by dahlberg » Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:59 am
yes, I've caught lots of them on flies. In fact the first time I fished for them I caught one that exceeded the existing world record by about 300%!
The secret to my success was to totally ignore everything that had been written about how to catch them on flies, all of which suggested ungainly, hard to cast, designs involving multiple hooks.
I had my best success with a Dahlberg diver tied on 2/0-4/0 gamakatsu and owner hooks because of their superior stiffness and built in sharpness.
I used a color with primarily pearl flashabou, white marabou, and grizzley hackle strips in the tail and a white deer hair diving head. I fished it on a sinking line with a 10 weight. steady, fast to med fast retrieves, with a pause and some erratic twitches and pulls when the fly swings downstream below the boat.
Look up Chiawa Camp. It's run by grant Cummings. their main office is in Lusaka.
best
L
Larry Dahlberg
The Hunt For Big Fish