Limpopo River

[Kwade]

Hi guys,
so not too long ago I read something on the Limpopo river that said theres about 40 species of fish that are found in the river, and since then I've wanted to go fish there at this river with its diverse fish population as it sounds like most anglers dreams come true... but I've heard otherwise, apparently opposed to the 'mighty' Limpopo river as I've come to picture it as, it is actually nothing more than a dirty, sluggish river that appears to always be dry (because its river bed is too wide?).
So thats what I hear from someone whos seen the river with his own eyes, don't know how true it is... thats why I'm asking the question here... Who has caught fish in the Limpopo river or knows it a bit better than just driving over it a few times? Please any info will actually be helpful... 

[RiyadhEd]

wow, 40 species!!! I am sure most of them are probably small tiny fish like tetras etc.
Google earth does indicate that the river is mainly dry, but there are sections that look deep. Nearer to the mouth it starts looking real good.
Oh, and from the map image, it does look dry, but water is present in different parts of it. It could be that the water table is lower.
This is all assumption though based on what I see on google earth.

[RiyadhEd]

google pics
https://www.google.com/search?q=Limpopo+river&rlz=1C1CHZL_enZA849ZA849&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjD7Mav1MXqAhUVQkEAHcyfB2gQ_AUoAXoECBwQAw&biw=1280&bih=616

[RiyadhEd]

Here is a list and possibly which areas to find them
http://www.limpopo.riverawarenesskit.org/LIMPOPORAK_COM/EN/PEOPLE/ENVIRONMENT_AND_WELL_BEING/LIVELIHOODS/SUSTAINABLE_LIVELIHOODS/FISHERIES.HTM

[CRANKMAN]

The Limpopo, East of Beitbridge anway, is pretty much just sand most of the year around, then when it floods its dirty and silted. The tributaries have a great variety of fish however.


I attempted to canoe from Pafuri to the coast about 22 years ago - a survival trip, no tent, food or bedding, just a rod and 5 litres of wine and a road map (yip, it was useless). An interesting trip.


The river only drops 120 metres from Pafuri to the coast, a distance of over 1200 kms when you factor in all the twists and turns within it's flood plain.


The fishing improved downstream, but even at the top I was always able to catch food for the day, and even on occasion, enough to swap for a mielie or melon from the odd local I encountered.


I was on the river for over 6 weeks and never actually made it to the coast.


Remember I was only fishing for maybe an hour a day at most, and just to get food, so was not trying for diversity - but this is what I recall catching

• Tigerfish
• Barbel / sharptooth catfish
• Silver barbel / Makriel (the best source of energy on the river and what I tried to target)
• Eels - African and mottled
• Squeaker
• Tilapia (redbreasted, Mozambique / blue and a few others)
• Yellowfish (large scale)
• Labeo / mudfish (I think 4 species)
• Imberie (like a baby Tiger)
• Paper mouth
• Bulldogs
• Freshwater prawns
• Electic barbel
• Loads of different minnows (3 spot barbs, river sardines, etc)

[Kwade]

Thanks for the replies guys, as always, I appreciate the input received... I dunno it doesn't sound like a river I'd like to try catch fish in... I love fishing for different species? (I have like a record of the species I've caught - it's nothing spectacular to be honest) but I'd like to go somewhere where I have lots of options - but where? I'm not too worried about size either when it comes to different species (like I've always wanted to catch a bulldog (the fish of course)), and nembwe, silver carfish is on the list i want to catch too... I'm usually confined to local waters which in which I've caught just about all the species that get big enough to hook (e.g. I haven't hooked mosquitoe fish) , many times over so I want to get away s bit but I want to go somewhere where there's a diverse fish population... Any ideas? CRANKMAN you mentioned the tributaries of the limpopo have many fish, can you specify which ones? I've heard Jozini has a few species and a dam near Richardsbay too? What about Rust de winter? (I've heard rumors about bulldog in the dam) and Loskop? To my knowledge the Olifants River has a few species

[CRANKMAN]

Arabi dam, also called Flag Boshillo, would be a good option. It is easily accessible and has some accommodation and camping options. It has quite a few indigenous species and some introduced ones. In Limpopo it is probably your best chance of getting a variety of fish at one spot. It definitely has a few different tilapia/kurper, catfish, bass, barbel, silver catfish, papermouth and some carp species.

