Shackleton's - Upper Zambezi

[bastion]

Hi All,

I will be going on a trip to fly fish the Zambezi for the first time in the last week of july. We will be based at Shackletons lodge and fishing the surronding regions of the river. I have fished for Tigers and Bream on the Kavango in Namibia, but have no experience of the Zambez.

From what i have gathered searching on this site i think i am cool for tackle, leaders, ect, but what i could not find much information on was colours of flies and also the general size (length as opposed to hook size) of flies used. I will be tying mostly synthetic clousers as they are probably the most proven and durable, and will be using Gamakatsu SL12s (Trey Coombs) in 4/0, but do not know which colour combinations are preferable for that time of year and how long the flies should be. For wing material i will be using mostly Steve Farrar Flash blend and Deadly Dazzle in whichever colour combinations are recommended. The colours i have heard I should have are Blue over White, Black over Red, Black over Orange, Black over Purple over Orange. Is that a decent enough cover or should i think of other combos? Do the Zambezi Tigers like a lot of flash?

If you are not a fly fisherman but have fished this area with spinning tackle i would also be very interested to hear the types of lures you used, size of the lures, depths at which they fish and of course the preferred colours.

If you have stayed at Shackletons before I would really like to hear what you guys thought of the place, especially the guides knowledge, the types of boats they use, and whether they prefer to predominantly anchor and fish or drift and fish and which option is more effective (I prefer to drift while fly fishing).

Lastly, what can i expect from the fishing in the last week of july? I am happy to catch tigers for the time i am there but i would also like to catch some of the bream species while i am there. The one i really want is the Humpback, as i have already caught S. Robustus, Angusticeps, Thumbergi but i just couldn't find an Altus on the Kavango. If anyone has any particular experience with catching them on fly i would love to hear about it (Habitat, Preferred fly colours, etc).

Thanks very much for any replies.  i am really excited to finally get to fish this river.

Thanks
G

 

[Ed0101]

I fished just downstream from Shackletons at the end of July last year. I personally did not fly fish but some of our group did with river guide Haydn Willans. Check out Haydn’s web site http://www.tigerfishfrenzy.com/5flyfish.htm for info. We all had great tiger fishing.

We will be at Shackletons the first week of August so will be watching this post with interest.

 

[Fin-S]

Hi bastion,
I would suggest black and orange with bars, then blue and white with a red tail - the former to imitate smaller bream the latter to look like small tigers.
I use a short shanked black 2/0 on smaller patterns, moving up to a 4/0 for the longer patterns. Smaller ones 10cm, longer ones 17-20cm. I like the polarfibre baitfish patterns and use this 80% of the time. I only tie 4 strands of flash.
For lures, all of the Zambezi specials works, Mepps, Raps, Fat Raps, Tobies etc.
You generally fly fish 3 ways, one is to drift along the banks, generally smaller bream pattern, cast very close to the bank, allow to sink for 5 seconds, then medium fast strip. The second is to drift the middle channel structure and drop offs targetting bigger tiger. Big flies specifically cast to tree stumps, edges etc. Fish deeper and slower. The final one is to anchor and fish a good looking section. There is not much opportunity to do this at Shackletons except a long trip to Golden Pond or about 10 kms downstream to a village, where at the end of they day they clean their local catch and the big tigers sit in the middle and slurp the discarded entrails. Try a chum fly here - these are educated big fish!
I have been to Shackletons quite a few times and really enjoy it. It is not in the same league as Barotse for big fish but is a good value for money destination where you are looked after. I take the kids there and they are well guided leaving me free to fish rather than tie knots, undo tangles etc.
Boats are mostly standard glass or aluminium 15 foot with 50/60hp motors. They have a front casting platform and are easy to fish from. The guides vary, but ask Howard to give you pointers and I'm sure he will oblige.
July is good and you should get some bream as well - mostly nembwe but with happys, etc as an alternative if you fish the weedy/ reedy areas.

