The River, the Lake, the Fish, the Fishermen

In 1968 Kainji Dam was completed, and the lake basin slowly filled, flooding villages and farms, grazing lands and wilderness. It became a lake of fifty square miles. Fifty thousand people were resettled. The fishery was in a state of transition. The old slender dugouts, from which men and boys threw castnets would not be safe far out on the vast lake waters, and larger fishing boats would be needed. Some of the techniques for river fishing would be useless on the lake, and new ones would be needed.