Adventure Fishing Safaris - Updates and Reports

[Capt. Hook]

Well done Mike 6kgs is a whoppa, were you using surface lures or dropshotting with jig heads?

The average fish are getting bigger as the dam is maturing.
My last 2 trips the jig heads produced fishing off  the weeds on the drop offs, this is normal for colder water. Soon the Topwater will be king again

[dodger]

Well done Mike 6kgs is a whoppa, were you using surface lures or dropshotting with jig heads?

The average fish are getting bigger as the dam is maturing.
My last 2 trips the jig heads produced fishing off  the weeds on the drop offs, this is normal for colder water. Soon the Topwater will be king again

thanks Mike, not sure when I will get there with the knee recovery and I'm 6 weeks away from my big shutdown job so no time until mid October.
Are you still using the paddle tails? I must admit they have a gret action.


I want to try when the surface water warms up some of those horny toads that we use for bass, a lot  of leg movement so should work, have you tried them?

[Capt. Hook]

Well done Mike 6kgs is a whoppa, were you using surface lures or dropshotting with jig heads?

The average fish are getting bigger as the dam is maturing.
My last 2 trips the jig heads produced fishing off  the weeds on the drop offs, this is normal for colder water. Soon the Topwater will be king again

thanks Mike, not sure when I will get there with the knee recovery and I'm 6 weeks away from my big shutdown job so no time until mid October.
Are you still using the paddle tails? I must admit they have a gret action.


I want to try when the surface water warms up some of those horny toads that we use for bass, a lot  of leg movement so should work, have you tried them?

I like the paddle tails, but also use flukes and curly tails with great success. I have tried frogs but have only caught barbel with them

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Well done Mike, looking forward to this weekend, I am not taking my boat but a boat will be there with the other guys, I will try from the side, it's more of a recce for me as I have never been before and am looking forward to the break. Any tips on lures to take ???, want to go to Basil Manning and get a few

Give me a call, will help you onto the right stuff

Thanks for the advice Mike, realy appreceiated. 

[Capt. Hook]

LAKE JOZINI TIGER FISHING REPORT - 20-22 June 2015
 Did a 3 day fishing and camping trip up at Jozini with a guest from New Zealand to hunt some Tiger Fish. Water was cold and crystal clear, the water levels were extremely low and the slipway was about 15-20m out the water making for difficult launching. Early mornings were icy cold, but along with winter conditions the game viewing and bird life was incredible, Buffalo, Elephants, Rhino, Hippo, Crocodiles, Kudu, Wildebeest, Ostrich, Jackals, Warthogs, Giraffe, Zebra and a host of other wildlife and birds. For me the highlight was an Osprey Eagle that took a Tiger fish directly inform of us and a Fish Eagle that we saw perch up close. The fishing was not as good as I had hoped and we only landed 17 Tiger Fish in Total and all were smaller sizes but not rats and probably dropped about another 100 fish at least. We had one monster hooked up but he came off. At the campsite on the last day during brunch the Warthogs came right up to us within an arms length.

[Prego]

TFS Mike got any pics of the game and fish by chance, would love to see

[Capt. Hook]

TFS Mike got any pics of the game and fish by chance, would love to see

Fish were not photo worthy, and I took a pick of the warthog that let me pet it. Can post the warthog pic if you like.
The client had a fancy camera and he was taking plenty pics, but I don't have those sorry.

[Capt. Hook]

