“All right Hugh if you want to hunt crocs remember and never forget that whilst hunting them, they are also wanting to hunt you. So always check the river very carefully before approaching it for hidden lurking danger.”
Although once one had shot a river pretty hard the crocs would start to adopt a more cautious attitude as they could tell the sound of the engine etc meant danger, and then they would keep well away from you. However there was always an ever present danger when one camped that there would be one in the undergrowth just waiting ready to spring an attack. When we came to a new area it was that first big croc who regarded his territory as his own preserve that we had to shoot. But even thereafter one always had to be cautious so I took to sleeping on the small cramped boat far out in the middle of the river well away from the banks. Most of the shooting was done at night anyway and I would press on until past midnight and by now I would be a long way from my base camp, and just collapse into a deep sleep with a few crocs often in the boat and another one or two tied to it but still in the water. In any case the thought of a two hour drive home at that hour was off putting and so I soon started to take my camp bed with me which I would put up across the seats and I would snuggle down in my sleeping bag, change into some warm dry clothes and tuck myself into a small island on the river. In the morning often an African fisherman out early in the morning would arrive at the boat curious thinking it was abandoned only to find me there. I would awake get out the hot thermos of tea, have a wash in the cool water, collect my crocs and set off in the early cool back to camp. I did not get at that stage very many, maybe two or three in the night which were worth about £2 - £3 or about £5 for a nights work that I thought at the time was terrific!
I decided then after that first expedition that I needed to go further afield and expand the operation. So when I got back I decided to sell the vanette which I did not really need as my
whole life was now on the river and with its proceeds started to lay in supplies. At that time I was not too sure quite what was needed so I did my best and bought a fair range of necessities. During the day time to keep costs down I would fish the Kafue River a pastime that I really loved as I have always adored fishing. But here is an interesting point I found a method of catching Kafue Bream or Tilapia which nobody else had worked out as they are an elusive yet fine large fish. The method I discovered was almost by accident, but since then I have used it a lot. I would first shoot a cormorant which abounded all over the river, and extract their rather white long intestines which I would place in an old Nescafe tin mixed with salt to preserve them. Then I would use a double hook winding the gut of one bird once around the shaft of the double-hook, with the remainder hooked into each hook leaving a small length trailing at either hook which with a knife I would trim to about an inch below the hook exactly level. The whole would then be weighted with the lead from one .22 bullet and attached to thin nylon line about 25 – 30lbs breaking strain. I would go and drop this off the bank where the river cut in and it was fairly deep and sheer in about 6 – 8ft of of water. Failing that I would find a hippo pool chase the hippo out and then drop the line upstream and let it float down dragging over the bottom and I would give it periodically a jerk upwards.......The bait would pass down quickly traversing a long distance and it would not be long before I got a bite and these bream come in shoals and I could pull them out one after another often without even changing and resetting the bait. Once I got over a dozen on the same bait. One cormorant treated like that for bait would last me for months. I had some flashy friends called Erlanks whom came fishing with all their expensive gear and they got absolutely nothing and before long they had discarded their expensive equipment for my simple method which was far more positive for them.....although they did not have my innate knack of quite knowing when to strike at the very end of his nibbling.