The Lazy Thumb.......and other fishing stories

[Lofty]

thanks Kent,enjoying the read,I've never tried the cloth and baby oil method or the spray bottle... but then again I don't use my  to throw spoons that often here's your 50th cred...

[Kent]

thanks Kent,enjoying the read,I've never tried the cloth and baby oil method or the spray bottle... but then again I don't use my  to throw spoons that often here's your 50th cred...

...Lofty

[Kent]

  ...I  get asked, or rather told/implied all the time, that I must lose TONS  of spoons coz of the area I mainly hunt the kobbies in. Jip , I do  throw mainly in bricky gulleys and gutters and IF one is not careful  OR do not do a proper recce of the area/spot you want to throw in  then you ARE gonna lose lotsa metal. 
 
Remember  , when you snap off , you not only losing a spoon....BUT..Its the two  split rings , the hook and the kwik clip...NOW...I use the Triton 7mm  medium strength splits and they not cheap cheap....My hooks are  strong BUT not Daiichi price hooks and NOW the kwik clip I use IS  pricey...They are the Swanell clips and the best in the  business!!..Sooo..Losing a spoon is NOT an option to me!!!..This then  brings me to the last two meters of your line JUST before you clip  onto your spoon.

 
As  Ive mentioned previously , my line is 13kg .45 diameter and often get  asked/told , aint that a bit heavy for kob? Well , my theory has  always been , that you dont do ANY fish by “playing” it ,  especially if you intend releasing it. Landing a fish green is way  better than landing it all tucked out. So , for throwing spoons from  1oz to max 3oz , I find the .45 to be the best so as not to affect  casting distance and also the best in strength for fishing amongst  the bricks.

 
Now...that  pesky last two meters of line before you get to the business end of  your tackle , the spoon. You need this portion to be as strong as  possible. I tie a bimini twist and this I join to a meter or so of  clear 60lb leader line as a trace...This then is connected to my kwik  clip. Remember Folks , its almost always that last 2 meters or so  that will snap off when you have a large fish on and its rubbing up  against the bricks and whatever else there is just to spoil you fish  of a lifetime!!!. This then also enables you to pull your spoon out  of the bricks should it get snagged.

 
Snagged  is such a flippant word with a VERY DIRE meaning. Losing metal is a  costly business. A tin spoon of 2oz nowadays will run you at least  R70...a packet of 5 Swanell kwik clips is around R40...a packet of  ten splits will set you back R18...So , roughly when you lose a spoon  its cost can get to a R100. Now you retie , re clip another spoon and  five throws later you snap off again. Another 100 bucs, those are not  good odds.

 
It  pays to recce your prospective spot thoroughly on a spring low . Many  and ALL of my 5 top kob spots Ive actually put on my flippers and  mask and done a physical swime to get the lay of the land as it  were. I can see some of you shaking your heads. Well , the next  question Is why only/mainly throw spoon amongst the bricks for kob.  Are they not supposed to hang around sandy beaches and river mouths  etc etc. Well , yes , they do ..BUT...and here is a BIG but. You may  well find a great spot on a sandy beach and its comfortable and all  and the last three outings youve had 100% success. Then , you go back  again after a short break and no fish. Well , that lovely sloepie has  vanished. Changing sand bars etc etc make it difficult to predict  accurately whether the kob will be there or not. NOW , with bricky  gutters and gulleys , they dont change too drastically , although  some can get sanded up. BUT , choose a bricky section of coast and do  the recce/homework and put in the time and YOU will get rewarded!!!

 
What  you need to do is keep a record of when you catch and what the  conditions are at that time and also when you dont catch. Barometer ,  wind , sea temp , tide and moon phase. Soon you will get a  pattern/trend ...follow that Trend and you WILL be succesful. OR you  can just go moer n soek!!!

 
So  , now you have your pattern of conditions in place , its now a matter  of keeping a watchful eye on the conditions as they approach your  time when you can go fish and then when they are aligned ...you JUST  GO FISH!!!!...This , then is fishing optimumly. Now heres the kicker.  For this application of hunting kob you need to pick not more than 2  to 4 spots that you fancy and work them.Try it for a full year/season  and see what it brings you. Although , only after doing it for two  years will you really get a solid idea of a VERY good trend.

