AFC#3 Top Water Tiger | african-fisherman

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Top Water Tiger

By Anthony Williams

After almost a year of tearing the water’s surface to shreds, to say I have mastered the art of hooking these toothy creatures on surface lures, would be something of an over statement. In truth, I have sampled the bitter taste of defeat more than landed any significant fish. Bone jarring, explosive takes are invariably followed by slack line, damaged lures and no small measure of frustration, but an adrenalin rush you will not forget in a hurry!

While there is absolutely no doubt that tigerfish will readily attack a surface bait, and that of all the techniques I have ever used for tiger fishing this is the most strike producing, it is a technique which requires something more than simply modifying lures and chucking them at likely spots.

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Mohomed Ali with his 11.18lb bass, caught at Darwendale on a Zoom frog in the late afternoon.

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My experience so far shows that in time, we will probably design surface lures which will be specifically used for tiger fishing. I am enthused by the thrill of having a tigerfish climb all over a lure before it can even fully settle on the water, but it does not take too long before the novelty of this wears off, being replaced with utter frustration as lost fish after lost fish tip the scales... or don’t! However, the many small fish one will hook in a session on the river during the magical hour, is some compensation. It is all very thought provoking though and the challenges will appeal to many.

So, with this understanding shared, I will attempt to enlighten the reader on some basics, probably sharing more of what I know does NOT work, rather than what really does.

Rods, Reels and Line

I believe this topic to ultimately be one of personal preference, but will share my experience nonetheless. I like lightish tackle, and learned long ago that heavy sticks diminish my fishing experience. My general bass tackle of 7-8' rods with baitcaster is applied to just about all my predator fishing. Only having recently started experimenting with the braided lines, I am somewhat a novice with these, but given their relative thinness, strength and general castability, they offer a good choice for surface tiger fishing. But my choices come with compromises.

Advised by Bruce Cook at Off The Hook Tackle shop - who I consider a guru on topwaters for tiger - to go with a heavier action 7'10" Shimano Beastmaster Special Tiger series stick, I chose to ignore his advise. I felt my lighter bass rod would give better control when casting and working lures. Partly right, I learned that bigger fish do indeed require a more substantial rod, as the lighter tackle almost doubles and one runs out of the sheer power needed to muscle big tigerfish. Longer butt rods aid greatly in playing a fish and reduces the strain on ones wrists, though are a little unwieldy, hampering the ability to effectively work surface lures as one needs to impart a great deal of action to the retrieve and animate the lure sufficiently. Until you have gained a little experience with rod choice, I would err on the heavy side, or at the least take a couple of variations to the battle ground. Bruce swears by the Beastmaster, though at 7'10" I feel it could do with a little more length.

Advances in rods and their applications are such today, that one can buy very specific rods designed for specific jobs. My “general” bass tackle lacked the tip action for precisely working surface lures, and I was fortunate to come across a Shimano Crucial “Frog” stick - designed for fishing surface frogs. Light as I like it, the rod is great and well balanced but as I said earlier, is a bit light on big fish. A compromise I am happy with though.

This particular drift opposite the Chewore Lodge site on the middle Zambezi, was very productive. The river swept along the bank past an island and into a little cove (Drift 2), after which it swept past a rocky point to form a huge, slowly rotating back eddy. The water against the bank though, was deep and fast, and this seemed to be where the fish were laying in ambush. An accurate cast to virtually touch the rocks, almost always resulted in a reaction strike from a tiger. Often so quick, we were unprepared and failed to hook up. The first few hours however, were mind blowing!

Monofilament lines and their inherent stretch can be particularly bothersome when casting surface lures for tigerfish. Generally, casts are on the long side to avoid crowding the target area and spooking fish. Remember, if the fish are feeding on, or close to the surface, they will more easily see your silhouette should you approach too close. Experience is showing that fish will hit the lure anywhere from the moment it hits the water, to within a couple or three metres of the start of your retrieve, and if they miss, will come back several times. If the fish makes solid contact immediately after the cast one will inevitably have several metres of slack line to contend with, and on top of the stretching line over a great distance, getting into contact with the fish quickly is going to be compromised. Braided lines do not do this, and offer more direct contact. They also float more readily than monofilament lines, which when fishing on the surface, is an added bonus.

Long, accurate casts in any stiff breeze offers a challenge, and while braided lines are good in the water, their tendency to catch the wind and bow excessively creates both accuracy problems (especially if you have planned your cast so the retrieve will pass a visible piece of structure), and slack line once the lure settles on the water. Watch this. Slack line too, really hampers ones ability to effectively walk a lure, or “pop” it to impart the right action. Also, beware of the thinner diameter braided lines on baitcasters, as they tend to cut into themselves under pressure, jamming the reel and often causing over-winds.

