Four Go Mad Adventures

It was the late 1990’s when I first watched John Wilson’s (JW) “Go Fishing Special” on Lake Nasser. My interest in lure fishing was starting to rise, as an alternative to the carp fishing that had been the focus of my angling for the last 20 years.

“The African Angler“, run by the late Tim Bailey, were the premier guiding company on the lake at the time. I messaged Tim in 2000, and secured a trip for myself and 3 friends for November of the following year.

I knew a group of anglers who had recently fished Lake Nasser. I met up with a friend who was on that trip. I attempted to glean as much details as possible on tackle and tactics. Their weeks fishing had been a great success, with many Nile Perch landed to 95lb. Fish were caught trolling or casting from the shore of the many small islands on the lake. For trolling, deep diving lures that can reach 30ft+, were recommended. Luckily my friend advised he was selling his collection of deep diving lures, so I gladly parted with my cash, to get my Nasser tackle collection started.

I also remember having long conversations with Sue Harris at Harris Angling Company before our trip. Sue stressed upgrading split rings and hooks on all our lures, for the big perch. I went for the super strong and sharp Owner Stinger trebles (they never let me down).

Our trip to Egypt nearly failed before it has started. The September 2001 “9/11” attacks in the US , had brought heightened tensions in the middle east, including Egypt. Security at the airports had been stepped up, and the Egyptian Government, had passed a law, that foreign travellers required armed security.

I remember the uncertainty around London at the time, and my work colleagues saying I was mad to be travelling to Egypt. My opinion was that the remoteness of Lake Nasser, meant it was probably one of the safer places on the planet at the time.

Glad to say the trip went ahead, and we flew to Luxor and had an overnight stay there. In the morning we took a short flight to Aswan, where we met Tim and an armed guard !

From Aswan we were driven a few hours to the old fishing port of Graf Hussein, where our trip was to begin. We had booked the 7 Day “Lake Nasser Fishing Safari“. It would be a circular journey around the middle parts of the lake, visiting regions know to hold fish. Each day we would be fishing new areas, and returning to the mothership each day for meals/showers etc.

It was late afternoon, before we set off from the port, heading East across the lake. It’s worth noting at this stage, that Lake Nasser is over 300 miles long and up to 20 miles wide (that’s over 1 million acres). The lake is the result of damming the River Nile at Aswan for hydroelectricity, in the late 1960’s. This resulted in flooding the area known as Nubia, that incorporating Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan to form the lake.

As we set sail, we were introduced to our guides. Steve and I were paired up with Yousef. John and Ian were allocated Ramadan as their guide.

First job for the guides was to inspect all our tackle and lures, to make sure they were up to the job. Most the lures passed, but some had their trebles and split rings upgraded. 100lb nylon leaders were tied to our braid mainlines.

For trolling I used a Diawa Powerlift uptide 20lb class rod. This was coupled with a Shimano TLD15 with 50lb PowerPro braid. For casting I used a 12lb class Diawa rod, with a fixed spool reel and same 50lb braid.

After a few hours sailing down the lake, we anchored in a sandy bay. We then spent the late afternoon and early evening trolling around some of the nearby islands. We all landed our first nile perch, nothing big, but all happy with a few low doubles. Then back to the mothership for evening meal and drinks.

The routine was, up at first light for breakfast, then a mornings fishing with the guides. The mothership would be moving down the lake at this point. Then meet for lunch, followed by fishing the afternoon and early evening, after which we would again meet up with the mothership, further down the lake for dinner.

We slept on our fishing boats or on the shore. Under most rocks you could find scorpions, so we tended to sleep on the boats. The sight of the odd Nile crocodile also influenced our sleeping arrangements.

The days passed quickly, but one thing was quickly established. John and Ian were consistently catching quality fish, whilst Steve and I had limited success. 4 days into the trip and Ian and John had had fish to mid-70 pounds, whilst we had only had one fish over 40lbs. We discussed this in the evenings, to try and work out what we were doing differently. We deduced that Ramadan looked for areas up to 20m deep, where you could worked deep divers like Bucher Depth Raiders. He used the fish finder a lot to look for underwater features where the big perch would wait in ambush. He also fished shallower areas, near islands and rock walls, suggesting shallow divers like Rapala Super Shads.

