Tourism

There is an interesting annual cycle at Jozini which influences the fishing greatly. In the summer, the Pongola River flows strongly, fed by rain falling on the eastern escarpment and the Highveld. Jozini Slowly fills up until October, when 15 – 20 percent of the water in the dam is released to flood the floodplains in the Makatini flats where local people rely upon the annual flood to fill the pans with water and fish and to irrigate their subsistence gardens and small farms. In some areas on the western shore, the dam water can recede by 300m and more.

From the end of October, the summer rains bring water down the Pongola River and the Jozini Dam fills up slowly, usually reaching levels of 100% by the end of February. All the vegetation which grows on the banks during the period where the dam levels are low is covered with water, feeding the dam and offering structure for small fish to hide, and also attracting tiger fish. The aquatic weeds begin to grow again and by the beginning of march, flooding weed beds appear in all the shallow areas of Jozini. From November to April the water is often dirty, especially in the north of the Jozini dam where the Pongola river flows into Jozini.

During the summer, the cleanest water can be found in the south of Jozini and in the gorge. When the summer rains end, the water slowly gets cleaner, so clean that you can often see the bottom 5 meters down.

During the winter, the aquatic plants can grow fast in the clean water, forming weed bed which are used by water birds, and tilapia, eaten by hippo and are favourite areas for fishermen hunting for tiger fish.