The Sound of Silver
We were actually fishing for bream, but my gaze wandered to a distant jumble of a fallen tree whose dying branches resembled probing fingers thrust into the Zambezi perhaps to scoop up a fish or two. I knew the fish would be there, as the branches, far from being any threat, provide a haven safe from predators, while trapping food as it passes and even slowing the current so fish can “rest” while picking off morsels of food. One such specie is chessa, and these lay-downs do provide ideal habitat for them in the Zambezi.
There is nothing quite like catching a good size chessa in fast current - “dustbin Lids” as they are often called. Because although they may be hunted close to the bank among fallen trees, rocks and drop-offs once hooked they head for the current, where turning their bodies side on, they more than double their resistance to any pull you may exert, often tearing their soft mouths right off in the fight to escape. I remember my early experiences of chessa at Chirundu in the early 80's where they became a major part of why we visited the Zambezi. We learned to find sizeable fish which once hooked in the fast flowing waters, would out perform most other fish one could catch... and required no small measure of skill to land (as we learned after retrieving many sets of lips back to the boat).
Sleeping Sickness Alive & Well?
Chessa will be happened upon in most parts of the river, though do seem to favour some form of structure. While typical rocky areas - even with rapids - will produce chessa, drop-offs close to islands and sand bars will also hold them. In fact, any water where there is a contrast of shallow/deep water, complimented with current/slack water (as often happens on the downstream side of small islands or prominent sandbars), is likely to hold chessa. And if there is a overhanging root system, or fallen tree laying amid the current, all the better.
Over the years, many anglers along the length of the Zambezi, believe that fishing close to hippo, or in known hippo wallowing areas, produces more chessa. It is believed that the chessa are drawn by the droppings left in the water by the hippo - which is highly likely. Hippo often gather on the edge of drop-offs keeping a deep-water escape route open at all times. These factors considered together, make a sandbar drop-off, close to or in the vicinity of hippo (even downstream, as the droppings will be washed to waiting fish), an ideal target area for chessa. I must admit to never really having the nerve to drift up on a pod of hippos and fish for any length of time, always fearful that one in the group will take exception to our presence, as is their want.
KAWFT
RIFA
Issue #8 March 2015
Deeper sections close to the bank, especially close to a feature such as the fallen down trees mentioned, or rocks which break the current, are all good places to hunt chessa too. When boating the river, look for these spots and anchoring a couple of metres from the rocks, and casting a line to sweep down with the current and lay against the rocky edge.
Small hooks - No.10 and No.12 are better suited to their small mouths, while the worm should be threaded onto the hook as one would pull a sock on. Chessa have an uncanny ability to remove worms before you can set the hook, and we have found that rather than bunching the worm on the hook, this threaded method limits the "theft". Some prefer the smaller Red Worms, as they tend to fit the hook more snugly.
Playing the fish to the net should be done gently, as they have very soft mouths, which will rip through, or even tear off before you get them to the boat. Even relatively small fish can exert immense pressure on your tackle by virtue of their current surfing. If gut hooked, their abrasive little teeth will often wear through the line in a protracted fight. A good flexible rod - six foot plus - with a good reel and drag system will usually see more fish boated. If using mono filament lines, 8-12lb is about the maximum that should be used, with a doubled line knot attaching the hook to prevent the wear-through problem. At the first sign of damage to the line, re-tie! The newer generation of braided lines would probably be a better all round choice for chessa.
A friend of mine, Dave Winall - manager of the Rifa Education Camp run along the banks of the Zambezi by the Zimbabwe Hunters’ Association - is currently recovering from a bout of trypanosomiasis which saw him hospitalised. Living proof that sleeping sickness is not some vestige of the age of African exploration, but a modern reality of life in the bush. As Dave recently said, the initial stages of the disease are very similar to those of malaria, so even an old Africa hand or a doctor can be forgiven for not recognizing the true culprit at the onset. A doctor in the United States or Europe treating someone recently returned from Africa would be even less likely to make the right guess - it would be up to a laboratory technician knowing what to look for to confirm the presence of the disease. The catch? The common blood test for malaria picks up the trademark “signet-ring” appearance of erythrocytes - red blood cells - which are swollen and distorted with malarial parasites. The common tests for trypanosomiasis either look for living trypanosomes in a wet culture, or parasites stained with Giemsa dye in a fixed preparation. There are also various serological tests for trypanosomiasis, but they must be specifically performed, so the doctor has to be going in the right direction in the first place.
