Mafigeni offers fishing in South Africa, Mozambique and Chobe.  The major fishing attraction is Tigerfish.  These legendary fighters are equipped with an extraordinarily large tail and a specialized bone structure, allowing them to accelerate like a rocket and hit your bait like no other fish of equal size.  Their teeth are formidable, and they prey on other fish up to 40% of their own weight. They grow up to 18 lbs but even four-pound specimens fight like champions.

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Tigerfish are ferocious and aggressive apex predators, are indigenous to Africa and are a hard fighting freshwater game fish. This is an awesome fish to catch on light tackle and fly fishing equipment. Although they can grow to quite large sizes, the Tigerfish is regarded by sports fishing aficionados as a wily and fierce creature.  Tigerfish are probably the most exciting freshwater game fish in the inland waters of Africa.

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Tiger are essentially a summer fish being more active in the warmer water, so the traditional season is August through to April when the rivers are also low and clear, however Fishing is good year round, with the more comfortable months for weather being May through September. 

 

The most popular fishing methods to catch tigers include fly-fishing, trolling, drift fishing, use of spinners, spoons and a variety of baits including sardine, chicken livers and live Tilapia.  The kind of fishing equipment an angler uses largely depends on the preferred fishing technique and the time of year. 

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We also fish for a range of Bream, [Yellow bellied, Thin face, Hump back, Three spot etc ] - they go up to three kilograms and being predatory fish, give a good account of themselves.   These are generally winter fish with June through to August being peak time.  From time to time, we also target Barbel [catfish] which go up to 18 kilograms. 

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Some fishing is done from the banks and rocks in the rapids, but we are always careful about the potential hazard of crocodiles.  Fishing is predominantly from a boat.  When clients arrive, they are allocated a Guide and boat and then free to do whatever fishing they would like for the duration of their stay

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We encourage “catch & release” on the Tigerfish, and other fish species include Bream/Tilapia, Karp and Barbel/Catfish, which can be delivered to the lodge kitchen for a delicious dinner.