Cobia with the teenagers: St Augustine to Mayport. 7/02 2011
Posted: July 5th, 2011, 9:43 am
Just a fun post:
On Saturday I took my son Casey & two of the neighborhood boys, 15 yr old Nathan and 16 yr old Connor out of St Augy. Connor & Nathan have the fishing bug BAD and fish A LOT in the ICW but don’t get a chance very often for offshore fishing. Today we were fishing in the JOSFC Kingfish Tuneup Tournament and although kings were the targeted species I was actually just looking for anything to stretch a line for the boys.
At 7:30 a.m. we had no luck in finding pogies in Salt Run so we headed offshore thinking we’ll get bait offshore. We stopped at an inshore wreck and since we didn’t have any live bait we went to PLAN B. Right away we had a strike trolling for kings the way we do in the Gulf of Mexico with dead cigar minnows and heavy dusters. On the strike the fish jumped making me think cuda. Nathan got on the rod right away and was working it when he made the comment “Hey look at the little shark”.
That shark turned out to be an inquisitive cobia and for some reason he liked the boat. As I pinned a live large pinfish to a cobia rod Casey had already casted out and got the cobia to eat a cobia jig with a plastic trailer. With a couple of good hooksets to make sure it was a good hookup he started bringing it to the boat. Unfortunately we lost Nathan’s fish in the process. Since I wasn’t quite sure that this cobia was legal and I didn’t want to kill it if it wasn’t legal I netted it with a large net.
Coming aboard
After some High Fives it into the box after measuring at 36 inches.
Team Caught Cobia. 19.2 lbs on the JOSFC scale
(L to R): Casey, Connor, & Nathan
Using the Jax Top Spot Chart we then ran around to a few other spots I had not been to before and we managed to find a few new numbers. Trolling we didn’t get any sniffs however. By now we’re halfway between Mayport and St Augy so we headed offshore a little further. In 85 feet we saw a lot of bait on the surface and started trolling. After about 15 minutes we had another strike this time on a diving plug. Pretty soon we could see a brown fish on the surface and knew it was another cobia. Connor was next and this fish would be the largest he’s ever fought/caught. Another cobia joined it which was much larger but he didn’t stick around long enough for us to entice him with anything.
To make a long story short at the boat I gaffed the cobia and as it came into the boat the tail hit the gunnel (course it’s not happy) and the cobia came off the gaff but landed in the boat but in front of the motors. As it hit the deck the two treble hooks came unglued and with a single flip the cobia went overboard and we never saw it again.
Connor was OK with that but I gotta admit I was bummed.
We ran back into Mayport, weighed the cobia at the JOSFC scale (19.2 lbs) and then ran the Ditch back home. It was a fun day on the water and good to be out with the boys.
Hoo Yah!!
Brian
On Saturday I took my son Casey & two of the neighborhood boys, 15 yr old Nathan and 16 yr old Connor out of St Augy. Connor & Nathan have the fishing bug BAD and fish A LOT in the ICW but don’t get a chance very often for offshore fishing. Today we were fishing in the JOSFC Kingfish Tuneup Tournament and although kings were the targeted species I was actually just looking for anything to stretch a line for the boys.
At 7:30 a.m. we had no luck in finding pogies in Salt Run so we headed offshore thinking we’ll get bait offshore. We stopped at an inshore wreck and since we didn’t have any live bait we went to PLAN B. Right away we had a strike trolling for kings the way we do in the Gulf of Mexico with dead cigar minnows and heavy dusters. On the strike the fish jumped making me think cuda. Nathan got on the rod right away and was working it when he made the comment “Hey look at the little shark”.
That shark turned out to be an inquisitive cobia and for some reason he liked the boat. As I pinned a live large pinfish to a cobia rod Casey had already casted out and got the cobia to eat a cobia jig with a plastic trailer. With a couple of good hooksets to make sure it was a good hookup he started bringing it to the boat. Unfortunately we lost Nathan’s fish in the process. Since I wasn’t quite sure that this cobia was legal and I didn’t want to kill it if it wasn’t legal I netted it with a large net.
Coming aboard
After some High Fives it into the box after measuring at 36 inches.
Team Caught Cobia. 19.2 lbs on the JOSFC scale
(L to R): Casey, Connor, & Nathan
Using the Jax Top Spot Chart we then ran around to a few other spots I had not been to before and we managed to find a few new numbers. Trolling we didn’t get any sniffs however. By now we’re halfway between Mayport and St Augy so we headed offshore a little further. In 85 feet we saw a lot of bait on the surface and started trolling. After about 15 minutes we had another strike this time on a diving plug. Pretty soon we could see a brown fish on the surface and knew it was another cobia. Connor was next and this fish would be the largest he’s ever fought/caught. Another cobia joined it which was much larger but he didn’t stick around long enough for us to entice him with anything.
To make a long story short at the boat I gaffed the cobia and as it came into the boat the tail hit the gunnel (course it’s not happy) and the cobia came off the gaff but landed in the boat but in front of the motors. As it hit the deck the two treble hooks came unglued and with a single flip the cobia went overboard and we never saw it again.
Connor was OK with that but I gotta admit I was bummed.
We ran back into Mayport, weighed the cobia at the JOSFC scale (19.2 lbs) and then ran the Ditch back home. It was a fun day on the water and good to be out with the boys.
Hoo Yah!!
Brian
Love your reports. Good fun day.