Like malaria, the first indication a person will have of trypanosome infection will be fever, headache, joint pains, and itching. Also, severe swelling of lymph nodes, sometimes including “Winterbottom's sign”, the signature swollen lymph nodes along the back of the neck. This is the so-called haemolymphatic phase. And, like the malarial parasite, if not treated or incorrectly treated the parasite overcomes the body's defences and can go on to cause anaemia, endocrine, cardiac, and kidney dysfunctions. And, as the malarial parasite can and will eventually pass into the cerebra-spinal fluid, so will the trypanosome. This brings about the second phase of the disease, the neurological phase. The trypanosome produces a chemical known as tryptophol, a sleep-inducing drug in humans, and it is in the neurological phase that the classic symptoms of “sleeping sickness” occur - confusion, reduced coordination, disrupted sleep cycle, and alternating bouts of fatigue and manic periods eventually causing daytime dormancy and insomnia at night. If not correctly identified and treated, trypanosomiasis is invariably fatal as progressive mental deterioration leads to coma and death. Once the malady enters the neurological phase, damage done is irreversible.
Trypanosomiasis occurs in two forms, each caused by a separate subspecies of Trypanosoma brucei -T b gambiense or T b rhodesiense. Gambiense, found in central and western Africa occurs mainly in the human population and rhodesiense from southern and eastern Africa is found mostly in animals - in Zimbabwe, for instance, elephant, buffalo, kudu, bushbuck and warthog are the main animal host species, while less than 4% of impala in a contiguous area are infected. Animal populations acquire an immunity and co-exist with the parasite.
The tsetse fly of the genus Glossina is a large, brown biting fly that serves as a vector for the trypanosomes. Feeding on blood from a mammalian host, a tsetse fly injects trypomastigotes - the developmental form of the parasite - into skin tissue. The parasites then enter the lymphatic system and progress into the bloodstream in which they are distributed throughout the body, continually reproducing by mitotic cell division. The tsetse fly is an integral part of the process, as parasites which are absorbed when feeding on an infected host develop into a new infectious generation in the midgut of the fly. Given the above, the disease of trypanosomiasis can theoretically be controlled by one of three approaches - immunisation of the population, treatment designed to eradicate the parasites in an infected host, and control of the fly.
The latter two control measures are to date the only ones which have shown any effectiveness. Large scale immunisation is unlikely to become a reality in the forseeable future because the parasite’s genome - its genetic makeup - contains over eight hundred genes that make proteins the parasite "mixes and matches" to confuse the body’s immune system.
The first treatment brought out for the disease in an infected person was, atoxyl, an arsenic-based drug developed by Paul Ehrlich and Kiyoshi Shiga in 1910. Blindness was a side effect which rendered the drug impractical. Pentamidine was introduced in1939 to treat the haemolymphatic phase, and is still in use today. In the 1940s, melarsoprol was introduced to treat the neurological phase, but it produces serious side-effects such as convulsions, coma and psychotic episodes in as many as 10% of people treated with it. It is effective, however, and is also still in use today.
With my early love of the Zambezi well established, and our failure to gain permission for a lodge on the river, we turned our attention to the now full Kariba. Our company called Zambezi River Safaris, working with Frik and Sue Maas, surveyed an idyllic site on the western shoreline of the Ume River, ushering in a new lodge on Kariba.
Frik and Sue Maas had bought the company Lake Air from its New Zealander float-plane pilot Peter Anderson, but somehow the float plane didn’t end up being a part of the deal. Lake Air’s offices were in a small bay not far from Cutty Sark Hotel, where Peter had also established breeding ponds for a commercial freshwater crayfish farming business.
More of these creatures later!
