Merchison Falls, Uganda

Some photos and a report from my friends Craig Smith and Jonathan Boulton's recent trip to Merchison Falls in Uganda. Might be the biggest Nile Perch ever caught there on fly.

Hi Guys - Don't want to bore you with too many details.

Just got back from a trip to the Murchison Falls in Uganda. It is a

fascinating rift valley where over millions of years some of the rivers have

changed the direction the used to flow in. It is rich in culture - Ernest

Hemingway, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Queen Elizabeth have

all hunted there. It was a real adventure as few people have fly fished this

area. It was hot - over 40 degrees in the gorge, humidity was 100%, the

river pumps, tsetse flies were all over you all day, hungry crocs, hippos,

snakes, colobus monkeys, etc. We stayed at the Red Chilli backpackers where

we were fed bacon with nearly every meal. The accommodation was really

sparse and the ablutions were shared by over 50 people. But, the beer was

always cold and plentiful.

Jonathan checked my equipment every evening replacing broken lines and

retying all my knots. We fished at the bottom of the falls at the start of

each day. The Victoria Nile is channelled into a gap of 6 meters and drops

down 40 metres spilling 300 cubic meters of water a second - not sure what

that is in feet. I fished hard about 8 hours a day for 6 days and landed a

total of 4 Nile Perch. One of these happens to be the new recorded record on

fly - 25kg's. It fought me for about 35 minutes (with a lot of instructions

being shouted by Joanthan - I think he panicked for me) on a 10 weight rod -

I did not know fly rods could handle that amount of punishment. Length 1.23m

and girth of 82 cm's.

Our guide was the renowned wildlife expert Paul Goldring who was fascinating

and taught us a lot about the bush. He also showed us a lot of unusual

things we would never have seen if we had been on our own - for example:

fresh leopard tracks on a path we had walked on the day before, a royal

python in the papyrus (something he said we would never see in our lives

again - he has picked up a dead one which he has in a jar in his house, and

then the one we saw with him). The rocks you see us flyfishing from always

had crocs on them and we had to chase them away to get a spot.

We also experienced the true Africa in Kampala where we had to bribe a local

traffic officer for an alleged offense - even having to give him 2000

shillings for his taxi ride back to his post after he had fleeced us for 60

000 shillings. I loved his response - either put up with it or leave - this

from Paul, not the policeman. He was not planning to leave.

Craig Smith