 
One  habit that is good to get into is , say after 3 or so sessions , is  to strip off about ten meters of line off your reel and then retie  your trace again.This gets rid of any nics you might have picked up.  Checking you line regularly is a very good exercise to do as you are  in your sessions . Continues casting is murder on you line , hence  the squirt bottle with freshwater and a drop of Sunlight liquid.

 
One  other thing that is very NB with regard to your reel is the drag  system. Whatever drag you use , it needs to be super soft and firm ,  like Italians cook their paste ...Al Dente.....Soft, But firm and  NEVER sticky!!!...This is how your drag system has to be. Otherwise  you gonna drop more kob than actually land them. What you HAVE to  remember ...A kob hits a spoon way different to any other lure out  there!!

 
Well  Folks thats all for this week and I cannot stress that last 2 meters  of line enough. Next time we will get into the business end of this  journey of ours and see IF we can determine what the kobbies like  with regard to metal and what is the “bite” like????

 
Keep  it Clean
and

 
Just  Go Fish!!!

 

 

[Kent]

  ..We continue on this  quest for glory , we must remember this quote from a master of his  trade as we work towards becoming masters of our trade and , yet , he  never thought of himself as anything other than a master , rather as  a student of his trade..... 
 
I  fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the  man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
  Bruce  Lee

 
As we think about this  , I often get asked while Im fishing OR maybe on my way walking home  , did I have any luck  , or any bites???....Lets dwell on luck for a  second and we will get back to the bite question in a short while.  Gary Player once said , the more he practises , the luckier he  gets....Well , that is not too far from the truth with regards to  fishing and especially with regards to throwing spoon for  kob...AND..throwing spoon SPECIFICALLY in the bricks for kob.

 
Now , I am inclined to  say that the MOST important part of this type/application of fishing  is the cast ...from the stance to the drop of your line ..the swing  and then the follow through. No one fisherman will cast the exact as  the next...BUT....there are three things that you must always adhere  to when throwing spoon for kob . First when you plant your feet  getting ready for the cast , keep them planted...DO NOT step on your  cast. Second , always be aware where your drop is before you swing ,  and thirdly ALWAYS listen to your reel and get to know its sound when  the spool is running away from your thumb. Remember , your thumb has  a muscle and after awhile it will “learn” and you will have what  they call muscle memory ...BUT...you still need to be wakker as that  thumb CAN get Lazy!!  

 
To do all this takes  practise and practise and practise and then practise some more.  PLEASE...do not clip on a sinker and go cast a 100 casts on a sports  field!!!...THAT..is the worst thing you could do to yourself. Clip on  a spoon , an old one and go practise in the sea , at least you will  have a chance of hooking a fish. Also down at the waters edge you  will experience tide...movement...wind and all that goes with fishing  in the sea.

 
One must remember , kob  hits a spoon VERY different to any other lure out there. Almost 100%  of the time , you have a kob on with spoon , that single hook of  yours will just be in the lip. You could get lucky and here I mean  lucky , and your hook gets twisted in the side sinew . In all the  years I have done this , I have only ever had a kob take a spoon all  the way in with the hook just in front of the gill plate.  

 
With a rappie ,  bristling with all those horrible trebs , it will stitch  a kob all  in the mouth and make a mess as you play the fish. Rubbers , ie  paddletails and dropshot , will almost always be in the gill plate  section. Soooo, my point....we getting there...The new found clone  lures , that lure kob so well , especially low n slow over sandy  areas and river mouths also for the most part get slukked in.  Although , the clone is a lot closer to a spoon than the others.

 
NOW , you have the cast  under your belt and you want to cast from the 1oz to 3oz range of  spoons. Very good....BUT...what spoon to use and in what condition  sea would the be the right spoon to use to get those kob on the hunt  and onto your hook??? …....IF...presented properly and in the right  conditions and they are in a feeding frenzy , kob will take a door  handle......BUT...we all know that THAT very seldom happens. In my 10  years of hunting kob this way , Ive had it happen twice!!!

