A FISHERMAN who hooked a 20.4kg kob fishing from the Kowie River bank, and then played it from a canoe over three hours, was the envy of his friends last Saturday when he eventually landed it.
Darryl Olivier said he was fishing with four friends from the river bank at the Bay of Biscay, using mudprawn as bait and hoping to catch grunter.
“It was my fourth throw when I hooked this fish,” he said. “I was walking up and down the bank and then a guy said, ‘why don’t you borrow my canoe?’”
Olivier said he had spent about 20 minutes playing the fish from the bank before he got into the canoe.
“About five minutes after I got into the canoe the fish surfaced and I saw it was a kob and how big it was. I shouted to my mates – it spoiled their day of fishing,” he chuckled.
Olivier was using 4.5kg line and a 1/0 hook.
“It took three hours to land it. It towed me all the way to Centenary Park. I think she swam the channel of the river.”
He said Ndlambe environmental officer Willem Nel followed him on the river control boat, got him a cooldrink, and when he landed the fish, helped him by putting the kob in the river control boat and towing him back to where he had started.
“This is my biggest personal best,” said Olivier, who has been fishing for 22 years, since he was five.
