they headed off to bed for an early start. I had also planned to fish Carrabelle today but opted for a later start than CC and BB. We put in the Carrabelle river around 2pm today and head to the east end of Dog Island for reds and trout. Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, the only picture my wife took on the water was of my two pranksters as we headed out of the river.
We got to our fishing spot and the kids wanted to catch pinfish which was fine with me so I cut up a gulp shrimp and broke out the bream poles. In short order we had some live bait so I rigged a Stradic 4000 on a 7.6 heavy action Carrot Stix loaded with 30lb braid tied to a Cajun Thunder along with a 36",25lb flurocarbon leader and a 4/0 Owner circle in hopes of tying in to a big red or trout with a lively pinfish. What happed next blew my mind and lead to a 1 hour 15 minute fight that with a little luck and a lot of chasing, we finally won. I flung the pinfish out as far a I could and put the rod in one of the rod holders on the t-top. I jumped down to help the kids with their pinfishing and heard the drag on that 4000 screaming. I grabbed the rod and the battle was on. Not sure what I had, we never saw the fish the first 20 minutes of the fight. I almost got spooled after the initial hook up so the got in hot pursuit with the boat. Finally, we saw what was giving that poor Stradic such a fit. The biggest Cobia I had ever seen. After an hour and 15 minutes, I finally got a gaff in that fish. He literally wore my arse out. We were all so worn out, no pictures were take on the boat as that was the last thing on our minds. Official weight 56 lbs and 49" to the fork.
I had to buy this 120 qt ice chest a Crums becaus the fish box on the boat would not hold the fish and I had to fold him up to get him in the new ice chest.