Jozini Tiger Fishing Report: 31 March-3 April 2017
 We arrived at Pongola Game Reserve on the afternoon of 30th March booked in at Nkwazi Lodge.
 The plan was to target Tiger Fish spinning with artificial lures.
 The water levels are still low, but better than my previous trip in October last year. At least they have had rain and the area is green and did not look like a fire had swept the area like it did in the peak of the drought last year.
 For 4 days we fished morning and afternoon sessions spending about 8hrs on the water each day.
 Sadly the water was the colour of coffee and we had no luck with the lures, even 4cm into the water and one could not see the lure and so we decided to switch to bait fishing on anchor instead.
 The early mornings had a slight nip in the air, but by 8am it was hot and the afternoons were extremely hot with very high temperatures.
 Between 3 of us over the 4 days we managed to land a total of 59 Tiger Fish and a fish that we were told is a sliver fish (Never seen this before), and probably lost another 259 fish or even more with so many on/offs we lost count, but this is very typical with Tiger Fishing especially when the smaller ones hit the baits.
 Most the fish we caught were under 1Kg, but we did get a few over the 1kg mark with the biggest fish under 2Kg, having said that all the fish we caught weighed exactly 1.2Kg according to a faulty scale no matter the size of the fish.
 I fished with my little 6”8” Shimano Crucial which gave good sport on some fish, am really amazed at the sensitivity of this blank.
 I was really hoping for at least one big Tiger and the adrenalin rush but it did not happen and that was rather disappointing.
 Lots of jokes and rubbish talk always makes for a great day out to fish and chill.
 I still love fishing at Jozini, even if we had to fish with bait, whilst fishing one gets to see and hear nature all around, we saw a herd of Elephants on 2 of our sessions, Buffalo, Hippos, Rhino, Crocodiles, many species of Buck, other smaller animals and a huge variety of birds.
 At the end of everyday one is treated to the most gorgeous sunsets.
 One can’t help getting completely relaxed and at peace in a place like this and leave being completely recharged.
 I included some pics with fish jumping out the hands when taking the pic just for the facial expression and the pose which I thought are really natural and very funny and when looking at them we all had a really good laugh.

[Capt. Hook]

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[Timothy Scriven]

Looks like fun!

[CRANKMAN]

Looks like you had a great time and were kept very busy by the small guys, a shame you didn't get into any bigger fish.
In Zim we called that silver fish a "butter barbel", here I think it is known as a "mackriel" (sp?). Nasty spikes that sting like hell if you get a prick. They don't get very big, but are delicious eating, just gut and grill whole over charcoal with lemon and coarse salt. Very oily and rich.

[dugong]

Do you still have to launch about 2kms downstream from Nkwazi Lodge at the steep rocky slipway??

[Capt. Hook]

Do you still have to launch about 2kms downstream from Nkwazi Lodge at the steep rocky slipway??

Yes

[Capt. Hook]

Looks like you had a great time and were kept very busy by the small guys, a shame you didn't get into any bigger fish.
In Zim we called that silver fish a "butter barbel", here I think it is known as a "mackriel" (sp?). Nasty spikes that sting like hell if you get a prick. They don't get very big, but are delicious eating, just gut and grill whole over charcoal with lemon and coarse salt. Very oily and rich.

Wiki calls it a Silver Catfish. I don't know anything about them it was a first for me. This one had no tail but the wound had healed so I assume some "tigger" had a go at it at some point in its life

[Capt. Hook]

Jozini Tiger Fishing Report - 22 April 2017
We had guests from the UK and were really blessed with some stunning weather. We started out at 06h00 in the morning and were greeted by a large group of hippos on the water about 100m after we launched. Besides the hippos we saw a lot of other animals around and the real treat was a family of giraffes drinking on the water’s edge and we managed to get a really close look.
We eventually started fishing after enjoying the nature around us and after about 45 minutes we had not had a single strike and decided 5 more minutes and we will move to a new spot, this never happened as shortly after the bites kept coming and coming and by 10h00 we had landed 16 fish including some nice sizes. We then headed back to the lodge for a great brunch.
Later on we headed out again for an afternoon session and the conditions were still great and we found a fish eagle sitting on an old stump really close to us. This time the fish started biting immediately and first cast got us a good fish and we ended the day with a total of 23 fish. I got a really big hit during this session but to my frustration my rod snapped and the fish was lost. In the last 30 minutes as the sun was setting down low we tried for a last fish to try get to 24 but the bite went quiet. All the fish we caught were safely released.
The sunsets at Jozini are always truly amazing. That evening the skies were so clear we could see the milky-way, Jupiter and all the star formations.
Next day we headed back to Durban and took a detour through the Umfolozi Game Reserve, a truly magnificent place. We saw 4 different herds of Elephant, one group was rolling around in the mud along the river bank having a whale of a time, we also Rhino, Buffalo, Baboons, Water Buck, Nyala, Impala, a Blue Duiker, Leopard Tortoise an Osprey Eagle and some Vultures amongst a host of other bird species. At one view site I was sitting at a wooden bench and it was just so amazing to be in such a wide open space, so silent with just the sound of nature.
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[Capt. Hook]

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[Capt. Hook]

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