 

[bastion]

Thanks for the info guys!

I will make sure i have some of those patterns. Fin-S - I usually fish flies a bit shorter on the Kavango for both tigers and bream (4/0 hook with wing double the length of the hook), so will tie up some larger ones. I will try take some pics of the patterns i will take and post them on this thread as i finish them so that the guys in the know can let me know what's good or bad about them.

 

[will101]

Don't forget the smaller imitative patterns on the upper Zambezi, especially when the flows are still a bit strong. These can be tied on anything as small as no 8 hooks.

 

[Mark F]

Hi Bastion, I have fished the area a number of times and have also stayed at Shackletons at the end of July. Fly patterns I have found to work best for me are definetly the synthetic SF flash tiger baitfish, brush flies and clouser patterns. Best colours for me have been Black on red; black on purple; green peacock on grey; plain camo brown and plain midnight or bleeding black for late afternoon / early evening. i must admit I am not a fan of the SL12s (Trey Coombs)for tigers - i think the point is angled a little too much downwards toward the shank - I much prefer the 2/0 Gamagatzu B10s stinger, its a thinner guage hook with a straighter point and punctures the tigers jaw bone a lot more efficiently on strike.
End of July can be a bit hit and miss that far up the Caprivi - it all depends on the water levels - 2 years ago the water levels had dropped so quickly in the middle of July that most of the baitfish action had already moved down to the downstream areas around Impalila Island and the Kasai channel, luckily we were able to find a couple pockets of feeding catfish in the Zambian Backwater channel above Shackletons and again also in the T-junction Backwater by Shuckmansburg. We were able to boat some very good tigers (biggest 12.5 lbs) from the deeper dirty waters next to where the catfish were "marauding" in the shallow reeded areas of the drying floodplain. Fishing was hard but so exciting when we found these pockets of activity.

ED0101 - I was also lucky enough to fish with Hayden a number of years ago at Impalila Island Lodge, What an awesome Guide, he really does know his stuff!!

 

[bastion]

Thanks Mark!

Are you thinking of the S12S? It's this one:

I am referring to the SL12S which has a much straigher point:

Here's the stinger:

I prefer the SL12S over the Stinger because of the increased gape but you are quite right, the lighter gauge of the stinger is preferable for driving the flies home. I haven't battled much with that with the SL12S though. They are exceptionally strong sharp hooks.

Been tying up a storm today aftr the advice from you guys and others, and will take some pics now and post them on the thread.

 

[bastion]

Here's the flies i tied today:

All hooks are Gamakatsu SL12S 4/0 and all flies finished off with Sally Hansens hard as nails for extra protection of wrappings and eyes.

All flies have Holographic tinsel of either black or silver, plus a single strand of lateral scale each side of the fly, which is the crinkled saltwater flash you can see easily on the flies. We have found that the tigers of the Kavango really key in on flies with this material in them so hopefully their Zambezi ones will oblige too.

Top Left:
Thread: Black 6/0
Eyes: 6mm Tungston Dumbells with stick on eyes
Body: Thick copper wire
Under Wing: SF Flash Blend - Violet Night (Purple)
Mid Wing: SF Flash Blend - Orange
Over Wing: Sf Flash Blend - Midnight blitz (Black with blue flash)
Flash: 6 Strands black holographic tinsel, 1 Strand Orange Lateral Scale each side.

Top Right:
Thread: Saltwater Mono Tying thread
Eyes: Lead Painted eyes
Body: Thick Copper Wire
Under Wing: SF Flash Blend - Off White
Mid Wing: SF Flash Blend - Yellow
Over Wing: Sf Flash Blend - Orange + 2 Strands peacock herl
Flash: 6 Strands silver holographic tinsel, 1 Strand Orange Lateral Scale each side.

