Fishing Lake Jozini For Tigers & Kurper – True Bushveld Fishing
As a fisherman, you couldn’t wish for 2 greater mates, Sean and
Gavin, and when you put the 3 of us together in a bushveld paradise,
such as
Jozini, you know it is going to add up to be an amazing fishing
trip, regardless of the fishing, that’s how it should be! Taking
advantage of the long weekend we made the 500km trek to Jozini in the
Blue Demon, towing the boat, the African Dream behind us. The Nissan is
definitely not designed for 3 fully grown men to sit up front in, but
hey, it’s all part of the experience! A lot of talk and laughter helped
us get through the trip which seemed to last for days, and then we were
there. JOZINI!
Staying at Fish Eagle Camp, we set up everything to our
liking and then launched the 2 boats, one of which belonged to Sean’s
father, James, who was joined by Peter and Jakes. Then the fishing
began.
Our main aim was to get
Tigerfish, of course, but we tried all sorts of
fishing for all different types of fish. Jozini is one of those places
where catching fish is a bonus, the beauty and tranquility is like no
other freshwater spot I have ever fished, if you haven’t fished Jozini,
do it!
We spent a lot of time at the boat jetties 150 meters from our campsite
where we caught all sorts, small Tigerfish (On bait and
fly),
Red Breast
Kurper, Blue Kurper, Nile Kurper, Tank Goby and Barbel. The small Tigers
are really plentiful there and I had hours of fun trying to get one
landed on the 4 weight fly rod (Hooked about 10 and they ALL shook the
fly). That place is full of life. Lots of bird life, insects, reptiles
and animals around too, it is wild...
We spent some time on the boat as well, although Gavin and Sean fished
on the boat more than I did. The second night we were there, we fished a
bat close to the gorge and we found a huge population of Tigers, from
300 grams to 1 kilogram. We all had a lot of bites, but Gavin showed his
skills to get 5 Tigers in 7 casts, you do not understand the power of
these fish until you feel them hit a bait or when they peel line off
your reel. Earlier that day we witnessed the fastest take any of us had
ever seen, on a Kurper fillet. It was Sean’s rod and it was very quiet
and out of nowhere it got picked up. It is hard to put into words the
speed the Tiger
picked up that bait, Sean struck, and was on for a
second and then his braid parted. We all hooked and lost at least one
large Tiger, and it creates an adrenaline rush of note.
The biggest fish of the trip (Between 1 and 3 kilograms) were caught by Gavin and Sean in the bay close to the slipway, unfortunately no camera was on board, but I did see Sean’s Tiger, it was huge! The wind blew hard on the last day which changed something as the fish went off the bite completely. The only problems we had was hooking and landing the Tigers, we would have caught over 50 without a doubt. Jozini is amazing and the Tigerfish has to be crossed off anyone’s bucket list, no matter what fishing discipline you enjoy.
