My dad and I are heading to Lake Cahora Bassa in Mozambique in May on a croc/buff hunt and will have time to do some tiger fishing. Any suggestions on rod and reel combos? Also need the rod to be two piece.

Uses good quality strong tackle something you can cast well. I brought a cheep 2 piece rod to Mozambique and broke it the first fish

I'm interested in the same thing. Will be on Lake Rukwa in October. Hunting is the main focus, but as we know, there are downtimes. I'd be interested in a good, transportable rig and some effective lures for tigers.

If you guys really want to have some fun, take a 9wt fly rod, a decent reel with a good drag,(Able) shooting head line, and some tiger wire...

Flies should be whistler type flies tied in black and orange, blue and white, pink and white (take loads - tied on gamakatsu 1"O" hooks.

Catching Tigers on a fly is something special.

Best you find out the PH name.

He could have all the gear you need.
I still took some gear, any thing red was meant to be good but we did not catch any thing on imported gear. Local was best.

Check the moon phase, this will have more impact. Full moon is no good.

PM me if you want more info.

Tigers in Africa. Oh, my!! (They will have what you need already there.)

I never got to go fishing but brought a 7'Bass Pro travel rod with a Penn Live Liner reel spooled with 20lb Power Pro Line. i gave my rod to the camp manager and he used it after i left to catch Tiger Fish and some huge catfish. Make sure to bring plenty of wire leaders, hooks and floats. The locals always use bait i am sure various spoons and jerk baits would work.I would contact my PH ahead of time most of the fishing tackle i have seen in Africa was pretty shaky. Leaving behind my tackle was greatly apprecited and i sent a resupply of wire via SCI Tiger fish are very rough on tackle

Jim, who will you be hunting with? We will be there in late June hunting with Simon Rodger. I know he has fishing gear but the fly fishing sounds like fun. I may have to bring some fly fishing gear.

I have primarily fly fished for them. If you are going to do that, I can help you get set up.

For conventional, I would go with a bait casting setup. You can do a spinning set up also, but I prefer the bait casting as the drags are a bit better etc.

Check out TFO Rods They make a 3 Piece Travel Rod, and have one of the best guarantees in the business. I have broken on rod on Sunday, sent it in on Monday, and had a new rod by Friday.

http://www.tforods.com/convent...ds.html#.VQF0-PnF-Rg

Baitcasters I would run Shimano's. Don't skimp on the set ups.

I have traveled around the world fly fishing. At the same time the guys I fish with are all using conventional gear. They are set up with TFO's and Shimano's. I have seen TFO's hold up in bad conditions. On the 3 Piece Casting Rods, I would go the Heavy for Rod type.

Thank you all for the great information. I will be sure to keep you updated on what we decide to do.

MTarcher - We will also be hunting with Simon Rodger. We will be there late May/Early June. Looking forward to it.

Make sure to have wire leader. I ve used live bait. Lots of fun

sierrabravo45: Could you please give us hard core fly fishers some additional information on rod size, line weight, recommended reels, etc. etc.? I would imagine rods and reels that handle salmon and steelhead would work, but am not sure.

Sierrabravo45 what type of leader/tippet do you recommend? If Tyger wire what test??
Thanks.

Ideal rod would be something like the G Lumis 3 piece travel rod in the 6Lbs to 16lbs weight range. Spinning real is best to have a running drag if bait is to be used.
Braid of between 15lbs to 30lbs.
When I get a chance to use a fly it will be via my 9# rod with fast sinking and intermediate line.

The fly-fishers have good success in the cooler months, which is when most bait fishermen struggle for tiger. A relatively new technique to emerge in recent years has been the use of surface lures for tiger. You don’t hook many, but the action is sure to get a good fizz of adrenalin going! Some guys fish two up, one casting surface (to get the fish going) and the other using a fly cast behind the surface lure. We have a couple of articles up on our web Cloud African Fisherman on the surface side - www.africanfishermanonline.com. Bring some surface lures... you won’t be disappointed.

Contact 500Nitro on these forums.

Got delayed with the reply. Working to much....

