Lake Nasser, Egypt

Most anglers who visit Lake Nasser for the first time will catch the largest fresh water fish of their life; practically everyone achieves this goal and has an angling adventure they will never forget. Lake Nasser is the greatest venue in the world for Nile Perch, which only exist naturally in the African river systems and lakes. By comparison with other lakes in Africa Lake Nasser is remote and sparsely populated, this isolation has allowed the lake to maintain an excellent number of big Nile perch. While your lure is in the water you literally don’t know if the next fish is going to be a 20kg or over 100 kg pharaonic fish.

In the 1960’s a dam was built on the Nile at Aswan (South Egypt, Upper Nile) the resulting Lake Nasser has flooded over 6,200 square kilometres of the Nile Valley, creating one of the largest man made lakes in Africa. The fish population of the original river was presented with a huge lake to live in and have thrived in their new habitat, especially the Tilapia and their predators, Nile perch, Tiger fish and the big catfish. We count around 32 species in the lake. Broadly speaking the year is divided into two season summer and winter (northern hemisphere).

Summer Season – from March to end of September. From approximately mid March through to the end of September the Nile perch are found in shallow water. This is because the Tilapia, the Nile perch’s principal prey, are spawning and then after spawning the huge population of Tilapia fry are growing up; all this takes place in water between 10 to 20 feet. This is the best time of the year for shore fishing and fly-fishing. Trolling provides good sport using shallower lures. There are still a lot of big Nile Perch around but they tend to be less concentrated than during the winter season. August and September are very hot on Lake

Nasser Winter season – from October until end of February. The Lake is at its highest level and the Nile perch are found in deeper water. We feel that the bigger Nile perch are feeding up and then coming together to get ready for spawning which takes place sometime in January / February. Year after year we capture bigger fish during this season and almost all these fish are caught trolling over underwater promontories and sunken islands. The winter months are not the best time for shore fishing. Also, fly-fishing is difficult because it is harder to get down to the fish lying in deeper water and there are often windy conditions. If you want to capture the big fish then the winter season is your best bet. The summer season will provide you with more action and fun but the average size of the fish captured tends to be smaller. When referring to smaller Nile perch we are talking about fish between 15 and 35 kg while the bigger Nile perch can grow up to 100 kg+.

Aside from terrific angling, the lake is a lovely place to visit. It’s a magical wilderness of stunning desert scenery, bordered by the clean and pure water of the lake, which is dotted with rocky islands; there is an atmosphere of tranquillity, vastness and adventure; a wilderness where anglers literally have hundreds of square kilometres for themselves. The shoreline is a variety of desert landscapes, hilly and rugged, or flat and sandy with clean freshwater beaches. The weather is nearly always sunny and bright, in five years we have never needed to take shelter from any rain! The lake is remote and thinly populated by peasant fishermen; the local residents are Bedouin camel and sheep herdsmen who are occasionally seen grazing their flocks on the sparse vegetation at the edge of the lake.