My fishing book does not mention the tarpon I hooked on the Belize River. It kept jumping out of the water and on one of these leaps I lifted the tip of my rod and the dead weight broke the line. It does mention a catch in Ethiopia.
I was there in October 1998, staying for part of the time at the British Embassy compound on Lake Langano in the Rift Valley. I was a guest of Gordon Wetherell and his wife, Rosie. He was British Ambassador at the time. It was my first time in Africa. I had no idea what Rosie meant when she said that there was no bilharzia. Should I express disappointment, perhaps some will come along before I leave? She explained that it is a parasitic worm that lives in water and does some very nasty things. What a relief, I thought, and said I was pleased it was safe to drink the water. She gave me a peculiar look and said that in Ethiopia it is never safe to drink the water, just that there was no bilharzia in the lake.
My attempts to catch something in the lake did not go well at first. I was relying on flies chosen by Farlows and I have a suspicion that they didn’t know the water I was fishing very well. The Military Attaché, however, was an excellent ghillie and I followed his advice. On a still morning, before breakfast, I hooked and landed a Tilapia using a single hook on which I impaled a small piece of raw ox heart.
I have hit a bit of a bad patch recently. I haven’t caught anything except colds since 2001.