7.10-7.11 Cobia Fishing

My Bro came up from Crystal River to fish for Tarpon and then whatever else we could get after. We chased the tarpon up Alligator Pt. on Friday afternoon, saw some big'uns, but the wind was from the southwest and kept blowing harder and soon trashed the water. They were there eating rain minnows, but we just couldn't get set up right. Saturday we went after them again, but the water was much worse and again we gave up.

Tried going out to 24 marker to troll up some Kings, but the water got rough out there too. So we finally got some pinfish and went Cobia fishing. We pulled up to 2 poll and Doug threw out a pin on a popping cork. It didn't take long and he was hooked up. Unfortunately his hook up was on a huge cobe that hit right at the boat as he reeled in.

Doug reloded and threw up to the pole again and he hooks up this time on a smaller cobia.

His sneaky brother had baited a pinny on a 5/0 circle hook with a 1/2 oz weight hoping that his brother would lure some in with his fish.

Sure enough, Doug got his fish close to the boat and he said "holy #%it" look at all those other ones. I dropped down and soon felt the thump and my pinny was off to the races. After a good battle, in which we drifted and got pulled 1/2 mile from the marker we landed this 26 Lb. cobe. Doug's was under sized, but still put up quite a fight.

Sunday we went out again on the tarpon hunt with the same results, high winds and muddy water.

Tried the cobia program again and the 2 marker was devoid of fish this time. So, we slid up to the tripod and Doug says look, there are five! He threw his pinny out and they looked like Jason Heyward waiting for a fly ball to settle into his glove, I'm not sure the cork even hit the water and the fight was on.

I figured I would try the same strategy as yesterday, have Doug lure them in with his fish, then drop down.

Sure enough, it worked again with this 16 lber.

All in all a good few days, although the wind made for challenging conditions.