Middle Left:
Thread: Saltwater Mono Tying thread
Eyes: Lead Painted eyes
Body: Lead wire covered with saltwater flash
Under Wing: SF Flash Blend - White
Over Wing: Sf Flash Blend - Blue Herring
Flash: 6 Strands silver holographic tinsel, 1 Strand Pearl Lateral Scale each side.


Middle Right:
Thread: Saltwater Mono Tying thread
Eyes: 6mm Tungston Dumbells painted with Tippexx and Magic marker for the pupil then covered with sally hansens
Body: Lead wire covered with saltwater flash
Under Wing: SF Flash Blend - Off White
Over Wing: Sf Flash Blend - Violet Night
Flash: 6 Strands silver holographic tinsel, 1 Strand Pearl Lateral Scale each side.

Bottom: Just some baitfish patterns i was playing around with when i got bored of tying clousers. 

I am now out of Lead and Tungsten dumbells. GRRRRRR! Time to go back to the fly shops!

 

[Ryan]

What worked exceedingly well last year is clousers.
Not very bushy (Sparsely tied) big dumbells black over red with a little silver flash.
Purple black were a good combo too.
Also they Yellow/orange/black patterns were killer.

The red and Black first light.
Purple black - early morning.
Midday - yellow (firetiger pattern)

My goto pattern would be red/black - I landed several double header fish and I lost a 20+ at the boat on this pattern. Fished on a 400gr line Deep and long slow but sharp retrieve.

 

[Ryan]

Dig your flies - leave the blue ones at home - for some reason the zambezi tiger have an allergy for blue....

 

[bastion]

Thanks Ryan! I'll get some Red/black on the production line.

From reading a lot of your posts i see you are big into the Bream species up there. Do you have any preference for colours for targetting them specifically?

Cheers
G

 

[Ryan]

Never got big Bream on fly intentionally.... Sorry

It is imperative that your flies are pulled (dragged) along the bottom seems the puffs of sand is what drives them nuts....

 

[Yellow Monster]

I will be staying at SEKOMA from the 5th August to the 10th August, i really hope that conditions are good. 12k on a trip - i dont like the sound of "hit and miss"

 

[Yellow Monster]

bastion wrote:

Hi All,

I will be going on a trip to fly fish the Zambezi for the first time in the last week of july. We will be based at Shackletons lodge and fishing the surronding regions of the river. I have fished for Tigers and Bream on the Kavango in Namibia, but have no experience of the Zambez.

From what i have gathered searching on this site i think i am cool for tackle, leaders, ect, but what i could not find much information on was colours of flies and also the general size (length as opposed to hook size) of flies used. I will be tying mostly synthetic clousers as they are probably the most proven and durable, and will be using Gamakatsu SL12s (Trey Coombs) in 4/0, but do not know which colour combinations are preferable for that time of year and how long the flies should be. For wing material i will be using mostly Steve Farrar Flash blend and Deadly Dazzle in whichever colour combinations are recommended. The colours i have heard I should have are Blue over White, Black over Red, Black over Orange, Black over Purple over Orange. Is that a decent enough cover or should i think of other combos? Do the Zambezi Tigers like a lot of flash?

If you are not a fly fisherman but have fished this area with spinning tackle i would also be very interested to hear the types of lures you used, size of the lures, depths at which they fish and of course the preferred colours.

If you have stayed at Shackletons before I would really like to hear what you guys thought of the place, especially the guides knowledge, the types of boats they use, and whether they prefer to predominantly anchor and fish or drift and fish and which option is more effective (I prefer to drift while fly fishing).

Lastly, what can i expect from the fishing in the last week of july? I am happy to catch tigers for the time i am there but i would also like to catch some of the bream species while i am there. The one i really want is the Humpback, as i have already caught S. Robustus, Angusticeps, Thumbergi but i just couldn't find an Altus on the Kavango. If anyone has any particular experience with catching them on fly i would love to hear about it (Habitat, Preferred fly colours, etc).

Thanks very much for any replies.  i am really excited to finally get to fish this river.

