Started in July 2009 african allure is a service offered to the general angling public by a fisherman who has a drive and a passion for both water and the great outdoors. This is a personailised service that renders knowledge and experince in giving the best possible adventure to the guest.
This is one of those trips of a lifetime...... Fishing on this section of the river under the right condtions can really really cook and is not for the feint hearted as being river fishh all these things pull super hard and fast. Just picture catching huge bass on 3 lb line - this is what catching some of these bigger bream species feels like light line.
I would reccomend a trip lasting at least 3 days with 5 days being preferble. Last year I did a recce trip with some mates and you will find the story below - we went a month late and we had trying condtions but we were able to produce the goods and were rewarded with some very decent fish. The upper zambezi is not primarily a tiger destination even though they do occur there - it is a destination where if you know what you are doing you can produce huge fish (Bream species) that give an awesome fight on light tackle. My plan is to be based on this section of the river for the about 1 1/2 month's between July and August - this is when the flood water is receeding off the surrounding flood plans and the fish have spawned and now the fry is returning to the main river - there can be frenetic feeding frenzy as all the predatory fish feed on the the fry and one literally get fish fever.... This is an ideal add on to people wanting to do a overland safari through either Bots Or Nambia. Flights can also be arranged to Kasane or Vic falls, alternativly people can drive up and one can comfortably do the trip in two days. I can supply all the nessary tackle if required and will have a good stockpile of the correct lures etc for your trip. Please contact me for further details
Report from August 2009
In Late June of 2009 Marno contacted me and said that he was keen to make a foray up to the mighty Zambezi in search of better tigers and bream (Kurper species). We had no problem in sourcing another party in the form of Christo "Slapslet tiggawakka" Badenhorst as the third member.
Anyways Boat permits were organised, vehichle papers, insurance etc etc etc. COme Friday morning we leave Pretoria full of excitement and anticipation for the trip ahead at 2 am. We arrive at Martin's drift at 7am - clear customs on the SA side and into Botswana (FOr the other two this was a real eyeopener as Botswana is not as technologically advanced as SA) Clear Immigration and get to Customs.
So we made our way up and made it to Elephant sands Lodge just past Nata just before dark. Here we were recieved in a friendly manner and promptly drowned our sorrows with a couple of beers. We were too lazy to pitch tents so I grabbed the boat and the other two slept in Marno's double cab. Mr Hyeana visited in the night and relieved "Tiggawakka" of his running shoes. Other than that we were up at 4 am and proceeded along one of the worst sections of road in Southern africa - Nata to Kasane 3 hours to drive the first 100km stretch - well at least in a couple of month's time it will be fixed as they are starting to work on it.
From here we made it through to Kasane and then up to Katima Mulilo. We had to do shopping and organise ourselves for the week as we brought very little in the form of food with us. Katima has got a Pick n Pay but the meat section has much to be desired - there was not a single piece of meat that was not lime green - I had visions of us being vegeterians for the week. Anyways to cut a long story short we found a shady butchery in town and managed to buy some lekker rumpsteaks and wors that was super fresh and we were sorted. Loaded up on beers (Tafel/windhoeks and a couple of Coolies) and filled up with petrol and we were off to Kalizo lodge. Bumpy dirt roat and we were "Gatvol" of being in the car. At Kalizo we met with Danny and Val - they said pick a campsite and we did just that on the banks of the mighty zambezi river. They had a meeting with the local comunity so they were not able to help us launch the boat so we set about setting up camp and got the tackle out and wet to the harbour. Here we caught a couple of Zambezi happy's (Much like our Canary Kurper just somewhat more beautiful) and then we hit the bar.
The following morning Danny helped up launch the boat and we took off downstream. It was not long before we caught several tigers all racing snakes but it was great to get off the mark. What we did notice is that there were masses of boats on the river with boats drifting and trolling all very close to one another - this was very sad for me coming from the lower zambezi where you seldom see a another boat. There were also herds of villiagers both on the water and on the banks - no game and herds of cattle. About the only game we saw other than birds were some mighty big crocodiles some of these were over 5m in length and monsters.