[Kwade]

Arabi dam, also called Flag Boshillo, would be a good option. It is easily accessible and has some accommodation and camping options. It has quite a few indigenous species and some introduced ones. In Limpopo it is probably your best chance of getting a variety of fish at one spot. It definitely has a few different tilapia/kurper, catfish, bass, barbel, silver catfish, papermouth and some carp species.

Thanks I've heard quite a bit about Flag Boshilo dam, if I'm not mistaken it's the dam that still has a lot of trees in it that weren't removed before the dam filled up?... I was aware or the dam but never thought too much about it, but I'll add it to my bucket list now... I forgot about papermouth, I've been searching for them since I was about 10 (I did have about a  20year hiatus from fishing so technically it's not as long as it sounds haha), and silver catfish too... I've heard both species are found in Hartebeespoort dam but I'm a bit skeptical of the silver catfish, papermouth I can still believe though...

[HennieB]

Arabi dam, also called Flag Boshillo, would be a good option. It is easily accessible and has some accommodation and camping options. It has quite a few indigenous species and some introduced ones. In Limpopo it is probably your best chance of getting a variety of fish at one spot. It definitely has a few different tilapia/kurper, catfish, bass, barbel, silver catfish, papermouth and some carp species.

Thanks I've heard quite a bit about Flag Boshilo dam, if I'm not mistaken it's the dam that still has a lot of trees in it that weren't removed before the dam filled up?... I was aware or the dam but never thought too much about it, but I'll add it to my bucket list now... I forgot about papermouth, I've been searching for them since I was about 10 (I did have about a  20year hiatus from fishing so technically it's not as long as it sounds haha), and silver catfish too... I've heard both species are found in Hartebeespoort dam but I'm a bit skeptical of the silver catfish, papermouth I can still believe though...

[size=0pt]Arabie dam has like 16 fish species, as far as I know it's the dam with the most species in SA. There are also Asian carp in Arabie.[/size]
There are definitively papermouth in Harties and lowveld large scale yellows.

[Kwade]

Are you referring to Silver carp? Are there any bulldog or Churchill in Arabi?

[Kosie]

Kwade I grew up next to the Limpopo River. It is indeed A seasonal river which is dry most of the year. It does however have its deep pools that dont dry up. It is indeed very sad that they never build A dam in the river as it will indeed be the fishing mecca of SA. They had plans to build A dam but Zimbabwe stopped it. Anyways, there is good fishing in those pools with very big fish (record size mudfish, tigerfish, catfish and eel for A start). Obviously just remember that all the hippos and crocs also gather there. Problem is those pools are few and far between and they are in the middle of nowhere, which is awesome actually, its like you time travel back in time there. You will need special permission as those pools are on private, government and tribal properties/areas. And just beware, that river is no joke when in flood.

[Kwade]

Kwade I grew up next to the Limpopo River. It is indeed A seasonal river which is dry most of the year. It does however have its deep pools that dont dry up. It is indeed very sad that they never build A dam in the river as it will indeed be the fishing mecca of SA. They had plans to build A dam but Zimbabwe stopped it. Anyways, there is good fishing in those pools with very big fish (record size mudfish, tigerfish, catfish and eel for A start). Obviously just remember that all the hippos and crocs also gather there. Problem is those pools are few and far between and they are in the middle of nowhere, which is awesome actually, its like you time travel back in time there. You will need special permission as those pools are on private, government and tribal properties/areas. And just beware, that river is no joke when in flood.

Thanks for the info... That's exactly the type of answer I was looking for... I also found it strange that there was no dam on the river (that actually sparked the conversation about the river not flowing all year round)... If I may ask - which section of the river did you grow up next too? Is it true that the source of the river is actually the convergence of the Marico and Crocodile river? If that is the case, how come it became a new river instead of one becoming a tributary of the other?

