So I arrived in Kenton on Saturday afternoon and my first task was to get some sand prawn
. I drove 10 minutes to the Boknes lagoon and pumped about 30. Then I was off to the sandbar floating restaurant to try get a Grunter
. There were a lot of peckers around so I cottoned on 2 Sand Prawn at a time and eventually hooked into a very big cape moony, using a 1/0!
I couldn’t believe how I had hooked this fish in the bottom of the mouth as their mouths are tiny and I used to struggle hooking these fish with a size 8 hook. I was very happy with this fish and he was safely released. Then all hell broke loose as a shoal of Kob came through. What a time to leave my artificials at home
. The Kob were every where smashing small bait fish and mullet. There must have been about 30 fish between 20cm and 60cm and they would not touch my sand prawn
… It was a great sight to see the Kob feeding like that even though I was angry with myself for not even bringing a spoon or spinner, but that’s fishing for you! The Kob moved on and the fish went quiet, so after 1 Moony I went home.
The next morning I was up early and headed off to bats Cave… The sea was flat and perfect conditions to fish but not the best conditions for the fish. I rigged up a float setup with a size 4 hook and octopus tentacle/sardine combo. The peckers were around and I eventually hooked into a small Strepie, followed quickly by a small Blacktail and another Strepie… Then it went dead as the tide started to turn and after one more small Blacktail, I headed back as I was eager to finally test out the Seahawk II
. I got to the Kariega Slipway and launched and man is that thing hard to paddle with one person
especially against the tide which wasnt smart
but us vaalies need to make a plan when we are only at the coast for a few days
I really need a trolling motor!!!! I reached the bridge about 1km from the slipway after an hour of hard work and trolling a few Sand prawn. I casted on to the prawn banks as the tide was perfect and the Grunter should of moved in by now, but unfortunately nothing… After a long blank I headed back with the tide. I wanted to go to the Sandbar before they closed at 6pm and I casted out an octopus/pink prawn combo on a size 2 hook and waited, I hooked into a very nice fish, don’t know what it was and never will, it quickly pulled a couple of meters off my reel and then slack, I hate that feeling! A few casts later I picked up a massive Cape Stumpnose for that part of the river, about 25cm, maybe more
fought very nicely and was quickly released that would be my last cast. I then headed off to the kariega slipway, tried to get some live bait but the mullet outsmarted me. So I threw some sand prawn and got a small Cape Stumpnose before the cold chased me home.
I woke up early on my final day down here for a while and struggled to wake up It felt like I had a chest infection. I then packed up all the stuff I needed for the upcoming Transkei and Vidal trips and then attempted to do one last session, but struggled as I was really sick and had a long drive the next day, here are some pics of the fish I caught, nothing big or exciting but I love light tackle fishing and I love catching these species…
