Tanzania Destination Report - A Tarpon, a Tiger and a Bag of Knives

Dylan Rose February 04, 2025

If a tarpon, a tiger and a bag of knives had a lovechild, it would be the African tigerfish. A species like no other that will test your gumption, skill and sanity.

I last visited Africa in the Fall of 2022 where I enjoyed the thrill of a lifetime at the African Waters Sette Cama Camp in Gabon. From day one after returning home, I have been counting the moments when I might return to the Motherland. I fell in love with the adventure, smell, sound and wild uncharted nature of this awe-inspiring continent. So shortly after my return, my friend Tim Lewis and I promptly hatched a plan to return. This time we settled on visiting the legendary Dhala and Samaki camps in Tanzania with African Waters, where we would spend a week chasing tiger fish in the wildest ecosystem I have ever experienced.  

I left Medford, transited through Seattle (where I met up with Tim) and then departed to Amsterdam on a direct flight. From Amsterdam we continued to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania via a quick stop in Zanzibar. The densely packed city of Dar es Salaam features the sixth largest population mass on the continent. It’s a bustling city with buses, tuk-tuk carriages, cars, bicycles, and motorcycles all seemingly moving at hyper-speed in a chaotic jumble that remarkably results in people somehow getting to their destination. Tim and I met up with our group at the Sea Cliff hotel, which offered breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean, several good restaurants and very comfortable accommodations. We were thankful for a day-and-a-half of rest after the arduous travel schedule and woke up on day three ready for our charter flight into the depths of the wild Tanzanian backcountry. 

After finally arriving at African Waters’ Dhala Camp on the Mynera River in the Kilombero Wilderness, the staff greeted us with a welcome drink and a song to usher in our arrival for the last week of their season. As we began to settle in, the large and imposing Mynera River was muddy and quite high. The guides let us know that while the river always remains off-color, it had been a tough season that was wrought with high water and difficult conditions. Some great catches of tigerfish were happening, but it required hard work and dedication with relentless blind casting. African Waters splits their guests in two groups, with half staying on the Mynera, and the other at the more remote camp on the Ruhudji River about a 2-hour drive away by Land Cruiser. Mid-way through the week, the group swaps so all anglers fish unpressured beats the entire week. Undeterred, we received a quick orientation and a short rest before our journey continued even further into the bush. On the way to the Samaki Camp (Ruhudji River) we kept a close eye out for game and enjoyed beautiful encounters with wort hog, waterbuck, cape buffalo, and Lichtenstein’s hartebeest. We also had a short and intense faceoff with a mother elephant that decided we were much too close to her babies. As she charged our truck, we were thankful our expert guides quickly reversed and settled her nerves without incident. 

After the 2-hour drive through the backcountry, followed by another half-hour by boat on the Ruhudji, we finally arrived at our camp for the night. The Samaki Camp is primitive yet well-appointed and the sturdy safari-style tents are remarkably comfortable with running hot water (from heated barrels of water), flush toilets and very comfortable modern queen beds. While the tents are not air-conditioned, their mesh sides keep the interior cool enough for sleeping. During the evenings, the camp operates under generator power with basic lighting available throughout.

We spent the next three days on the Ruhudji River where our crash course on angling for tigerfish kicked into high gear. The typical protocol was to motor up a likely beat, kill the engine and then drift downstream with the guide poling the skiff from the middle of the boat. Anglers both fore and aft fish at the same time casting streamers to the bank. 

There are five main species of tigerfish in the world. The Mynera and Ruhudji rivers in Tanzania are home to the second largest of the five called blue tigerfish or Hydrocynus tanzaniae. These tigers commonly exceed 8lbs with truly massive specimens pushing 20lbs or more. Any tigerfish over 10lbs is considered a trophy and these rivers remain the only place in the world where fly anglers can consistently target trophy fish. The one species that is commonly larger is the goliath tigerfish (Hydrocynus goliath) though they remain elusive and are found only in a few remote rivers around the world. 

The first thing that becomes strikingly clear when targeting tigerfish is that this is hard work! For anyone that loves fishing large streamers for aggressive trout or casting mice at the banks from a skiff, this style of angling will immediately seem familiar. However, unlike those venues these fish require insanely fast double-hand retrieves (with the rod tucked under your arm), long precise casts to structure and have teeth that can shred even 50lb wire. Blue tigers happily live among 100lb catfish, Nile crocodiles and rampaging hippos which may lend to their aggressive and naturally feisty behavior. They think nothing of actively trying to bite you once landed. Indeed, this is streamer fishing on steroids at its finest! This is a highly intensive blind casting game, where the faster you can slam an 8-inch-long weighted fly to the bank the better. Rip it in with two hands as fast as you can and then wash, rinse and repeat over a thousand times and you’ve got the idea.  

