cobia off the lighthouse

[silverking]

Skill, tackle and the attitude of the fish all matter.

You can land big fish on light tackle but go too light and you run the risk of killing the fish. It may swim off, only to die later or be eaten by a shark. That's a sad fate for a tarpon.

A medium-heavy rod with a 5000+ class reel loaded with at least 20-pound braid is the minimum I would go for either species. 30-pound is probably better. Braid generally tests higher than mono and can take more abuse like floating grass, etc. A 5000 outfit won't wear you out from casting and you're generally chasing the fish with the boat, as EJ explained.

I've had some fish come in quickly and easily, especially if they jump themselves to exhaustion. Cobia will jump too. And then I've had others that battled every inch of line and refused to give up after more than an hour's fight. Keeping the fish disoriented and as close to the boat as possible are all tricks for a short and successful conclusion.

[lordsfisher]

Silverking and Whoopty, THANK YOU! I'm sure I'm speaking for a majority of readers on here in thanking you for sharing your experience and expertise. It's this kind of selfless sharing and teaching that really makes this website a great one. It's an inspiring demonstration of sportsmanship. I'm indebted to those of you who have made me a better and safer sportsman.

[Bluewave]

Have never caught one but want to try this spring are the bird racks out of Ecofina about the same?

[big bend gyrene]

Few of my points will be repeats of those from Siliverking, Woopty and others but for whatever they're worth here's a list of ten things I've learned over years chasing them...

1) STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE or said another way BAIT, BAIT, BAIT. And that's true inshore of offshore. Rocky outcroppings offshore are great as are all of the area artificial reefs, but so are inshore buoys, bird-racks, and any other objects that can draw / hold bait seeking to get out of the open. Highest number of cobes I ever saw congregated in one place was just outside the mouth of the Econfina at a bird-rack subsequently destroyed by Hurricane Dennis (and not rebuilt). Guessing it had 15 to 20 cobes circling it due to bait seeking refuge under the rack. That particular rack was QUITE close to shore.

2) Though might sound contradictory to the above comment stressing to fish structure, you CAN catch BIG cruising cobia in the open flats OFF of structure and shallower than you might guess. Have tagged and released over 50 cobia (boated over 100), and the biggest I've seen in our area swam within 3' of my stern while trout fishing in six or so feet of water. It was swimming in a pack of 3 or 4 cobia but the others were much smaller. We've seen enough cruising the flats we try to ALWAYS keep a pinfish behind the boat when drift fishing, and over time have moved from keeping it way out to keeping it only a dozen or so feet behind us. Farther we float it behind us, the higher the ratio of sharks we have hit to cobia. Sharks don't generally seem as eager to quickly approach boats so keeping the pin closer cuts down a bit on the shark bite while not seemingly hurting hook-ups with curious cobes.

3) Chumming works BUT isn't always necessary. I would attribute chumming to less than a 1/4 of the fish I've caught and structure or blind luck to the other 3/4. If I find lots of bait at the spot I'm targeting I hold on the chum, as we often quickly get bites without using it. I use chum if either I don't find much bait present OR if we've had a good bite but it's slowing (often due to solunar influences). I do find the chum often will turn the bite back on, even if just for a short while after it initially dies down. I often just use cans of jack mackeral, tuna, etc, with some holes jabbed in the cans as my goal is just getting some bait to come to me. Sure chum blocks would work a bit better but the cans are super convenient.

4) To Silverking's point, ALWAYS have an extra rod at the ready with an eel-jig or SPRO jig head with a plastic curly tail attached to drop near trailing fish or the crazy ones that just swim right up to the boat when nothing else is hooked. If there are two people on my boat the MOMENT someone gets a bite I do my best to be sure that a free hand gets the jig rod ready to cast if a trailing fish comes up. My best estimate is that about 1/2 the time trailing fish DO come up along with the hooked one.

5) Also be sure to cast jigs close as you can to any large turtles / rays that come by, be it offshore or inshore. Cobia love cruising around with them and I've seen more than a couple of well placed casts to turtles and rays result in bites from fish we hadn't spotted.

6) You can use frozen bait or live bait. I actually got hooked on cobia while trying to get into the grouper game, catching numerous cobia on frozen cigar minnows and frozen spanish sardines. Over time I found that mid-sized to large-sized pins gave me the best cobia bite while lowering hits from other species I wasn't targeting. With live pins hard to come by after the grass kills in our area last year we returned to using more frozen bait fish and still caught plenty of cobes, though do think we caught more shorts due to more slender profiles of frozen bait fish.

7) If offshore, I use a fish finder rig pulled two or three feet off the bottom, dropping to my egg sinker hits and then lifting enough to account for my leader length + 2 or 3 additional feet. May lift it a few feet higher this year based on Woopty's comment, not because I think cobia won't take bottom baits (they do so readily) but because keeping baits on the bottom makes for more nurse shark and goliath hits that while exciting, don't put my preferred species on ice. Also probably help just a hair on lowering percentage of quick cut-offs.

8 ) If you're on great structure but are biteless while watching macks, blues, jacks slamming bait 1/4 mile away, don't hesitate to pull anchor and go to the action. The cobia may not be the main culprits in attacking the bait, but as opportunistic feeders they'll join in around the edges of the feeding (much like sharks will too) and take advantage of the easy pickings.

