While I enjoy Hunting in Africa, I really get a thrill out of Fishing over there after the hunt is over. I like to add it on at the end.

Does anyone else or is it just me?

Post Pics if you have them!!!!

I LOVE Fly Fishing For Tigers.

Here's another keen fisherman.... I'll fish for anything, anytime.......

Tiger Fishing is a great way to spend the last few day in Africa.

But A word of warning !! Do your home work when choosing a fishing guide and lodge, don't believe every thing on a web site. There are some really sad fishing services out there!!One boat I used last year had a sewer pipe for a tiller handle, Fishing poles that were all missing the top eyes, Reels with only 30-40" of line, only two or three lures for 4 fishermen.( A friend booked the trip for me ) Being a fishing guide I can laugh about it now. But I can tell you I will book my next fishing trip!

I fished the Zambezi above Victoria Falls in 2006. I will spend at least a half day there again in September. I'm not sure how the fishing will be then. In early July it was pretty good. I plan to bring some of my own favorite lures from my Peacock Bass fishing days in Venezuela.

There is a very large dam where I usually hunt in the Save Concervancy. It has been stocked with Florida strain largemouth bass. Usually a couple of days mixed in while hunting are spent wetting a line. I am a fairly poor fisherman but the fish are plentiful and quite large. It is nice to spend a day floating drunk with a line in the water. I would like to fish for Tigers one day. I get so serious about the hunting a one day diversion is great.

sierrabravo45 - What type of fly and leader do you use?

shakari - have you ever landed one of those?

Nice tiger!

Stories at: https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6321043/m/807101618

Palmer,

Yes, several. Biggest I've banked so far is about 2.5 metres and the biggest I've lost is about 3.5 metres....... needless to say, I don't weigh 'em.

sierrabravo45,

Great looking Tiger Fish. Could you give us some more details on where it was caught and possibly the guide service, if any.

Do any members have a suggestion for a good lodge and guide service on the Zambeze in the Caprivi Strip region? I have three days that are unplanned for late September, 2008 and would like to flyfish for Tiger Fish.

Larry

I'll be in the Okavango delta in June, any suggestions on Flys, poppers or flyfishing gear ie line wt would be much appreciated.

Last time I went to Zimbabwe I took my fiance with me. It was an 18 day ele hunt, and I told her after I got the elie we could go to Kariba for a day of Tigerfishing. She had wanted to catch one ever since seeing one at the Dallas convention. Long story short, getting to see the Croc farm nearby was the highlight. We went to Tiger Bay I beleive and it was a joke. I am am an avid bass fisherman at home and I thnk we would have been better off using some of the Tonkas gill nets and paying them to guide us. Just like the post above beware. We were taken out on a party barge,(which thankfully didnt break down) most of the rods had the tips broken and the reels were in varying stages of disfunction, to the point that you were going to have hell catching a 2 lb bass and reeling it in much less a bigger tigerfish. He took us out to the middle of the lake tied up to a tree and said, after 3 hours " guess they are not biting today" In we went....... I would still like to get into some tigerfishin again but this time I will do a bit more research, the last time I just told the safari company to set someting up and although the Elephant and buffalo hunting was great, setting up a fishing trip is not, so if you plan on doing this ask specifics of you operator or booking agent.

quote:

Originally posted by L. Dihel:
sierrabravo45,

Great looking Tiger Fish. Could you give us some more details on where it was caught and possibly the guide service, if any.

Do any members have a suggestion for a good lodge and guide service on the Zambeze in the Caprivi Strip region? I have three days that are unplanned for late September, 2008 and would like to flyfish for Tiger Fish.

Larry

Larry,

Check out this: http://www.tjsafari.com/zrf-1.cfm

Tiger fishing on the Zambezi up in the Caprivi area.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I was on Safari last fall at Sijarera camp on Kariba (Zimbabwe). Hunting was perfect, fishing guide was marvelous. Actual fishing was not as good. Like 2-3 on a whole day (my brother was fishing wile I was hunting. Lodge super. What I was told that end of April begining of May or end of September are better times. This year I'll go again for Bufallo and Sable at the begining of May will take my wifw with me. Guys it is always better to take your own reels, line and lures. It is not easy now to get stuff in Zim.