The more we fished the Ruhudji the more we realized that it was simply impossible to fish the fly too quickly. The tricky bit is that the faster the fly is moving the more difficult setting the hook becomes. As the tigerfish attack at 35mph the speed of the fly in the current is moving equally as fast, which can result in a plague of missed strikes. It becomes a balancing act of speed and efficiency with the net result being that only a small fraction of bites actually yields a hooked fish. It became painfully clear by the end of day three at the Samaki Camp that we would solidly hook up one fish for about every twenty strikes. Couple this with fish that are armed with a set of razor blades for teeth, and their propensity to hang around fallen timber (and overhanging branches) and you’ve got a recipe for some seriously hardcore and frustrating angling. At times, it’s a maddening endeavor and it seemed that just about every time I was ready to call it a day and rest my aching wrist, shoulder and hands, a double-digit beast would jump on my fly, jolt me back to life, and the shot of adrenaline would keep me going for another thousand casts.  

Tigerfish pack all of their might and sheer power into the first 90-seconds of the fight. While they are not track stars and only rarely make long runs, they more than make up for it with savage strikes, acrobatics and vicious death rolls. We learned that if you can sustain a connection to the fish through the first 30-seconds, you stood a greater chance of actually landing the fish. Mercifully, the African Waters crew stops at about 10am for a mid-morning coffee/tea break, which for even the most ardent and physically fit anglers comes as a welcome reprieve from the endless casting and high-speed retrieves. It’s a lovely moment to reflect on the morning, chat with the guide and ready yourself for the big push to lunchtime. One particularly enjoyable break found us enjoying some biscuits and freshly made black coffee while watching an intense battle over territory between two warring tribes of Vervet monkeys.  

One of the most amazing aspects of this trip is that even though you’re thoroughly busy fishing, any moment could deliver an amazing animal encounter. From the safety of the skiffs, we viewed elephants, hippopotamuses, Nile crocodiles, wort hogs, baboons, antelope and cape buffalo. In fact, there is never a moment during the trip where you aren’t also on safari. One afternoon, I spent the better part of my post-fishing shower peering out the mesh side of the tent at a bull elephant that stood easily 10 feet at the shoulder and was growling at me from 40 feet away while I rinsed the shampoo from my hair. On another occasion while making the short walk back to our tent after dinner, we heard lions roaring in the near distance and talked with staff about stories of wild dogs just across the river from camp. Every moment is a truly immersive experience in the most African way possible. 

After three days of hearty laughs, some surprisingly scrumptious riverside meals, and mind-boggling encounters with tigerfish (some specimens reaching an astonishing 14 pounds) it was time for our group to return to the main Dhala Camp on the Mynera. Once back, we found the Mynera dropping into shape quickly, but the group in camp still reported tough fishing. The next couple of days proved very difficult, however, it had nothing to do with enticing strikes. We received an incredible amount of action, but we struggled mightily to keep fish pinned to our fly. Fish broke off, chewed through our 50lb wire shock-tippet, snapped the connection between the monofilament and the wire, or just would never suffer the piercing of our hook. We tried moving the fly slowly or quickly with single-hand retrieves and hyper fast double-hand strips and still struggled. By now, we were fully indoctrinated into religiously strip setting the fly (sometimes 10 – 20 times before actually lifting the rod), and as we buckled down and doubled our efforts. Towards the end of the trip, our learning curve leveled somewhat, and we started to land some incredible fish. During our time at Dhala camp we became aware that our last day on the itinerary would be to hike into a section the guides called “The Rapids”. Excitement grew as we envisioned hiking several kilometers across the wild African bush, where we’d been seeing all manner of large fauna. It was not hard to assume that some of these critters would at the very least be less than enthusiastic about our presence and at worst see us as a scrumptious afternoon snack. 

