The Catfish Joe’s Wilderness Raft or Float Fly Fishing Experience

Catfish Joe's Fly fishing South Africa is the oldest and specialized calm water raft fly fishing for yellowfish and monster catfish and low intensity adventure rafting company On the lower Orange river in South Africa in the same area as the annual Kalahari Augrabies extreme marathon. We were the first to design rafts based on the Alaskan raft fishing methods and operate mainly on the Lower Orange river and other concessions in private areas in Southern Africa. Most river rafting companies with small rafts normally doing white water advertise fishing as activity but don’t be fooled if you are a serious fly fisherman into these low budgets, paddling experiences that are very nice but not for the discerning fly fishermen. We believe this is an exclusive experience as it is nicely balanced between safety, infrastructure and remoteness and wilderness. It is definitely one of the more scenic habitats hugging a river one can find anywhere on the planet. In South Africa it cannot easily be beaten. Catfish Joe's Wilderness Adventures is your gateway to this beautiful and pristine wilderness area. For over 15  years we have been leaders in  specialized Wilderness raft fly fishing Adventures on the lower orange river and surrounding Kalahari and Namaqualand scenery. Joe Lategan felt the draw of this beautiful and safe area years ago on his quest to hunt for monster fish in Southern Africa’s wilderness areas. It is a fact that the more remote a river is the more wild it is including the numbers and sizes of fish. This area is steeped in history and lore from Koi, Hottentots, Boers, Missionaries, adventure seekers, outlaws and poachers to recent stories told around the campfire. The area of the Orange River we operate in has been selected for many reasons but the most important were that we didn’t want to do white water rafting but wanted to cater for the more mature client and also to allow for the older person that need to explore parts of the country they will never be able to with other means as no roads give access to he sections of the river we operate in. The rapids are thus fun to glide over as they normally are the productive zones for yellowfish on fly. The Orange River obviously has areas that are great for white water rafting along its course but we leave this for the people that specialize in this adventure activity. We rather take our time to marvel at beautiful rock formations and narrow canyons edged by towering cliffs, or to stop for the bird watchers or Kudu or Leopard along the river. Along our tranquil 60 km river adventures we will allow you to see some of the great biodiversities along the Lower Orange river.

A few typical examples of the logistics of Catfish Joe's Fly fishing South Africa wilderness raft trips would be:

1. You can fly to Upington airport where you can be picked up or chartered with a chopper to our operating area or lodge or you can fly to private landing strips at our 5 star lodges in the desert. You can drive in as part of your larger tour or overland experience.

2. The first night on arrival you can stay in a luxury lodge and get transported to the river the following morning where food and beverages are packed on the rafts and you can fish the whole day. You can decide to camp one night in the wilderness along the river or travel through on the rafts to the next lodge and sleep both evenings in comfort. The following day you can again travel down river to the last lodge along the river. This can be extended to as many camping/lodging as you desire.

In summary you choose to either make use of the lodges as basis while fishing various spots or travel down river where you can camp next to the river or sleep in the following lodge down river.

3. Make your fly fishing or rafting trip part of our world renowned best of both world trips. This includes visiting the Kgalagadi National park and Namaqualand, the world greatest flower spectacle.

4. We also have various 4x4 routes along or as part of the wilderness rafting experience.

5. You can thus combine 4x4, trial running and mountain biking fly fishing, photography, white water, game viewing and many more adventure activities all at once.

6. We do exploration trips on request that could and normally would be different than the products listed above.  These are normally to more remote areas with the objective of discovering new fishing areas or to specially selected or sensitive areas.