We embarked on our annual end of the year Boknes fishing trip on the 21st of December.
Boknes is a small town situated twenty kilometers West of Kenton on Sea. We have been fishing the shores of Boknes for as many years as I can remember and kob and elf have always been the main target species from the beautiful rock and surf areas.
The fishing party consisted of HP, Jayson, Boel and Herman ready to land some edibles. Targets were set for the holidays, Jayson wanted his first kob on artificial lure of over 7 kg and HP wanted to target kob specifically on leadhead/bucktail jigs.
Our first day was spent trying to find the newly formed gullies and sandbanks along the coast and little fishing was done.
We landed a few lesser sandsharks scratching around the surf. Boel hooked into a kob measuring in at 50 cm although not the biggest fish still a promising start to the trip. Later that evening HP also opened his account with a kob of 55 cm. Once the barbel came on the bite we called it a night and went back home for a nice warm fire along with good old “Karoo skaap tjoppies” and a few ice cold Windhoek beers.
The following morning we were greeted with perfect weather and bright sunshine, 06:00 and the house was buzzing with fisherman readying their tackle for the morning episode. We walked about two kilometers down the Boknes beach in the direction of Dias Cross, a small hill marking another area Bartholomew Dias visited on his endeavors around the South Coast of Africa. We spotted a decent channel in the surf where we would wet our lines for the morning. HP decided it was a good time to try out a bucktail and ventured a few hundred meters up the beach to the mouth of the channel. This is the spot where the channel flows out into the ocean. After about 45 minutes of working the drop-offs HP was on. The kob gave a good account of itself, although being nursed along by HP. He landed a beauty of 64 cm. Within seconds the leadheads were out and everyone was trying to hook into another kob. Jayson’s number was the next to come up, he was on with a nice little fish. After a minute or so of the old guessing game, he landed a decent leervis/garrick of about 51 cm on bucktail. This was a big moment for our fishing party as we had never seen garrick caught in Boknes nor had we ever landed kob on artificial lures from the surf in this specific area. We packed up for the morning and everyone strolled back grinning from ear to ear knowing that what we had just discovered will change our fishing forever. As we got back to the Isuzu , HP and Jayson joked that with this discovery they might as well pack away the big rods for good (and boy were they right).
Jayson and HP decided to get a head-start on the rest and were rigged and walking at 05:00 the following day. HP spotted a newly formed sandbank with a gully in front and a channel on the side leading out into the deep blue sea. Jayson was fishing with the 9 ft Loomis and Franklin Platinum dropshot rod, with the Shimano Sedona 4000 reel and 8 lb Berkley Fireline braid. HP used his 10 ft Fenwick Eagle GT dropshot Edition rod, Daiwa Exceler 4000 reel and 10 lb Berkley Fireline Crystal braid. It was a gorgeous morning with a little cloud cover and the only noise you could hear were the crashing of the waves and the sound of Jayson shouting “On!!!” as his leadhead got hit on the first cast of the morning. A few minutes later and a kob of 62 cm was on the sand, a few photo’s were taken followed by a safe tag and release. We support the ORI tagging cause. After about 20 minutes Jayson was on again, this one making him work for his money and after a great fight a kob of 75 cm was finally landed. It seemed that a black and white bucktail was the flavor of the day as HP’s olive and white was yielding no results.
The next morning the same steps were followed and within seconds of being in the water HP was into a decent sized kob running him up and down the shore-break The fish for the day was HP with a 77 cm kob, Jayson landed another Garrick of 54 cm and Herman with his first ever kob on artificial lure of 62 and 75 cm. High-fives all round, a certain type of joy only fishing can render.
On day 5 things just felt right and as usual HP and Jayson were off side by side along the sandy beach at the crack of dawn. As the sun lifted over the horizon Jayson and HP’s reels screamed off in unison as they doubled up with two big kob. After 20 minutes Jayson landed his monster of 90 cm and finally reached his goal of a 7+ kg kob on artificial lure, this one weighing in at 7.7 kg. Ten minutes later HP also managed to land his beast, a massive kob measuring 98 cm, 1 cm short from hitting the magical 10 kg mark. A few photos were quickly taken as the rain started to pour down. Later that morning Jayson landed another kob of 82 cm and the boys decided to call it a day.
They could walk home knowing they’ve both reached their targets for the trip. The bucktail that did the damage was a 1 ounce olive and white.
On our final day Jayson and HP once again tried to see what wonderful creatures lurked in the blue of the ocean. Having once caught a kingfish here, we decided to try out the bucktail on high tide over a rocky reef. The mullets were very active and you often felt the jerk of a mullet at the end of your line. After a few exciting on-offs Jayson hooked into another nice fish and landed his 3rd garrick for the week measuring 60 cm
a perfect way to end of our Boknes trip.
Shew what a classic trip you had. I can see why you guys have opted for using artificial lures from then on.I cant wait to get some of that action.