As the number of camps and lodges proliferated, so did the number
of boats and anglers on the water, and coincidentally (or not) so the
sport angling experience deteriorated. In my view sport anglers in this
neck of the woods do not realise or appreciate the pressure rod and
line can put on a fishery, even with catch & release. There is science
that has proven that catch & release can have a 25% mortality rate,
higher if poor angling and handling methods are used. And, with the
volume of boats and anglers on the Lower Zambezi (on the Zambian
side Chikwenya Island westwards and on the Zim side Chikwenya
Island eastwards) the tigers in the Mana Pools/Lower Zambezi NP’s
don’t have much respite.
There is a mindset that the only way to catch a tiger is by drift baiting,
ideally with live bait or tiger/chessa fillets. Despite the ban on killing
any fish in the park many lodges were, and probably still are, killing
small tiger and chessa in the park to use to catch tiger. A more cynical
side of me suggests that these are lazy anglers, happier to sit with
a beer in one hand whilst the fish in a core conservation zone hook
themselves to death on their lines, rather than to stand up and work a
little by casting and retrieving repeatedly.
Attached is the Lower Zambezi Tourism Association’s Angling Policy.
This is a policy our Association’s members agreed upon in May this
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