Our chosen site for what we had decided would be named Tiger Bay was in the Omay Communal Land under Chief Mola, with its Nyaminyami Rural District Council offices in Siavonga, and across the Ume River lay the beautiful and bounteous Matusadona Game Reserve (National Park), still with the Big Five roaming free then, and its fabulous backdrop of Matusadona Mountains.
Within minutes of stepping ashore, Frik, Sue, Shayne and I found scenic sites for a safe harbor, the main building, and a dozen future chalets, each with individual and uninterrupted views across the river, over the game reserve, on to a distant mountainous horizon. The attractions offered were to be the sheer beauty of the area, small boats with outboard motors for hire, with game viewing, fishing and photography the main activities. Personal, caring service would be paramount. Each chalet would be sited close enough to the water’s edge to have a boat moored within a few paces of its entrance.
I believe it’s true to say that while distance from the madding crowd lends enchantment, it comes with problems too. But there and then we made the decision to go for it. A meeting was held with the Nyaminyami District Councillors in Siavonga, at which they agreed with our proposal to build a photographic and fishing safari lodge, aided by an undertaking to employ locals for construction and permanent staff in mid 1982, with a five-year renewable lease.
Because the area we wanted had never been surveyed or used before, we arranged with the local councillors to meet in Musango Bay, where we would pick them up by boat and take them to the site as there was then no road access. The Ume River’s basin was churning and heaving like the devil’s washing machine that day, so the “inspection” was a cursory affair, the Nyaminyami Councillors only too glad to give us the go-ahead to build between “that baobab there, and the one over there, going back inland for 500 metres.”
We booked the ferry Sea Horse for the first of August 1982, to take the initial load of tractor and trailer, treated poles, thatching grass, small generator and blue-brute pump with piping, camping gear, and other items too numerous to list here, not forgetting our dreams and ambitions of building the best Lodge on the Lake. We arrived in Andora Harbour the evening before scheduled departure to make certain all was ready for an early departure after loading next morning.
Soon after 5am we arrived in Andora with a laden 7-tonner and 4-ton trailer, only to find to our horror the Sea Horse had virtually sunk at her moorings, and wouldn’t be going to the Ume River or anywhere else for some time. Initial huge disappointment was soon replaced by steely determination to find alternative transport quickly, so a rapid tour by vehicle of Kariba’s harbours ensued. Luckily for us, we saw the vessel Doro, built by Kattleway in Marondera I seem to remember, as a vessel to trade with locals around the lake shore, being operated by its owner John Burdett, and negotiations on board soon culminated in a satisfactory agreement to start shifting our load the very next day. “Bush telegraph” had a team of thirty men organised to start work arriving from the hinterland by nine the morning after the first load arrived on Doro.
In between winding down farming operations, construction went ahead rapidly, with a large load of treated Lewis Lumber power line-standard poles delivered by ferry, and after a simple bush track was cleared, two trips a day with the tractor and trailer to bring in thatching grass bought from around Chief Mola’s village.
Our only neighbors, a fifteen-minute boat trip away, was the Grobler family based at Rokari; Paul and Marie, their son Steve with his wife Jen and their young son Paul. Soon to become good friends and neighbors, the Grobler family initially and quite understandably resented our presence in their hunting space, until they became certain we wouldn’t spoil anything for them. Together they ran an excellent operation, which included kapenta fishing and an immaculate crocodile farming set-up as well as hunting, which they later sold to Astra Corporation.
As a special treat for our very first guests for New Years Eve Dinner 1982, Frik and Sue decided we would serve Crayfish Cocktail as the starter. One hundred of them were caged and brought over to Tiger Bay, where they departed this life and entered their culinary ones via salted boiling water. We had a lot of extra guests from houseboats and private boats for the feast, but, unversed as we were until Shayne and I learnt how to prepare such delicacies for maximum pleasure during our (later) Magaruque saga, we managed to produce only a cupful and a half of flesh. Never short of ideas for “making a plan”, we boosted the starter with tigerfish pieces which were being prepared anyway for everyone’s favourite tigerfish pate, blended them with the crustaceans’ remains, and decorated the glasses they were served in with colorful crayfish tails. That was more than thirty years ago. Those who have caught the crayfish today found in many areas of Kariba, will know just how strong they are, able to find a way out of almost anything. So, the question is, are these perhaps the descendants of freshwater crayfish escapees from the Lake Air breeding ponds?