Yousef on the other hand seemed to spend a lot of time over much deeper water (30m+) which for us proved unproductive. I do have a golden rule when fishing overseas, and that is “always trust in the guides and their local knowledge“. By the end of the week, my trust was waning as John and Ian came back from each session, with tales of epic battles, whilst Steve and I suffered a series of blanks. John and Ian gave us the lures they had most success on, but this made little difference. I spoke to Yousef about fishing shallower water. That is when I discovered he had recently landed a 200lb+ Nile perch in the deeper water. He seemed determined to continue his quest for another beast.

On the last day, John landed the 1st “buffalo” of the trip (the guides refer to Nile perch over 100lb’s as “Buffalo’s“). A huge perch of 104lbs. Luckily we had small hand held radio’s, so we were called over to witness the amazing fish being released.

At the end of the week, John and Ian had landed a string of big perch, with many in the 50-70lb range. Steve and I only managed fish to just over 40lb. I was a little frustrated, but despite the relative lack of success, just loved the whole Lake Nasser Safari experience. Sleeping under the amazing stars at night and seeing the lake wildlife was such a thrill. When the week came to end, I knew I had unfinished business on the lake. All 4 of us were keen to for another adventure, so within a week of returning to the UK, we had all re-booked for the following year.

With more tackle updates, lots of money spent on new flashy lures and the latest braids, the next trip was booked for early November 2002.

As part of my booking with Tim Bailey, I had made a stipulation that I wanted the guide called Mohammed, for Steve and I. He was the same guide that JW had used on all his trips. John and Ian had understandably asked for Ramadan again, and am glad to say we both got our chosen guides.

For our second safari we boarded our boats close to Aswan Dam, so initially fished some of the more northerly areas of the lake.

The difference in our guide was evident from our first session. We fishing relatively shallow water with Rapala Super Shads, and landed multiple perch in the 10 – 20lb mark. Not monsters, but a great start. We could sense the calm confidence in Mohammed, especially when he described all the areas we would be fishing that week. One thing he repeatedly said, was wait until Thursday, when we would be fishing an area he referred to as “Buffalo Bay“. When pressed, he said this was a shallow plateau, with many islands, and an area with a high concentration of very large perch.

My favourite part of fishing Lake Nasser was always the lure fishing from the islands or shore line. Our guides would simply drop us off at a remote island in the middle of the lake, and advise us to move quietly around, casting down the steep drop offs. My lure of choice here was always the rubber Musky Innovation “Spring Bull Dawg” (the smaller version of the then popular Bull Dawg). These could be cast to the drop offs and allowed to simply sink. The wiggling action on the rubber tails, as the lure sunk, would often bring a quick response. The perch would hide in the ledges and underwater caves, waiting for baitfish to swim by. If the lure didn’t get taken on the way down (they often did), a slow retrieve up the wall, often resulted in a violent take.

Steve managed a 60lb+ perch on the second day from the shore, and I had many perch in the 10-30lb bracket. These provide fantastic sport, especially with the aerobatics displays hooked perch put on. I had one memorable take, when I cast close to a wall with a deep vertical drop off. The lure hit the water less than 10 meters from the shore and started to sink. With my bail arm open I suddenly realised the line was ripping off the spool at an ever increasing rate. I then looked up to see a large perch clear the water 50 meters, out shaking his head. My lure could be seen hanging out of his mouth. This fish was landed, and at the guides request, was kept for eating that evening.

As well as lure fishing for the perch, we also had our usual “Golden Maggot” competition. In this each pair of anglers had to catch as many different species as possible. Each new fish species counted as a point, and the biggest of each species gained a bonus point. Tricks and foul play were encouraged.

For our part, Steve and I managed to bring a pot of lobworms from the UK, and a couple of tins of luncheon meat. This resulted in a large number of different catfish species, including an electric catfish. I also landed my first ever Vundu Catfish on the luncheon meat. Steve, used his fly rod, as well as small Mepps lures to catch Tiger and Puffer fish.

We all caught plenty of tiger fish to low doubles whilst trolling for the perch. These mainly came in the shallower water, with Fire Tiger Super Shad lure attracting multiple hits.