 
So , here are my top  shape spoons that IF the kobbies are at your spot when they are , you  will get a hook up. You need a nice gentle S shape spoon that when it  swims mush have a really decent wobble...it must NEVER spin. The more  it wobbles the more it pushes water and this vibration is picked up  by the kobs VERY sensitive lateral line and then sight takes over and  then your spoon needs to be MIRROR shiny!!!

 
Another good spoon ,  off the shelf is the KF 2S,,,.Then you get the Alcocks 1oz SS slim ,  although they are very effective in rivers Ive never used one in the  sea. Ive found a spoon made by Falcon that are good value and are  GREAT for throwing amongst the bricks. Out of the T range of spoons  supplied by Morrisons Fishing , you get the T14,,T29,,T31 and T32.  All these spoons range from 1oz to 3oz. The KF 2S and T14 being the  two most castable spoons for all conditions and bothe work in calm OR  turbulent water.

 
NOW...If you can get  hold of Tiger shape spoons in the 2oz size , you will have a kob  killer spoon of note. Another spoon , from the bass fraternity is the  1oz Hopkins , VERY good kobbie spoon. Of course then I have my own  designs and will over the course of the weeks here post some pics. I  have 5 top spoons of my own design , namely the DS(Devils  Special)...LS(Leons Special)...SS(Slim Shady)...Fugly and the Paris  Hilton...ALL these spoons are in PURE tin. Remember one thing Folks ,  you can never have too many spoons and they can NEVER be too  shiny!!!!ALWAYS shine your spoons before you go for a session and  then shine them some more. You have more shine than the next guy  throwing next to you...You will get the fish!!!
There is a mantra I  live by when plying my trade and it is this......TOO MUCH PRESSURE  AND THE KOBBIE SWIMS ..TOO LITTLE PRESSURE AND THE KOBBIE  SWIMS.....Now...what is the “bite” like when throwing spoon for  kob....To be honest , I really dont know...genuine...after 10 odd  years doing this and hooking and landing NUMEROUS kob , I still  cannot tell you WHAT the bite feels like. To explain , its more like  ...the kob is just THERE and on your hook...BUT once you have that  “on feeling” you have to resist the urge to strike or hit the  fish...While you are retrieving , you need to keep your rod tip up  and not down like youve seen all those classy spinners at Rooikrantz  for tail OR at Winkelspruit for shad. By your rod tip up and the  kobbie hits your spoon and you “feel” him on ...NOW you need to  hold ...steady and then reel...NO STRIKE...this is where your choice  of rod will become of utmost importance. Fast tight tip and lotsa  back bone. This is when the pressure MANTRA comes into play....too  much and he swims too little and he swims. At this point , kob have a  very specific way of playing you. From 2 to 4 kay the kobbie will  bump you around and try n shake that hook from his mouth and then he  will come at you and then at the last two meters or so will bump n  grind again. Your drag needs to be firm BUT smooth . This then Folks  is the “bite”. Only through getting them routinely will you build  up a memory pattern of how your kobbies in your area will play you.  Try and let your rod do the work and TRY and not walk and land your  fish.  

 
This then Folks is all  for now and PRACTISE is the order  of the day when doing this  application. Next time we will look at A typical conditions to look  out for and what structure and gutters that kobbies might be  frequenting.

 
Keep it clean and Just  Go Fish!!!

 

[colin]

  another great post 

[Kent]

another great post 

[WalkersKiller]

Nice Kent 

[DavePE]

Great articles Kent. You mentioned that the lure must never spin. I bought a few Toby spoons for Shad and they are all attached with a swivel on the end. Do you recommend taking it off and just using a regular Swannel's clip? Was your comment specifically for Kob or do you think the same would apply for Shad?

Thanks.

[Kent]

Nice Kent 

[Kent]

Great articles Kent. You mentioned that the lure must never spin. I bought a few Toby spoons for Shad and they are all attached with a swivel on the end. Do you recommend taking it off and just using a regular Swannel's clip? Was your comment specifically for Kob or do you think the same would apply for Shad?

