Last Friday Jannie Visser decided to put a new spin on an old spot. We’ve been contemplating targeting predators on the flats that we usually catch blacktail on, arguing that species like leervis, elf and kob should move onto the flat with the tide in pursuit of the large variety of baitfish that inhabit them. As high tide co-coincided with dusk, we planned on staying late.

We hit the water fairly late, which meant that we were limited to the area of the flat that is close inshore. We didn’t see any activity, so started casting blind. It wasn’t long before Jannie had a knock, and pretty soon I had a hookup, but dropped the fish straight away. Two casts later I was in again, fought the fish but dropped it at my feet. From the way it pulled i knew they had to be elf and not too big either. As the sun was setting Jannie managed to land a couple of elf.

We moved off to a section of beach with a pronounced trough / gutter just behind the shorebreak. I’ve been theorizing that this spesific area would be a good spot to target kob, so as darkness was falling I felt a quickening and started focusing and getting that kob mojo going.

Just after eight I had a proper take, and after the hook was set the line was flying out the stripping basket like nuclear spaghetti. The hookup must have been about 10 -15 meters behind the shorebreak. Some familiar head shakes and I knew it was a kob. Jannie came running down the beach, we were both stoked. After helping me tail the fish we took a few snaps before releasing it again. At 88cm my personal best kob. We fished for another hour or so, but unfortunately had no other inquiries.

Two aspects about kob was confirmed on this outing. Firstly, that they will feed right behind the shorebreak in low light and darkness, in fairly shallow water. Secondly, that kob have an uncanny ability of tracking flies in murky, churning water after dark. This kob took a size 2/0 olive over white silicone mullet.