Tiger time
Nestled in the far corner of Zululand, Kwazulu Natal, is an expanse of water that is the home to one of the most ferocious freshwater predators on our planet’s piscatorial list. The African Tiger Fish, Hydrocynus vittatus, or as it’s known by many other names and monikers, Tiervis, Striped Water Dog,is a Freshwater gamefish of serious repute, and it patrols the waters of Jozini Dam, unleashing a reign of terror on any prey that gets in its path.
This is wild Africa at its finest, and then with Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard, Rhino, Giraffe, Hyena and other wild game calling the shores and surrounding land their home, and crocodiles and massive pods of grumpy hippo lurking in the waters, and then below the surface of this formidable and magnificent body of freshwater, it gets even wilder. The Tiger Fish has a reputation for its ferocious and predatory nature but only when you are fishing for them do you quite realise how aggressive and dominant they are as a species. One can only imagine the fear that possesses the bait fish, when The African Tiger is on the hunt!
Jozini Dam as it is commonly known, is actually officially called Pongolapoort Dam, and is located on the Pongola River, in Northern Kwazulu Natal, and is situated alongside Jozini Town. It was constructed in 1973, and its main purpose is to serve as an irrigation source. Jozini Dam is a haven for wildlife, birdlife and fish life. Besides the land and water mammals and reptiles mentioned above, birdlife is in abundance and it is a bird watchers dream with over 350 bird species including Saddle-billed and Yellow-billed Storks, Pel’s Fishing Owl and Narina Trogans. The Dam is the Southernmost home to a healthy population of African Tigerfish and also supports a diverse and healthy population of other fish species including Barbel and Tilapia. Jozini really is a relatively untouched gem as a word class-fishing destination. And this makes it the perfect destination for the Go Fish Tiger Classic hosted by Jozini Tiger Lodge.
Go Fish took over the comp this year, after it was successfully started in 2021 by Albert Lourens of Jozini Tiger Lodge, and Racetech Yamaha, and run by them since then. Initially started as a Jet Ski only event and successfully attracting many competitors it remained as a mainly Jet Ski event but this year we had a number of boats participate as well.
The event took place at Jozini Tiger Lodge. This exquisite 4 star hotel is perfectly positioned at the end of the gorge right near the dam wall. This means that it is a in a very protected part of the dam allowing Jetski’s and Boats to be left on the water at the Hotels large Jetty area throughout the duration of the event.
Wednesday night was welcome and briefing. All the excitement and build up was suddenly upon everyone and us. Admittedly we were a little nervous. It was our first time doing this particular event. We wanted to mould it into our own version of an already established event, and it had to be relatively immediate. Yes, there was room for a bit of ‘finding our way’, but not a lot. The team at Jozini Tiger Lodge were incredible. Ryan Crossley, Gerhard, Kesh were brilliant along with the entire staff helping us every step of the way. We immediately formed a brilliant partnership with these guy’s, and this awesome event will just go from strength to strength. Wednesday night got very festive as anticipated but the men couldn’t stay up too late, as they had to get up early Thursday morning for the fun Adviceworx Ladies Day taking place. This fun but very competitive ladies day is a part of the event that just keeps growing every year.
The Weather turned out to be perfect for the full duration of the event, and the Adviceworx Ladies Day was a pearler. The ladies event is structured that it is just the ladies who fish and the men are their skippers and gillies. So, the men had no chance of sleep in and no chance of grabbing a rod either because these ladies are hooked!!
The Adviceworx Ladies Day was great fun and a huge success and ended with a bang and Charlene got the biggest fish and won the day for The Adviceworx Ladies Day. Everyone had an absolute ball and we finished the day off with prize giving and drinks and snacks on the jetty, on the water with an awesome sunset to finish off an absolutely magical day. We finished off the day with a fancy dress theme evening Flower Power Beach Bums and the outfits were incredible.
The next two days would be the main competition, and how it worked is the if ladies entered the main comp they were entered into both. Of course, there was a lot of ladies favouritism, but it was Women's Month after all. And so the ladies, some of them opted to just enter fish the ladies' day and then rested up for the next two days, but the rest jumped on board and entered into the main comp as well. Day One was headlined by BuddyCool and the excitement was palpable as the guys hit the water first light and were rearing to go as soon as the go-ahead was given. And before long the reports of some great fish were coming in already.
Lots of fish in the 1kg to 1.5kg mark were being caught, and of course lots of fish being lost, but that’s tiger fishing. It can be very, very frustrating. And in amongst the videos and pics coming in were some much bigger fish. Alister Franz with a 62cm Tiger, and Lood Engelbrecht with a bomber of 68cm. It barely fitted in the measuring trough and we suddenly got worried that we hadn’t made the measuring troughs long enough. We had made a measure trough kindly sponsored by On Tap Ballito with a ruler sticker of 70cm, and I think this year we will certainly make it longer.
The Buddy Cool Coolers Day one ended and there were a lot of tired but happy anglers. A booze cruise in the gorge to finish the day and a brief prize giving for the day before most of the anglers headed to bed for an early night.
And so onto the final day, headlined by Adviceworx. The early birds were at the jetty at first light to grab their breakfast packs and lunch packs and head out to try and beat that slab that Loot caught the day before. A lot of fish were caught as well as a lot lost but the result carried through and he managed to hold onto his lead by the end of Adviceworx Day Two, to take the overall win, despite some stiff competition from Alister Franz.
Prize giving was a blast and every single angler walked away with a prize via our scoring and lucky draw system. What an epic event. The party continued well into the night and the celebrations were epic.
Final results
Winner. Lood Engelbrecht. 68cm
2nd. Alister Franz. 62cm
3rd. Michael Karaiolos. 52cm
Top Lady Kate Martins. 47cm
Top junior. Dominic Martin's. 47cm
4th. Jarrod Thomas. 46cm
5th. Dorian Choate. 43cm
6th. Paulo Martins. 42cm
7th. Jason Meyer. 41cm
8th. Etienne de Villiers. 40cm
9th. Kevin Tait. 40cm
2nd place Ladies. Gail Waddell. 39cm
3rd place ladies. Deeann Karaiolos 38cm
2nd Junior. Mason Franz. 43cm
3rd Junior. Tielman Roos jnr. 42cm
Adviceworx Ladies day Fun Comp winner Charlene Coetzer
Biggest Barbel. Karel du Toit
Species winner. Dieter Loubser
A very special thanks to our incredible main sponsors Adviceworx and Morne and Etienne, Buddy Cool, Jozini Tiger Lodge, Gauche Air, Alister Franz and Pongola Toyota, as well as the long list of other sponsors who made this event possible.
A massive thanks to Ryan, Gerhard, Kesh and the Jozini Tiger Lodge crew, to Racetech who were integral in creating this event originally. A very special thanks to Waldo and the SAPS waterwing team who patrolled the waters all event, making sure the guys were safe and had no issues. And a very special thanks to Kevin Tait, Albert Lourens and Adele von Landsberg, who trusted us with organising the event and were a massive help throughout. We can’t wait till the next one…..Save the date 2nd to 5th October 2025 at Jozini Tiger Lodge. Book your stay now!!
