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River News and
Water Level Updates
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February
13, 2010 – February 13, 2010
A quick update before I head home for my “Summer Leave”
:
Water Levels
Are rising but I can’t comment too much on the rate it seems
to be inching its way up very slowly this year, the main water from up
river has not hit us yet, a very late rise indeed! Word from Angola says their rains came about a month late this
year so we should not give up hope on having a substantial flood of
sorts.
The water is still very dirty!! No clean water to be found
anywhere, even our local backwaters look like mud ponds now.
Weather
We have a splendid 2 weeks of fantastic weather, a couple isolated
rain storms here and there in the afternoons but in general, it has been
hot on average about 30 degrees C everyday and the animals are loving it.
The Nguni has spent the last 2 weeks in and around the Chobe River enjoying the mass of ele’s
and wild game that has been making the best of a slow rising Chobe river. Bird watching has been Amazing!!
Fishing
Not too much to report on the fishing side, the water clarity (or
lack of it) of the Zambezi has made fishing in the main channel slow,
but we have found the best areas to be around the Chobe
rapids (in Front of Mawana lodge) to be most
successful. Lots of small tigers in the 1 – 3 pound range have been caught on Bulldogs there and
1 or 2 larger specimens have made an appearance and Getaway. The waters
just above where the Kasai and Chobe meet have
been the cleanest and some fish have even been caught by trolling large
magnum Rapala’s?? Lures in Feb….
Whats next…. Snow?
That’s it from the Zambezi and Chobe for a couple days, look out for my next update
that should be around the 23rd Feb which should contain some pics from this Driftbaiting
season.
Tight Lines
Capt. Haydn o’ The Nguni
- January 28, 2010, - January 28, 2010
Welcome to a new decade, I hope 2010
is going to be a wonderful year for all of us. The Nguni Voyager is
winding down after a hectic and busy 2009 season and will be closing for
2 weeks in the middle of Feb for a well deserved maintenance break. Thank
you to all our guests that joined us on board this past year and who made
2009 our busiest year ever. That being said 2010 looks to already knock
the 2009 occupancy figures out of the park as we have already got a fully
booked boat for our entire flyfishing and lure
fishing season starting May ending Middle August, and already people are
starting to secure their bookings for 2011, If you have missed out on a
spot on the Nguni in 2010, I think you had better start planning for a
spot for 2011!
Zambezi Water Level
We have had a very wet season
here on the Caprivi strip since November last
year, Lots off rain yet not a huge
rise in water level yet, don’t get me wrong the water is rising and
very dirty from the local rains but its nothing like we have come to
expect over the past couple years. the important
thing is that it hasn’t in any
way effected our drift fishing season, we have had in fact
fantastic results.
Drift
Fishing since Early December
We have had a number of
dedicated fishing trips booked for the Drift bait fishing season that started
at the Beginning of December 2009. The drift bait season is definitely
proving to be the big fish season, over the past 2 months we have had
over 40 double figure fish landed and 5 over 16 pounds weighed, verified and safely released.
News
from Ministry of Fisheries
I was lucky enough to have a
meeting with the Big Boss from the Namibian Ministry of Inland Fisheries
about a closed fishing season starting 2010. After the Zambian Government
and Fisheries had proclaimed a closed season to all fishing (netting and
recreation) I was getting worried that our Namibian Fishing ministry
would do the same and we would not be able to operate over the closed
months of December, January and February.
I was assured that a closed
season was eminent but us Namibian Operators should not be worried as the
closed season will apply to netting only and not to us recreationals who practise catch and release. I think
this is a huge breakthrough and I applaud the Namibian Ministry of Inland
Fisheries for their forward thinking.
As a spin off we at the Nguni have been given
the green light by the ministry to launch an experimental tilapia &
bream cage farming project. The basic idea is to put a couple floating or
non floating predator proof steel cages in our “shed”
backwater whereby we will raise juvenile endemic and non-exotic species
of Tilapia to pan size. the juvenile tilapia and
bream will be caught in early winter months (May & Jun) and placed in
these cages whereby they should grow to eating size by the start of the
closed season. The “Farmed” fish can then be sold over the
closed season to the community and lodges. This project is to be run in
conjunction with local community of net fishermen and give them an
alternative source of income over the closed fishing season.
If there is anybody who wants to
know more or who is interested in helping getting this project off the
ground please contact me at:
info@tigerfishfrenzy.com
Regards
Haydn
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