9) If over structure, the name of the game after getting any bite is UP, UP, UP and unlike with grouper, getting a nice sized cobia to the surface once is far from a guarantee the fight is over, as I've had bruisers do the up and down dance a dozen (or more) times. ALWAYS BE THINKING "UP!" as failure to do so can result in countless cut offs. Trip out with the highest number of solid bites last year actually resulted in ZERO fish brought in the boat. The big ones don't get to be big by being stupid and often will target structure until you have them pulled over the gunnels.

10) Be careful about catching cobia fever. Darn ailment can plum slap ruin you on other fishing! I targeted reds & trout before catching the cobe fever and on those days when I sit biteless for hours praying for a single cobia to show I remember wistfully the days I pulled countless trout and reds in the boat on shrimp under cajun thunders. As with all other fish it's still called "fishing" for a reason versus "catching." More than once I've gone out on consecutive days to have the cobia bite on fire without any chumming one day and the very next day be completely dead regardless of the amount of chum used with bait seemingly gone from the sea.

[Good Tidings]

Great points all....Gives me another reason to fish more.....and now I'll keep a rod drifting most of the time!

[Bluewave]

Thanks a bunch have seen them on the flats before and had no larger rod for them but planning on getting one asap for next trip this weekend. I do appreciate it as I am a converted bass fisherman who is learning the flats by trial and error!
Have learned the trout enough to catch a few but the reds are still on accident now but hope to figure it out also.

[zload]

Nice discussion, and one of the reasons I enjoy the BBFN. I talked to Capt. Pat Dineen out of Destin this week about an early May charter trip to try the Panhandle cobia "migration" down the beaches. He said that they are pretty much done for the year as far as the beach run in his view and of course my fishing buddy who suggested the trip had to work the rest of April so I guess I'll try that next March. Considering he would have made some bucks from us by telling me to come on over I have to believe he knows what he is talking about within the spectrum of putting us on cobia vs. we may randomly find one. Very nice guy on the phone too.

I'm curious why no spring sight fishing cobia season in the big bend area as compared to the panhandle, guessing it may be the proximity to deeper water in the panhandle but anybody have any ideas?

[silverking]

BBG might have a different perspective due to his tagging numbers, but the biologists in Mississippi who have been doing cobia research believe there are several subsets of stocks. The ones that migrate along the Panhandle beaches are likely those making a loop around the central/western Gulf, while the ones we predominately see in Big Bend waters are likely coming up from the Keys and along the west coast of Florida before moving on. The tarpon movement is thought to be similar and there is definitely some mixing between the groups. Nothing definitive yet, which is why the tag returns are important and why further study is needed.

Capt. Pat Dineen is a good guy and a very reputable guide. From my time in Pensacola, I would agree with him that the major sight-fishing run is pretty much over by May. The fish continue on west and often hang around the oil and gas rigs in the central and western Gulf.

It's not as strong, but they are also swimming back through our area in the fall. I've encountered pods off markers as late as October. So don't put away those rods just because it's football season.

[Bluewave]

So in our area is it starting or is it over? We have seen them on the flats up until the end of May!

[silverking]

Cobia arrive here a little later and stick around lots longer from my experience.

[tgill3764]

Has anyone seen or heard of Cobia yet out of St Marks? It's got to be any day now I think.

[flatsbroke22]

Fished out of Econfina two weeks ago and a couple shorts were caught and I had a huge one swam around my boat a couple times but wouldn't eat.

[bman]

They are here...
Was fishing for bait before running off shore yesterday AM out of St. Marks
Caught this little guy on a bait rig!

Water temp off shore was 72-73 degrees and there is bait everywhere.
We didn't catch a big guy but they have to be here.

[tgill3764]

Any recent Cobia sightings?

[milto]

Boy are they out there!!! We went out early this morning with the intentions of finding cobia. We got to the lighthouse channel around 6:45. We started throwing the net and getting some nice finger mullet and a few larger mullet for cut bait. We then went out to the flats searching for pin fish. They were there as well. Had more success in about 4ft of water right off the sand bars by the bird rack. We then went out to our SUPER SECRET LOCATION (public number) and found structure. After 3 anchor attempts to be positioned right, we had about 3 hours of fishing to do. We got a nice chum slick going and first cast for ole Galant Nole he hooks up with about a 20" flatty on his first cast. About 30 minutes to an hour go by with hits here and there, but then the bite really turned on. Galant Nole and Thomas strike get a double hook up, both with just over keeper gags. We were catching small gags and spanish then as Bigphishie hooks into a shark. When he gets the shark near the boat Bigphishie yells to grab a rod with the jig rigged up. Luck me I had one handy! Dropped down right next to the boat and not even 20 seconds later I had a 36" cobia on. Got him to the boat and we were all amped up to smack one of the others that were down there. Nothing for about 20 minutes and Thomas hooks up with another shark. At that time it was close to leaving time (noon) since we had to work n the afternoon. Thomas is fighting that shark on really light tackle and we had a float rigged up with a pin fish under it that hadn't been touched for over 30 minutes. Next thing you know at least 4 BIG cobia (about 15-20 feet from the boat) are coming right after the pin on a float. Of course the small one gets to it first. After a good fight Bigphishie gets the gaff in him and its another 35-36" cobia. So not a bad early afternoon on the water. We were back at the ramp just before 1. Which is where GalantNole and Bigphishie decided to stay and finish the day on the water and tell the rest of the story at a later date.