Fishing in Maun
North-West · Namib, Kalahari & Karoo · hardiness zone 10b
New here? Start with the fishing introNow
21°C · Clear
Today
33° / 18°
Sun
06:02 – 18:26
Moon
Waning Crescent · anglers' solunar: good
Weather read at 12:34 a.m..
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
In the water now · October
What's biting
The sport fish active near Maun, Botswana in October — where they hold, how to know one on the line, and the tactic that usually works. Check your licence and the current limits before you go.
FishSep–AprMozambique tilapia (blue kurper)
Oreochromis mossambicus
Deep-bodied and dull silvery-olive with a few dark blotches along the side and no regular stripes on the tail. Breeding males turn black with a white throat, red-edged fins and a pointed, duck-bill snout.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Wynand Uys · CC BY 4.0
FishSep–AprSharptooth catfish (barbel)
Clarias gariepinus
A long, eel-like body, a flat bony head, four pairs of whiskers, and one very long dorsal fin with no small fatty fin behind it. Dark grey to olive above, white below.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Lukas Zangl · CC BY 4.0
FishMar–May, Sep–NovSmallmouth yellowfish
Labeobarbus aeneus
A big, streamlined, bronze-gold barb with large scales, golden fins and a small mouth.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Brian du Preez · CC BY-SA 4.0
FishMar–OctGaljoen
Dichistius capensis
A deep, short, heavily scaled fish with thick lips and spiny fins; black among the rocks and silver-bronze over sand, changing colour almost instantly.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Shaun Swanepoel · CC BY 4.0
FishOct–AprLargemouth bass
Micropterus nigricans
Green with a dark lateral stripe, and an upper jaw that extends past the back of the eye.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Nick Tobler (Cowturtle) · CC BY 4.0
FishOct–AprCommon carp
Cyprinus carpio
Big bronze scales (or the scattered big scales of a mirror carp), a long dorsal fin, and two pairs of barbels at a rubbery, tube-like mouth.
Where and how to catch it →
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
Behind this week's fishing
The day, the ground and the sky over Maun
Warm water holds less oxygen. Fish the springs, the inflows and the deep water, and release quickly.
Overhead · Maun, Botswana
The sky over the water
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
12h 22m of light
Sunrise
06:03
Solar noon
12:14
Sunset
18:25
A month from now the day will be 0h 33m longer. Enough light for steady growth.
The moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · waning · day 26 of 29.5
- Next full
- Oct 26 · 20d
- Hunter's Moon
- Next new
- Oct 10 · 4d
- Darkest nights
Planting by the moon: Last quarter to new: a resting phase — weed, prune, harvest, turn compost and prepare beds.
Anglers' solunar rating: good — the tradition says fish feed hardest in the days either side of new and full, and around moonrise and moonset. The evidence is mixed; light and weather matter more.
Turn of the season
Summer solstice
Dec 21 · 76 days away
About 260 days to the average first frost (Jun 24).
Next moons
- New MoonOct 10
- First QuarterOct 18
- Full Moon · Hunter's MoonOct 26
- Last QuarterNov 1
Right now · Maun, Botswana
Forces at work
Nothing here is a guess. Each of these is read from this week's forecast and this location's climate record, and each one is pushing the season one way or the other.
- Worth watching
The moon
Waning Crescent · 15%
Waning, 26 days old. Full moon in 19 days. Anglers' solunar rating: good (a tradition).
It moves water — in the sea, in a lake's edge, and, by long tradition, in the sap of a plant. Fish feed hardest on the days around new and full.
- Worth watching
Wind
7 km/h now · 23 peak
Calm. Good for spraying, for transplanting, and for spotting a rise on flat water — but calm bright days push fish deep.
It pollinates corn and grasses, dries soil, breaks stems — and it decides where the bait, and therefore the fish, end up.
- Holding things back
Rain
0.0 mm / 7 days
Only 0.0 mm over seven days. A garden wants roughly 25 mm a week — water deeply twice rather than lightly every day.
Sets the pace for everything: germination, fungal fruiting, slug nights, and how a river runs for the next three days.
- Working for you
Soil warmth
27.5 °C
Warm enough for beans, corn, squash, cucumber and transplanted tomato and pepper. Roots run hard at this temperature.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
- Working for you
Day length
12h 22m
Gaining about 1 minutes of daylight a day. Every extra minute is growth you don't have to pay for.
The one thing weather can't change. Plants count photoperiod to decide when to bolt, bulb, flower and go dormant.
- Quiet right now
Frost
345 frost-free days
Typically Jul 14 to Jun 24 here. Coldest night in the next week: 18.1 °C.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
Read and watch with your kids
All the books and videos for Maun →Stories about where you live
The fishing note for Maun, every week
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