Jozini Is A Awsome venue for Tigers, I Grew Up Here, And Been Fishing the Lake For 20years, and in that time i mannaged to pick up allot of tricks.
When we first moved here in 1992 the lake was a mere river, where the curent "river"is, was just a stream full of crocs, islands and loads of hippos. Back then the fish where small and not as plentyfull as these days, in 1998 we a huge storm that caused the dam to fill to maximum capacity, making fishing even harder because now the lake surface was so much bigger, Which in the end was a good thing because now the tigerfish could trive all over the lake and grow much larger than they use to.
But The Lake level Didnt Stay The Same Due To Drought, over the last 8 Years the lake has slowly come down and now sits at a record low since the dam filled up in 1998.
Fish quality in the lake has picked up drasticly over the last few years, aswell as numbers of fish caught and now with the lake being at the lowest its been in probably 15years the fish are allot more concentrated and you catch allot more. But that doesnt mean every cast is a fish, oh no, its not that easy.
Althow the fishing has inproved by i would say 400% you still have to work very hard to get them. The Climate around jozini is very steady all year round, except in summer where you will die off heat stroke hahaha, (gets up to 57C), making the fishing good all year round my prefered time is mid Jan to mid Mar where the number of fish you catch a day is off the charts, but remember its Bloody hot. Prevered Time for people not from the area would have to be April-June its not as hot and the fish still bite well.
My prevered method by far is live bait on free spool, No Float, No Sinker And No Drag!!!!!! only fish free spool!!!!
Tigers are very sesitive to tention and with the force that they hit your bait, just as quick as they pick it up they will also drop it if they feel tention, so always have a free spool.
When a tiger picks up your bait, never strike immidiatly, I had the honour of having a Tigerfish in A Aquiruim When i was A young boy and spent hours watching it feed on live talapia.
When a tiger grabs its pray it will swim around with it in its mouth and possion it or it will bite it in half and come back so always be sure to let your spool run atleast 10 counts before setting the hook.
If you miss the fish on your first strike, DO NOT keep reeling. immidiatly open your spool again 9/10 times he will turn and pick up again, thats when you get your chance to set the hook.
When setting the hook, never just strike once, repeatedly hit hard, a tiger has a very hard boney mouth and is very tough to get trough, so be sure to hit as hard as you can.
There Are many Difrent baits used by anglers from all over, ranging from chicken guts, hearts and livers to sardines and even tiger fillets.
Personally i have never seen a chicken or a sardine swimming in the lake and these two baits you will never find on my boat, as for tiger fillets, come on guys this is a native and now protected fish lets preserve them for our future generations.
Stick To what works, okay so many people are sucessfull with sardine and chicken, but how many of those fish are "rats" or barble.
Tigers Are Instinctive Hunters And they Go After Things That Move And What they asociate with like TALAPIA, which you do find in the lake unlike sardine and chickens.
Talapia is the only bait i use and i swear by it and dont be shy with your size of bait, the bigger the better, my clients often give me a funny look when i put a hook trough a 20cm TALAPIA, but that look soon fades when the reel screams and 20min later they standing with a 5+kg Tigerfish posing for a picture.
April and May both are awsome Tiger months, and well worth fishing. if i have any tips it would be to fish deep 10+m water, if you can get your hands on live bait use only that dont even mess around with sardine, chicken or filets all you going to do is atract barble, small tigers and terapins which you really dont want to catch if you are after that trophy fish.
When It Comes To Tackle, i will tell you what i use, my Bait casters Are Abu Garcia C6500 with a Berkley lightning rod 7ft Med/hea 20lb berkley big game supream line berkley power swivel black carbon coated steel trace and a 6/0 Gamagatsu live bait hook.
For the guys That Fish Coffee grinder, I personally fish the Shimano 4500 Alivio, Diawa Megaforce heafy 7ft rod, 20lb kingfisher giant obrasion line, berkley power swivel black carbon Coated trace and 6/0 gamagatsu live bait hooks.
Jozini is the only lake in south africa where Tigerfish ocur naturally, not many people even know that they can catch tigers here, making it a amazing angling destination as there are very few other boats bothering you except over the big compe when as many as 350 boats are on the lake, but even then your chances are still very good as Jozini is massive and there is more than enough space to acomodate anglers.
If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me any time and i would gladly assist.
So there you have it, tight lines everyone!!!!
