Try keeping this one from being too long... few BBF long-timers might recall my main fishing bud for years was Sharkman. That is until his career path took him to Tampa.
Past few years we've still made it a point to chase cobes together once or twice a year whenever possible. This year he brought up several friends with the goal of trying to put them on an October cobia bite. October can be hit or miss as our waters generally start cooling, but with warm weather leading up to the trip we were guardedly optimistic.
They actually brought up a boat and fished Oct 5 while I worked. They hooked some cobia but had no luck getting them to the boat. I boated out alone to meet up with them on the 6th and turned out that while we were all out together we had the same kind of luck. Good bites with enough short grouper to keep us awake but despite few suspected cobia bites none pulled over the gunnels in the morning. Tired from two days fishing they called it a day around lunchtime and headed back in with their boat to make the drive back down to Tampa.
Having made only 3 or 4 salt trips this past year I decided to stay out alone a bit longer and the decision paid in a 33.5" fork length keeper. On the way back in I ran into diving birds and caught a handful of spanish just for the sheer fun of it. One was an absolute MOGAN so I threw it on ice with the cobia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TCgcm3Xe0o[/video]
