Intro
This trip report covers a short trip up to Sekoma Island Lodge on the Zambezi by myself, Cage and two mates. If you are a regular reader of the report section, you will come across a number of reports by Cage, he is an avid (and quite excellent) trip planner, part time fishing tackle / apparel model and all round enthusiast / fishing celebrity. Cage is always trying to get excursions together and I previously had to decline a number of invitations to such trips, so I was very happy to finally be able to tag along. Special thanks to Cage for organising / tackle advice / tiger advice and allowing me to be the amateur photographer while he pulled in all the tigers – ha ha (based on the difference in catch rates, the advice may have been a little tempered in his favour)
Travel
We left OR Tambo on Wednesday midmorning (13 May) and flew to a fairly modern airport in Livingstone, Zambia. After a short 30 minute bus trip and a ten minute boat transfer we found ourselves on Sekoma Island at the Lodge, sipping welcome drinks and tackling up for the afternoon session. Aside from the short afternoon session on the day of arrival, we had a full three days fishing before returning on Sunday (17 May).
The Fishing
This was my first real tiger trip and my first trip to the Zambezi so thankfully I was in the presence of some experienced Tiger practitioners who were able to provide lots of advice and guidance. Cage and one of the other gents (names omitted to protect the innocent) had travelled to Sekoma previously as well as other Lodges on the Zambezi so they outlined the following with regard to Tiger fishing on the Zambezi at this time of year (May – July), basically I understood it as follows:
The River, which had previously spread out onto the flood-planes, starts to drop any time from May to July and when this happens the baitfish that had taken refuge in the shallow grassy flood-plane areas are forced to join the main river with the resulting, famous, feeding frenzies on the compressed baitfish. Sadly the river had not dropped sufficiently and the frenzies did no commence while we were there however the fishing was very enjoyable with a number of good fish being boated.
Due to the lack of frenzies, the artificial Bite was not great, but we did manage a few fish on Jig. The bulk of the tigers caught were on drifted Bulldogs.
Rather than a blow by blow account, I will let the pictures do most of the talking and highlight a few interesting events. Overall, I managed exactly 2 fish per day (other than the first half day session), Cage, showing his experience, managed a substantially better strike rate with around 12/13 fish each day and the other gents falling somewhere between. I personally battled to find a consistent approach to hooking and landing the Tigers however I am sure that the next trip will result in a better conversion rate with the lessons learned. Basically for any other beginners, the tigers are hard to hook solidly, I had thought that perhaps holding the spool and viciously striking would help – it did so long as the tiger was not on a scorching run, in which event the braid neatly parted – I lost a few fish in this manner. The Tigers are very fast and turn back to the boat often with the resulting loss of tension translating to further lost fish. Pretty much the same advice one always reads about tigers – keep as much tension as possible.
Noteworthy fish
As a Tiger novice, fishing for tigers is a real eye opener. They are fast, the initial runs are blistering, they are very hard to keep hooked and or they are very good at changing angles and swimming back at the boat to throw the hook. Tigers are hard on tackle and we actually battled with wire breakages both in number 4 piano wire and 30lb Rio knottable wire tippet – both of these steel trace materials broke at the hook, broke between the knots and generally failed a few times too many for comfort. In addition I popped 30lb power pro on a hookup with what felt like a very big fish, all the more amazing was the fact that I used the same 30lb power pro on my baitcaster and twice when hooked up on the bottom, I found that I could not break the power pro without wrapping the braid around something – so very strong fast fish!
My best fish
Tiger on the loose!
I personally have wanted to catch Tigers on spoons as long as I have known about tiger fish, sadly the frenzies had not started and the bite was strongly skewed to drifting bulldogs but I did manage a nice 6lb tiger on jig as well as a number of hook-ups and pulls. I found that the jig hooked tigers were much more enjoyable to fight, or at least it felt much better on the baitcaster.
On day 3 we were drifting down the river towards a sand bank with reeds growing off the bank so naturally I started to throw the jig around the bank, I was watching my jig come off the bank and a huge tiger followed it right in without biting, I initially thought it was a croc or something (just saw teeth and a big dark shape) – really gets your heart racing.
