Entry into the fishery was determined by three factors: access to fishing grounds, access to gear, and access to fishing skills.
The dam is normally owned by the village which possessed the land prior to the construction of the dam. The use of the reservoir is free to all surrounding villages. The only restriction is net fishery. All those who want to fish with nets need to apply for a licence with the District Council. Those who receive a licence should show it to the ward chairman4 in whose ward the reservoir is located. However, most of the fishers (also) seek approval from the headman of the village owning the dam. In spite of this, the headmen do not really have control over the net fishery. The fishing license does not state the type of gear nor the fishing method permitted. At times the headmen did try to discuss, in their view, the destructive fishing methods (seine netting with long nets and small mesh sizes) employed by the fishers but they felt incapable to regulate the fishers. They thought that the licence covered any type of net and any type of net fishing in the dam. Only in case a fisher socially misbehaved or fished in waters outside the actual dam did the headman or chief interfere.
The fishers who used traps, hook and line or other gear, hardly ever asked for permission to fish (respectively 6%, 3% and 6% of the respondents said to have done so). There are two reasons for this. One is that most of these fishers live in villages surrounding the dam and are thus entitled to use this common resource. The second reason is that these gears were not considered as effective as net fishing by the community and thus will not deplete their common resource.
In principle, both men and women had access to the fishing grounds.
Few fishers declared to have made arrangements with other fishers with regard to fishing places. Eight percent said that each net fisher had his own place to set a net. Of the trap fishers, 27% had their own fishing ground. Some even said that they inherited it from the grandparents, In case someone infringed on their fishing place, the trespasser had to share the catch as a form of payment to the owner.
No distribution of fishing rights was reported for the other fisheries. Even when there were already a large number of people angling, others will still join them. Everyone tried his or her own luck.
The majority of the fishers felt nets were the most efficient gear and blamed their low catches on the ineffectiveness of their own gear (traps 41%, hook and line 31%, bundles of grass and spears 56%). Those who fished with nets either bought these themselves or they were owned by someone in town who then employed several people to fish for him. Twenty percent of the net owners had obtained credit from their father (13%) or from other relatives (7%) to purchase a net. The loan was reimbursed after crop sales (13%) or fish sales (7%).
The expenses for hooks and lines were entirely financed by the fishers themselves Hooks and lines were usually available in local stores. Nets had to be bought in town where the supply was irregular.
Those who used other gear than nets to fish, did not have the money to purchase nets. Most of them chose these methods because they were cheap and easy to operate (see Table 8).
Table 8: Reasons for using certain type of gear (% of respondents)
| Item | Cheap | Easy access | Easy to use | Good catches | Other reasons |
| Nets | 0 | 0 | 0 | 79 | 21 |
| Traps | 65 | 1 | 13 | 4 | 17 |
| Hook & Line | 56 | 15 | 25 | 0 | 4 |
| Other gear | 29 | 8 | 27 | 3 | 33 |
An important other reason for some people choosing traps is that it was not time consuming. One could do other things while the trap was in the water. The choice for bundles of grass or spear fishing was also stimulated by the fact that this method was taught to them by the (grand) parents and was the only method they knew.
There was no real trade in traps, bundles of grass and spears. These were made and repaired by the owners themselves. Often the parents, grandparents or other close relatives had taught them how to make and repair the gear (traps 70%, grass bundles 53%, spears 70%). Since trap and spear fishing is traditionally practised by men, the skill to make and operate these gears are not transferred to women. Women do have access to the knowledge to make bundles of grass.
The respondents who had stopped fishing (86% of them were anglers) did so because they were discouraged by the low catches, the distance to the dam and they were too busy with other activities. Eighty one percent of them would like to start again if they could use improved gear. Of those who never fished before, only 38% would like to take up fishing. Forty-five percent of the interested respondents would like to use nets. The irregular availability and cost of gear were the most important factors which inhibited the entry into the fishery of the male non-fishers. Only 33% of the women saw this as a constraint.
The skill to mount and fish with nets and hook and line was mostly transferred between friends, whereas the technique to operate traps, bundles of grass and spears was mainly taught by (grand) parents. This also included the use of magic charms ‘juju’. Amongst trap fishers, the use of these charms was common(51% of the respondents said they used them5). Whereas only 14% of the net fishers reported to use them and 16% each for anglers, spear fishers and fishers using grass bundles. Mostly roots or herbs were used as charms which were mixed with the bait or tied to the gear.
In Kangombe, there was a considerable number of fishers who blamed their meagre catches on their lack of fishing skill (traps 8%, hook and line 35%, other gear 9%). The fishers at the other reservoirs felt quite competent in fishing.
There were examples of transfer of fishing skills from men to women as far as angling is concerned. Since bundles of grass were used by both men and women, women also had access to these skills. Net, trap and spear fishing were a ‘male domain’ and a change in attitude is needed if one wants to expose women to these fishing techniques.
It is noteworthy that when female respondents said someone in their household was interested in fishing, they always mentioned a male member as the interested person.
