| About 20 years ago I was window shopping in the | | | | local fish stocks. |
| lovely little village of Long Melford in Suffolk, England. | | | | Unlike the stuffed one I saw originally, which had |
| The mile long main street of mainly Georgian shops is | | | | yellowed with age, the Nile Perch is silver in colour |
| an antique collector's heaven. Towards the top of | | | | with a blue tinge. They can grow to over two |
| the village is a specialist shop selling stuffed animals, | | | | meters and weigh over 200Kg (440 lb). As food the |
| birds and fish which are not usually my type of thing. | | | | Nile Perch is a very important fish and is raised in |
| My eye was caught by a gigantic stuffed fish which I | | | | aquaculture for this reason, as well as being avidly |
| did not recognise, so I had to go in to have a look. | | | | fished for by local fishermen. They are a bit oily |
| The inscription on the very old glass case showed | | | | which makes them difficult to dry, but have a |
| that this rather ugly, but immense fish was a Nile | | | | pleasant and distinctive flavour. |
| Perch of 124 lb in weight, and caught by Ernest | | | | Many of Africa's large river basins and lakes support |
| Hemmingway himself. Having hooked this monster it | | | | this fish including Lake Maryut in Egypt which has |
| took him over two and a half hours to land it on the | | | | brackish water, and Lake Nasser. Many people catch |
| shore of the Nile, the boat he was in being too small | | | | the biggest fish of their lives in Lake Nasser and it is |
| to safely land it in any other way. | | | | considered a centre of sporting excellence by big |
| My imagination being caught up with this amazing | | | | game fishermen the world over. The largest recorded |
| creature, which looks rather like a cross between a | | | | Nile Perch caught from Lake Nasser weighed 176 kg |
| fat pike, a perch with enormous and sharp teeth and | | | | (392 lb) and fishing from the shore with a lure can |
| a freshwater shark, I could not but help myself | | | | bring in fish of 20 to 100 lb. |
| researching into this phenomenon of the Nile. | | | | The larger Nile Perch tend to be in the large Egyptian |
| I discovered that this fish, native of Africa, is one of | | | | lakes if you are a keen specimen hunter, however |
| the most sought after by anglers, it being easily the | | | | one of these days I hope to catch one of these |
| largest freshwater fish in the world, with only the | | | | incredible fish on the River Nile itself, just like |
| rare manseer in India and Mekong catfish reaching | | | | Hemmingway's Nile Perch in Long Melford, Suffolk, |
| anything like the size of the Nile Perch. This fish is a | | | | but I suspect my own Nile Perch will be a mite |
| voracious predator, and when introduced into Lake | | | | smaller than his. |
| Victoria in the 1960`s it decimated 95 per cent of the | | | | Interested in this subject? |