Kavango River - Fish Extreme Safaris

[gkieser]

Well after a year of planning, tying flies, and researching tackle traces etc for tiger fish, the day finally came for Tim Pope Ellis, His wife Janet, his Brother Dave and myself to pack the trailer and head north to the Kavango river on the border of Namibia and Angola. A 2 day trip lay ahead of us so news of heavy rains in the Olifants river valley was not encouraging as we thought we may have to find an alternative route up north, but luckily a quick call to the AA ensured us that the N7 was open all the way to Vioolsdrif so nothing stood in our way. We hit the road at 02h30 so were unable to see the devastation caused by the river. By 10h00 we were at the border and the orange looked to have nice flows for fishing for yellows. I remember thinking something along the lines of it being sacrilege to cross the orange without stopping to have a chuck at the small mouth yellows there. Anyways we carried on to Windhoek and spent the night there with Pete and Liz Kibble, family friends of Tim and the parents of our fishing guide for the next week, Kevin Kibble.

The next day we traveled from Windhoek to Rundu on the Angola border and then west for about 100km where we transferred to boats for the last 5 or so kilometres of the trip to Kevin’s fishing camp on the banks of the river. At times it is possible to drive (with 4x4) all the way to the camp but the flood plains were still a bit wet at this time of year so the final leg had to be by boat, and i must say I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Pete had joined us from Windhoek and he would skipper the second boat for our fishing for the week. We arrived at the river as the sun was going down, packed the boats and hit the water, eventually reaching camp by the moonlight where Kevin’s friendly staff welcomed us and unloaded the boats for us. Kevin has built his camp in a group of trees on a small side channel of the Kavango river and it is a simply stunning place. The accommodation is tents on elevated wood frame bases with a shower and toilet built onto the back and the main communal area of the camp is an open sided thatch roofed area with couches, dinner table, bar and kitchen.

Some pics of the camp:
The main camp area:

Front of our room

Rear of our room


We had a quick dinner and then Kevin and Pete were hit with a barrage of questions on what traces, flies, leader setups etc would be ideal for the current conditions, and then we tackled up accordingly before getting to bed early.

We woke up early on day 1 and had a quick breakfast before loading the boats with all the required tackle. Tim and Dave loaded their gear onto the larger boat with Kevin as their guide and I loaded mine onto the smaller boat with Pete as my guide.

These are the two boats we used for fishing:


We drove upstream to some spots that Pete and Kevin knew to produce well in the past. The water temperature was apparently slightly lower than ideal and in Kevin’s experience this put the fish right on the bottom so we were to let the Di7 lines sink for a good while before retrieving. We started off in some slower pools and back eddies and fished with the boats drifting rather than anchored. Kevin had chosen an Orange and Black Clouser with copper body from my fly box and that was the one that I started with.

