Your travel arrangements in a NutShell

..::Fresh water Fishing

..::Salt water Fishing

 Steven Kruger

Angola - The Last Frontier

Anglers are always looking for a place where the fish grow big and eventually die of old age, whether it is close by or thousands of kilometers away. We will always be looking for that one stretch of water where nothing has changed, as if time stood still, and if we are lucky we might just find it. And when we do our hearts will be at peace and we will fish until we cannot fish anymore… Or will we?

Well for those of you who know what I am talking about, you can stop searching. I found that place. In this article we will be looking at Angola, which I think is the last frontier for most anglers. With the civil war a thing of the past anglers are now looking at Angola as a potential fishing destination, which it is in all categories. Angola can be reached by airplane, 4x4 or, for the very desperate, by foot.

With the war being a thing of the past, we have started looking at the possibilities of offering fishing trips to Angola. Like any salesman you cannot sell any product you don't know well so we set out on a trip to explore the southern part of the Angolan coastline. Our aim was to assess available infrastructure, identify quality lodges or camps and then also to experience the fishing along this specific stretch of coastline which, up until now, was unknown to us.

We started our journey at the southern most border of Angola, at the Cunene river mouth. The Cunene river offers wide open spaces, freedom and not another person in sight for as far as the eye can see. The Cunene offers a lot of fishing opportunities. It is a well-known fact that you will find a lot of kob here, ranging in size from 3 to 50 kilograms. These kob will take anything thrown at them with bait, spinners, spoons and tobeys all producing good results. I have had a lot of success with the Tasmanian Devil fished at a slow retrieve, just bouncing off the bottom. Strikes were hard and at tremendous speeds and I can tell you one thing, these kob are strong fighters.

We found that by using lighter tackle we actually improve our total fishing experience. I used a WAFT shad 3-piece with the light tip. Spotted grunters are common here. Leatherback turtles are plenty. Do not be surprised when you hook into one of these submarines. They swim the same surf and hookups into this marine life are not uncommon. Sea turtles, like other sea creatures are very vulnerable and we therefore released each and every turtle that were landed. All of them were hooked and landed unintentionally.

The camp we stayed at is called Foz du Cunene and is situated on the banks of the Cunene river. It does not offer much but it is still a welcome sight after a long day's fishing. Apart from the protection it offers against the wind that are born on this coast it also offers a good meal and a cold drink. Foz du Cunene is an old water pump station used to pump water up to Baia dos Tigres which has no natural supply of fresh water. For those who still have some energy left after a days surf fishing you can try your luck on the catfish and bream species which are abundant in this river.

After a few days of excellent fishing we headed north along the coast to Baia dos Tigres. Years ago Baia dos Tigres formed part of the mainland but natural erosion separated it from the mainland to form a very long Island. Before the civil war Baia dos Tigres was a commercial fishing community. A lot of the old Portuguese styled buildings can still be seen today. This island is approximately 30 kilometers long and can only be reached by boat.

With no infrastructure available on this island the only form of accommodation available in this area is your own tents. The dunes to and from this island are very high and close to the beach which means all driving needs to be done at high speeds and during low tide. Allthough the driving can be a bit tricky some times the fishing will make up for it. This area is PACKED and I mean PACKED with sharks and huge rays. If ever you want to catch a fish above 200 kilograms from shore or at least having the thrill of the fight while it lasts, then this the place to be. The ray most often caught here is the rough tail ray and the name says it all. Stay well clear of that tail which can reach up to 2 meters in length and is completely covered with thorny spikes.

These rays are formidable fighters and I have lost many of them by breaking off or spooling. This is an area for heavy tackle only and I mean heavy tackle. Loading up with 19 kilogram line on a Shimano TLD 25, will not guarantee you landing these fish. The biggest specimen I have landed gave me a fight I still remember and although we didn’t weigh it, it was estimated at over 180 kilograms. But I have been spooled more times than those I have landed and seeing your 450 Daiwa or TLD 25 being spooled on a very tight drag is not a comforting sight. Some of the locals who are working these waters commercially on a daily basis reckon that specimens of over 500 kilograms have been caught in their nets. That is not surprising considering the amount of times you can get spooled when these fish come to pick up your bait. During the Eco challenge in 2003 we fished these waters for bronze whalers ( copper sharks or bronzies) as part of the tag and research project. In 2 days we managed to tag 216 bronzies between 20 anglers with a total fishing time of only 17 hours. That means a pickup on every cast! You will have to go a long way to beat that. Tackle in this conditions have to be heavy. I used a heavy 3 piece rod from WAFT rightly named the Shark with the heavy tip for extra pulling power.

Allthough I fished this area on numerous occasions I have never seen or caught any other fish apart from sharks and those big rays. I don’t think edibles swim these waters as they will surely be a on suicide mission with all the predators around. The sharks found here are mainly bronzies, hound sharks, spotted gully sharks and cow sharks.

Moving on, about 4 hours drive along the coast, we got to the town called Tombua. It is an old fishing village made up mainly of old fishing factories. The locals mainly fish for horse mackerel and use nets to catch a small type of eel which is sun dried for human consumption and sold locally. Fuel is available at Tombua, but not always.

Between Tombua and Namibia, the next town to the north, you will cross a dry river called the Flamingo. This river will eventually lead you to one of the best fishing camps on this entire coastline. The Flamingo River Camp offers a large variety of fish. Here you can really fish to your hearts content. Flamingo camp is a welcome site after a long drive and here you can swallow the dust down with a cold beer, have a hot water shower, a good meal, sleep on a bed for a change and start fishing at the crack of dawn.

Fishing at Flamingo is mainly done with light tackle ranging between 7 and 9 kilogram line. The species to target here are shad, garrick, kob, four different species of rock cod, black tail and the list continues. Like other parts along this coast, anything goes, from bait to spoons,  it doesn’t matter. Using spoons and spinners on light rods will get you into big shad and I mean big, shad ranging between 3 and 5 kilograms. We caught shad on Ashley Reed's, Tasmanian Devils as well as the white plugs mainly used for garrick.

Lots of articles have been written on this subject, so I will not go into too much detail on how to catch garrick in Angola. I will therefore only cover some of the basics. Use light tackle as it is by far a better fight. Garrick are clean fighters so I normally use the waft shad or garrick 3-piece rods with the light and medium tips. With these rods you can get a long casting distance but still have enough backbone for even the strongest garrick. I have spoken to guys who have landed garrick above 25 kilograms, so be warned. Make sure your tackle is in perfect condition and can take the punch. We caught a number of garrick on plugs, but like in other parts of the world, garrick prefer live bait.

Fishing can be done all along this stretch of this magnificent coastline and it offers an abundance of fish, not only in size, but also in numbers. The nice thing about Flamingo is that some of the cabins are built no more than 20 meters from the surf. This again is a case of fish as much as you like when you like.

After all the fun we had it was time to return home but this time the route to follow was through Namibia all the way to the pass at Lubango. On the GPS it showed a climb of 1620 meters to the top of the highlands which supply water to rivers like the Cuanz and the Congo. The scenery is spectacular with lots of vegetation all over.

I can recommend fishing these destinations as it is surely the LAST FRONTIER to most fisherman.

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