Offshore Carrabelle 4-20-12
Posted: April 21st, 2012, 6:51 am
Friday presented the only day likely to have decent fishing conditions, so me and a couple of other hopefuls (Al and Chris) headed offshore yesterday. After a stop at C-Quarters for gas, ice, and bait, we were ready to go. The bay was not flat calm though, and after clearing the pass it was to be similar to last week. Some rollers, and a fairly sizeable chop on top, with a SW wind of about 10k. It was O.K., but not great. We took a ride SW towards O tower spots, and anchored up on two in about 60'. All we got at both was seabass and small stuff, not a single grouper of any kind, even small. There were some kings in the area because we saw one skyrocketing, and got a couple of cutoffs on live bait on the bottom.
Decided to go long to a top spot offshore another 13 miles, which had produced some nice AJ and might hold other stuff we were seeking. A long ride later, we were there, and decided to drift because of the 75' depth and that the day was getting short. Had a few big hits (I think goliath grouper) and near boated a big gag that self released at the boat (good boys that were were, of course we would have released anyway), and a few more of the lovely seabass took live pins. Big schools of lesser AJ under the boat, and one caught and released.
Suddenly, Al's leverdrag outfit had him pinned to the rail, and we all thought he had an AJ, finally. He was huffing and puffing, and I put on the rod huki so that the gimbal wasn't digging into his gut, because he was taking a beating from the fish. After 15 minutes of fight, what had been an AJ suddenly revealed itself to be a BIG (but not as big as the submarine of last week) cobia. Now we were really sweating, Al was going nuts afraid that he would lose the fish, I was breaking out the big gaff, and lots of yelling was going on. After quite a few attempts to bring the cobia to the boat, it finally got close enough for me to make a good stick just behind the head. Now the thrashing began, and while I had a good stick I couldn't lift the fish into the boat, as it was real heavy and doing a great job of thrashing hard. Young Chris grabbed the gaff with me, and together we finally got him onboard. The fish was stil thrashing, I was jumping on the jumpseat to get away, and trying to wack the head with the billy. Blood was everywhere, but all fish blood thankfully.
What a beautiful fish. It took two of us again to move him into the box, where he fit if we bent him into a u shape. Nize! Well, no more fish at the spot, and time for the long ride in of 20 miles to the pass. Pretty choppy by this time. At the Carrabelle Boat Club, the guys were great to hang the scale and help us get the fish out to the picture spot, where it weighed in at 72 lbs. Pictures were taken, but they are in another camera and I will post them later. It took a while to chean that fish and we were all tired by the time we made it back to shore.
I love cobia.
EJ
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Decided to go long to a top spot offshore another 13 miles, which had produced some nice AJ and might hold other stuff we were seeking. A long ride later, we were there, and decided to drift because of the 75' depth and that the day was getting short. Had a few big hits (I think goliath grouper) and near boated a big gag that self released at the boat (good boys that were were, of course we would have released anyway), and a few more of the lovely seabass took live pins. Big schools of lesser AJ under the boat, and one caught and released.
Suddenly, Al's leverdrag outfit had him pinned to the rail, and we all thought he had an AJ, finally. He was huffing and puffing, and I put on the rod huki so that the gimbal wasn't digging into his gut, because he was taking a beating from the fish. After 15 minutes of fight, what had been an AJ suddenly revealed itself to be a BIG (but not as big as the submarine of last week) cobia. Now we were really sweating, Al was going nuts afraid that he would lose the fish, I was breaking out the big gaff, and lots of yelling was going on. After quite a few attempts to bring the cobia to the boat, it finally got close enough for me to make a good stick just behind the head. Now the thrashing began, and while I had a good stick I couldn't lift the fish into the boat, as it was real heavy and doing a great job of thrashing hard. Young Chris grabbed the gaff with me, and together we finally got him onboard. The fish was stil thrashing, I was jumping on the jumpseat to get away, and trying to wack the head with the billy. Blood was everywhere, but all fish blood thankfully.
What a beautiful fish. It took two of us again to move him into the box, where he fit if we bent him into a u shape. Nize! Well, no more fish at the spot, and time for the long ride in of 20 miles to the pass. Pretty choppy by this time. At the Carrabelle Boat Club, the guys were great to hang the scale and help us get the fish out to the picture spot, where it weighed in at 72 lbs. Pictures were taken, but they are in another camera and I will post them later. It took a while to chean that fish and we were all tired by the time we made it back to shore.
I love cobia.
EJ
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Put them pics up!!