Africa - the motherland as it's called by many. Early on I learned that in Africa live some of the biggest animals on this planet and yet Africa might not be THE first coming to mind when talking about fishing spots.
Sure, the enthusiastic travel angler surely has heard/read before about one of many different and wild fishing opportunities that Africa offers if you know how to get there.
Years ago I came across some pictures of huge +15lbs Largemouth Bass that were caught in Zimbabwe and Botswana which of course made me jump into research immediately.
I figured out that nowadays, like everywhere else, bassfishing there isn't as easy as it used to be and you have to know exactly where to go. The places I found target wealthy clients from abroad so I quickly realised that it isn't really in my budget. Plus stories from civil wars and corruption in recent years made me put these destinations on hold for one day when I hopefully will be seriously able to afford such a trip.
Years went past until more recently I came across a spot I hadn't heard before yet - Lake Naivasha in Kenya.
Looking deeper into this, I came across a guy named Aaron, a German guy who specialised in wild Safari-Tours in the National Parks and somehow got one of the only running bass boats on this lake.
After a bit of chatting, my friends from fishbreak.ch asked me to join them on their trip as they wanted to check out the location as a possible destination for their travel program. So a few months later I was actually heading out towards Africa for the first time (beside one horrible tourist trap weekend trip to Morocco once).
The fish from the lake I had seen before looked like clean and healthy 3-5lbers but no real giants among them. "They just don't know how to catch the big ones" I thought for myself as I would have any idea at all...
After a couple days exploring the Flora and Fauna of Kenya, which is definitely worth a visit if you are into such trips, we finally arrived on the lake. We set up camp on the official campsite directly at the lake next to Hell's Gate National Park.
Cozy cabins to sleep and a decent restaurant on site, way more luxus than necessary for my needs but no reason to complain as it was the perfect setup to explore a new lake in a completely new culture for me.
Lake Naivasha, from what I understood, is a volcanic crater so the lake is basically one huge bowl with shallow zones around the shore line and gets deeper the towards the centre.
There are shallow zones full of trees and water waterplants which make for great fishing spots. The main problem here is that these zones are full of so called "ghost nets" - lost nets from commercial fishing which got stuck in the structure on the bottom and make for perfect lure death traps. There is one island in the lake which consists of huge boulders which makes an awesome fishing spot. There's only one problem with it, the island is private property of some some rich prick who built a huge villa on it, so far no problem but he thinks the lake around it belongs to him as well and hired private security which chase away everyone that comes too close to the island. Fishing there lasted around half an hour for us before we were kindly asked to leave immediately with machine-guns pointed at us...
But the main danger on this lake aren't rich idiots nor corrupt lake police, it's the countless Hippos which hang around everywhere along the shallow waters and get aggressive quickly if you get too close, especially if they are with babies. These huge animals would have no problem ramming and flipping over a full-size bass boat and once one fall in the water there's countless stories of people who got bitten in half and then left to die. I've done risky actions before just to maybe get a fish but I wouldn't risk getting killed by a Hippo just because I wanted to break off another lure right where some Hippos decided to chill and even the locals seemed to be rather careful around these giants.
So if you ever get to fish around Hippos, be prepared to leave spots immediately if these animals show up too close from your boat.
On the bright side, as mentioned before, the lake is part of a National Park full of the famous Africa animals so even if you don't catch a fish you will see a bunch of animals all day long. From Zebras to Impalas as well as various other types of these Savannah deers and with a bit of luck even some giraffes might show up. Basically like fishing in a zoo but you are in their territory so remember that you are just a visiting guest and to respect the environment.
So let's get to the really important part, the fishing.
If I remember correctly we had five days on the lake, one boat and four anglers plus our guide Aaron so yeah, even without a PHD in mathematics you might understand that it got crowded on the boat, too crowded for my taste but there was not much we could do. We tried split up and fishing from a second, small motorboat steered by a local guy who tried his best but against the strong winds navigating with a paddle wasn't it. So we gave that up after two days and just made the best out of what we had and that was one decent bass boat for five guys who wanted to fish.
