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River News and
Water Level Updates
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21 January 2012
Trip Report: Schmidt Ackermann Group
15 – 20 Jan 2012 at Kalizo Lodge
I am writing this update
from my desk at Kalizo lodge overlooking the Zambezi on a beautiful
Saturday Morning. My Group of 4 guests left the lodge yesterday after 5
days of productive drift bait fishing with bulldogs and fillets. Many
fish were hooked and landed but a huge majority seemed too smart for us
and promptly removed our baits with little hassle time and time again. Once
again Tigerfish were showing us exactly why they are considered Africa’s
premier sportfish!
Fishing was good,
plenty bites and action to keep everyone interested and a fair number of
medium size Tigerfish between 3 & 4 kilos
were boated. 4 double figure tigers were landed the biggest of the week
was a 12.5 pounder; unfortunately many more trophies were seen bounding
away from us with bait in mouth and hooks in air. Surprisingly only 2
catfish were landed, one 13 pounder and the first catfish on the Kalizo
board this year weighing in at 25 pounds!
The weather was as
expected, lots of moisture in the air, afternoon thunderstorms and
periodic rain throughout the day, in other words perfect for our
driftbaiting needs! The only part of the weather not to play ball was the
wind on day 3, the North west picked up and blew our boats around
downstream making for some trying drifting. The water is still warm
although the local rains have cooled it down from the 28 degrees measured
last week now down to 25 degrees measured this morning. The water is fast
becoming dirty and although it was nicely stained for this trip it has
become increasing dirty verging on "muddy" today. I'm afraid
this will be the last Upper zambezi drift-bait tour I'll be doing this
season as the waters now look to have just exceeded the "Dirty
threshold" which is the difference between very good fishing and
extremely hard fishing here on the Upper Zambezi.
For those of you, who
still think the Upper Zambezi is a winter Only fishing destination, think
again. There is very good Tigerfishing up here using the drift-bait
method from the months of November to beginning of Feb. just have a look
at pics of this trip for evidence and keep it in your memory bank for next
year, maybe this could be you?
 
Left: Schmidt with his
Trophy Tiger Right: Leon with a very
respectable 10lb tiger
 
Left: Eben showing off
an 8lb tiger Right: Lourens and his
10pounder
 
Left: Lourens with his
biggest 10.5lb tiger Right: Leon with another double
figure fish
 
Left: Leon’s 25lb
catfish Right: Lourens again showing
off
Eben & Schmidt
both showing off some of their conquests
07 January 2012
Welcome to 2012!
Seasons Greeting to
all! I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and festive new Year with
family and friends – I know I certainly Did!!
Whats in store for us this year?
Time is definitely flying
as TigerfishFrenzy Travel enters its 3nd year of operation!
There is a lot planned
for this year and if the fishing is anything like what we experienced on
the Upper Zambezi last year this year promises to be a Record Breaker!
Winter on the Upper Zambezi
Already the 2012 Winter
Fly season is filling up and accommodation at the Upper Zambezi lodges is
already becoming a challenge. TigerfishFrenzy Travel will be releasing an
awesome 5 night fly-in, Tigerfishing special at the beginning of Feb for
the Winter season of May & June – It will only be running for 2 weeks
so be sure to not to miss it!
Exploratory Trips
Other than my standard Tigerfishing
trips throughout the Year, I will also be doing a number of exploratory
trips - starting with 2 weeks at the end of Feb to a Cahorra Bassa North
shore Lodge to tackle some Late season Tiger monsters on Fly.
March sees me heading
off to Sterkfontein Dam to conquer my nemesis – The Yellow fish!
I am also trying to organize another
exploratory trip to the Amazon in October to target Peacock bass on Fly
and lure, my last trip in 2006 was an absolute mind blowing experience
and I have to double tick this
bucket list item! Once again watch this space.
Right Now
I will be conducting my
last Upper Zambezi Driftbait trip next week for the 2011/2012 flood. Reports
from Kalizo Lodge are very positive as big tigers are on the feed as the
late flood this year is picking up speed with its rise and the water
becomes more stained every day.
Lets Make 2012 a good
one with many double figure Tigers and plenty PB’s for everyone!
Catch you Later
Hayd
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