<P> The festival began in the year 1934, as a mark of the end of the centuries - old hostility between the Sokoto Caliphate and the Kebbi Kingdom . </P> <P> In 2005, the winning fish weighed 75 kg, and needed four men to hoist it onto the scales . In 2006 the festival banned fishing due to safety concerns relating to the low water levels . The importance of the festival to the economy has led the government to conserve fish stock by prohibiting use of gill nets and cast nets . The Zauro polder project, an irrigation scheme in the Rima River floodplain to the south of Argungu, has been criticized because the reservoir threatens to flood the traditional site of the festival . </P> <P> On the final day of the festival, a competition is held in which thousands of men line up along the river and at the sound of a gunshot, all of them jump into the river and have an hour to catch the largest fish . The winner can take home as much as $7,500 US dollars . Competitors are only allowed to use traditional fishing tools and many prefer to catch fish entirely by hand (a practice also popular elsewhere and known as "noodling") to demonstrate their prowess . </P>

Argungu fishing festival is one of the tourist attractions of bauchi state