It did not take long before Pete had got me into a fish. Out of habit I was counting the line down before retrieving and after a count of about 15 seconds I started a medium paced erratic retrieve with lots of darts and pauses as instructed and then I got smoked! The fish hit me on the run and before I knew what was happening the fly line was flying through the guides. I tried to organise the line on the floor but the anchor rope got in the way and the tension on the line snapped the fish off. Seconds later the fish jumped to free the fly still in his mouth, and Pete commented that it was probably in the 3-4lb range. Well from all that I had heard about the speed of these fish i could not believe what I had just experienced. Not being much of a saltwater fisherman I cannot equate it to fish of the sea, but it was a damn site faster than anything i had encountered in fresh water. The blood was pumping and i now realised that these fish demanded a lot more respect than i had been giving them and obstructions on the deck of the boat had to be watched for at all times. I was encouraged by the time it had taken to get interest from the fish. I tied on another Orange and black clouser and a short while later I got another big hit like something was trying to rip the rod out my hand. I struck with the rod and the fish was gone! I brought the line in and realised that I had been smashed up on the take again. Pete asked what knot I was attaching my leader to trace with and i showed him. I was using a simple improved clinch knot, and he suggested that it was not going to hold up and i would keep getting smashed up and taught me a knot using a loop that they had found to give much better success as the double line of the loop means that if one snaps, you are still attached to the trace. I got another couple of hits in the morning but could not convert those into hook ups. We finished fishing at about 12h30 and headed back to camp for some lunch. Dave had had more success on the other boat fishing with rapalas and had two tigers of about 6-7lbs as well as a large nembwe to his name, but Tim, like me, had also not had success on fly. We had some lunch and rested up before heading back out at about 15h00 for the evening session. This time Pete and I went downstream and did some drift fishing, where we would drift in the faster currents and cast out sideway, drifting with the di7 line as it sunk. I was getting plenty of hits from what seemed to be tiger fish but again nothing was sticking. I finally got a hook up and again the thing sped onto the reel and I thought I might just have him this time, but the fish jumped and spat the hook. Pete kept saying to me that I have to hit the fish harder by strip striking but I was just not getting it right. Every time I would hook a fish he would encourage me to strip strike harder. Anyway by the end of the day I had not landed a fish but had learned a lot. Tim also had no success on fly but managed a Nembwe on spinner in the afternoon session so it was only me on a blank after day one. I realised that unlike trout, the skill in getting these fish onto the boat is not getting them to take the fly (generally speaking), but rather how you deal with them once you have the fly in their mouth. The challenge had been laid down by these fish and they were beating me for sure. With the improved knots i was using i was not being snapped off any more so i felt as if I was winning the battle slowly. Kevin and Pete emphasised over dinner the ideas of strip striking them as hard as you can and then giving them absolutely no slack thereafter. After dinner we tied a few more flies, had a couple of beers around the fire and hit the sack, ready for day 2.

Dave with our Guide Kevin and a tiger of about 6lbs


Pete with a small Nembwe (Note the water clarity in the background)


Pete with a small Brownspot Bream - similar to the Nembwe.


Dave with another tiger of about 6lb

[gkieser]

As was to be the norm, on day 2 we awoke, had a quick breakfast and hit the water. Pete and I headed for the back eddy that we started on the day before and set up to drift round the eddy casting into the slack water in the middle, same as the day before. Once again it did not take long for me to get interest from the fish but i was having the same problem – getting takes but no hook ups. Eventually one slammed me and seemed to hold on! I grabbed the line with my stripping hand and yanked it as hard as i could three times and then Pete shouted “NOW YOU’VE GOT HIM BUT DON’T GIVE HIM ANY SLACK!!!”. The battle was on and I could also feel that this one had a fairly decent hook set. He made a series of short bursts off in different directions with a whole bunch of head shaking jumps, but the hook stayed where it was and after a spirited fight of a few minutes Pete “Boga’ed” my first ever tigerfish! He weighed in at 3lbs and for a fish of that size really put up one helluva fight on an 8wt rod. I was so chuffed and after a few quick snaps I had to sit down and have a smoke before carrying on fishing. Pete was just as ecstatic that i finally landed one of these buggers. So I finished my smoke and started fishing again. On the first cast I got hit hard again and i hit him hard back and he was on! I was getting the hang of this now but this fish was not running off. He felt a bit heavier than the previous one but he stayed really close and was only keen to get back to the bottom and after a short while he came into sight and we realised it was a good ‘ol Barbel of about 2kg! We landed him and took some snaps before releasing him to the depths. 5 minutes or so later I was vas into a fish again and again it stayed close and Pete and I agreed it was not a tiger and probably another barbel but when we got it close to the boat he shouted “Angusticeps!!! What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere???”. This third catch of mine for the morning was a Thinface Largemouth Bream (Serranochromis Angusticeps) of about 3.5lbs! Apparently they prefer structure close to the edges and drop offs so getting him out in the open was a bit of a rarity. Anyways I had a fantastic trifector of fish for the morning and was quite content when we eventually headed for the camp at lunch time. Pete had also caught a few bream on spinning gear and things were starting to look up. The other boat had not had any success in the morning though. The afternoon was equally tough and none of us managed any fish except for Pete who was now evident as a bream slayer of note!

