MOST DANGEROUS PLACES TO FISH
There’s a fish I’ve always yearned to catch. The goliath tigerfish grows to more than 100lb and is a truly fearsome alpha predator, with vampire jaws and a very bad attitude. In Somewhere Down the Crazy River, the adventurer-biologist Jeremy Wade relates the story of seeing a woman limping badly.
“What had happened to her?” he asked.
“Mbenga bit through her hamstring,” came the reply.
A frightening fish, indeed, with an aggressiveness matched only by its strength and speed. It is truly one of the world’s great gamefish. Trouble is, mbenga lives in only one place: the Congo, Africa’s second longest river. To fish for them, you need to go to the ill-named Democratic Republic of Congo or the equally dangerous Republic of Congo or Central African Republic.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises against all but essential travel to all three countries, warning: “Street crime and robbery, including by individuals posing as plainclothes police, is common… There are continued reports of kidnappings and terrorist attacks can’t be ruled out. The security situation remains unstable. The continued presence of armed groups, military operations against
