Water holes in africa
International
The last few years I have hunted in Africa in July and water holes were very slow, I hunted dark moon and everything. Am I hunting the right month. Yes I have shot some really nice animals but some days only one or two animals at water per day
The last time I was there in July we had very good action at water holes. We didn’t hunt over water the entire time but when we did it pretty steady.
I would say you have been hunting with the wrong outfitter . with that being said August might be better. I hunted in June in Namibia and killed 17 animals in 12 days and passed on many. Forrest
This has been my hunting experiences of in South Africa & central Namibia.
June- An "iffy" month with possible rainy days or windy days, but can offer some good hunting. Waterholes can be iffy. The month of May can be a moist and leave water potholes which will render waterholes needless for game to get water. Animals not been heavily hunted and are therefore,not as skittish.
July- The coldest month and relative stable weather. Good hunting
August- Normally fairly stable weather. However, in August 2017, there was unusual snow in Capetown/Tip region and the cold winds blew north to the northern part of RSA. The weather was extremely cold and windy which really slowed waterhole traffic down. After cold snap, it was still windy, animals were responsive but were slower to move to waterholes than normal. September- Normally pretty good weather with some signs of spring greening. It's warm so animals will respond to waterholes.
Five days prior and five days post new moon is the optimum time for waterhole hunting.
I hunted Zimbabwe once and SA twice, all in very late July. These hunts were by waterholes and some were also baited. I had one day out of roughly 20 days that was slow. That day I had maybe 10 animals come in. All the other days it was many species and dozens of animals. Rarely would I sit an hour and not see animals.
I had a similar experience this June. I hunted 12 days smack in the middle of June. My schedule really doesn’t allow July or August, so I do what I can do.
The bush was still kinda green, and I’m suspect there was still some water in spots in there too. We also had hateful wind conditions. Light and variable for 2/3 of the trip, just couldn’t catch any breaks with the wind. I still did pretty well, 12 days of hunting shot 12 respectable critters. Passed on 1-2 earlier in the hunt I probably would have shot later in the trip, but oh well. Really didn’t have the volume of animals coming in as I have experienced in the past. I felt it was more timing and poor wind conditions than anything else.
—jim
Did you try walk and stalk? If they are not coming to you go to them.
I think I'm chalking it up to bad luck, we had a tremendous hunt six of us shot 29 animals in 6 day, I was a bout the only one with not much action, I actually killed the only two animals I could have. A huge sable and nice bushbuck, I sat waterhikes other sat and had action and also moved to many areas, I don't spot and stalk this year mainly because. I sat waterhole where other guys in my group had sat and saw my target animals, so I just hoped they would show and in the end they didn't
But there is feed put out at the water too often times right?
Sometimes, sometimes not. More often I have seen mineral licks than actual feed. And really the water is the big draw. There is lots of stuff out in the bush to eat, but only limited places to drink.
—jim
