The prefect night for fishing. Warm, with a full moon. It felt almost surreal. I was sure we'd have some luck.

The Gonubie river, our chosen spot for the night, was flowing lazily - it brought a wonderful calmness to my mood. this is why I fish. The peace. The tranquility.

Tying My First Fly

Earlier that evening I had just tied my very first fly, a black blonde with oversized yellow eyes. I must admit, at the time, I didn’t have much faith in this odd looking fly. But, it was my first attempt at fly tying so it had to be my first fly of the night.

When my brother and I got the water we heard a few splashes, with the occasional scurry of smaller bait-fish trying to escape with their lives. Something was feeding. I suspected Kob. Actually, I hoped.

Choosing the right rig for Kob

Ideally, a sinking line would have been the line of choice but I only had a floating line and fast intermediate. Fast intermediate it would be.

When fishing for Kob at night fly choice should be dark, and it needs to push a lot of water. So, with my newly tied black blonde (which isn’t very bulky and probably doesn’t push that much water) tied at the end of my tippet, I cast to the splashes. I tried a slow figure eight retrieve… nothing. Again I cast my fly in the same general. Again nothing.

So I changed my retrieve but before I did, I waited a few seconds and left my fly to drift slowly, somewhere near the bottom. Then I started to retrieve with long very slow retrieves. I suppose you could say I was dragging my fly along the bottom. Suddenly, there was a tug on the end of my line.

FISH ON!…

The fish put up something a lazy fight. i didn't have much hope. I let it run a bit of line out before I retrieved. A beautiful 60 plus cm Kob!

After landing this beauty of the night, I was forced to take a mental picture because I hadn't brought my camera (Hence the absense of proof to accompany this tale). I released it to the river in the hope that it will fight another day... hopefully bigger and stronger than it was that night.

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