Trace wire, obviously is essential, and there are a great many to choose from. We are still experimenting with them, but the basics apply as with any other form of tiger rig. I believe uncoated, single strand traces are better than those that are coated. It is well documented that coated trace will often wedge in the tiger’s teeth, preventing a firm hookset. Many a tiger has been landed where the hook has not penetrated but the trace was so firmly wedged in the teeth, that the fish was effectively “hooked”. However, a good shake of the head (as is the norm when they latch onto a surface lure), and a bit of slack line and the fish will be gone. Piano wire attached with either a neat Haywire Twist or Albright knot using No.12 Crane-type swivel works as well as any. Trace length is largely determined by the hook configuration on the lure. One single hook on a lure will not present problems with double foul hooking and the fish turning to bite or break the line, so shorter - 30cm- traces can be used. If the lure is fitted with trebles, or a combination of treble and single hooks, a longer trace of 60+cm is needed. Bruce prefers coated trace wire of between 30-40lb strain. As he says “the lighter traces become tattered and shredded quickly with tiger and result in a re-tie after almost every fish”. Using coated trace, he ties the braided line directly to the trace using a very neat Albright knot (no swivel and much lighter for surface lures), wrapping, then gently heating the trace wire to complete it.

We have learned though, that rod, reel, line, trace and even drag settings can all be undermined by a failure in the final link of the chain - the lure.

About drag settings - Our early forays with surface lures had us casting with tight drags - the logic being that during the explosive strike, fast and immediate hookset would be aided by a firm drag. Due to the weakness of most lures, this proved to be wrong. The force exerted on the lure (and its components) with a tight drag, often proved too much for the lure, hooks or swivels. Also, I believe a lighter drag setting allows a more steady tension on the fish once he has the lure, allowing the hooks to jiggle into a good position and then find purchase in the boney mouth. Harder drags too, aid the fish’s ability to come screaming from the depths and jump - more often than not, throwing the lure. A lighter drag setting will I believe, allow far more control of the fish as he tries to spit the lure, and will not over-strain the lure and its parts.

At the end of the day, you will be setting everything to prevent the fish jumping excessively and prevent the lure from coming apart before you get the fish to the boat. The rod will survive, the line will not snap, and the trace will not be bitten through. If you are to part company with your trophy fish, it is likely to be at the lure.

One of the very many small tigers that fell to the surface lures. The Pop-R seems to fit in their mouths well, and hook up on this lure was always good.

A surface take from a deep fast flowing bank as the lure has barely hit the water.

Another surface take. This cast was against the rocks on the shore, and I suspect the fish followed the lure as it was retrieved before hitting it.

One of the very many small tigers that fell to the surface lures. The Pop-R seems to fit in their mouths well, and hook up on this lure was always good.

Lures

They say a chain is only as good as its weakest link, and nothing could be more true. If there is a single weakest link in the whole topwater tigerfish chain, it is the lure. Aside from understanding how a tiger attacks the lure, and figuring the best way to configure it, the lure components themselves invariably are not up to the task.

A standard Zara Spook after one hit from an average tigerfish. The small treble hooks on these lures are too soft for tiger, and lack a wide enough gape to offer good hooking potential. Replacing them with two large singles, rather than three trebles was better, but came with problems. The heavier hooks up-set the lure’s buoyancy and balance and are difficult to attach to the small wire attachment eyes on the lure, often jamming the hook so it cannot swivel freely.

An average tiger on a surface popper taken on the Upper Zambezi in Zambia while visiting Matoya Fishing Camp. One of the problems with using trebles on surface lures, is the potential to do damage to fish, as often the “free” set of hooks will embed themselves in the fish’s head, gills and even belly. Not good if you are trying to release them.

A lure with coated trace. One take from a tiger, and the coating has been stripped off leaving a rough burred trace which affects the lure action and is likely to interfere with hookset later on. Piano wire seems to offer a better option.

An ideal tiger hidy-hole. Although fast and deep, the surface has a mirror calmness which you know will highlight the lure as soon as it hits the water. But casting accuracy accounts for a lot, so get it right.

An unexpected catch from our tiger drift/eddy. This largescale yellowfish took the big Zara Spook and gave a fight which, apart from no aerial display, was every bit as hard as the tigerfish. This opens up a bunch of new possibilities for surface lures on the Zambezi, and ones we will be exploring more in the future.

A favourite bass lure of mine is the Dying Flutter. Though it solicited some strikes, I was generally disappointed with its performance, though more trials are called for. Early experience indicates that maybe it moves too fast when being retrieved and so is not chased quite as much as our most productive lure - the Zara Spook. There is something about that walk-the-dog action tiger just cannot resist.

Split rings, hooks, attaching snaps and lure bodies all fail long before the line or trace breaks. I believe this is primarily because most small to medium surface lures have not been designed for the vicious, toothed, boney mouthed tigerfish. Sure, there are hardy saltwater surface lures out there that do cope better with tigerfish than bass-type lures, though these are often over-sized and some still fall short of the mark. In trying to modify lures to improve hook-ups, one has to be ready for a bunch of compromises - among them is the fact that fitting trace, heavier hooks and split rings change the way lures float and behave.

Ultimately, I believe this surface technique for tigerfish is still in its infancy, and as I said earlier, in time we will have to design lures specific to the species - a path we have already embarked upon. But that is still some way off in the future, so we have to look to the tools we have to hand.

Lures and their modification will be looked at in more depth in a future issue, as the subject is quite extensive. Suffice to say, if you are using bass-type surface lures - Zara Spooks (a particular favourite), Halco Roosta Popper, Pop-R’s or twitch baits - change the hooks for something stronger, replace the split rings and avoid using lure types which have hooks attached via screw mounts or fittings. Straight through wire hook attachments are the way to go.