Unfortunately the pics of my first tiger are on Pete’s camera so i am unable to show you those pics at this time. Here is one of the Pope Ellis Brothers riding out as the sun rises:

[gkieser]

On day 3 Tim and I traded boats so I hopped on the bigger boat with Dave and Kevin and we did some anchored fishing for the first time. Kevin explained to me that in the fast currents you need to get the fly down and since we were anchored, the trick is to cast sideways, let it swing, but also let the current take more line out as it sinks, thereby negating the force of the current which tends to pull the line to the surface. Once the line has swung downstream the fly will be deep and the retrieve can be started. He advised that it is also good to stop the retrieve and let the current pull the line out again, letting it sink further and short strips between letting the current pull the line will give a good action. The morning started slow like this but eventually something picked me up and headed for Botswana. Before I knew what was happening the fish was on the reel and I was into my backing and it showed no sign of stopping. I could not get my hand out the way fast enough and the reel handle was smacking the palm of my hand but i just could not get it out the way. Eventually with about 50 or so metres of backing out, the fish turned back upstream and i just could not reel it in fast enough and began stripping backing but the error had been done and it was too late. The slack I had given him and the failure to set the hook (I was too scared to grab the backing with my hand while it was flying off the reel) had freed him and i was left to reel in all the backing and flyline that was now strewn over the floor. Kevin said to me that that was just one of those big boys in the 5kg class that picks you up and you can do nothing about them. To say I felt humbled by a fish would be an understatement. That was a serious animal! Besides that I got lots of hits and landed 3 small tigers on the same orange and black clouser of about 1-2lbs for the rest of the day, but Dave had now claimed rights to the title of “Bream Machine” and already had a good couple of Nembwe and Angusticeps of up to 5lbs to his name on his spinning gear. On the other boat, Tim finally got himself his first tiger on fly so now we were both feeling a lot better about fly fishing for these fish. The 3 small tigers i caught had done some serious damage to my fingers, and that evening i started putting plasters over my fingers to stop the line from cutting into them when strip striking, which i was doing much better now but my fingers were showing serious wear and tear.

I asked Kevin to show me how he fly fishes for the tigers and took this pic while he was retrieving:


And a nice Angusticeps Bream he caught later on Spoon:


Dave With some Nice Nembwe that he caught:



Tim's First Tiger:

[gkieser]

On the morning of day 4 we hit some more tiger spots and I landed two nice tigers of 3 and 3.5lbs but was finally not losing fish that I had on and was feeling much better about that but still feeling like having these fish on was almost impossible to control. In the afternoon we did some bream fishing. We found a nice piece of protected slack water by some reeds and drifted on the edge of the main current in a back eddy. As the sun went down the fish went crazy, and I managed to land 3 Angusticeps and 1 Humpback Largemouth (Serranochromis Altus), all again on the Orange and Black Clouser. I took a break and gave my rod to Kevin for a few casts, and first cast he got hit by and landed a 5lb tiger – this guy really knows his stuff when it comes to tigerfishing!

A5lb Angusticeps bream that I caught


Kevin fighting a tigerfish at last light


Altus Bream (Humpack Bream)


The spot we were fishing at last light. Bream in the corner to the right, tigers to the left in the main current:


Here's a pic of a small croc sitting on a tree island. He only dashed off the island when our boat bumped into it:

[gkieser]

We decided to get up extra early on day 5 to try and catch the fish as the sun hit the water. We were on the water at first light and headed for what had so far been the most productive run. Well, I say it is a run, but it is a 4-8m deep channel with very fast swells with a nice broken surface, so it looks like a run. There was no wind, and after we had cut the motors and anchored for a while the fish activity started to get to frantic proportions. Bait fish were flying everywhere with average sized tigers (2-3lbs) launching themselves after the bait fish all around us.

Tim, Dave and I were all together on the big boat with Kevin Skippering, so Tim fly fished and Dave and I hit the water with the rapalas. All you had to do was wait till you see baitfish flying out the water, cast there, start reeling in and you would get smashed!! I lost two rapalas in a space of ten minutes without landing one of the buggers, and I remember commenting to Dave "Okay, so I am not using a fly rod now, so how to I strip strike?". I just didn't have the confidence in hitting into the fish with a little spinning stick.

