AFRICAN FISHING TACKLE

A heavy 6’6”–7’6” baitcasting or spinning rod should be matched with a baitcasting or spinning reel with capacity of at least 120m of 80lb braid. This heavier outfit is needed to handle deep diving lures and larger baits; 65lb braid is used to handle the explosive strikes of big tigerfish. This same outfit can also be used for vundu cats in the lower Zambezi for dead baits and cut baits.

A Medium-heavy 6’6”–7’6” baitcasting or spinning rod should be matched with a baitcasting or spinning reel with capacity of at least 120m of 45-50lb braid. This slightly lighter outfit will handle casting and using smaller minnow baits, jigs and surface lures. It will handle even the biggest tiger fish and also bream and tilapia. These outfits can also be used for tigers when the water is more stained and dirty and dead baits are used like Churchills and Bulldogs etc.

A Medium-light 6’6”–7’6” spinning rod spinning reel with capacity for at least 120m of 20-30lb braid. This much lighter outfit will give your arms and wrists a rest from bigger baits and will allow you to easily use jigs and smaller minnowbaits.

7-9Wt fly rods should be matched with fly reels with a good, smooth drag system, loaded with a fast-sinking 300 grain flyline and an intermediate flyline. 20-30lb straight mono can be used for leaders 1.5m–2m and a thin wire leader is attached to the flies by a hay bale twist or clip/snap. Small and medium length streamer flies are generally great fish producers here. Ask each lodge owner which flies are working best before the trip commencement.

An up-tide rod or similar Nile Perch heavy action rod matched with either a large capacity Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 7000 or a large capacity baitrunner reel with minimum 250m of 100lb braid can be used for larger vundu on the Lower Zambezi. This is a real macho outfit and should be able to handle the largest of catfish you hook into.

A mixture of deep-diving and sinking lures are often used for tigers and bream and sometimes tigers will hit a surface lure with abandon. Spoons, spinners and jigs also all catch plenty of species in the region.

Productive fly patterns include clousers, deceivers and similar baitfish imitations, whistlers, and polar fibre minnows. Natural colours and flies with distinct lateral line work well, while matching a fly to the current light conditions and to the prominent bait fish in the area is essential. Most productive colours include white and yellow, grey and olive, white and olive, black, grey and black, blue and white, black and red and fire tiger.

An up-tide rod or similar heavy action rod matched with either a large capacity Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 7000 or a large capacity baitrunner reel with minimum 250m of 100lb braid can be used when trolling for Nile Perch.

A heavy 6’6”–7’6” baitcasting or spinning rod should be matched with a baitcasting or spinning reel with capacity of min. 120m of 80lb braid. This heavier outfit is needed to handle deep diving lures and larger baits and heavy jigs; 65lb braid is used to handle runs from Nile Perch. This same outfit can also be used for vundu cats in Lake Nasser with cut baits.

A Medium-heavy 6’6”–7’6” baitcasting or spinning rod should be matched with a baitcasting or spinning reel with capacity of min. 120m of 45-50lb braid. This slightly lighter outfit will handle casting and using smaller minnow baits, jigs and surface lures. It will handle medium-sized perch and the smaller tiger fish.

A Medium-light 6’6”–7’6” spinning rod spinning reel with capacity for min.120m of 20-30lb braid. This much lighter outfit will give your arms and wrists a rest from bigger baits and will allow you to easily use jigs and smaller minnowbaits when casting from the rocks.

9-12 Wt fly rods should be matched with fly reels with good, smooth drag systems, loaded with fast-sinking 300 grain flyline and intermediate flyline; 30-50lb straight mono can be used for leaders 1.5m–2m attached to large streamer flies. Medium and long length streamer flies are generally great fish producers on Lake Nasser.

Best producing lures for trolling on Lake Nasser are straight and jointed Depth Raiders (both sinking and floating); Rapala Super Shad Rap 14 floating and sinking; Rapala X Rap deep divers, and Count Down 14; Storm Deep Thunder 15 cm; Mann’s Heavy Duty Stretch 25+ and 30, Musky Mania Ernie 23 cm and Russelures 6.5 inch.

For both trolling and casting, anglers can use Rapala Super Shad Rap 14 floating and sinking and Count Down 14; Bucher straight and jointed Baby Depth Raider 6, Sinking and floating; Rapala Deep Tail Dancer 11-15cm; Musky Mania Tackles Ernie, 23 cm; llex DD Arnaud 100, Lucky Craft Flat CB DR, 7.5cm; Rapala Magnum 14; Halco Sorcerer 150 with two depth positions, 15cm; Original Storm Big Mac; Rapala X-Rap 14; Storm lead-in-head jigs.

A stout jigging rod matched with a fast-retrieve spinning reel with min. 200m of 50lb braid can be used for jigging as well as popping and even fishing off the bottom for reef fish.

A heavy 6’6”–7’6” baitcasting or spinning rod should be matched with a baitcasting or spinning reel with capacity of min. 200m of 80lb braid. This heavier outfit is needed to handle trolling with deep diving lures and larger baits, skirted lures and heavy jigs.

A Medium-heavy 6’6”–7’6” baitcasting or spinning rod matched with a baitcasting or spinning reel with capacity of min. 200m of 45-50lb braid is always fun for trying out a lighter outfit for smaller fish. This slightly lighter outfit will handle casting and using smaller minnow baits, jigs and surface lures. It will also allow the angler to bottom fish for a lighter, more sensitive bite detection.

Lures for trolling should be plastic skirted squids and shallow, medium and deep diving lipped lures.

For jigging, a mixture of plastic jigs and metal butterfly jigs will catch plenty of big reef fish to keep any angler happy for the day.

And for popping, any large cup-faced popper will bring fish to the surface. We especially recommend Halco Haymakers, Braid Sparta, Offshore Angler etc.

14‘ beach rods made especially for this type of fishing are matched with multiplying/baitcasting reels loaded with 50-80lb braid or mono and used to handle big copper sharks and gully sharks. They also easily handle kobs, steen bras and other beach-caught species. Leads are used to hold bottom and leaders and large hooks tackle even the largest of sharks here.

A heavy 6’6”–7’6” baitcasting or spinning rod matched with a baitcasting or spinning reel with capacity of min. 200m of 50-80lb braid is also great to use on the smaller sharks, kobs, steen bras etc. This lighter outfit can handle casting from the beach into the gullies and sand banks and can provide the angler with a lot of fun.

Most of the fishing done here is with bait, but sometimes anglers can have a ball casting minnowbaits and poppers into the surf.