I have been tagging fish for ORI (the Oceanic Research Institute of South Africa) since 2008. During this time I had one of my tagged fish recaptured (and killed, a galjoen tagged at Blombos and killed at Jongensfontein).
Recently I had the privilege of catching a kob tagged by someone else. Since it was dark I had difficulty reading the number on the tag (it was overgrown with weed). Luckily I remembered that there are two number on each tag, one at the bottom and on on top. So after nipping of the top cm of the tag and a few pics, the fish was released again (with the bottom number still intact).
The fish was free for 1025 days and was re-captured 57km from where it was originally tagged. It measured 446mm when it was tagged and grew 214mm until I re-captured it at 660mm.
It was tagged by the Department of Enviromental Affairs (Oceans and Coasts) at Koppie Alleen in the De Hoop nature reserve and I caught it again in the surf at Struisbaai.
It took a silicone mullet on an intermediate line.
Sad to see that the fish didn’t make it back.
Yes, it’s a pity. Kob hardly ever gets released due to being rated as a table fish. It’s a mentality that will have to change.
Fantastic! (Except the fact that it didn’t survive.)
Conrad,I am very keen on trying for Cob when next I visit our holiday home at Cape st Francis as I believe there are a few spots this can be done do you fish mostly with an intermediate and short leader in the surf and is your favorite color still olive over white?
Hi Marius
I mostly fish with an intermediate line, especially when fishing off the rocks. When fishing the surf from the beach (no rocks) I often swith to a sinking line to get the fly down, especially if there is a current running.
I prefer olive over white, but also use a range of other natural colours such as tan, grey and brown. Colour is not that important, I recommend you fish a colour that you have confidence in.
Interesting info. And with my basic calculations – if the tag return details were correct – is that the fish can grow about 30cm per year(given that it was still a young fish) and also that it remained in the same area it was tagged in. So it seems that Kob are relatively fast growing, contrarily to what I thought… But not at the rate of dorado at 100cm pa…
Pity it did not swim away again though. Tight lines!
That is weird to have grown so little. Maybe your measuring tape is stretched or the second guy who caught it has a measuring tape that shrunk 😉 .
What was it’s length when you tagged it Conna? More details?