At one stage we noticed an almighty splashing on the surface and turned to cast, but what we saw was those same average sized tiger fish launching themselves out the water, but this time playing the role of the bait fish as a monster of a tiger fish flew through them trying to get his own breakfast! I would be lying if I guessed him into any weight class, but he was bigger than any of the tigers I saw caught the whole week. I remember watching it, and I remember not casting, and am not sure if the other guys casted for it, but to me when I saw it, I knew that my little berkley dropshot spinning stick wasn't going to be enough guns for him so what was the point. I thought about the bus that had picked me up 2 days ago in the same run and could only wonder if it was something in a similar weight class. It was just amazing to see the potential sized fish that could be caught in that river.

By now Tim had caught a 3.5lb and 4lb tiger on fly, and Dave had a similar size tiger on Rapala, and I decided to start using the fly rod again, and shortly after that I was into a 4lb speedster. He jumped all over the place and dashed off left and right, but by now i had the hook setting sorted and after a short battle had him out the water. After that the wind picked up and the fish went down, and but for a few hits and a 3lb Nembwe that Tim caught on spinner on the trip back to camp, the morning was uneventful.

Tim with one of the morning tigers he caught:


And the Nembwe he caught in the reeds near the camp on the way home:


In the afternoon we tried a new spot just downstream of a couple of islands off to the side of a main flow. There had been lots of hippos in this area the previous days so we avoided it but it was vacant now so we anchored just below one of the islands. The river cutting between the islands made a week current that flowed 90 degrees to the main current and eventually joined up with it. we anchored in that side current and cast into the slack water behind it. Our lines would be pushed sideways until it hit the main current and would then be pushed downstream. I started with a slow retrieve and was soon getting hits on the good 'ol orange and black clouser. Eventually I got a hard hit and smacked back at him, but quickly realised it was not a tiger as the runs were short and stayed on the bottom and close to the boat. Eventually I landed and released a hard fighting 3kg barbel.

We decided to anchor up and try a new spot, so i had a last cast into the slack water and realed the line back in, which was now coming straight across the slack water. Half way back I got smoked again. This was definitely a tiger and again it headed for Botswana. He was already on the reel and flying downstream and this time I plucked up the courage to grab the line as it was flying off the reel and gave hime 3 hard strip strikes - as hard as I possibly could! He jumped once and Kevin shouted "That's a really good fish!" which didn't help the nerves at all. He eventually stopped running with a couple of metres of backing out and I started reeling him in, remembering not to give him any slack at all. He was finally next to the boat but sitting deep and I started pumping, and Kevin shouted again that pumping gives them too much slack. Now what? I just hung on and slowly reeled him up to the surface, eventually getting the boga grip in his mouth and onto the boat! It was a short but fat fish, and weighed just shy of 8lbs and was now the largest tiger we had caught on the trip. What an amazing feeling!! I sat down for the rest of the afternoon and left most of the fishing to Tim before packing up for the evening, just having a few beers and smokes and taking in the sunset. I said to Kevin "Well I might as well give up now because it isn't going to get better than this", to which he replied "Well if you give up, you'll never know what would have happened tomorrow!".....

My Biggest tiger so far:

[gkieser]

The fishing on the final morning started a bit slowly. We began by anchoring ourselves in our favourite spot but the wind had gotten up a lot earlier than usual and there was no evident surface action. Eventually we gave up on the spot and drifted about 100m downstream and anchored again just off a steep clay bank to try for some bream as the tigers weren’t really interested. We cast upstream to the bank and let the flies sink down and along the bank before retrieving them back up to the boat, but again with no success so I switched sides and cast into open water and let the line take the fly down to the bottom, doing a few erratic strips and then letting it out again to get the fly to sink again.
After doing this for a couple of minutes I seemed to lose a bit of concentration, as one does in these situations and that was when a fish decided to hit me. I struck way too late and he was gone. Straight after I realised he was gone I dropped the rod and let about a metre of line out to get it down again, and then started stripping and got smashed again but missed the bugger for a second time! I repeated the letting out of line and stripping back, but there was no third hit. It was interesting to note that you could induce another take from a fish that had just hit you and I mentioned the occurrence to Tim and Kevin.

