Fishing the Niger River - yeah, the one in West Africa

[Luke Moon]

I am heading to Mali this weekend and my friend told me to bring my fishing gear, "cause there are tons of fish." Anyone here have any recommendations for flies. I plan to bring the usual stuff we use around here.

[Danny Barrett]

dont forget your camera.

Thanks,

Dan Barrett

 

MSA Fall Protection CoOp 

1100 Cranberry Woods Drive, 

Cranberry TWP, PA

3610 Dawson Ave

Pittsburgh, PA

 

dannyt...@gmail.com

(540)-222-8064

On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 9:21 PM, Luke Moon <lwm...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am heading to Mali this weekend and my friend told me to bring my fishing gear, "cause there are tons of fish." Anyone here have any recommendations for flies. I plan to bring the usual stuff we use around here.

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[Matthew Longley]

As absurd as this recommendation sounds, I would check out old episodes of "River Monsters" to see if he ever fished the Niger.  At least you can get an idea of what kind of species are there and what they eat.

Oh, and to second Danny, I definitely want to see pictures of this...

[Lane Smith]

The most important thing about fishing in Africa is accessibility. Unless you are willing to spend a ridiculous amount of time getting to some pristine quiet estuary you will more or less confined to main rivers. These are uniformly huge and the water clarity is nil. That said, you are better off bait fishing. That was my experience in fishing in Tanzania and Kenya. The exception to the previous statement was high elevation fishing in Kenya which was extraordinary and much more like fishing in Colorado.
In the main rivers you can expect a large variety of catfish more than anything else. Then there are of course fish the likes of which we have no equivalent stateside. The biodiversity is extraordinary though. You never know what you might get.

Lane

[Luke Moon]

My first day in Mali. For $1.00 I hired an couple of kids and a dugout canoe to take me to a fishing spot.  The bigger fish are probably in the deeper channels of the river, but the river was moving pretty fast and I was afraid we might either end up in the river or aimlessly floating to Timbuktu....which is 3 days down stream.  My wife calls this size fish, cracker fish.  I call them bait. 

Hopefully, I will get a chance to go again.  If I catch something bigger, I will post it here.

-Luke