St. Marks Cobia Huntin'
Posted: April 9th, 2012, 4:41 pm
Dean and I went cobia hunting off the St. Marks/Mashes Sands area today, with little to show for it. We took his bay boat, as it is on the trailer (mine is in dry storage at Carrabelle), and a beautiful morning greeted us as we headed out the canal. We had dead bait and lots of lures but no livies.
First of all, it was rougher than a cobb, not the 1' that was forecast by our fine NOAA folks. At times in the morning, the seas reached 3-5', maybe higher, although they calmed at noon. We had to pound slowly everywhere we went, and lots of floating grass made us give up on the grouper trolling pretty quick. We stopped at several of the known cobia "hot spots" with no one home, and just managed two legal gags on the bottom. On the way back in, we stopped on Ock. Shoals, where there were plenty of nice sized spanish hitting lures we threw. I was using my salt water casting reel, a Penn Int. 965, and having fun. After boating a few, I was bringing one to the boat when I saw a big shark following the spanish to the boat. I yelled "shark" and then I realized that the "shark" was an enormous cobia, the largest I have ever seen, and it wanted the spanish. Dean started hollering for me not to let the humongous cobia take the spanish, as he had a bigger outfit with a eel lure near ready. We were yelling, the cobia was trying to eat the spanish while I jerked it out of the water and his (her, probably) mouth, and Dean was throwing the lure, finally. The cobia actually hit at the spanish as I held it out of the water - shoulda coulda woulda let the fish take the spanish, but didn't. The fish took the lure when Dean threw, but Dean failed to set the hook, and we couldn't keep the fish at the boat. It was mayhem that yielded nothing but a fish story, eventually.
Anyhow, we made it back to the ramp and the wind was pretty slack, with a beautiful day still going on. Not much catching, but a nice day anyhow.
It makes a good story.
Tally: 2 gags, several spanish, catch all the spanish you want.
Luck,
EJ
First of all, it was rougher than a cobb, not the 1' that was forecast by our fine NOAA folks. At times in the morning, the seas reached 3-5', maybe higher, although they calmed at noon. We had to pound slowly everywhere we went, and lots of floating grass made us give up on the grouper trolling pretty quick. We stopped at several of the known cobia "hot spots" with no one home, and just managed two legal gags on the bottom. On the way back in, we stopped on Ock. Shoals, where there were plenty of nice sized spanish hitting lures we threw. I was using my salt water casting reel, a Penn Int. 965, and having fun. After boating a few, I was bringing one to the boat when I saw a big shark following the spanish to the boat. I yelled "shark" and then I realized that the "shark" was an enormous cobia, the largest I have ever seen, and it wanted the spanish. Dean started hollering for me not to let the humongous cobia take the spanish, as he had a bigger outfit with a eel lure near ready. We were yelling, the cobia was trying to eat the spanish while I jerked it out of the water and his (her, probably) mouth, and Dean was throwing the lure, finally. The cobia actually hit at the spanish as I held it out of the water - shoulda coulda woulda let the fish take the spanish, but didn't. The fish took the lure when Dean threw, but Dean failed to set the hook, and we couldn't keep the fish at the boat. It was mayhem that yielded nothing but a fish story, eventually.
Anyhow, we made it back to the ramp and the wind was pretty slack, with a beautiful day still going on. Not much catching, but a nice day anyhow.
It makes a good story.
Tally: 2 gags, several spanish, catch all the spanish you want.
Luck,
EJ
GREAT report. 
ANOTHER COBIA HOLE SHOT TO h311.
