South Yorkshire Times May 20, 1967

Lands 67 Lbs Perch From River Nile

The photograph shows David E Smith, of High Street, Thurnscoe, who for the past two years has been Head of Science and Biology Master at Kolanya Secondary Boarding School in Kenya, East Africa.

One of his favourite forms of recreation, besides photography and motoring, is fishing. Recently he had a spot of fishing in the river Nile in the company of another Yorkshireman from Sheffield.

This splendid specimen is one of the famous Nile perch weighing 67 lbs. It took him 40 minutes to land after being hoped, and it put up a great fight until pulled ashore by the two African boat boys, who were terrified because a water python, between 15 and 20 feet in length, was making an attempt to capture this splendid fish.

Mr Smith has one special desire before returning home in August – to catch one of these magnificent fish in the hundred pound range.

Mr Smith is an old boy of Wath Grammar School and an old student of St John’s College York.