Thanks.

..Hi Dave , ja ..look...a swivel is a no no....although okies use one coz they using coffees to gooi with and a coffee tends to twist line and in turn make a spoon spin...If you using a multiplier then NO swivel...clip straight onto the split...Ive tested a zillion times in a pool and in the actual sea...a swivel makes a spoon spin...When the shad are thick and in a frenzy , they will take a piece of silver paper ..BUT at times they can be finicky...then you also dont need that spoon to spin...so yes ...not only for kob...BUT especially for kob...

[DavePE]

Thanks for the reply Kent. I think especially if you are throwing "S-Bend" spoons it doesn't make sense as it will completely alter side to side action which is what makes the S-Bend so successful to begin with. I've got a random "bullet" spoon I picked up at one of the PE tackle shops. Think it's an Iron Candy of some sort actually and for that I can see the benefit of a swivel in terms of casting distance. The swivel allows the spoon to spin at a hell of rate when you cast, sort of like a torpedo kick in rugby. I'm not actually sure what type of action that spoons is supposed to have when you reel in though. Do you know of any spoons that are designed to spin on the retrieve?

[Kent]

Thanks for the reply Kent. I think especially if you are throwing "S-Bend" spoons it doesn't make sense as it will completely alter side to side action which is what makes the S-Bend so successful to begin with. I've got a random "bullet" spoon I picked up at one of the PE tackle shops. Think it's an Iron Candy of some sort actually and for that I can see the benefit of a swivel in terms of casting distance. The swivel allows the spoon to spin at a hell of rate when you cast, sort of like a torpedo kick in rugby. I'm not actually sure what type of action that spoons is supposed to have when you reel in though. Do you know of any spoons that are designed to spin on the retrieve?

..Bullet type spoons are great for distance AND they almost exclusively great for fast moving fish...leerie...natal snoek love them....yellow tail , if they in the mood...kingies....pompano....wave garrick...and yes these are species predominately on the KZN coast and of course shad will eat them ...BUT as to action in the water its mainly dash n splash....I never use them...

[Kent]

  Evening Folks , just as a side note as I get some rest before I head out in the early AM at 03h30 as the conditions are spot on and the tides are all very good....some points to remember ,,,check your spoons splits are good...hooks are sharp and no cracks near the loop holes for the splits....your spoons can NEVER be too shiny!!!


I shine my non tin spoons with plain ole brasso and my tin spoons I scrape first with a blade and then rub hard with a little clear glass bottle and then final rub with tissue paper.

[Kent]

  Sometimes  , walking and watching the sea can tell you a helluva lot about how  and where to hunt the kobbies . There is a school of thought that the  ONLY way to get kob on spoon is to go low n slow  ie dragging your  spoon VERY slowly along the bottom of a sandy beach and then aiming  at OR finding a so called drop off where the bottom drops off into  deeper water or a deeper channel/sloepie rises up to a sandy bank.  NOW.....yes you will get with this kinda structure OR “formation”  as the pros like to call it , but...its a slow process and most times  you will be standing in waist deep water and casting hours on end  being partially submerged. Like Ive said previously , my way , is NOT  the only OR best way  , but , Ive had TOO many successes over the  years for me to change my way of hunting kobbies on spoon. 
 
Lets  go back a few years to around 2008 and up until this point I had been  mainly throwing at sandy beaches and river mouths when the formations  presented themselves and found myself chasing stories and moving sand  bars all along the Jikeleza...Now , while this kept me fit , I did  not have too many successes. Then one day along my local section of  coast , 300m away from front door I was talking the hounds for a  stroll. On this stretch it was very bricky and know for its blue fish  , silvers and poensies. My toppie used to often get his 10k poensie  along this area BUT I knew from diving there as a laaitie it was a  tackle eating area. Not a sand bar in sight for at least a 3 kay  stretch of coast.  

 
As  the honds were having a ball in the rocky gutters I idly watched  these two toppies putting out small blob baits for blues. Next moment  the one toppie gets a bite and he is on!!...Lands about a 2kayer  kobbie and proceeds to release it.The other toppie is in and he too  lands a kobbie....After about a half hour they each land another two  more kob. I amble up to them and asked, do they often get kob here?.  The one toppie says to me ...”My boy , they can be a pest at times  along this coast and we then battle to get our blues...”