We began our hike to The Rapids with some trepidation aswe stepped out of the boats and into the wild. We met our Kilombero game scout that would be our escort for the day and marveled at his full military uniform and primed AK-47 at his side. I briefly wondered what his pea shooter would do against a rampaging bull elephant, cape buffalo or hippo before firmly putting that out of my mind and focusing backon fishing. The Rapids is an absolutely stunning portion of the upper Mynera. Itslargerock-strewnflow is peppered with islands and back channelsand surrounded by a dense and mature jungle ecosystem. It’sbest approached on foot as the river becomes impassable for the fishing skiffs. Hiking through the African scrub heightens the senses.My body remained on high alert for any number of wild African animals. Along the several kilometer trek we stopped at several likelypoolswhere the guides knew tigers to patrol. We’dthrow in our flies on a short cast, let them sink for 10 seconds and then rip them back at top speed across the seam with a hand-over-hand retrieve.This strategy yielded the fish of the trip for me and issued one of the most incredible catches of my nearly 30-yearcareer in fly fishing. A beautiful 13lb specimen with animpressive display of cutlery in its jaws and a fighting spirit that embodied all the beauty and savage nature of our surroundings.I finally looked down at the fish I’dcome for afterdays ofrigorous blind casting, relentless missed opportunities, heart-crushing defeatsand a significantly bruised ego. The catch of this tigerreleased a torrent of appreciation and what could only be described as a deluge of dopamine. The moment was only made better by my guide Riley’s unbridled congratulatory shouts and my great friend Tim’s ear-to-ear smiles.This was the tigerfish of my dreams, and it representedthe successful culmination ofthe immense effort and perseveranceby the guides andthe entire team at African Waters.

African Waters’ team of South African guides are second to none in the world. They manage to consistently balance a margin of safety while allowing pure fun and adventure to unfold daily. They are passionate outdoorsmen, skilled anglers and high-quality human beings that are simply a joy to be around. Everyone works as a well-oiled machine in camp and our group remained thoroughly impressed by the level of service provided by the guides and camp staff throughout the week. From the game scouts and truck drivers to the cooks and boatmen, it’s impossible to imagine how these camps could have operated more smoothly or be more comfortable considering the incredibly remote locations where they operate.  

Tigerfish demand a lot from the tackle you employ. Super sharp heavy-wire hooks, premium leader material, and high-quality wire shock tippet are where it all starts. The teeth alone can cause havoc with your terminal tackle operations, not to mention the power they can deliver in the initial phase of the fight. It’s critical to come prepared with plenty of leader material and change it out at the slightest sign of wear. I primarily fished a 9wt SAGE IGNITER on this trip, which offered the immense power required to punch heavy flies within inches of the bank over and over again. As always, my SAGE ENFORCER reels performed flawlessly. While these fish do not make blazing runs that tax drag systems, it’s important to have a reel that will hold up to the rigors of the heat, humidity and thumps it will take while riding in steel skiffs and bouncing along for hours in a Land Cruiser. Without a doubt, the star of the show was the RIO Warmwater Predator fly lines I fished. I employed the intermediate and fast sinking lines exclusively. The most impressive aspect of the Warmwater Predator is they remained tangle-free the entire trip, especially considering the incredible amount of blind-casting involved with big flies that tend to twist. I also loved the fact that this taper allows you to easily carry long lengths of line in the air but still has enough mass at the front for quick pick-ups-and-shoots. We were all quite impressed by these lines and I’m confident they will be a required tool in my bag for any application where big flies, lots of casting and aggressive fish species are on the menu. 

African Waters’ Dhala and Samaki camps in Tanzania blend an awe-inspiring African experience with the thrill of targeting one of freshwater’s most intriguing, savage and challenging gamefish. Tigerfish tested my patience, skill and nerves more than I thought possible and there’s no question that I came out of this adventure truly a better angler. For guests that have had the pleasure of globetrotting the world to experience amazing fisheries and remain eager for a new challenge, the Mynera and Ruhudji rivers should vault to the top of your list. It’s hard to imagine how a trip can better combine the allure of a wild African safari with a hardcore fly fishing experience in the bush. To truly enjoy this immersive venue, guests should be comfortable camping, be relatively self-sufficient as anglers and possess good physical ability to blind cast heavy tackle consistently.  

There’s no better illustration of the notion that to achieve the greatest dopamine release, one must receive an award after the greatest exertion. Tigerfish and all they encompass perfectly illustrate this. For those that make the commitment, the rewards in Tanzania are only matched by the larger-than-life animals you’ll experience while there. This rare combination of raw beauty, technical angling and breathtaking adventure make Tanzania one-of-one among fly fishing destinations the world over. 

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