I'm going on an PAC Ele hunt in May and if the Ele goes down early plan on doing some Tiger fishing with the PH. Does anyone have any suggestions re: what lures to bring? I'm sure what's available in Zim is quite limited. We'll be using spinning or casting tackle.

quote:

Originally posted by Labman:
I'm going on an PAC Ele hunt in May and if the Ele goes down early plan on doing some Tiger fishing with the PH. Does anyone have any suggestions re: what lures to bring? I'm sure what's available in Zim is quite limited. We'll be using spinning or casting tackle.

In my case the most sucessful lures were mepps# 5 redish color, spoons 30 gr+ with red dots. partially red or coper color. Trolling was was good too.

A precursor to some of this info. I guide in the US and normally fish around 70-80 days or more a year. I practice casting a TON, and when I fished over there, I was actually fishing for 7-8 hours a day CONSTANTLY Casting. This was IMO the highlight of the trip so I did practice for it.

I fly fished with Ichingo River Lodge in Namibia with Alan Bonella. He is a awesome guide, but I know he moved up to Zambia, while the other guides are ok, they are not the greatest IMHO, and I feel that Alan made the trip.

For Fly Gear.

I used a 9ft 9wt and 9ft 10wt. (I had a G Loomis GLX in the 9wt and a Sage Xi2 in the 10) While you don't really need the 10, when you do hook into a 5-6kg tiger you will be glad you had it.

Going back I would probably throw in a 6 weight as you can find areas with smaller tigers that would be FUN on that light of rod.

For Reels I had a Abel Super 11 and a Lamson Lightspeed, Large Arbors are a must, as you do have long casts and getting in line quickly is important.

For lines I used a Rio 24 foot Sink Tip, in 300 and 400 Grains. On to that was about a 3-4 foot leader and then 20lb Piano Wire with a Bimney Twist to attach the fly. I would also bring a spool with floating line depending on where you are fishing.

Flies were Black and White Clousers, Crazie Charlies in Black and White, Black and Silver and Black and Red. Flies are Tied Sparse. Hooks are Gammagatsu's or Tiemco SP's. I don't screw around.

I hooked around 120 tigers in 3 Days of Fishing, and landed about 25. Thats actually pretty good as their jaw is solid bone. Make sure you strip set. If you want to lose tigers do a raised rod set. If you feel a bite, strip 3 times as hard as you can to bury the fly and then raise your rod and hold on.

My wife and I caught more fish in 3 Days Fly Fishing, than the other 4 boats did in there 3 Days of Trolling and Throwing Rapalas. Those fish love FLIES.

I would be willing to talk over the phone with people if they are interested in Fly Fishing as there was some stuff that really helped me thats hard to explain by writing it out.

If anyone is interested I do Commercial Fly Tying and would be willing to tie packages up for you.

That second photo looks like the place I took by buff with Classic Safaris. Was it near Kings den?

Rhyde

quote:

Originally posted by sierrabravo45:
While I enjoy Hunting in Africa, I really get a thrill out of Fishing over there after the hunt is over. I like to add it on at the end.

Does anyone else or is it just me?

Post Pics if you have them!!!!

I LOVE Fly Fishing For Tigers.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Palmer,

Yes, several. Biggest I've banked so far is about 2.5 metres and the biggest I've lost is about 3.5 metres....... needless to say, I don't weigh 'em.

WHAT DO YOU USE FOR BAIT

here is a photo of my last fishing/hunting trip with Sam since then my wife moved out and i cant understand why

Bait is an entire francolin or guinea fowl. The best is francolin as a guinea seems to be just a bit too large for the croc to swallow easily. I guess the wings get in the way. I use a very heavy steel wire trace/bicycle brake cable with 3 large as possible, treble hooks. I hook goes into each wing root and the third rhrough the breast bone. 2008 rod and reel will be 100 lb class shark fishing gear.

