Birth Of A Legend - Ontiltttttt & The Dock Demon!
Posted: June 24th, 2014, 3:43 pm
Late report, but too fun of a trip not to share!
A couple of weeks back got a request from coworker Ontiltttttt to take his friend Andrew out for a fishing trip in advance of Andrew starting dental school / getting knocked out of fishing commission.
Started the day looking to catch pins on the flats, but had NO luck at all. Will say this... lack of ease catching pins the past two summers has made me all the more appreciative of the prior years I easily filled the bait well with zero effort.
On a positive note, Andrew was the first to get the skunk off the boat with a nice trout.
Though we started fishing for bait with calm conditions, the winds kept slowly building so with the inshore waves beginning to white-cap I made the call to run out to a few rocky spots between 15' and 18' to see if we could find any nearshore cobia and grouper at home willing to nibble on some frozen options while we waited to see if conditions would change enough to warrant heading offshore.
Very first drop at anchor and Andrew pulled up a nice, albeit short, grouper!
We fished for an hour or so with no love from the cobia and I was kicking myself hard for lacking live pins / was questioning whether we should try heading on to a few other spots. Decided to try chumming with some canned jack mackerel before making any move. In less than 20 minutes a pack of cobia heard the dinner bell ringing! 
Wish I could say that all were monsters but just wasn't the case. Cobia-wise it ended up being a tagging-day versus an ice-box day, but we still enjoyed multiple adventurous hook-ups.
First cobia aboard put up a heck of a fight, wrapping three lines together on his initial run. Haven't had problems finding cobia this year, but true to 2014 form once we got him close enough to make a visual ID, I could tell he was oh-so-close to 33" that I was scared we wouldn't be safe putting him on ice. Was within an inch of being a keeper.
First fish brought up 4 buddies with him so we knew we should pick up another bite or two soon, and that we did... though, AGAIN, it was Ontiltttttt racing to grab the clicking reel. For some strange reason cobia cruising around the boat made Ontiltttttt forget about his benevolent mission to put ANDREW on fish. 
End result, another tagged cobe.
The chum worked so well we kept having random cobia appearances right at the boat, though increasingly the cobia seemed gun-shy about biting. During one such appearance, Ontiltttttt tried throwing just about everything in the boat at three short cobia circling just a few yards behind the back of the boat... and that's when Ontiltttttt noticed... a 30" Wally World "Dock Demon" I had brought aboard to use as an extra rig for catching bait (if we could find it). It had a beetle spin still on it that I had last used to catch brim in my pond, and Ontiltttttt excitedly asked how much I would cry if I lost it. Laughing, I told him to have at it, warning him that I had witnessed other cobia break decent sized Gamkatsu hooks, much less a hook designed for panfish. Couldn't believe my eyes when one of the cobia turned on the small beetle spin with a vengeance. Took it without a second of hesitation. And then it was ON LIKE DONKEY KONG! That short cobia gave Ontiltttttt the fight of a lifetime... coming within a few feet of spooling him three or four times. Honestly think the short cobia gave Ontiltttttt as much of a fight or more than did Ontiltttttt's 35 pound bruiser landed last June aboard Marine's Dream. I would have bet $100 that he would lose the fish, but each time it looked like the fish had the upper hand, Ontiltttttt somehow turned it, less through brute force than through the application of magical fish whispering / Jedi "Force" skills. One GREAT thing about the cobia's size was once close enough to grab with our boga grip, we were able to quickly pull it aboard. Second we had it in the boat, Ontiltttttt flashed a smile bright enough to light up Doak stadium during a moonless night!
Unfortunately instead of the waves laying down as the afternoon progressed, they picked up, so instead of heading offshore we made the call to try a spot or two closer to shore. Didn't have luck with trout or reds, but Andrew did manage to put the last fish of the day on ice! 
Only have managed to put two keeper cobes in the boat so far this year, and tagged one of those because he was so close to the slot I preferred letting him go. On the bright side, have tagged over a half dozen fish and had so much fun this last trip out I can honestly say it'll stick in the memory banks every bit or more as MANY other trips out with bigger fish. Can't wait to get back out on the water again!
A couple of weeks back got a request from coworker Ontiltttttt to take his friend Andrew out for a fishing trip in advance of Andrew starting dental school / getting knocked out of fishing commission.
Started the day looking to catch pins on the flats, but had NO luck at all. Will say this... lack of ease catching pins the past two summers has made me all the more appreciative of the prior years I easily filled the bait well with zero effort.
On a positive note, Andrew was the first to get the skunk off the boat with a nice trout.
Very first drop at anchor and Andrew pulled up a nice, albeit short, grouper!
Wish I could say that all were monsters but just wasn't the case. Cobia-wise it ended up being a tagging-day versus an ice-box day, but we still enjoyed multiple adventurous hook-ups. First cobia aboard put up a heck of a fight, wrapping three lines together on his initial run. Haven't had problems finding cobia this year, but true to 2014 form once we got him close enough to make a visual ID, I could tell he was oh-so-close to 33" that I was scared we wouldn't be safe putting him on ice. Was within an inch of being a keeper.
End result, another tagged cobe. 