TROLLING

Fishing safaris offer a combination of fishing techniques. A typical fishing day may involve getting up at first light for a couple of hours of shore fishing and then, after breakfast set off in the boats for a day of combined trolling and shore fishing. At night, dead or live bait lines can be put out to catch Vundu (Catfish).

Selecting fishing equipment & tackle is very much a matter of personal choice, there is a wide selection of suitable equipment available on the market. What we have outlined below is only a guideline for what you might decide to bring. You might also consider hiring our fishing equipment and tackle box for your safari. If so, please check our tackle hire.

You will catch most of your big Nile Perch while trolling because trolling covers a larger area of water than shore fishing and as a result puts the lures in front of more fish. While trolling, your lures will swim at a greater depth. Landing big fish is much easier from a boat than it is from the shore, because you will force the fish to come out to the deeper waters near the boat and therefore your line will be safer from the sharp rocks near the shore.

For trolling, bring strong rods between 30 & 50lb with a minimum of 2.40-2.70m length. You might want to use your spinning equipment also for trolling, it depends how light your spinning equipment is. A strong reel with at least 200m backing of monofilament line (50/100 – 60/100, 30lb) or braid line (90lb) backing. For trolling we recommend braid line. Reels: Abu 7000 and 10000, Shimano TLD 15 & 20, Shimano Charter Special, Daiwa Saltiga 6000 and Stella 6000 are suitable reels.