We also tried the mussels collected from widespread mussel beds around Starvation Island and other areas, which along with frogs and crabs supported breeding flocks of Openbill storks in the 1980’s. For many years after 1982 the Lake level remained low, and mussels continued to thrive. Once more we were thwarted by our ignorance then of how best to prepare and cook them, another entry in the annals of glorious food failure!
On one occasion Shayne and I were returning to Tiger Bay by boat from Andora, when still short of Rhino Island we saw a flight of about twenty Pelicans flying very low over the water towards us, so we stopped and watched them through binoculars disappearing down river over the dam wall.
Only a few months after opening, with development still ongoing, Frik and Sue Maas decided life at Tiger Bay with two very young kids was not really for them, and left the project. This meant we urgently needed help, and Shayne’s daughter Ashlee and son Conal joined us, thus making it a completely family-run business, with the sort of commitment only that can bring. Shayne’s mother Val Rawson also helped significantly, as did some of our farming friends. Those who run similar organisations will know well just how much hard work and long hours for seven days-a-week it entails.
It should be remembered that in 1982 six German tourists were abducted along the Victoria Falls road and murdered, effectively ending meaningful growth of Zimbabwe as an International tourism destination for years afterwards. In addition, many inputs were still desperately short - fuel being the major one - and including items like imported wine and whisky, exorbitantly expensive when they could be found.
In 1983 we employed Dave Winhall and his partner Elspeth, Dave as our Professional Guide, Elspeth as our highly efficient receptionist and doing whatever-else-was-necessary person. In August of that year, John and Nikki Stevens’ daughter was badly mauled by a lion at Chikwenya, and we did our bit to help by flying Dave Winhall to Chikwenya to fill their Guide gap for a while.
In the early days those flying to and from Tiger bay in their own aircraft would land at, and be transferred by boat from Tashinga, then for a time Bumi Hills let our guests use their strip while Mike Gardner was the Manager, even moving passengers with their twin-engined Islander on occasion, but that didn’t last for long, as we were deemed to have become serious competition. Before Tiger Bay was finally cleared by National Parks to construct a registered Category Two airfield, the Groblers kindly let us use their Rokari strip.
Many of our guests became good friends who returned regularly, and we all had a lot of fun to go with the long hours. Fishermen would fill in our Catches Book with reports like; “Caught ten tiger at the fourth tree on the left past the red cliffs”. Usually this was to make sure others went there the next day, while they went back to where their fish had actually been caught somewhere else!
Tiger Bay had its share of fishing anecdotes, some of which will be included in the next issue.
By Ant Williams
The bite and strike will be one of the hardest part of chessa fishing to master, but gets better with practice and confidence. Smaller chessa are a "machine gun" type bite - a series of rapid taps you know is just annihilating your carefully threaded worm. The bigger fish are a more solid double tap, often followed by a gentle pulling, presumably as the fish moves off with the bait. The strike comes some time after the initial double tap, but not too long otherwise the fish realises something is amiss, and will not be hooked. If the fish feels resistance, it will often drop the hook and move off, and it is better to lower the rod tip to follow the fish's initial movement away. At the limit of your stretch, raise the tip firmly and quickly, hopefully hooking the fish (usually in the throat or gut).
We covered a technique in a past issue of using a hyperdermic needle, onto which the worm is first threaded, then transferred to the hook (by placing the hook point in the whole of the hyperdermic and sliding the worm onto the hook). Feed the worm all the way past the eye of the hook, up onto the line. The chessa find this hard to steal, and as bits are broken off, the worm is simply slid down to replace the lost section. It does not take long to master the "worm transferal" technique, and saves hours later in replacing worms. The hook-up ratio seems to improve as well, as the fish has to mouth the hook to get to the worm.
