BigBendFishing.Net

Busier than a one legged man in an arse kicking contest so bit late posting this report.

Went out of Ecky on Labor Day and with super smooth waters ran offshore. With roughly a dozen cobes sighted the last trip out only a few weeks ago, I was excited that it would be another banner trip. Wasn't but DID keep the cobe streak alive! After only about 30 minutes fishing, we boated our only cobe of the day and tagged/released it. If my count isn't off this makes the 9th straight trip since mid-May that we've landed a cobe. The quick cobe bite had us expecting more, but despite having a ton of baited hooks out only managed to land a couple of macks and to winch a big nurse shark up. Most exciting event of the day wasn't a catch, but instead having an aggressive and large bull chase a big chug bug to the boat. This action was spread out over a LONG morning, so action was quite slow.

On the run back in, we did luckily find two big schools of eating macks and had our fun with them. After landing a couple on a spinning reel/silver spoon setup, I switched to fly rod and had them bump my fly at least 4 times but always between strips so that when I went to set, I was a fraction slow each time. The promise of a speeding mack on fly has me eager to get back on the water again.

And folks, something is way, WAYYYY wrong when 6 of the last 7 offshore reports are posted by me, someone truly just fishing midshore depths. We saw 5 other boats offshore, with 2 anchoring close enough to us we would have wizzed on their boats had we been better hydrated ... me thinks some folks are holding back on sharing reports.

WELL BBG, SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT KNOWS HOW TO FISH, THOSE OTHER JARHEADS NEED TO TAKE A LESSON OR TWO FROM A (REAL MARINE). HA HA HA HA
PA THE OLD MAN OF THE SEA SEMPER FI

How far do you have to run to get into the cobe and mack action. Gotten a biger boat and have struggled with reds and trout this summer. Looking to add another species to the hunt.

OK BBG...I will make you a deal. Send me a PM with the coord's and I'll try em and post the results... just trying to be of service here.

Tabb, not sure where you're putting in so not sure how far you would have to go. Out of Ecky, we've been running into them during the summer from 15' depths on out. Hard to tell where they'll be from day to day, as they follow the bait and the bait doesn't stay in one spot but moves around. Artificial reefs usually hold bait but sometimes even the reefs will be quiet while bait balls may be getting slammed miles away. Diving birds are ALWAYS your friends offshore. Anyway, back to your question out of Ecky from about 8 miles offshore and out we've been finding them. Not to say they aren't inshore too. As temps start going down you can catch them shallower, even in the river mouths.

With cobes, you don't have to go far at all... it's all about structure. Think the most I've ever seen at one time was at the old birdrack that was closest to the Ecky mouth (Hurricane Dennis did it in). It was just a couple of miles out in 5 or 6 feet of water but often attacted a cobe or two cruising by. One spring day while the migration was in full swing, we pulled up to it and could see from a distance that a couple of teenagers had climbed it and were fighting something big we were almost sure was a cobe. Slowly pulled closer to them and we hooked one too, and as we fought it we could see at least a dozen cobes were boiling around the small birdrack. This shared, in our dark waters where it's not so easy to sight fish them when it comes to cobes it's usually all about structure, structure, structure, and patience, patience, patience. Rare that they provide a constant steady bite but when you least expect it and start to lose focus, that's when they'll hit and do their best to break loose via the very structure that draws them.

Thanks,
have hooked up with some small ones in close while fishing for trout. We use light tackle so would not be able to land a big one. Will give it a try next time i am down that way. The econfina is about the only place i fish out of.
Thanks again for the info.

good report i'm gonna try to turn some of them cobes into a shish kabob with a 60" shaft i promise i'll post a report when i get home or shortly after

big bend gyrene wrote:Busier than a one legged man in an arse kicking contest, but DID keep the cobe streak alive!

Harmsway wrote:

big bend gyrene wrote:Busier than a one legged man in an arse kicking contest, but DID keep the cobe streak alive!

Harmsway, I'll be thrilled if I can just keep the streak alive for one more trip if I go out later this month. Beyond the 10th trip, any caught as they shift from our waters will be absolute icing on the cake. Truly has been an extremely fun year fighting to keep the streak alive.

My fear is that this next trip we'll catch other fish and not cobes and I won't be willing to leave until I get one... next report may have the subject header, "Ecky report for 9/22, 9/23, 9/24, & 9/25" with a good many night fishing photos thrown in the mix.

You are the man! Thanks for the report.

It's All You BBG, we did fish the MBARA kingfish tourney, and had engine troubles so only managed one king lost a good one and caught a huge Cuda and then we bottom fished for a while for fun, had a nice keeper Lane snapper amist the 30-50 short grouper and keeper Red snapper that had to go back. Other than that haven't been down so nothing else offshore to report form the Celestial Crab team!

Ranaman, you could take my best report and put it against one of your worst and mine would pale in comparison.

As for others reporting, word on the street has it Dolphinatic has a killer report to post... and having doubted him in the past only to have been put in my place, I'm inclined to believe he's going to put up a GREAT one!

When Tom get's to go they are usually good trips! Glad this one was as well! Speckeled Hind! WOWgood stuff by all of us and thanks for the nice remarks we try!