The Cob season has started

The best time to catch cob from the surf or rocks is between October and April. Cob is one of my most favourite fish species to target. I’m going to
give you some basic guidelines to follow which will help you to be more successful when targeting this beautiful fish. You can purchase the books of Nickie Louwrens for more information about bait and which tackle to use for Cob. Just click on books at the top menu.

Bait to use

The bait that I use the most for Cob fishing is chokka. Not only is chokka a very good bait, but it is very versatile when you use chokka together with other baits. Make sure that the chokka that you use is fresh. If the chokka have a pinkish colour, it is spoiled. The chokka tube must be white. Pilchard, prawn, octopus, shad fillet, blood worm and live baits are some of the most common baits to use for Cob.

Tackle to use

I’m using a Purglass Stroke 3 rod with 0.45mm Kingfisher Giant abrasion line. For the leader I use 0.6mm line. I never use a smaller hook than a 7/0 when fishing for Cob. I also use 0.6mm line for my sinker and hook trace. The sinker must slide on the leader. The sinker trace is about 40cm and the hook trace about 60cm.

Where and when to look for Cob

Cob is most active early morning with sun rise, late afternoon and during night time when fishing from the surf or rocks. Sometimes you will be surprised with a Cob during day time. It is very important to read the sea correctly when targeting Cob. The photo below is a very good example of a good structure for Cob.

You can clearly see the sandbank about 80 meters from shore. You have open see on your left and right with a gully between the shore and the sandbank. This spot is ideal for Cob. You are most likely to find some Cob on the sandbank or on the drop-off of the sandbank. Sometimes you will find Cob in the gully.

The one thing that I have learned over the years when fishing for Cob is that they are very lazy swimmers. If the sea have a left, right or inwards current draw, your chances are very slim to catch Cob. They like calm water. The other factor that you must keep in mind is the colour of the sea. Cob is very shy when the sea colour is clear. In the Garden Route you’ll find that  the sea will have a greenish colour after about three days of south
easterly winds. This colour is ideal for Cob.

Well, I hope these basic guidelines will be helpful towards more successful Cob fishing…