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My wife and I were enjoying the magnificent landscape from the
vantage point on the hill above the N'wanetsi picnic spot. It was
midday and with the sun directly overhead,I started searching for
life in the crystal clear waters of the N'wanetsi below us.I could not believe my eyes when the submerged log I had focussed on through
my 10 magnification binocs. turned around and showed a silver
belly.Whatever fish it was, appeared to be at least 2(two)metres
long,had the girth of an old Fever Tree and moved/turned whenever
smaller fish swam closely by. A party of visitors from Germiston arrived
and were equally in awe...the sheer size of the fish!!! I know that the
Loch Ness Monster is a figment of some-one's imagination,but this
monster is REAL.Can any-one tell me what we saw?Please!!

A tiger fish?

No, not a Tigerfish nor a Big-eye-Canadian Salmon.I suspect
it will only take bait the size of an Elk!

Sounds like a Sharptooth Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) to me, though you may have gotten the size wrong? That fish attains around 1.4 meters or 59 kilo.

Duco - allow a fisherman some licence, what's a meter or two between mites?

There's that!

The SA angling record for this fish is 33.3 kilo, would look odd at 2 meters long, more like an eel!

Now we all know that when it comes to fish....

Size DOES matter!!!

Thanks Curious C,DuQ,billyf
Great reading your comments.I now know it's not a Tigerfish,
that I have the eye of a blue-blooded fisherman, that size
does count and that my monster probably was a CLARIAS
GARIEPINUS MAXIMUS MAXIMI!!
Regards
Andre B.

It's the swimming version of the Gariep monster!

But seriously, especially if there were whiskerlike things on the snout that's your best bet I think.

One thing for sure...Even a cat fish that big was an old timer...glad to see the ole' guy is still swimming

Yes DuQ, now that you mention it,the fish had those whiskers.
I should have mentioned them.Thanks for all the info (and humour!).
Regards
Andre B.
P.S.Have I told you about the Fruit Bats at Skukuza? The size of
Eagle owls at least!
Andre B.

Catfish can grow around 1.5m and around 40kg

Saw a Catfish caught in a fish trap in the Kavango river that was around 1,5m and probably weighed around 40kgs.

They can get big

I have got a picture of a monster but not sure if I can put it in the form, don't know who caught it and the picture might have some sort of advertisement on it.