The majority of the larger perch we landed were on Bucher Depth Raider lures, trolled behind the boat. These lures are able to get down to around 30ft deep. The jointed version of this lure was particularly effective. Trolling is not my favourite form of fishing, but by the time Thursday arrived, we were all pumped. We had had some great fishing with fish up to 70b. Mohammed had said we could only fish “Buffalo Bay” for one day, as the team were keen to not overfish it. Our attempts at bribery for an extra day were unsuccessful.

The morning’s fishing was unbelievable . Steve landed his 1st Buffalo, a fish of 110lb on a Russell Lure. The silver Russell lure had been spray painted black, as we had been advised the previous year, that the perch were getting wary of shinny lures.

Steve quickly followed this up with a 95lb fish on a Depth Raider. I had my biggest perch so far, at 70lbs, on a jointed Depth Raider.

Ian then hooked a fish which we all watched him play. We even have some video when the fish first hit the surface. It looked huge (150lb+) , but just as we thought it was beaten, it manage one final surge for the bottom and cut him off on a rock. He looked devastated, but this was not to last long. Ramadan turned the boat around to troll over the same feature and on that next pass, successfully landed his first buffalo, a huge perch of 135lb.

The sun was starting to set, and despite my lack of a “Buffalo”, I was more than satisfied with the trip. Mohmmed advised we had time for one more troll. He looked at my lures hanging on the side of the boat, and pointed at the Red Head Depth Raider. “Put this on” he said, “Good for low light“. He spun the boat round for a final run over the feature that had produced Steve’s fish earlier in the day.

As we approached a rising plateau he said, “Be ready“. At that point my rod simply bent round. “Rock” I said, as my rod continued to bend with no tell-tale taps. “Fish or Bottom ?” he asked. Both Steve and I looked at my rod tip and replied “Bottom“. Then as they often say, the bottom moved !

Mohammed said “Not bottom, big fish“.

Let’s just say my arse went at that point, and my legs started to go weak as I felt the first head shakes down the braid. The rod tip tapped a few times, then the reel screamed. Steve grabbed the video camera and pressed record. It was an epic battle. The fish made a series of long runs and each time rose to the surface of the water, with big head shakes. It launched itself out the water near the boat and Mohammed screamed “Down the rod“. I dropped the rod to reduce the chance of a hook pull or the line breaking.

When my experienced guide says “that’s a big fish“, I started praying, despite not having a religious bone in my body.

Ramadan had seen the commotion and started circling our boat, with John and Ian shouting words of encouragement; “Don’t lose it you noddy ! “.

The fish was eventually beaten, and as it approached the boat I could see the size of it. Mohammed used a chin gaff to secure it and bring it onto the boat. The fish was quickly weighed and I had well and truly landed my Buffalo with a fish of 155lb.

We slowly held the fish behind the moving boat, to get it fully recovered before releasing it. Two years of planning and I had finally landed my dream fish. 25 years on, this still ranks as the best fish I have been fortunate enough to land.

A “grainy” video (VHS days remember) can be seen by clicking the following link:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4WJ5MZHV7E&list=PLkRu0Xt8-YaiMZsnSGE3nXJbgliTp5-L9&index=3&t=2071s

Postscript

There is however, a sad epitaph to this story. A good friend of mine was keen to do a Lake Nasser Safari with John and I. But it wasn’t until 2008 that the trip was organised. I had spoken to my long time River Ebro guide Gary Allen many times over the following years about Lake Nasser, and Gary was good friends with JW. Gary had repeatedly told me that JW had seen a massive decline in the fishing on Nasser over recent years. This was largely brought about by commercial long line fishing and the use of “factory style” ice boats on the lake. This has brought an industrialisation to the previous subsistence based fishing by the locals.

Our trip in 2008 confirmed the decline. We were lucky to fish with Ramadan again, but even he admitted the chances of a buffalo were low. We encountered so many long lines and nets on that trip. We still caught plenty of fish, but all small, the average size around 10lb, and the biggest just over 30lbs. Another clear example of how quickly fisheries can decline, even lakes the size of Nasser. A sad end to magical place.