Blind River Kob and Garrick

[Tommo]

At the end of my trip down to PE last week, we went and spent a couple of days at Kleinemonde, near Port Alfred. There we fished the West Kleinemonde river, which is closed to the sea, and has been for the last five years. The kob and Garrick trapped in this blind river have grown to adult size, but are unable to leave the system until they get enough rain to open the mouth of the river. We had great fun catching these awesome fish on light tackle , working lures through the channels and along the banks. It was quite different fishing a blind estuary, as there is no current and no tidal influence. We found that this being the case, we could use lures that give lots of action when worked slowly. The number one lure without doubt in this situation was the Rapala Glidin' Rap. It suspends and sinks, very slowly when not being twitched, but had a beautiful side to side twitching action when being worked. It was absolutely deadly for kob in particular, though the garrick also loved it. We had an absolute ball catching good sized fish in the river. It was quite challenging, as the fish in blind rivers seem to be a touch wiser, and perhaps less aggressive than those in open estuaries, but then the challenge makes it all the more rewarding. Also, there is the fact that you know the fish have to be there, they could not have gone out to sea, and there is nowhere else for them to go. Once again in a closed system like this it is critical to release your catch, as there is no way for those fish to be replaced, and if you want to continue enjoying that fishing in that system you need to look after the stocks of fish in it!

[SAfish]

Tommo, you have us all  What an awesome job you have! 

[AD97]

Kleinemonde is on my doorstep. I have heard alot about it. What times and in what light conditions did you fish Tommo? Cant wait for the holidays!

[Tommo]

We fished all day, from before sunrise to after sunset. Most action around the first and last hours of daylight, particularly the kob. Garrick were around at any time, but also more aggro in the low light periods.

[WalkersKiller]

So jealous Tommo! Great fish 

[Kumz]

   Tommo ...  :shre: ....  this is the closest i can get to ocean currently ...

[Tommo]

Something else interesting that happened while fishing for the kob and garrick in the West Kleinemonde river; Chris was throwing the cast net about a hundred metres along the bank, looking for some mullet to put out a livebait while we were spinning. He shouted that there was a kob smashing the mullet after he had thrown the net and chased the mullet out into deeper water. This happened a couple of times, with the kob lurking in the channel and hitting the mullet just after the net had landed, sometimes the whole head and most of the body of the kob was coming out of the water. Paul went up to where Chris was throwing his net and flicked his Glidin Rap into the channel and almost instantly went vas with a 15kg kob. Normally you would think that throwing the net would chase the bigger fish away, but in this case it obviously attracted the kob, which came to investigate what all the splashing was about.
 
Another thing: I got an sms from Paul Cowley this morning to tell me that the West Kleinemonde river has finally burst through with all the rain and opened to the sea. This means that those adult fish that have been trapped in the system for the last five years can finally get out and spawn in the marine environment. I bet all of the fish that we caught are already out of there. I wish them luck, and hope that they start another generation of kob and garrick for us to have sport with in the next few years!

[PH]

 :shre:  Tommo.
Even though I caught my fisrt Cob in an open estuary (Sedgefield) I've always been sceptical about catching reasonable size fish in a closed system. "What are the chances?" I thought.
This is an eye opener for me.
It's about time we get those kayaks in the water again. Mpanjati, etc. But then again, some rivers in KZN are a bit dicey, healthwise.

[WalkersKiller]

Wow very interesting Tommo... Have you ever fished the blind river at Kasouga? I know that river has not been open to the sea for a long time and there are 10-12 kg Kob and Garrick in there, its amazing if you thinki about it!

[Tommo]

I haven't fished the Kasouga, but I had a bit of a look at it when we drove over the bridge last week. It looks pretty good. If it has been closed for some years then there is guaranteed to be some big fish in it. The problem is that if they get caught and removed from the water over the years they aren't being replaced. So depending on the fishing pressure it could be full of big fish, or not have many at all...
 
What a lot of people do not realise is that these fish do not breed in the estuary itself. They spawn out at sea and the young larval stage fish enter the river during an open phase. They then live in the estuary until they reach breeding size in some species, or in the case of white steenbras, they move out to sea once they are large enough to deal with the conditions in the surf. If they remain trapped in the system they can never breed, as all breeding is done in the marine environment. For this reason a blind river will have bigger and bigger fish in it evey year that it remains closed, with no small fish. Even the mullet get bigger, and you can no longer find small mullet. The predators also start to feed on other  species of fish such as cape stumpnose and mozambique tilapia. The tilapia breed in the estuary, so there will always be small ones around. This is what the cormorants etc are feeding on in these blind rivers that have been closed for some years.
Interestingly there are also other organisms that rely on being able to access the sea in order to breed such as mud prawn. Mud prawn cannot continue to exist in a blind estuary that remains closed for too long, as they need a marine phase in their breeding cycle. Sand prawn are a different story and can breed within the river system. For this reason many of the blind rivers have a population of sand prawn, but not mud prawn.
 
If anybody is interested in the ecology of closed estuaries there is a very good book put out by SAIB in Grahamstown. They will send this free of charge, including postage to anybody who contacts them and asks for a copy. The book is called "A guide to the ecology of temporarily open/closed estuaries" and SAIAB can be contacted via their website www.saiab.ac.za or tel: 046 603 5800. It is worth getting hold of one of these, it makes interesting reading and you don't find much for free these days!

[PH]

Thanks, Tommo.
We will certainly get hold of a copy.
 
I was told once that ski-boats contribute towards dwindling fish stocks in estuaries due to the wake of the boats washing away the mud (and prawns), etc in-between the vegetation on the banks. It will be interesting to see if this book covers aspects like these.

[WalkersKiller]

Thanks a lot Tommo, awesome info there!!! 

[Mudcrab]

Thanks for the interesting info

[Marshie]

Some good news chaps...  Lots of rain in the Ciskei and the West Kleinemond is now open!  Hopefully all those breeding fish have gone out to sea!  The rivers needed a good flush !

[Half-Pint]

Gosh Swambo pipes up today that her family has a place in Kleinemonde with the west kleinemonde virtually in her back yard! Might actually put up with the in laws for that chance

[malcs2304]

tommo


I just registered on the site and this is my first post! interesting topic, but i have a house at west kleinemonde but have never really done much fishing in the river only surf angling for blue fish, kob and steenbras etc... i have recently got into fly fishing and am only interested in that now! and i was at kleinemonde in december and the river was still open to the sea at high tide and good news...there were hundreds of fry in the river! so in a few years the fishing will be epic there!

[Manuel Junior]

 

[Tommo]

That is great news malcs2304! If the river closes and remains closed for some time it will be great again. But even if it remains open, even if only over spring tides the fish will stay in the system and continue to grow. The fishing there should get better and better!

[malcs2304]

shot manuel!
tommo, thanks for the reply! ja, im keen to see what happens there in a few years!

[J-Rock]

tommo


I just registered on the site and this is my first post! interesting topic, but i have a house at west kleinemonde but have never really done much fishing in the river only surf angling for blue fish, kob and steenbras etc... i have recently got into fly fishing and am only interested in that now! and i was at kleinemonde in december and the river was still open to the sea at high tide and good news...there were hundreds of fry in the river! so in a few years the fishing will be epic there!