An Excerpt from The African Hunter's Guide to Bush Medicine
An Editorial Taken from African Fisherman Volume 23 #3
By Ant Williams
Africa can be a particularly nasty place to live, especially if you love the outdoors and get to interact with the abundant creatures that inhabit our Dark Continent. Elephant, lion, hippos and crocodiles... while thrilling to look at, all seem to be waiting for that one careless mistake, or can be triggered by a thoughtless invasion of their safety zone. Sometimes though, it is not the big and hairy creatures that might pose a danger to us as fishermen, and I am left pondering their effect on our psyche.
My love of wild animals is garnered with healthy respect. This is because I have been “tracked” by elephant following my scent in the bush, ambushed by sneaky buffalo watching my approach, and determinedly stalked by hippo as I have dragged stuck boats across shallow sand bars. Experience and knowledge of animal behaviour helps, but at best I consider myself a novice at this, and prefer instead to avoid situations where lack of good judgement could get me stomped on.
I get particularly twitchy around hippo though. While I have never been capsized by one, or truly threatened to the point where I doubted my survival, I have been the target of several charges - on land as well as water - and have gained what many consider an unnatural fear of them. I know the fishing can be good around a pod of lazily basking hippo, and have also learned that for the most part, they will endeavour to get out of my way. But, it is those times when they do not behave as they should, that have given me cause for the irrational behaviour I exhibit when in close proximity to the beasts. Over the years, I have tried to master the art of staring into their eyes to judge their intent, and on occasion have adopted an air of bravado to demonstrate my lack of fear. It works with dogs, so why not hippo? In truth, I have never really mastered the art of reading their minds, or even specific behaviour with any great confidence, and seem unable to intimidate them with my presence.
But one of God’s creatures which has had a profound effect on my psyche, is the tsetse fly. I am both afraid and amused by this little stinging insect, and the effect it has on behaviour... mine and that of others. I call it the “Tsetse Jive”. Experience has taught me, that a mature fly is capable of landing on your skin - usually some soft area such as your neck - ingesting a body-full of blood, and escaping undetected. This can happen many times over a relatively short period, and the first inkling one has of a bite, is at the onset of the first itch. For some reason, scratching one bite tends to activate all the others, and within seconds you do not have enough hands or long enough nails to satisfy your itching body as you contort into a convulsive flurry of scratching and slapping. This marks the onset of the Tsetse Jive.
Perhaps the most terrifying thing about these little flies, is their tenacity for life. Simply swatting them seems to goad them, and they go into super-stealth mode, flying faster and quieter so you never really know where they are. The only sure way to kill them, is to catch the culprit and crush him between your fingers till an audible crunch is heard, or simply bite its head off. I have, on occasion, done this out of sheer spite, though I suspect the act of malice was lost on the fly!
On my recent visit to the Mana area, we drove through several belts of flies, and as would be expected, ended up with some unwanted guests in the cab. My passenger had little experience of tsetse flies, and while extolling the many virtues of this super insect, I sat back and watched as one lone fly in the vehicle turned her into a blithering idiot.
In almost choreographed sequence, the “jive” started, and as is inevitable, with the casual “swat” at the passing fly. At this, the fly knew the game was on, and disappeared from sight. A few seconds ticked past, and I watched Renee grab the back of her neck, and run her fingers through her hair while suspiciously looking over both shoulders. This was the fly’s cue, and it lazily flew past her and dived at her feet, to once again disappear. As a little shudder rippled up her spine, she once again slapped her neck, then went into hyper-speed slapping her legs and ankles in some rendition of the Gum-Boot Dance. By this time the fly had manoeuvred under the seat, up the back and landed on her head. Now jumping up to fold both her legs under her on the seat, she began slapping herself in earnest, a growing look of terror turning her eyes wide. The shudder which rippled her spine minutes before, had become a series of twitches as she begun uttering sounds of panic while scratching at imagery bites. She in fact, had not been bitten at all.
Then, as if appearing by magic, the fly landed on the dashboard. Armed with a map book, she swatted it with a loud clap, and smeared it on the dashboard, a vindictive smile crossing her face. Knowing as I did, that neither the swat nor the smear were sufficient to dispatch the fly, I watched as she lifted the book, and stared in horror as the fly began wiggling its legs, and took flight before she could launch another attack. At this, the whole dance started again, but this time with more fervour, and while I laughed uncontrollably at her antics, I too was engaged in my own little Tsetse Jive, but without the ability to fold my legs on the seat, had sustained several bites.
