Lake Tanganyika - Zambia

[Skollie]

Hi guys

I am off to Zambia (Ndole Bay Lodge) next week, I would appreciate tips from anyone who has fished Lake Tanganyika in that area. I realize it is not the best time to fish there for the big Perch & Goliath Tigers, but apparently there is wide variety of species to be caught.
There is not really much info on the Net, so any help/advice welcome !

We will be fishing from the boat as well as spinning from the shore.

Thanx in advance ..........

 

[bertf]

Sorry for not having seen your post earlier. I spent some time there managing a lodge near Ndole. How did your trip go?

 

[Skollie]

bertf wrote:

Sorry for not having seen your post earlier. I spent some time there managing a lodge near Ndole. How did your trip go?

We had an awesome trip !
It really is a mission (and expensive) to get to that remote part of Zambia, we flew to Ndola and then chartered a plane to Nkamba bay, from there we had a boat transfer to the lodge.

We realised that it was not the best time of the year for fishing, but we were into fish all day, every day !
Emporor Cichlid (Nkupi - local name) were the best fun to catch on the light tackle .......... most fish caught spinning between 1.5kg - 2kg. Most success was with a pink Onda Onda (in excess of 70 Nkupi landed in 3 days), the small Mepps spinners also worked well.
The sheer number of species caught (11 species) in the 3 days was the highlight of the trip.
Unfortunately we were unable to land any Nile Perch, I lost a nice one (+15kg) whilst spinning for Nkupi on my Dropshot rig ........ stripped all 300m braid off the reel.
Trolling for the Perch with Rapala's was unsuccessful, we had one strike, but nothing else. Other guys at the lodge managed to catch a few in the 4-5kg range and a 12kg Perch was landed the previous week.
The big Tiger's were also elusive, tried quite a bit with live bait, but unfortunately nothing.
The lake has so much potential as a fishing destination and the conservation efforts by the local lodge owners is admirable, we will definitely be back, but will chose the time of the year, better.