Thanks
G

Hi Bastion,

 

We will be at SEKOMA in the first week of August so please, please give us a report on your return, don’t forget your camera – good luck!

 

[Mark F]

Hi Bastion

I was refering to the SL12s Trey coombes, is doesn't look like it in the pic but check on your hooks and you will see the slight up turn of the point toward the shank. No doubt the SL12s is a great hook but i still prefer the straight point of the B10s stinger. The S12s is the Octopus isn't it, i have used them in the past for drift fishing with Nimbele baitfish but you can't use it for fly as it is slightly offset and would probably cause your fly to turn, plus once again much too much of an upturn point for fly. 

I have had a certain amount of success fishing for Nembwe on the Upper Zam during my past tiger trips. Best time was a trip in the middle of July when we targetd the mud banks about 20 minutes boat ride upstream of Imaplila Island Lodge. The guide tied us up to one of these banks and told us to cast out into the current and let our flies swing under the overhanging grass of the small floodplapin just downstream of the boat, then to slowly strip in. If i remember correctly we were using same tiger tackle, heavey sink lines but casting polarfibre baitfish with epoxy heads in quite bright colours - orange on white, green on white and purple on yellow. The guide was very specific about which spots held nembwe, and when we found them we really hit alot of them in one place, the interesting thing was though often there were egrets marking the spots and once tied up we could hear the nembwe feeding in the flooplain grass, it sounded just like catfish sucking in baitfish in the catfish run, but obviously not as many and not as violent. After chatting to the guys at the lodge last year they recon the Nembwe species have taken a real hit by the net fishermen and have been much harder to target recently so please let us know if you manage to hammer some this year.

 

[bastion]

Well i should have know on the first day when the guide said "The fly fishing was really good about a month ago", that we were going to battle on the Zambezi this trip.

We didn't have great fishing but had a fantastic jol at Shackletons which is really comfortable with great food and a lovely fire to chill around in the evenings.

We managed to get a lot of small tigers on our trip, most between 500g and 1kg, but the larger fish were eluding us for most of the time we were there. Our Group got a 13.5lb and 10lb tigerfish, but the next biggest were 4lb and 3lb. My largest tiger was a 3lb fish which still gave a really nice fight.

For me personally, the Nembwe made up for it and I got two 3kg Nembwe - not much more than anyone can ask really, so i was well chuffed.

Black was the most succesful for me, whether it be all black flies or black with a bit of Orange or Red. The first Nembwe was on an Orange and Black clouser and the second was on an All Black Clouser with a bit of red Flash. Both large tigers were caught on predominantly black flies, with orange or red in them.

Here's the pics of my Nembwe that i got:

 

[Yellow Monster]

That’s a very cool Nembwe bud and sorry to Hi jack your thread.

 

I just got back from Sekoma yesterday. I agree with you, we also struggled for the first two days with smaller tigers but I was very fortunate to experience a tiger Feeding Frenzy on the main Zambezi Channel on Tuesday afternoon and picked up a good few tigers, the biggest been 8 pounder on a black over red pattern.

 

I was hit so many times on that afternoon and on almost every cast when the run came past us. There was a group of at least 200 plus tigers that were smashing baitfish at the surface and they went up and down that channel for about 5 hours. Had the most incredible afternoons fishing and managed to get my 8 pounder on Video.  The bigger ones did some fantastic aerial displays and most over 10lb threw my hook. I also lost a few 5 meters from the boat and got bitten off a number of times. It was my first trip and was a nervous wreck when the run came past so I made a number of mistakes and lost more fish than I should have. My fishing partner took 14 tigers, all over 6 pounds that afternoon from 2pm till 6pm but he has been there twice before and just had that much more experience than me.

 

I was also initially disappointed as the Kasaai chanel was dead, other than picking up a 15 pound cat fish. One afternoon made my entire trip and I experienced something extremely special on one afternoon.

 

Its Gods Country For Sure.

 

 

[Ryan]

Awesome report and awesome fish -congrats