I pulled in and cast out again in the same manner – out to the side and let it get down, and started the erratic strip with pauses to let the current pull it out and down again, and after a while of this I felt a little trout-esque ‘tug tug’, and then a slight slack off! The weight of the current on the Di7 makes it very easy to pick this kind of thing up, but doesn’t last long as the current takes up the slack. Realising that my fly had got the attention of something, but not knowing what, I started reeling in and as the slack got taken up, the rod started bending more and more and more. If it wasn’t for the slack off I would have suspected a rock or a submerged log being pushed downstream by the current, but I knew this was something moving upstream and I struck once with the rod to the side, and all of a sudden it exploded into life and headed downstream again with line flying off the deck of the boat. I grabbed the line as it flew off and slammed it a couple of times to make sure before letting the reel take over. The run was deep and not very long so I suspected barbel again and started slowly gaining line back on the fish. Eventually I got him about 20m away and he came to the surface, mouth first, and shaking his mouth out the water. It was a tiger and a good sized one! He just sat there with his mouth out the water, bearing his teeth to the sky and trying to shake the fly but i had set it well and he gave up and set off on another breathtaking run ending in a jump clear out the water! Kevin shouted that it was bigger than yesterday’s one! Knowing that it was well hooked I took my time with him, but never gave him the slack to prove me wrong, and eventually got him next to the boat. Same as my previous big tiger fish, he sat about two metres down below the boat, with all of us watching him, and me trying to get him up. Finally I wrestled him up and he was in the boat, measured, weighed, and a few snaps taken. He was an old fish with an enormous head and many battle scars showing the trials he had endured to get to the size he had. He was 70cm long and weighed in at 8.25lbs. He was only about half a pound bigger than the previous day’s one but seemed to be a bit longer. Anyways it was my personal best and I was elated! We released him and he swam off strongly to the bottom. That was me done, and I gave the fly rod to Kevin to have a few casts while I took my customary post-fish smoke break to get over the adrenaline rush. We never got another touch the whole morning but that one fish had made my week and I didn’t really feel the need to fish anymore anyway. Everything just seemed perfect.

My 8.25lb Tiger:


At lunch time we were joined back at the camp by Dave and Pete from the other boat and traded war stories. Not only had I beaten my PB, but Dave had beaten his twice with a 8lb Tiger on rapala, closely followed by a 9lb beast on the same piece of water on the same rapala which now had to be retired as it was useless as any type of fish catching tool!. The fishing may have been slow this morning but the Kavango had saved the best for last and the beasts had come out to play!

Dave’s Two Big Tigers:



After lunch we rested for a bit and then hit the water again, but this time went way upstream. First we went to a nice drop off where I hooked my last tiger of the trip. A nice 4lb fish that took me on the swing and jumped 4 or 5 times before coming to the boat. As we landed him the fly rolled out of his mouth onto the deck. It hadn’t even been properly lodged in the fish’s mouth and Kevin commented to me on the importance of me not giving that fish any slack at all.

After that fish Kevin suggested we go take a look at the Cuito a couple of km upstream so we did. The Cuito comes into the Kavango from the angola side and the contrast is remarkable. The Cuito was running crystal clear just like the cape streams and as it mixed with the Kavango the vis went down to a couple of metres. We didn’t fish the Cuito as the fish in that water are obviously very spooky so we went a short way upstream from the convergence and hit some deep holes behind a bunch of submerged rocks. This area had a lot of the local fishermen on the banks and they watched with interest as we threw our bait backwards and forwards through the air for a while before dropping it in the water and then pulling it back to the boat. They were even more shocked when eventually Tim went vas and landed a lovely 5lb tiger fish – his personal best for the week! You don’t even want to know how shocked they were when Kevin released the fish back into the water!

Tim’s Tiger PB tiger:


We fished our way downstream for a while and at about 17h00 we decided to spend the sunrise in the area where we had been successful with bream in the past few days so we sped downstream again and got there with about a half hour of light left. Tim was first into a bream and brought a lovely 3.5lb Angusticeps bream to the boat, and shortly after I got a Brownspot bream (Serranochromis Thumergi) of about the same size, which was definitely the strongest fighter of the bream species that I caught over the week. I packed up a few casts after that fish and watched Tim fish the final minutes before the sun went down on our week of fishing, just taking in the sunset and remembering some of the experiences of the last week.

