Summer fishing in the Hermanus Pearly Beach area
Yes its summer again and the South Easter has brought with it the long awaited cob to our area again. Some very nice cob have been landed in Hermanus from the gang and kraal rock. Most of the cob as always have been caught from Franskraal up to the damme, holbaai has had its fair share of decent size cob as well as plaatjies kraal. These areas produce mostly smaller cob that seem to love the kelp beds but some fish well above 10kg have been landed with many of the bigger cob running the guys off in the kelp beds.
It still amazes me how few of these cob fishermen who fish these areas where there are lots of kelp beds and rocky outcrops still have not learned to use thicker leader lines, by this I mean the first 8 meters of line to your hook and sinker should be up to 1mm thick? This does not only give you better casting distance with a bigger bait but also comes in very handy when the odd bigger cob picks up your bait and runs you into the kelp or rocks, most other fishermen will lose that battle every time on the standard 35 pound line. By just keeping the tension on the fish you will land up to 100% more fish, guaranteed. Another good tip is to use much thinner line to your sinker trace, should your sinker get stuck the thinner line will part first thus giving you even more chance of landing your fish.
The cob baits to use are fresh sardine, mackerel, chocka(the chocka must always be pure white) and at times even white mussel. Keep in mind to always have your hook very proud when baiting up, the hook sticking out does not affect the fish in any way but will increase your hookups drastically, do not use hooks smaller than 6/0 and go as high as 10/0, these fish have big mouths. So this summer be on the lookout for some brown ginger beer coloured water, you never know what might be swimming around in there.