power 10-40gr fast action rod (sg4 travel), medium braid and fluoro 60 leader and a 40cm titanium leader. In fact almost all the lures work, these fish are super aggressive, and so as not to lose too many (yes 1 fish = 1 lure often) I've had quite a few successes in frenzy when you hear the jaws click with no4 spinners and more, cranckbaits but especially soft paddle lures. Soft paddle lures with belly hooks are really super effective and cause very little loss as they often attack from below. I'll probably be going back at the end of this year and/or the beginning of next year, but this time I'll be fishing it in UL, which I think is quite possible for small fish. I'm currently designing a custom rod with one of your partners. I will keep you informed if interested.