 
Well  , well.....this got me thinking and the very next low tide I was down  there like a shot!!!....BUT..here is a harsh lesson that was learnt  by me. I charged in throwing spoons at the area and soon realised  that this was gonna be a costly affair!!!The first three sessions  there I lost 9 spoons!!!...WHOA...I put the brakes on and the next  spring low I took my goggles and flippers and proceeded to recce the  area I was hoping to hunt the kobbies in. I soon had recced an area  which had three very good gutters to get kob in and now I had to find  them and start formulating a pattern/trend as to when and what  conditions would they most likely come into the gutters to look for  bait fish.

 
I  also noticed that often when I went down to this area , the Jonny  Dykers were always in this area diving bait fish...VERY good  sign!!....My first session after I recced it for two days , I hit my  first kobbie!!!...I made sure I noted the conditions , ie water  temp...tide...water colour and what the barometer was doing at the  time.  

 
There  are five things that tell me its time to GO FISH!!,,
A  rising barometer and topping out at 1021hpk
Outgoing  tide with three hours to low and preferably early AM
A  water colour of lemon twist to clean/clear
Water  temp of 17 to 20
And  of course , you see Jonny Dykers diving thats a bonus!!!

 
Of  the five , the rising barometer and water temp are the two critical  and then the cleaner the water the better. Im not saying you WONT  catch in adverse conditions , BUT... on the right conditions you WILL  be more succesfull. Always remember , one needs to work out what  conditions will suit your kobbies on your section of coast. The only  way to do that is to note everytime you go gooi , whether you catch  or not. Soon you will get to know the trend/pattern and when you see  the conditions lining up you will be ready.

 
Sometimes  , you will get certain gutters that look good on the surface but  underneath its just too foul. Then , move on, find another . Once you  have found two or three such bricky gutters , you need to work them  and able to fish them blind folded. One must remember , kob are not  weak swimmers , they just lazy and are ambush specialists!!!...  Sooo...Ive learnt they LOVE bricky gutters with lotsa pinnacles and  rises and rocky slopes. Lotsa place to hide and ambush. The beauty of  fishing almost 100% in areas like this is that the  structure/formation , almost never moves away or changes. This then  is great , as kob are also fish of habit and when the conditions are  right , will return time and again to the same area. There are a few  pics with this weeks writ and its typical areas I gooi in.

 
This  then brings me to the need to throw lightish spoons from the 1oz to  2,5oz range and spoons that  wobble/push water very well and dont dig  in or dive deep when pushed hard in the retrieve. A lot of this  application of fishing will be testing , testing and testing some  more. Whenever you lookin at a new area , use an old spoon.  

 
Folks  , once youve found a few spots and they start delivering , it will be  a great sense of accomplishment. Almost like you finding virgin  fishing grounds!!!!

 
Folks  , thats all for this week and next time we will look at the actual  retrieve and what to be aware of when you enter the strike zone and  get that spoon up to attack speed!!!

 
Keep  it clean....and

 
JUST  GO FISH!!!

 

 

[ZANAIDOR]

Awesome post and your passion for this sport is infectious-keep up the excellent work Kent
Rajen

[colin]

  . @ Kent. Is this photo taken off the rocks near the bird sanctuary?? looks like where I used to sit and watch the swallows roost while fishing in the evenings. 

[CRANKMAN]

Kent, such passion and dedication.    and    for sharing years of hard earned experience, knowledge and skills with us. Thanks.

[Kent]

Awesome post and your passion for this sport is infectious-keep up the excellent work Kent
Rajen

[WalkersKiller]

Awesome again Kent! 

[Kent]

. @ Kent. Is this photo taken off the rocks near the bird sanctuary?? looks like where I used to sit and watch the swallows roost while fishing in the evenings.  Pleasure.........Colin , well you could say that , although the Sanctuary is a about 400m back from this stretch of coast line , but yes, you are correct...