Specially trained mullet & mud minnows on constant standby at the dock
As we headed out of St. Augy we ran over to a nearby pogie pod. Throwing on it first with a plastic eel, a jig, and a diving plug the bluefish made fast work on the eels but nothing else hit the others. With nothing else but blues the pogie net came out, however at 10 foot, this net may have been a bit larger & heavier than Chris is used to…. With the addition of pogies on board we made final touch-ups to gear and discussed what each of us would do when we found the cobia. Coming from a military background I tend to rehearse/go over things so that when things happen it’s not a cluster. With that we headed east.
Ryan and Chris clearing the net
At the first spot we were immediately greeted by three friendly cobes and the fire drill started. Chris and Ryan started throwing a rubber eel and live mullet. All the cobia would do is swim up to them, sniff it or just follow it and turn away. Trying to get them fired up and eating I started throwing stunned live mullet & pogies, and dead pogies too. Thinking that live fiddlers would fire them up even more I threw a number of handfuls right on the noses of the cobia and surprisingly that didn’t work-em up. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that the cobia were passing up all of our offered live mullet & mud minnows but rather eating all the dead pogies. With that I hooked up a live pogie and pitched it to the nearest cobia. By then they were a bit fired up and the largest cobia ate the pogie. I let her pull line off in free spool and after a few moments I tightened up on the circle hook. With that she ran a bit and pulled some drag. Wearing her out I kept her near the boat and the other two cobia stayed nearby.
Nice 40 lb class cobe on the surface
Once Chris hooked up with a cobia Ryan got the gaff out and gaffed mine with it hitting the fishbox and the lid shutting closed right behind it. With some high fives and a couple of pictures we turned our attention to Chris’s fish.
First cobia in the boat
Start of a good looking fishbox
Chris on his first cobia
Once Chris got his cobia back to the boat the third cobia was following him and Ryan threw out and hooked up with it (I don’t remember what he was using). With another double going on I took a few photos.
Chris’s hooked cobia and her escort
Ryan & Chris on a double
As Ryan fought his cobia I gaffed Chris’s cobia and it hit the opened fishbox and commenced to bang the heck out of the fishbox and the heavy glass lid. Wahoo!! Chris’s first cobia!! After some high fives we turned our attention to Ryan’s fish.
Ryan’s cobia was the smallest of the three and with it being too close to 33” to gaff we got the net out. Once in the boat it measured 35” and we did some celebrating. Fifteen minutes on site and we’re limited out on cobia. Hoo Yah!!
In da net
Ryan and Chris with a pair of nice fish
With that we took a break and got our gear organized and drowned a few more live baits on the bottom trying to pick up an offshore flounder (or whatever else would bite). With nothing hitting any of the bottom baits or the ones staggered in the water column we hit a few more spots I had numbers for. As in past trips most of the numbers I had I could not find the structure (still new to the area) but the search continues-just gotta put in more time. On one of the spots I did find it had structure we did run into a nice cobia in the 30 lb range but it was fickle and we couldn’t get it to eat. We threw everything at it again. It was hanging with a HUGE loggerhead turtle and after the turtle grew tired of us it sounded and we never saw the cobia again. We that we decided we’d head in and try the beach pogie pods and look for rays too. By then it was pretty overcast without a visible sun and the wind had picked up making it choppy. Off the beach we didn’t see any pogie pods or rays and after having such a sweet morning we called it a day and ran in. Stopping at Comanche Cove to weigh the cobia they weighed in as 40.25, 25, and 17 pounds. Sweet!
What a sweet day with a couple of good guys (timed self portrait that didn’t turn out too bad)!
Hoo Yah!!
Brian
We even gigged around the fort.
