October/November season done!

With almost 2 years since the last guests stayed at Ngombe River Lodge, Covid really did give this private peace of the Zambezi River a break!

Guests and guides were all very excited to see what the river had in store for them!

And we are pleased to say that these Barotse Trains did not leave our water! With 2 fish in die 20lbs class landed during the 4 weeks spent on the river, and not to mention the numerous fish between 10 and 20 lbs, It is fair to say that rods were bent, and stories were told! The best week was 42 tigers landed(about a 1/5 success rate) with 12 fish above 10 pounds, the larges was 24lbs and this between only 4 anglers!

Even after 4 weeks spent on the river, it still only feels like one has scratched the surface of this extremely diverse fishery. We tried our best to explore all the possibilities that the fishery had to offer. From drifting the reed banks and targeting fish patrolling the banks to casting to deep structure such as drop offs or various holes in the river targeting those giants of the deep. But without a shadow of doubt the most exciting fishing that we experienced was fishing the rapids on the upper and lower stretches of the Ngombe section, this meant either drifting the boats through the rapids and casting towards eddies and bays or getting off the boats and targeting the fish on foot. This is extremely fast and exhilarating fishing! It all happens at a thousand miles an hour and you better hold on or you might miss your opportunity at a crack at a white-water tigerfish completely!

The most productive patterns during the first two weeks were an extremely sparsely tied clouser pattern in a combination of chartreuse-olive-black and grey-olive-black with heavy dumbbell eyes. With the warmer weather during the last two weeks the sparsely tied patterns were all out fished by brush flies and whistler patterns and natural colour combinations proved to be the most productive.

Knot to kinky traces continued to be an absolute game changer and it is without a doubt the answer if you are looking for an extremely comfortable and virtually admin-free trace system, one does sacrifice some of the low visibility aspect given by piano wire, but the comfortability of the knot to kinky trumps the subtleness of the piano wire.

With all that was learnt during the last season and the new theories formed from the past season everyone involved is very excited for the 2022 season that lies ahead, with a high percentage of weeks already booked it promises to be another great season of fishing on this amazing piece of paradise on the Zambezi!