There's three main fish in the lake - Tilapias which are popular food for the locals and probably for the Bass too, some slimy sort of Claria catfish and my reason for this adventure - the Largemouth Bass.
There are documented Bass caught in the 90s which weighted 12-13lbs but in recent years sport fishing on the lake mostly got forgotten and so there's not many newer, reliable fishing reports available.
We caught most of our fish on Texas-rigged softball craws with the average fish ranging around 2-3lbs with few fish coming in at 5-6lbs. Not what I really hoped plus I mostly ended up with the smaller specimens while my friends got the bigger ones. I honestly got a bit frustrated by the whole situation which ended up fighting myself in my head. In the end there's always a bit of luck involved in fishing and I should know better than getting pissed if I catch a 1lb Bass while the other guy catches the 5lber fishing the exact same lure as me which I gave him. I kept to myself because if there is one thing I never want to do is ruin a fishing trip for anybody just because I'm not happy with myself or the fish I catch or not.
I tried my best to appear happy and friendly during it all but being that tight with space, not being able to fish freely how I like it and not catching what I hoped for posed a big mental challenge for me. At the same time I knew exactly how stupid that is to be grumpy while having the privilege to fish in such an unique environment. That's the problem of me taking the whole fishing passion too seriously, I just want to fish and I want to fish my best out of every opportunity I get.
Ridicoulus regarding the fact that I don't even make any money out of it and probably never will... I'm fine with that but then at least I shouldn't spend the time on the water sulking like a kid that didn't get what he wanted after throwing all my savings and salary into another fishing trip.
Well that's me, if I go fishing and I want to fish, I don't come to relax. I quickly realised to keep that side of my mind to myself because the worst I can imagine is to spoil someone else's trip with my f'ed up mindset. While I'm on the water to chase delusional dreams of gigantic fish, to most people such a trip is a well earned vacation to enjoy themselves and catch some fish. Which how it should be but for my part, even if I pay everything myself I still always have that feeling in myself that I don't deserve these trips...
Anyway, back to fishing. Despite me not being too happy with myself I still appreciate the whole adventure, to see something completely new and in the end I found a couple decent fish myself including my first Tilapia and apparently the biggest Tilapia the local fishermen there have ever seen. At least they were all hyped up when we showed it to them.
The most memorable moment for me of this trip was once again a fish that got away. One afternoon we came across some stumps that screamed fishing hotspot. I worked my spinnerbait around the cover and a few casts in there's some movement on the surface and right t in front of the boat an enormous mouth appears and inhales my spinnerbait as a whole. I set the hook but since this huge Bass ate the whole spinnerbait the hook didn't stuck and I pulled it out its mouth just for the fish to inhale it again and me pulling it out of its closed mouth again before disappearing back to where it came from. I haven't seen too many Bass this size besides that one time I caught a 10lber over 10 years ago in San Diego so I couldn't give a plausible estimate on the size of the fish but this has been one of the biggest Largemouth Bass I've ever seen in my life so far.
So to conclude this fishing report about Lake Naivasha I would say the giants are still there but they won't jump into the boat just like that. The lake itself and the surrounding are stunning and offer a lot more than just fishing. I even would say the fishing there isn't the main reason you want to visit this place but it offers a great opportunity for a interesting vacation with your significant other or even the whole family - for example you could do a several day safari trip with one or several days of fishing mixed in.
What I recommend is to get help organising the trip from someone who knows the country and the people. Regarding the fishing, you will need a boat as fishing from shore is too dangerous as there are Hippos and other wild animals all over the place.
If you are interested Aaron from detours.net can help you out as he did for us.
As for me, I didn't catch what I hoped for (but when did that ever happen...) but at least at one moment I was very close and I definitely would like a rematch on this lake anytime soon if my financial means and schedule would allow it.
Looking back it was a stunning experience which made for great memories and life lessons for myself to become a better fishing partner who people enjoy fishing with.
Thanks for reading!
Peace&Love
Joel