Tim’s Angusticeps and my Thumbergi




Over the 6 days’ fishing, we had managed a total of 50 fish between three of us, fishing with fly and spinning gear. We caught 27 tiger fish up to 9lbs, 21 of the bream species and 2 barbel.

My Personal count was the following (All on fly):
Hydrocyanus Vittatus (Tiger fish): 10, Largest: 8.25lb
Serranochromis Angusticeps (Thinface Largemouth): 4, Largest 5lbs
Serranochromis Altus (Humpback Largemouth): 1 of 3.5lb
Serranochromis Thumbergi (Brownspot Bream): 1 of 3.5lb
Clarias Gariepinus (Sharptooth Catfish): 2, Largest about 3kg.

For me this was more than a successful haul for a first time visitor to the Kavango, and since we were there when the water was colder than optimal, and also at the same time as the full moon (fish feed by moonlight), I would love to experience it when it’s fishing at it’s best.

This was by far the best experience of all my fishing exploits and I will most definitely be going back again. Kevin and his staff were excellent and when not on the water we were comfy at all times. The remoteness of his camp meant that we only saw one other boat the whole week, besides the locals in their Mokoros, and if you are into birdlife, you will be amazed by the birds you can see. The notable ones I remember Were Fish eagles, Giant, Pied and Pygmy kingfishers, Many Storks and Herons, All sorts of cormorants and plenty other water birds. If anyone is keen for the same experience I would definitely recommend Kevin’s camp so if anyone is keen to contact him to find out more, send me a pm and I will give you his email address.

[gkieser]

Out of interest for guys who might be thinking of a similar trip, this is the tackle that I used and I only once felt a bit undergunned:

Rod: Temple Fork TiCr-X 9ft 8wt.
Reel: Shilton CL5 with 150m backing
Line: Airflo Sixth Sense WF8 full sink Di7

My Leader set up was 70cm 25lb maxima, to 50cm 15lb maxima, to 70cm 12lb maxima.

My Trace was about 10-15cm plain piano wire. We tried Nylon coated wire but it just seems so much more visible in the water compared to the plain brown piano wire, and with a good haywire twist the connections are neater. On the leader side of the trace I had a small swivel, attached to the flyline with a loop taught to me by Kevin that he called a shortcut to the bimini twist. When I used a normal knot like an improved clinch knot it snapped way too easily. The fly end of the trace was a haywire twist with nothing in the loop. I attached split rings to the flies and then threaded the loop in the haywire twist onto the split ring. This was a much more durable way than using snap swivels but still giving you versatility to change flies when required. The split rings also allow 100% free movement of the fly in all plains so the trace does not affect it at all when being retrieved.

Here is a picture of the succesfull Black and Orange clouser before being touched by a tiger (Apologies for fuzziness). You can see how it is attached to the wire using a split ring.



We used SF Fibre for the clouser wing (Midnight blitz over Hot orange) and this was incredibly durable. The eyes were lead eyes painted white and extra copper was added to the body to get it down as fast as possible and accentuate the jigging motion. Every fish I caught for the week was on this pattern.
Just to demonstrate the durability of the SF Fibre, here is a picture of one that had caught at least three tigers including my second largest one, plus a barbel and a couple of bream:



And finally, a few other pics that we took on the trip:
Kevin's Brother Brian joined us for a few of the days. Here he is with a dad Pete and a nice Bream double up:


And Brian again with a nice Tiger (It is amazing to watch how these guys bully the tigers in!):


Some nice pics of tigers in the water:



Some of the locals:


Me having my final casts on the final evening of a superb trip:


Hope you all enjoyed my trip, as I am sure you can tell that I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Gael]

Looks like you did have a blast, I'm sure all here on the site are green with envy

[nicholas]

Great post Grant, brightened up what is sure to be a blue Monday. looking forward to the rest of the story........

Cheers Nick

[Chris Shelton]

Hi Grant. Thanks so much for taking the time to write such an interesting comprehensive account of your Kavango trip. I can't wait to read the rest of it, I suspect that it is just going to get better and better! All I can say is "WOW" so far! Awesome read!! Thanks again!
Regards
Chris