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River News and
Water Level Updates
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Technology
these days has made it a lot easier to Update a Facebook page with news
and pics than it is to edit and upload a webpage. It takes me while to
get around to my “big” computer in the “city” and do this stuff in
civilization so if you want the latest pics and news from the river (and
my below blog is looking a little out of date) then please visit the
TigerfishFrenzy Travel Facebook page and “like” us to get the most up
to-date notifications and news when they happen:
2017 March 20
Current River Levels at Katima Mulilo 2017.03.20
What an awesome upward turn in the current water
level at Katima Mulilo, still about 2 weeks later than last year’s flood
but already way higher than the 2014/15 flood.
Graph Courtesy from the Hydrological Services Namibia
2017 March 15
2016 Wrap-up
I can’t
believe we are already past the half way mark in March!! I was hoping to
get this wrap-up report out 6 weeks ago but life seems to march on at its
own pace and not worry about those who can’t keep up. It has been an
incredible past 14 months for me. Since Jan last year we have opened our
new Safari Camp on the Banks of the Chobe River on the Border of the Chobe
National Park in Northern Botswana – Muchenje Campsite and Cottages
(sorry no fishing here), started a new vegetable business all whilst
guiding my heart out for tigers during both the winter and summer seasons
on the Upper Zambezi.
2016
Winter Season
2016 winter
fly-fishing and spinning season can best be described as both incredibly
tough and rewarding at the same time. The poor 2015 flood or more aptly
regarded to as the 2015 drought has had far reaching consequences on the
eco-systems of upper reaches of the Zambezi river (as well as a number of
other Southern African rivers as well)
What I believe
has happened is that the drought and poor flood thereof meant that a very
small percentage of our Caprivi and Barotse floodplains were actually
covered by flood waters and in turn most species of fish in these sections
of the Zambezi river weren’t able to spawn due to lack of spawning areas.
This as a result led to a very small amount of baitfish being produced
from the spawn. This then meant that the larger predatory species of fish
such as Tigerfish (and Catfish) turned cannibalistic and starting eating
away at the younger generations. As a result our catch records this year
reflected a very different story to the norm. Very few tigers under 5 pounds were hooked and landed with the vast percentage
of fish landed being over the 6 pound mark with the average tiger
weighing in at just over 7.5 pounds. This is a huge jump from the average
size of between 3 to 4 pounds. The lack of juvenile tigers in the system
meant that actual numbers of tigers caught was right down to approximately
35% of total catch numbers but the really interesting statistic to notice
is that the average number of double figure tigers landed per person was
almost double the normal figure. This basically translates that fishing
in the 2016 winter season was much harder, fewer smaller tigers in the
system meant less activity on the fly and lure, longer periods of time between
bites, BUT when an angler did get a bite on the end of his line the size
of the tiger was invariably a good one.
2016/17 Summer Season
This year’s
Summer drift baiting season was much more forgiving and even provided me
with a couple bonus surprises which keeps me wondering “will this river
ever stop teaching me a lesson”. After the very trying winter season I was
expecting a very difficult summer season too, but good rains in December
and a quick rising river in January gave us fantastic conditions that led
to some fantastic drift bait fishing for tigers over newly flooded sandbanks
and drop-offs. Drift bait fishing usually targets the larger fish of the
species and so the generation gap that was so apparent in the winter
really didn’t feature much and our catch records showed and increase in number of tigers landed per person per
day as well an increase in the average size of tigers landed compared to
previous years. The quality of fishing was so good it even gave me the
opportunity to spend 10 days with one of my favourite guests guiding and
catching tigers on fly! Yes, we were able to target and catch tigers on
fly in summer, on stained rising water and have finally made some
significant headway in cracking this code.
Going forward into Winter 2017
Thanks to the
wonderful support of my repeat groups and guests ( Most
of whom have been with me for 10 years or longer) and despite the tough
fishing conditions currently been experienced on the upper Zambezi, my 2017
winter season is already fully booked.
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