Umzimkulu Estuary Season 2023 – One more time with feeling
Umzimkulu Estuary Season 2023 – One more time with feeling: the first rains of the wet season put on a real good show. It bucketed down about two to three weeks back. Days and days of tropical deluge. The river went brown in a thunderflash. The flood pulse in full effect. Nature at work.
One more time with feeling
Once the rain finally stopped, the river carried on flooding for a week or so. And then the flow just backed right off again. At the beginning of the respite, I went down to the boats at dusk. The fish were going mad. In the brown. Shoals of mullet were being herded and smashed up right out front of the Umzimkulu Marina.
The very next day, this noteworthy fish was caught on a live bait at the mouth. It must have been the kob in the river that previous evening. They seem to be able to hunt just fine in the brown water just fine.
These fish even feed in the middle of a pitch-black night. No light whatsoever. I have been trying to find out why these fish don’t swim into the rocks at night. How do they know where they are? Yes, there is a lateral line built into the sensor spread on these fish. But I shall keep researching.
So…if they can get around using this lateral line and other sensors, and they can hunt and feed. Breed. Live…then how do we attract them to our hook?
Vibration
Being so in tune with their surroundings, these fish can home in on a paddle tail and baitswimmer as they together vibrate and pulse through the water. Depending on your retrieve, you can easily mimic the plight and flight of an injured, fleeing baitfish. Fish make sounds too. The beat of a tail of some fish is clearly heard under the water.
So an erratic short and slow action juiced up with a bit of acceleration and deceleration every now and then, sometimes digging into and through the sand, is a good start.
“If you think you’re going slow…go slower” – an old adage for catching kob on lures.
Here on the Umzimkulu, we can fish for kob in the surf zone. And a short walk away, is the estuary. The fish are on both sides of the Sandspit!
Let’s goooooooo…
November is often blasted by easterly winds. Howling onshores that cool the water and roughen the sea. Exactly what the kob want. There also always seems to be a respite from the oncoming rainy season, in November and early December. I have records of crystal-clear water in the estuary in December.
However, since we know these fish feed in the dark, the dirty water should not be a deterrent. And look what we have for you from MYDO Fishing Lures…
Check this out – a collection of MYDO Silver Bullet Baitswimmers ready-rigged for targeting big kob. Available at https://thesardine.co.za/mydo.
You can learn a whole lot more at the MYDO Tackle Talk channel right HERE.
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Stay with us at the Umzimkulu Marina.