We did eventually manage to kill the fly... it is still smeared on my list of notes taken during the trip. But, for the rest of the drive home, any time I looked left or right sharply, or slapped or scratched at my body (which I did just to tease her), she began a new Tsetse Jive. Talk about conditioning! What fun. Even as I write this, I have run my fingers through my hair more than once, and scratched at my ankles. If you have ever been bitten by a Tsetse fly, I’ll bet you have done the same as you read this.
As funny as this all is, the proliferation of the tsetse fly in many parts of Zimbabwe again, brings with it a real danger of contracting sleeping sickness, and care should be taken in assessing symptoms of possible malaria after visiting the bush.
African trypanosomiasis is a disease with many names - sleeping sickness, African lethargy - and is as iconic to the Dark Continent as Stanley and Livingstone. It has been present in Africa since at least the 14th century, but its origins could be thousands of years earlier. Prior to the arrival of Arab slave traders there was very little geographical movement of native tribes and so human trypanosomiasis was confined to isolated regions. But, along with the Arab invaders, it ultimately followed the Congo River, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
It wasn’t until 1903 that the tsetse fly was identified as the parasite’s vector by David Bruce, thereby offering new insights as to how the spread of the disease could be controlled. Similar in many respects to malaria - the result of a protozoan parasite spread by an insect which forms a crucial phase of its life cycle - Trypanosoma brucei is transmitted by the tsetse fly (Glossina sp) and is endemic in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It is believed to affect as many as 70 000 people in up to 37 countries in Africa. Some 48 000 people - mostly rural Africans - are believed to have died from the disease in 2008, though the problem epidemiologists face when trying to quantify trypanosomiasis is that the majority of cases occur in under-developed areas and go unreported.
Kariba Bush Clearing
It is always fascinating to see the remnants of the huge old chain links used for bush clearing operations still seen at certain places around Kariba. Reminders of a distant past, they were linked to bulldozers and massive steel balls, and were dragged through the bush, swatting down any and all trees in their paths. Only certain areas of Lake Kariba were cleared, in preparation for commercial net fishing zones envisioned by the planners, which today still form attractive features for sport fishermen targeting tigerfish.
The accompanying pictures were taken by Mr. T.G. Vorster who was contracted at the time to clear certain areas.
 The catamaran that we used to take people, supplies and machines up to the work sites after the lake started to rise and the access roads we built were cut off. |  The Contractor’s sign for bush clearing at Kariba |  The chain that was dragged behind the tractors to pull down the trees. A section of this is on display at Bumi Hills reception area. |
|---|---|---|
 The chain that was dragged behind the tractors to pull down the trees. A section of this is on display at Bumi Hills reception area. |  An offloading point on the Sanyati River taken from one of the supply planes. |  The runway Mr Vorster built at Bumi near their base Camp. |
 The little Piper Tri-Pacer planes that were used to fly spare parts and people back and forth. |  Kariba fishing in 1959 |  The Coffer dam being flooded |
 The Cats between which the chain was dragged. |  Some of the bigger trees were felled by axe. |
His son Mike writes “The photos were taken by my father whose company undertook the contracts for the bush clearing on the southern side of Lake Kariba. I was on the job as a 16 or 17 year old attending Churchill School at the time.”
Caught for posterity by British Pathe, newsreel footage, the internet has various videos on Kariba and the various preparation and construction stages. Follow this link below to view this and other related reports.
By David Scott
A Little Nostalgia (Part III)
Lounging nonchalantly as my rod dangled over the edge of the boat, I was lost for a word to describe the colour of a chessa as it streaks just below the surface, turning its body like a sail to catch the passing current. There is something in that silvery flash, as light bounces off in all directions which seems to be more of a sound, than a colour. Even now, I have tried to spell it, but it just does not “sound” right. The colour I think, is somewhere between the sound of wind gently whistling through the trees, with maybe a hint of Darth Vader’s light saber to give it bass. Not sure? Whatever it is, the vision of a good chessa fighting and swirling just below the surface is sure to quicken the pulse.