Anyways I set about trying to catch Nembwe on Jigs as this is what I had come to do the other two set about trying to what some tigers on cranks and tigerwakka's. I managed to pick up a nembwe after a couple of hard hours of toiling for them and this turned out to be the only one for the trip not very big but damn these things can fight.
"TiggaWakka" Badenhorst came into his own on day one and showed us how to catch and land a 9kg barbel in fast flowing water on a tigerwakka. His very first barbel on Artlure too.
Then all too soon it was time to head back to the lodge. And here we quafed some more beers. Plan for the next day was to burn down river to get away from all the boat traffic and try and find some non pressurised waters. Anyways to cut a long story short we went down 40km from Kalizo to a place called Grey Banks. This looked like nice tiger water and I worked the clay banks for Nembwe the other two threw tigga wakkers into the main current. "Tiggawakka" went tight first and a monster in the 6kg class lept from the depth's and said "thanks but you can have your lure back" Marno was the next one to go tight and got a similar reaction from the tiger. These were the only two bites we got and we had burnt 1 tank of fuel in getting there so we had to cut short out trip and head back upstream. That night we plotted that we wanted to go back to Grey banks and at sparrows we were on the water flying down the river. It was cold so we decided that we needed some Hydraulic sandwhichs to keep us warm (Klippies and cola) we each had three before we arrived at Grey banks this gives you an idea of how far it is.
This day we pretty much drew a blank other than marno getting a single bite nothing else came out of the water. Again we ran out of fuel and beat a hasty retreat back up to the lodge. It was late Afternoon and we tied up to a tree less than a 100m upstream of where we were camping. I broke out the spinner and the 5lb tackle and within halfan hour I had lost 3 spinners and landed two beautiful 3 spots.
These fish fight the hardest of all the bream species and on light tackle they really give you the run around - it was a blast. So came the close of the day. Again we headed off to the bar and met some of Marno's family from Frankfort - very small world we live in "Oom Johnny" was very entertaining. That night we feasted on bream fillets and Chips - baie baie lekka.
Next day we decided to head upstream in search of other bream species and at about 9 am I went tight on the first thinface of the trip - I thought this was a lovely big one only to have Marno and "Tigawakka" show me what big ones really look like and guess what "Tiggawakka" Badenhorst caught his on.....
In the afternoon we went in search of other species. "Tigerwakka" Badenhorst even manged to pick up a Squeaker on a tigerwakka.......no comment
We were also pointed in the right direction to catch african pike and after wading across a shallow sandbank we came to a depression that was filled with them and we has some sports with these guys on light spoons etc. They have a really nasty set of "nashers but are a rally beautiful fish
Again we spent a couple of hours just above our camp and caught some more 3 spots, Pink happy's, green happy's and Green headed tilapia. We also caught a few Humpback bream too. Here's a photie of a pink Happy.
No Trip to the zambezi is complete with out a "Goef" to cool off - keepiung a wary eye out for crocs of Course...
MArno with his one and only squeaker of the trip
All too soon our trip came to an end.....
Christo and Marno were adamant they wanted to get home and sleep in their own beds so we did the big push and drove from Katima home in one day. Marno magaed a fine in Botswana for speeding and other than the terrible road the return trip was pretty uneventful but 18hours on the road and 4 border posts is lots of PT.
It took me 4 days to get over the trip.
I had a great time and was in the company of some great anglers - I learnt that a Tigga Wakka can catch any species. Our Species tally for the trip was 18.
Thanks Guys
Some guys that Joined us for the week on another boat also did very well..... Rudolph Venter with a 3kg Thinface Largemouth
Bernard Venter with a 6kg Tigerfish
Bernard with a 4,2kg Tigerfish caught on a Salmo Perch
Rudolph with a 5,7kg Tiger caught on a Salmo Hornet
Juan Lombard caught this nice Nembwe weighing 2,8kg