For fly fishing.

I would recommend a 9ft 8wt, 9wt or 10wt. The biggest tiger I brought in was 15lbs, and that put a huge bend in my Sage Xi2 10wt.

Another option would be is the Sage Peacock Bass Rod. Its short, has a major learning curve, but its the equivalent of a 10wt, and once you get the hang of it, can chuck line with just one backcast.

My buddy who guides over there fishes a Sage Xi3 9ft 9wt (the new equivalent would be the SALT).

Tigers take sizable runs but not anything like a tarpon. That being said, I would still recommend a solid reel. I primarily fish Galvan, Bauer and Abel, but that is me. There are a lot of good companies out there producing reels.

I NEVER had a fish take me to backing, I still used 30lb just to be sure, but it wasn't an issue.

Lines:
I fish Rio, thats just me, but I like there line types. Look at getting there Streamer Tips that are a Floating Line with a Weighted Front Section.

http://www.rioproducts.com/fly...-type-6-sinking-tip/

You can also go the 24ft route. That being said, we fished some places where I could have gotten by with a floater, but it wasn't many places and I would not recommend it. You can bring one for kicks, but mostly you are fishing a sinking tip that gets down fast.

Tippet/Leader

You don't have to get fancy. I used a short piece of the but section of a leader, then tied the Rio material to that. Another option is to run a 3-4ft piece of Maxima from your line and then go to your wire material. You can tie a wire leader directly on, but you get a hinge in your line, and it doesn't work well to turn over the fly.

A better option is using piano wire and twist it, or the Rio Wire Bite Material.

http://www.rioproducts.com/tip...ex-wire-bite-tippet/

I would recommend bringing 20lb and 30lb and 40lb. Just gonna depend on fish size in your area. You get the head shakes from tigers, but not as bad as Peacock Bass.

Flies:

Sparse and Epoxy are your friends. For Colors, Black/Red, Black/White, Chartreuse/White Red/White are all good colors. Tie 2-4" Crazy Charlies with Bucktail in the colors. I like to wire wrap the body and put on the Jurassic Eyes with some epoxy over it. I will tie some up and post them so you can get an idea. Don't pick crap hooks, use ONLY Daichi X-points, Tiemco SPs or Gami's. It will be the difference between a hook up and a lost fish. I tied on good hooks but still lost fish. Strip set the crap out of them, and when you think you are hooked good, strip set them one more time.

Last time I went I hooked up about 120 Tigers in 3.5 days. I landed about 30 of those fish. Sometimes they hit the back end of the fly, sometimes they are hooked up for 30 seconds, then go into the air, flip you the bird and come off. Its a ton of fun, and I highly recommend going if you can.

sierrabravo45: Great information! I have a number of Sage Rods that will easily fit the bill. I also primarily use Tibor or Nautilus Reels with my big rods and my fly lines are almost exclusively Rio. I am thinking of using my Rio Versi Tip #8 weight because that will give me the ability to change from floating to differing weighted front sections. Thanks on the advice for tippets/leader and flies. Please post pics of some of your flies when you get a chance.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
sierrabravo45: Great information! I have a number of Sage Rods that will easily fit the bill. I also primarily use Tibor or Nautilus Reels with my big rods and my fly lines are almost exclusively Rio. I am thinking of using my Rio Versi Tip #8 weight because that will give me the ability to change from floating to differing weighted front sections. Thanks on the advice for tippets/leader and flies. Please post pics of some of your flies when you get a chance.

DON'T bring a Versitip. IMHO, they are one of the worst things every invented for a single hand rod. I love them for Spey. The problem is with the stripping when using a Single hand rod. The junction hits your guides when stripping all the way in. Its annoying, even more so after fishing for a few days. I have owned two in my life for single hand rods and got rid of both of them. Spend the extra money and get the streamer tips, you will like them so much better.

Will do. I have used the Versi Tip with my Spey and Switch Rods for Steelhead and Salmon. Good advice on the Streamer Tips for Tigers. Thanks!

The PH's have better gear than Simon.

Don't go with out finding out first. You may want to take some thing.