An ideal lay-down in fast flowing water. This spot at Chikwenya yielded several chessa.
An array of chessa structure - sand bars in fast water with deep drop-offs and banks lined with fallen trees.
Nkupe - Quite a different shaped head and mouth.
An ideal lay-down in fast flowing water. This spot at Chikwenya yielded several chessa.
Chessa and nkupe will often be found around features which break current, and drop-offs.
The chessa’s lips, while quite gristley are attached to the head by relatively thin and flimsy mouth parts. “Horsing” chessa often results in lost fish. Softer action rods and a reel with a smooth drag system, and a measure of patience are essential if one is not to rip the lips clean off the fish.
Nkupe are often caught from the same waters as chessa, and at the same time. Techniques therefor, are generally the same. It is quite easy to confuse these two species, although nkupe are darker coloured, banded fish and easily separated when the two are laid side by side. The head and mouth are different too. Anglers often pick up nkupe on fillets drifted for tiger, and many use a small strip fillet instead of worms when targeting nkupe.
Chessa, aside from being a great sport fish to catch in the river are a favoured tiger bait. To prepare the bait, take a palm size chessa, gut it and snip off the dorsal and anal fins (this will stop those sections used for bait, spinning in the current). Next cut the fish into “cutlets” to create tasty bite-sized chunks. The hook should be threaded through the top part of the cutlet - in one side and out the other - and pushed along to fit in the bend of the hook ensuring the hook point is fully exposed. Many make the mistake of embedding the hook in the fillet, which creates problems when striking, as it is very difficult to exert enough pressure to push the hook through the cutlet and into the fish’s mouth. Do not discard the chessa’s head, as this too makes a good bait, and some believe is the best part of the fish, perhaps because of the eyes and the fact it is easily recognised by tigerfish.
Issue #8 March 2015
Because a trypanosome’s generation is around three weeks, there is the potential for rapid genetic change and response - read resistance - to various drugs used. Difluoromethylornithine is the most modern treatment, and came out in the1970s. Approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1990, in 2001 the manufacturing firm of Aventis, together with association with Médecins Sans Frontières and the World Health Organization, signed a long-term agreement to manufacture and donate the drug.
But, as with malaria, the best “cure” is prevention, and there is a decided economic aspect to the depredations of the disease insofar as trypanosomiasis adversely affects not only people but also their domestic livestock. Therefore tsetse fly control measures are at the forefront - or used to be - of halting the spread of the disease. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe’s war on the tsetse has been compromised and the fly has staged an amazing comeback, and trypanosomiasis is now as great a threat, if not greater, than it ever was. And, unlike mosquitoes, tsetse flies do not react badly to personal repellants - in fact, they seem to enjoy most of them!
Today, cases like Dave Winall’s depend on timeous and correct diagnosis of the infection, and a vigorous treatment regimen. Trypanosomiasis was prevalent when the Zimbabwe ruins were built, was a disease of David Livingstone’s day, and Ernest Hemingway’s day and it’s alive and well in the 21st century - so traveller beware!
Sunset over the Ume showing Kariba resplendent in her iconic trees
The lodges, built right on the lake edge with panoramic views across the Ume.
Another to take a keen interest in developments on the little Tiger Bay peninsula was Geoff Stutchbury, then Manager of Bumi Hills, who every couple of weeks would boat down the Ume and scope us with his 10X50s, but he never dropped in to say Hi! Difficult to believe now, but in 1982 he was practically our only “visitor.” Although we were really no direct competition with Bumi Hills, Geoff had established his Water Wilderness of moored rooms on pontoons nearby, and believed we were bound to spoil it.
By November of the first year we felt ready to open for Christmas, with ten chalets, kitchen, lounge, bar, dining room and reception were ready. This is where the freshwater crayfish re-enter my story!
Issue #8 March 2015
Issue #8 March 2015
© The African Fisherman Magazine 1988 - 2014. All Rights Reserved.
This website was expressly created for The African Fisherman by Web & Cloud Solutions
