Cobia

[blackshear]

How much longer will the cobia be in the big bend area, specifically Aucilla to Keaton?

[redbelly7]

[bman]

I don't fish the area your asking about. But St.Marks to the west peak numbers are springtime to now. But they will be around all summer...
Use the search function on the site and you can learn a lot

[big bend gyrene]

Save you a bit of search time, Blackshear... http://www.bigbendfishing.net/phpBB3/vi ... =4&t=32434

[fishing coach]

BBG, you seem to be the local expert. I want to land a cobia so bad I can taste it. Well I actually I can't and never have and thats why I want to land one so bad. I fish out of a 17 foot flats boat most of the time and can't make long runs out of St. Marks on most days. Don't want any specific spots, but do the public reefs and rocky areas in the 25' range hold fish this time of year? What types of baits are you using for dropping down and what types of baits do you use to pitch at them at the surface? Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

[bman]

With the boat you have I'd run to the tripods and buoys pitching pinfish under a cork or free lined.
They will eat a big bait so do't be afraid of a large pin.

[big bend gyrene]

What Bman said.

Few additional thoughts, fishing coach... if you REALLY want to catch them bad enough anchor close to the tripods / birdracks / bouy markers and fish live bait until a cobe cruises by... could be hours... exact reason why more people fish to catch double or even triple digit trout versus single digit (often a SINGLE digit) cobe. Next thought is that if you don't want to give up the bigger numbers of smaller catches, ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS have a pin floating back behind the boat when drift fishing the flats. One of the biggest cobia I've EVER seen was in 5 or 6' of water cruising the flats. You'll catch a pile of blacktips and bonnetheads, but eventually WILL also hook cobia too. And nice thing about hooking them drifiting is that as long as you've got your drag set a bit loosely you're not as much at risk of getting cut off as you are when you hook them near barnacle-encrusted birdrack poles, etc.

[fishing coach]

Thanks for the advice guys. I get a lot of time during the summer to fish during the week, so maybe I can try some of the buoy markers and birdrack when there is less boat traffic. Also, I never fish with out a live pinfish freelined behind the boat. You're right though, lots of black tips and other sharks. I have had a couple of times where a large pinfish was inhaled by something and started to peel off some line with the loose drag set. When I tightened the drag and started to reel it has just pulled the whole pinfish still intact out of the grip. Maybe a cobe??

[big bend gyrene]

BBG, you seem to be the local expert.

And no more a cobia expert than many on this board, I must add... just not quite as wise as some other board members who are a bit more tight lipped than I.

[Ranaman]

FC, John is too modest he is the Cobia king and knows it, Went with him a couple years back and had awesome time with wife and youngest son, but decided I didn't have enough so went back the very next day with buddy of mine places john fished had changed overnight and slime was in the water so bad we couldn't fish our live baits so we decided to trout fish area you (area talking about btw) hit a bird rack just for giggles and after huge cobia slammed out little pinfish and took Larry for a ride around and around the pilings we beefed up and started serious fishing, well we ended the day with 2 making it to the boat and @ 9 hookups so it certainly was a productive day and we just hit racks up and down the coast!