IN THe NeWS
Angler Attacked by Crocodile and
Lands Record Nile Perch
It is a fishy tale with a twist: when Tim Smith landed a record-breaking Nile perch it was a
case of the champion angler being the one who got away - from an attacking crocodile.
M
r Smith, 39, an art teacher from Northern Ireland was so
focussed on his battle to land the enormous fish while on
holiday in Uganda that he failed until the last moment to
see a predatory crocodile eyeing him up for a meal.
He was fishing from a small boat on the Victoria Nile, a mile
downstream from the famous Murchison Falls, when the huge Nile
perch
grabbed his bait.
“For the next 45 minutes this fish took me up and down the river,”
he recounted. “Suddenly the boat lurched and I nearly fell out. I didn’t
really know what had happened.” He was standing at the back of the
small open fishing boat beside the engine with his feet wedged against
the stern, straining into the fish.
“The next thing, this crocodile launches itself at me, mouth wide
open,” he said. Fortunately it had misjudged its lunge and fell short,
hitting the side of the boat.
“If it had launched itself another foot I’m sure it would have got
hold of me,” Mr Smith said. “It obviously hit the front of the boat to
try and knock me out and then went to the other side. This thing was
attacking the boat.
“When you realise something that size is trying to eat you it’s
really quite daunting. I just fell back into the centre of the boat, still
holding the rod.”
Luckily the Nile perch was still snagged on Mr Smith’s hook.
Now exhausted, the fish was lying flat on the surface of the water just
a few yards from the boat.
“I just saw the crocodile swim up and grab the fish’s tail and spin
it around in a death roll but because of the size of the fish it couldn’t
get a proper grip,” Mr Smith said.
P a g e 40
The fish made one final dive to get away from the crocodile and
the Mr Smith was able to get close enough to his catch to grab it and
tie it to the side of the boat.
“I pulled up the anchor as fast as I could. By the time I got the
engine started the crocodile was just coming around. I slammed the
engine into gear and the crocodile dived and disappeared,” he said.
He drifted down river for half a mile, tied the fish to a tree and
went to a nearby wildlife safari lodge to get help.
It was only then that someone asked him: “Do you realise that’s
where the ranger was eaten?”
Mr Smith said: “I knew a ranger died there two weeks earlier.
They said he drowned but I think he was eaten. His remains were in
a small plastic bag.”
He believes that the crocodiles have worked out that, with so
many people in boats on the river, if they can knock them into the
water they won’t go hungry.
The previous heaviest Nile perch caught on rod and line tipped
the scales at 230lb. Mr Smith’s fish was 29lb heavier.
He is applying to the International Game Fish Association in
Florida to have his Nile perch established as the new world record.
A regular visitor to Uganda, he is reviewing the idea of fishing
on his own on future expeditions.
V o l . 21 # 1