[Kosie]

I lived in Messina for 21 years. We had friends in our school from all the farms in the area so we fished and hunted the whole river from the Alldays region right up to the Kruger Park. The one fishing hole (The Gorge) is not far from Beitbrigde, just a few kilometers upstream. The other hole (Sigonde) is closer to the Kruger Park in tribal areas near Gumbu Mine near the old Madimbu army base. I was in the Commandos there so we "went on patrols looking for Poachers and illegals" at Sigonde as much as possible ;-) ;-) . Some of the Most beautiful (and harshest) fishing areas in the Country. We always had to dodge A Leopard that stayed close to the water, till today the only Leopard I know of that made its presence known verbally, it was never happy with our presence there.  Those were the two biggest waterholes I knew of so its the only two I ever fished. The Marico and Crocodile confluence is the official source, but 90% of the Limpopo's water comes from the Shashi River Confluence(border between SA/ZIM/BOT). I dont realy know why its not called either the crocodile or Marico rivers, or the Shashi for that matter, interesting question.

[FishStyx]

About 5 years ago, my gf and I were sitting on top of the hill at Mapungubwe that overlooks the confluence of Limpopo and Shashi and there were some heavy rain falls over Zim... In the distance we saw something that seemed a bit strange. I got out binos and we could see a wall of water heading down the Shashi, literally like a 2m wave of white (well, brownish) water toward the confluence. By the time it reached the Limpopo, things had flattened out quite considerably, but the river swelled to at least 3 times it's width in the space of 30 minutes. Never underestimate that river during the rainy season.

[Kosie]

Yes that Shashi is A beast, very dangerous, awesome that you could witness that. I actually stayed on the farm right next to Mapungubwe (actually 2 farms over) for A couple of months, actually an old school friends farm back in the day, Samaria was the farm name. Most aggressive Elephants youll ever find over there from the Tuli Block in Botswana. We found dead zimbabweans in the river bed on A monthly basis, they killed A lady from Gauteng who thought it nice to walk with the elephants in the bush like on national geographic aswell while I was there. The elephants next to the Kruger in the corridor area though would walk to within 5 meters of one without any issues. Dont know what it looks like today though. When I left the area in 2000 the locals started chopping of all the trees and started killing all the wildlife. Dont think ill go back, ill just remember it as it was.

[FishStyx]

The bush is fairly well conserved on our side of the river. It's almost all game farming so there's incentive to keep things protected. Not sure about the other side of the river tho.

[Kosie]

Yes no sorry I was talking about the Corridor area next to Kruger, think they destroyed everything there by now. The Mapungubwe area should still be intact yes.

[Kwade]

It sounds like a nice place to have experienced, those personal interactions and unique things that you see/experience while outdoors in the bush are priceless... I'd like to go up that side one day, my cousin works on a private game lodge next to KNP and I think the limpopo, because he's invited me to catch tigerfish there and I know it's near close to the Zim border so maybe I should ask him to show me around the area a bit... Last week I spent 3 days on a game farm just below Vaalkop dam on the Elands River and naturally I spent most of my time by the river fishing, I never caught anything, but fishing at night wasn't easy because I was sharing the river with a pod/bloat of hippos, which actually made the experience more exciting for me, so even though I didn't catch I still had a great time being in the bush and getting so close to a bunch of animals (and shitting myself every time I realize there's a hippo close), I actually fell asleep in my bakkie and woke up to one right next to the bakkie haha apparently there were crocs too but I never saw any

[Kosie]

If you want to target Tigerfish it is probably A good idea to go to Makuya Park, the river there always has water and good tigers. Plus you will struggle to find A better view of the Kruger National Park on top of the escarpment there (you need A 4X4 though). You get the most beautiful view of the Levubu River and valley there, which is the border of the Kruger Park.

[Kwade]

If you want to target Tigerfish it is probably A good idea to go to Makuya Park, the river there always has water and good tigers. Plus you will struggle to find A better view of the Kruger National Park on top of the escarpment there (you need A 4X4 though). You get the most beautiful view of the Levubu River and valley there, which is the border of the Kruger Park.

Thanks I'll keep that in mind, not too concerned with catching tigers that side as I was planning on doing jozini until lockdown hit us, so that was a speed bumb, but it sounds just like the place for me, with the nice view over the KNP... I'll definitely give it a look when I get the chance