Also on Day 3, Cage was hooked up to a nice Tiger, when the fish was closer to the Boat, a really decent tiger was seen trailing the hooked fish (like a GT or a Dorado), Cage’s fishing companion had his Bulldog rigged and eagerly pitched the bait to the decent trailing fish, Unfortunately, a smaller tiger raced out from under the boat, engulfed the bulldog in chomping jaws (the attack, which in this case was seen, was very interesting, the tiger basically started chomping from before the bait, keeps chomping as he swims through the bait and then all in one movement he tore off) and disappeared out of the vicinity of the two much larger fish (one on Cage’s line and the other trailing the hooked tiger). Unfortunate to not hook the larger tiger but great to see the visual attack on bait.
Lodge
The lodge facilities are great, everything is very clean and well maintained, the staff are friendly and the food is excellent. The bird life around the river is special, I’ve never seen more fish eagles before. All in all a really good mid-range trip for tigers.
Tackle
We used a combination of spinning and casting rods. Each angler basically had one spinning rod and either one or two baitcasting rods. The spinning rods were exclusively for the Bulldog drifting with the casting setups for spoons, jigs and top water lures.
Rods
Shimano Nexave, 7 foot, med and Med Heavy
Fenwick Eagle GT
Shimano Beastmaster Tiger
Shimano Beastmaster casting
Reels
Shimano Baitrunner 4000
Shimano stradic 2500
Shimano Sustain 5000
Shimano Calcutta DC (Love the sound this reel makes)
Shimano Curado 200
Line and Terminals
Powerpro 30lb
Piano wire number 4 (had a few breakages in this)
Rio Knottable tippet 30lb (also had a few breakages)
Sensation tiger hooks 5/0’s
Effzet spoons
Bucktail Jigs
Conclusion
Sekoma is a really nice lodge that does not break the bank and offers some good fishing. I really enjoyed the trip and will be going back for a few more trips, hopefully to get the timing right and see the frenzies live!
This trip report covers a short trip up to Sekoma Island Lodge on the Zambezi by myself, Cage and two mates. If you are a regular reader of the report section, you will come across a number of reports by Cage, he is an avid (and quite excellent) trip planner, part time fishing tackle / apparel model and all round enthusiast / fishing celebrity. Cage is always trying to get excursions together and I previously had to decline a number of invitations to such trips, so I was very happy to finally be able to tag along. Special thanks to Cage for organising / tackle advice / tiger advice and allowing me to be the amateur photographer while he pulled in all the tigers – ha ha (based on the difference in catch rates, the advice may have been a little tempered in his favour)
Travel
We left OR Tambo on Wednesday midmorning (13 May) and flew to a fairly modern airport in Livingstone, Zambia. After a short 30 minute bus trip and a ten minute boat transfer we found ourselves on Sekoma Island at the Lodge, sipping welcome drinks and tackling up for the afternoon session. Aside from the short afternoon session on the day of arrival, we had a full three days fishing before returning on Sunday (17 May).
The Fishing
This was my first real tiger trip and my first trip to the Zambezi so thankfully I was in the presence of some experienced Tiger practitioners who were able to provide lots of advice and guidance. Cage and one of the other gents (names omitted to protect the innocent) had travelled to Sekoma previously as well as other Lodges on the Zambezi so they outlined the following with regard to Tiger fishing on the Zambezi at this time of year (May – July), basically I understood it as follows:
The River, which had previously spread out onto the flood-planes, starts to drop any time from May to July and when this happens the baitfish that had taken refuge in the shallow grassy flood-plane areas are forced to join the main river with the resulting, famous, feeding frenzies on the compressed baitfish. Sadly the river had not dropped sufficiently and the frenzies did no commence while we were there however the fishing was very enjoyable with a number of good fish being boated.
Due to the lack of frenzies, the artificial Bite was not great, but we did manage a few fish on Jig. The bulk of the tigers caught were on drifted Bulldogs.
