Following on from the Ron Clay thread herewith the freshwater species list that I know of, that can be caught in Zimbabwe. I will list the common names and for pic's I would like to point you towards google.
I have caught most of these species on bait or artlure, alas I was not f/f at the time.
Quite a few of the species are found only in certain waters, and are not endemic to the whole country. I hope that the list is of interest. Average size in brackets.

BREAM ( Tilapia )
Three Spot ( Mozanbiqua ) ( 3 -6lbs)
Red Breasted ( 2 - 6lbs)
Green Faced ( Robustus ) ( 4 - 10lbs )
Thin Happy ( 4 - 6 lbs )
Vlei Kurper ( 2 - 16 ozs )
Blue Bream ( 2 - 10 lbs)
Large Mouth Bream ( 4 - 14 lbs )

CATFISH
Sharptooth Catfish ( Barbel ) ( 2 - 40 lbs )
Spotted or rock barbel ( 0.5 - 5 lbs )
Grunter ( poisonous spines ) ( 0.5 - 3 lbs )
Vundu ( 5 - 150 lbs )
Slilver ( butter ) barbel ( 1 - 6lbs )

Eels ( various specie including the electric eel )
( 5 - 50lb )

Chessa ( 1 - 10 lb ) pound for pound best fighting freshwater fish anywhere in the world.

Nkupe ( 1 - 6 lb )

Bottlenose ( 1 - 5 lb )

Churchill ( 1 - 5 lb )

Cornish Jack ( 3 - 45 lb )

Tiger Fish ( 2 - 25lb )

Alien Species but now considered local.

Trout, ( Rainbow & brown ) ( 1 - 4 lb )
Bass ( LM and SM ) ( 2 - 25lb ) All Africa record of 13.7kg
Carp ( 3 - 30 lb )

I am very sure that I have omitted a lot of the smaller "non targeted" species like the barbs and minnows.

Most ( if not all ) of the species above can be targeted on the fly. Some would be very difficult but possible.

Good list Herman!

Brings back many happy memories of weekends on the Zambezi river, catching Tiger fish for sport and bream for our dinner.

Best fish to catch though was the Wide Mouth Bass, especially on the fly.

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Yes, I have caught most of the fish in that list Herman, but I did most of my African fishing in South Africa.

It's interesting what you say about the chessa being the best fighting freshwater species in the world. I would list the steelehead, blue trout and SM yellowfish of the Vaal River as having that accolade, with the SM bass shortly behind them.

The blue trout is a mutation of the rainbow trout by the way.

Thanks Matt,
Mana Pools fishing camp, Vundu fishing at night whilst you are throwing empty "dumpies" filled with sand at the crocs to keep them away from the bank with the elephant walking through the camp to get to the island.

Others would call it a misspent youth, I call it the education of a lifetime.

Ron, I said pound for pound r.e. the Chessa.

My P.B. for a SM is 4.3kg, ( still searching for that 10 pounder ) on the Vaal in flows of 40 tons. The SM speed of run is frightening and catches a lot of people off gaurd. If you are not awake you have 50 yards of backing out and then you may as well straight line it 'cos he has "wrapped" you around rocks at least 3 times.
MY P.B. Chessa was 7lbs . They are not as fast as the SM but relatively quick, and living in the Zambezi have everything in their favour, from current, eddies, structure, hippo's. They are also like a bull terrier, the damn things never get tired.

To 50 pounds!!!! Geeze Louise that's not an eel, that's a short Python.

One specific spot on the Hunyani river, a good 1000km's from the nearest sea, produced snap offs on 20, then 30 then 50lb, "black spider" braid, circa 1970.
A 10ft boat road, Penn 49 reel, with 80lb mono was then brought in to the equation. Bait was the normal 4lb bream fish head and gills. It took an hour to land and was close to 2.4m ( 8ft long ) with a girth of 14 inches.

And to think I used to swim in that river as a kid

The tiger fish best pound for pound fighting fish has to be in my opinion.

basically 5 lbs tiger fish on a fly rod is 5 minutes of adrenaline and uncontrolable fish, and a heart attack for the angler, and very burnt fingers from fly line!!!!

Now any other fish that size salmon included is a tame controlled fight which maybe longer but not as extreme.

The tiger fish is the one fish i can say will die in seconds / 2 minutes of coming to net because its given everything it can in very very short space of time. (and included its teeth which dislodge in the fight no other fish does that!)

Bone fish run away from you in shallow water bascially thats the only way they can go they cannt go up or down depth wise they feed in the shallows. Expect any fish to travel away from you in those kind of conditions ie a long run and not much else.

Hi Herman,

How about Nile Perch (circa 200 lbs), Bagrus catfish (100 lb)? Both species are in Lake Kariba?
Also small tigerfish Hydrocynus forskahlii - much prettier than the normal striped variety, with bright red tails. I don't know about present Zimbabwe but they were/are common in Uganda.

I had no idea that they had introduced the Nile Perch to Kariba. If they have then it's going to cause the demise of a lot of the very special indigenous fish, i.e. the Nkupe and Chessa.
Is the Bagrus catfish, not what I know as the Vundu ? Known and fotographed to reach 300lb. The Kariba dam wall divers who inspect the wall dive in cages for fear of these monster fish.

The "baby" tiger is one I forgot. So damn pretty . Normally found in the lower Save river, just below the Chinamora falls but above the Lundi confluence.