I throw the bait into the river and try to make as much of a splash as possible when it hits the water. - I find the most successful time to start is as soon as the sun goes off the water.

Get it right, and you'll have multiple flatdogs homing in on the bait as soon as it hits the water.

When the flattie takes the bait, you just let him run with it. He'll take it to a sandbar or the bank (usually the opposite one) and then start chucking the bait in the air to reposition it, and then he'll swallow it..... and then move off. Once he moves off, you strike and start trying to turn him...... That's when the action starts and they fight like you wouldn't believe. If you hook one over about 3 metres, you can expect to fight it for a number of hours before getting it to the bank.

All the while you're fighting him, you must keep some degree of angle between his mouth and the rod tip.

During the fight, he'll try to use his tail to swing round and hit and break the line. When the tail comes round, slacken the line for a second.

Once he's on the bank, you keep the rod tip low and pull like hell with the line coming straight out of his mouth to the rod tip. After a few minutes, he'll regurgitate the bait and head back to the water.

I should point out that it doesn't seem to harm them at all. Get one to the bank and unhooked and he goes straight back in the water..... by the time you've got another bait on the water, he's coming in on the bait again with the rest of them....... clever, they ain't!

Damn but it's good fun.

quote:

Originally posted by sierrabravo45:
I hooked around 120 tigers in 3 Days of Fishing, and landed about 25.

Now that sounds like fun!

I have been on that river twice and without a fly rod both times. What a shame.

That is a great Tiger and on a fly rod, you can't beat it.

i never go on an African hunt without a spin/fly rod combo and a cheap spinning and fly reel, plus a few basic lures and flies. just about every African hunting camp in a free range area will be on a river and there are always fish around. about the only time i haven't gotten to use the equipment was on a game ranch hunt in RSA.

Click on the "Fishing" link on my website, and have look at some of the beauties that come out of the river in the Caprivi.
Colgate smiles have nothing on some of these lads.

later,
John

John,

If your fishing trips are half as sucessful and well run as your hunts, we need to do a bit of fishing together on one end or the other of my next hunt with you.

Perry

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Charlton McCallum's fish camps yet. http://www.fishingzambezi.com/. Check out the websites.

I haven't been to one yet but I know he puts a lot of work into it every year. When Buzz isn't hunting, he's fishing and preferably fly-fishing.

Jerry, bring your flyrod. We always fish when camping next to one of the rivers and catch these river breams. They make good eating too!

This is Coert posing with one.



If we have time, we go to the ocean and fish. It is a fantastic experience and beautiful area. We have about 30 miles or so of unspoilt Indian ocean coastline, shared only by a handful of local fishermen. It is really good camping out there, eating fish and drinking cold beer after a day in the sun.

Here we are discussing the merits of different bait on the dune at the Zuni river mouth.



Marius caught the first fish - a nice King, which we had for dinner that night. It was at about sundown.



Last year, we decided to do the authentic number and go there by mokorro. Other than your back taking a serious beating sitting bent over in it for 5 hours, it was a good experience. Especially looking at a hippo bull and his family from 30 yards out, sneaking past in a dugout canoe.



The river early in the morning is beautiful. Here's the river captured in an interesting but real Mozambique early morning colour scheme.



The season must start now ...

Oh hell Johan, now I am more bush sick than ever, I am sitting in PA, white snow and frigging cold, longing for Zambezi valley and mopane flies.

Here is some tigers the boys caught last year, we are on Cahorra Bassa,
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/kwansafaris/tiger.jpg[/IMG]





Of course the boys got a chance too fish when I was out of camp the little blighters

Sorry about the wife, Oh well?? I agree tigers on a fly rod would be a real kick. Going to Moz next year so just may take one along. Nice pair of bass by the way!!

Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

quote:

Originally posted by 375 fanatic:
here is a photo of my last fishing/hunting trip with Sam since then my wife moved out and i cant understand why