Rather than a blow by blow account, I will let the pictures do most of the talking and highlight a few interesting events. Overall, I managed exactly 2 fish per day (other than the first half day session), Cage, showing his experience, managed a substantially better strike rate with around 12/13 fish each day and the other gents falling somewhere between. I personally battled to find a consistent approach to hooking and landing the Tigers however I am sure that the next trip will result in a better conversion rate with the lessons learned. Basically for any other beginners, the tigers are hard to hook solidly, I had thought that perhaps holding the spool and viciously striking would help – it did so long as the tiger was not on a scorching run, in which event the braid neatly parted – I lost a few fish in this manner. The Tigers are very fast and turn back to the boat often with the resulting loss of tension translating to further lost fish. Pretty much the same advice one always reads about tigers – keep as much tension as possible.
Noteworthy fish
As a Tiger novice, fishing for tigers is a real eye opener. They are fast, the initial runs are blistering, they are very hard to keep hooked and or they are very good at changing angles and swimming back at the boat to throw the hook. Tigers are hard on tackle and we actually battled with wire breakages both in number 4 piano wire and 30lb Rio knottable wire tippet – both of these steel trace materials broke at the hook, broke between the knots and generally failed a few times too many for comfort. In addition I popped 30lb power pro on a hookup with what felt like a very big fish, all the more amazing was the fact that I used the same 30lb power pro on my baitcaster and twice when hooked up on the bottom, I found that I could not break the power pro without wrapping the braid around something – so very strong fast fish!
My best fish
Tiger on the loose!
I personally have wanted to catch Tigers on spoons as long as I have known about tiger fish, sadly the frenzies had not started and the bite was strongly skewed to drifting bulldogs but I did manage a nice 6lb tiger on jig as well as a number of hook-ups and pulls. I found that the jig hooked tigers were much more enjoyable to fight, or at least it felt much better on the baitcaster.
On day 3 we were drifting down the river towards a sand bank with reeds growing off the bank so naturally I started to throw the jig around the bank, I was watching my jig come off the bank and a huge tiger followed it right in without biting, I initially thought it was a croc or something (just saw teeth and a big dark shape) – really gets your heart racing.
Also on Day 3, Cage was hooked up to a nice Tiger, when the fish was closer to the Boat, a really decent tiger was seen trailing the hooked fish (like a GT or a Dorado), Cage’s fishing companion had his Bulldog rigged and eagerly pitched the bait to the decent trailing fish, Unfortunately, a smaller tiger raced out from under the boat, engulfed the bulldog in chomping jaws (the attack, which in this case was seen, was very interesting, the tiger basically started chomping from before the bait, keeps chomping as he swims through the bait and then all in one movement he tore off) and disappeared out of the vicinity of the two much larger fish (one on Cage’s line and the other trailing the hooked tiger). Unfortunate to not hook the larger tiger but great to see the visual attack on bait.
Lodge
The lodge facilities are great, everything is very clean and well maintained, the staff are friendly and the food is excellent. The bird life around the river is special, I’ve never seen more fish eagles before. All in all a really good mid-range trip for tigers.
Tackle
We used a combination of spinning and casting rods. Each angler basically had one spinning rod and either one or two baitcasting rods. The spinning rods were exclusively for the Bulldog drifting with the casting setups for spoons, jigs and top water lures.
Rods
Shimano Nexave, 7 foot, med and Med Heavy
Fenwick Eagle GT
Shimano Beastmaster Tiger
Shimano Beastmaster casting
Reels
Shimano Baitrunner 4000
Shimano stradic 2500
Shimano Sustain 5000
Shimano Calcutta DC (Love the sound this reel makes)
Shimano Curado 200
Line and Terminals
Powerpro 30lb
Piano wire number 4 (had a few breakages in this)
Rio Knottable tippet 30lb (also had a few breakages)
Sensation tiger hooks 5/0’s
Effzet spoons
Bucktail Jigs
Conclusion
Sekoma is a really nice lodge that does not break the bank and offers some good fishing. I really enjoyed the trip and will be going back for a few more trips, hopefully to get the timing right and see the frenzies live!