A Day Admiring The Master Painter's Work

[big bend gyrene]

Had cousin-in-laws down from Souths Cackalacky (aka South Carolina) this past week and for three days we watched the radar bloom like azaleas in spring.

Saturday, I woke up to check the radar at 5:00am.. and... big bend waters covered in yellow and red, but with predictions of clearing by 10:00am!

10:00am, still covered in yellow and red but with predictions of clearing by 11:00am!

11:00am, still covered in yellow and red but with predictions of clearing by noon!

Stepped out in the rain to see if I could hear any lightning and since I didn't, said to heck with it and hooked up the boat.

Rained on us all the way to the coast, but driving into the Ecky parking lot the rain STOPS!!!

Get out on the bay and it's glass flat and as pretty as I've ever seen it.

Went out to both 4' and 10' waters to catch bait, and the cousins hooked lots of trout in both depths. Lots of sea bass in the 10' spot, and on the way out to hunt cobia in deeper waters we found feeding macks that gave us super fun topwater sky-high hits. Even caught about half a dozen or so slab pink mouth grunts on sabiki, a real blast on our ultralight setup.

The cobes proved to be a different story this day. Tried two favorite public numbers but got skunked, so desperate for better luck targeted a favorite less public/fished private spot. Found them at home... BUT... lady luck was NOT on our side. Female cuz-in-law seemed more interested in texting her honey back home, so we lost two to the rocks before we could even get much progress made on getting the fish headed boat-ward. One was OH SO CLOSE, but this happened...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T5W5tIiBSU[/video]

With no trophy cobia pics to snap, the GOOD MAN above got my attention with his Master Painter's work. Know a few of us hit the water Saturday but for those who didn't here's how pretty it was!

Just CAN'T beat these running conditions!

Love the dark clouds and the reflections on the dark water...

Not a drop of rain on us, but sure raining over Lanark way.

Anybody else see an offensive lineman lowblocking a rushing linebacker? CFB can't get here soon enough!

Close up of "The Block"

Back on my beloved Econfina after a month away, so not a single complaint here... no Sir, not a single complaint!

End on related cobia note, while WE didn't boat one, it turns out I can share a report that one of Marine Dream's earlier catches was recently re-hooked 95 miles a way, and almost a year after being tagged! Only my second hit of about 50 fish tagged so it made my day getting the news in the mail!

[zload]

Gained 8" in less than a year!

[ced0412]

One was OH SO CLOSE, but this happened...

That ain't no cobia, that's a shark

How's that reel working out?

and yes it poured at Lanark all day.

[big bend gyrene]

Ced0412, looking more closely at the video, certain you're right... I didn't want to fight any of the hooked fish long so tried ID'ing the hookups / passing on the rod quickly... was deep in murky water when I called it based mostly on it's size, and I never was closer than the camera after that, but looking at the tail and fins, yep... think you're 100% right.

[Rhettley]

Great pictures!

[MarkM]

Great picture taking! Beautiful!

[ontiltttttt]

Favorite BigBendGyrene quote of the week, "it's a cobia, I've caught a million of them"

[micci_man]

Great picture taking! Beautiful!

Agreed!!

[big bend gyrene]

Favorite BigBendGyrene quote of the week, "it's a cobia, I've caught a million of them"

Well... sharks included that's probably true. Take the sharks away and probably need to remove 4 zeros off my quoted number for me to feel completely safe!

On the shark note, another reason I quickly ID'd it as a cobe was that it bit a spro jig with a big white curly tail attached...99% of the time that combo results in either cobia or grouper for us and I could see the shape of the fish well enough to know it wasn't a grouper. Actually cast the jig at a bait ball cruising by so best guess is the shark bite was a quick instinct bite (it was a near instant hookup).

Not sure others will agree with my culinary tastes, but with a freezer full of cobia I wish we had landed the shark if a blacktip! Love me some grilled blacktip from time to time. Few fish hold together better on the grill than blacktip!

[Ranaman]

Nice!