General description and habitat:
This typical catfish looking fish can reach a mass of over 30kg’s. It is largely responsible for the excellent tiger fishing on the Okavango and certain sections of the upper Zambezi when it forms roving shoals disseminating baitfish hiding in river side vegetation. These feeding frenzies attract tigerfish in good numbers which can then be targeted by fly fishermen. It favors flood plains and is omnivorous. It will prey, scavenge or grub on almost any organic food sources including fish, frogs, small mammals, reptiles, insects and even plant matter.

Angling Tackle and Tactics:

Fly:
It is best targeted during the annual catfish runs on the Okavango and Upper Zambezi Rivers. Here sight fishing to feeding fish is the most productive method. Fishing blind, and on the bottom, using large bulky flies with lots of inherent movement, in slack back waters will also produce strikes. Although this is not a sought-after target species, they grow to impressive size and prove great sport for fly tackle. Catfish makes up the third, albeit least glamorous, species of a Zambezi Grand Slam.

Nine weight rods, matched with a good quality large arbor direct drive reel holding at least 150m of 30lb backing is essential. Leader set up is simple, and a standard tiger set up of 6ft of 20lb monofilament will do fine. If your aim is to target big catfish only, we will suggest beefing up to a 30 – 40lb leader as once hooked these big fish head straight to structure and one needs to stop them before then get too far!

Standard tiger flies work well, but flies that push a lot of water such as rabbit zonker bait fish patterns and whistlers in dark and natural colours work best. Flies are fished slower when targeting sharptooth catfish.

For details on the areas Tourette Fishing targets sharp tooth catfish, go to the following pages:

• Upper Zambezi Island Tiger Safari
• Okavango Catfish Run Tiger Safari

Conventional:
Standard bass tackle with a selection of jigs and grubs that can be fished weedless will be most productive. Drifted live and dead baits fished on circle hooks are also productive. For full details on conventional tackle requirements send an email to enquiries@tourettefishing.com requesting such information.