Well Folks,
Gotta report on a nice cobia catch today....Today was the first official, lines in the water on location, attempt of the year, however it started a few days ago.. Yesterday was supposed to be the day. Long story short, after several hundreds of dollars on getting ready for the trip- boat registration, fishing license, reels restrung, chum, eels, bunker, flouro carbon, circle hooks....the whole nine.. Seriously Id been planning this trip for days, sitting around snelling hooks, I thought I had every angle covered. Well when we launched yesterday about 8am, the boat worked fine for 10 minutes and then the enginge died and would not start, we had to get towed in a few hundred yards from the ramp .COBIA TRIP OVER.... F***! So .Good thing It happened right at the dock.. I dont have sea tow.. Went home and Called the shop immediately and was told they could not look at it till next week or so.. F***!

Ive been sooooo looking forward to this trip and now it would be two weeks..F***! Needless to say I was not giving up. I went out to do some more investigating and trouble shooting on the Outboard.... After a few hours of tinkering I thought I figured it out.. But at that time the shop was closed.. Woke up this morning at 8. Was not sure if I even felt like messing with it today.. After a debate with myself I decided to try. I Went to the shop for a starter- springs and brushes- rebuild kit and starter solenoid.. Dissasembled and reassembled it all and Damned if it did not work too. Cleaned all with parts with c 4c, Had it back together by 11:30 am ..Loaded up the boat and was off to the ramp, again, and this time SOLO.

Got on the water at around 1pm. Caught all my live croaker bait with the quickness.. Good sign, eh! Nice size little croakers.. I was timing it at one point, I could catch one every 8 seconds or so after the bait was in the water. It took me longer to get em off the hook than to catch one.. I caught about 25-30 and was off to find my spot... Got to the area of the rock and set up... Chum over, & all lines in after 15 minutes or so.. Didnt get a run at all really..Lot of blue fish eating the tails off my baits... Damn Youse Little Blue FISH! So I caught one little shark finally and started to get the feeling it was gonna be one of those days... Sat back popped a beer, it was about 4:twentyish..... .And then that sweet sound we all love to hear... I let her run for a minute, flipped the switch, just started reeling cause of them circles ya know, bam! Line comes tight and theres a huge splash and fury of water about a 50 yards off the stern, way beyond where I was looking! It sure is alot harder fishing alone... I had to reel in all 5 other rods with the quickness, one handed...After I got them all in I just took a minute and was like hell yeah, this is where the fun starts. SHe was just cruising on top making a sweet ass wake in the current lazily... After 10 minutes or so I got her close to the boat... I got a shittyhomemade gaff and a hugenormous net.. I did not know which to use ... I opted with the net... well... I went to scoop. she got spooked and the sinker got hooked on the net.. I thought for sure it was a goner... Thank god for them fish finder rigs...the line just kept peeling through the slider... I was panically trying to undo the caught sinker from the net and trying to hold the rod .. .it was a mess... Dont know how but i got it free and then just took my time and tried to regroup and replan how to get her in the boat... I let her fight about 15-20 minutes more and opted for the net again... I had her right where I wanted... I went to grab the net and the damn thing was caught on a deck box latch now.. This DAMN NET.. I did some more acrabatic bending and stretching, got it free, slid it behind her and, somehow got the damn thing in the net and then in the boat. YEAH BABY!
That fish had me whipped I tell you..About a 30-40 minute fight. One of the best battles Ive ever had.. So all that BS was definitely worth it... And to think, I almost decided not to go this morning, Im so glad I did. It was 52" long.... Went for a live croaker on the bottom..At the Rock..... Im guessing its close to 50# or so...
Ill be back at em next week sometime. So there is number one on the season.. Hopefully more to come. GLTA.. I got some pics Im gonna put on here when I find out how...

sweet fish

WOW! Nice catch. Nice to know someone else fishes with the same style (read: pitfalls) as me. Just toss a 7 yr old in the mix and it reads the same as most of my trips. Shear will and determination pays off in the end.

--Brett

sorry you had the boat truouble. Nice fish, i went yesterday alon as well, and really liked it for a change. As far as a report , well i guess trash fish are still pulling at the other end of the line.

I set anchor at avout 8 30 off of about a mile off the rockpile at Grandview. I Put a chum pot on the anchor chain and a bag over the stern. I had three fluke rigs our with squid hoping for a little blue or 2 for bait. Around 9 10 one of the bait fish rods starts screaming. 25 min later and 2 trips walking around my boat i landed a cow nose ray. I sent her on her merry way. Later on while clearing the 1.5 tons of grass and other crap that had floated into my Fish finder rig, a brown and white stranger cam from und my boat and picked that eel off the surface and ran with it. i guess i set the hook too soon cause he spit it. It was a small fish no mor than 40 inches. I then outa boredom caught 2 hound fish off the surface sight casting. The put on quite a show.

any way by 2:30 i headed in should have stayed out loner fron the looks of the Customerprices.

final total


3 rays
2 hound fish
1 cobia run with and E charged to the angler.
15 or 20 small cobia


i did finaly fo fishing

excellent report and great story

that was definently a great story! nice fish too.

Man, it sounds like you were having one of my type of fishing trips I'm glad to hear that you fixed the problem with the boat and was able to inspire the rest of us lazy bums. Now I'm motivated to get out there and look for Mr. Brown.
Congrat's on the acrabatic catch.

Ed

Glad you bounced back. Great story.
GIL

Going to start cobia fishing this year. Sounds like alot of fun. Any helpful hints? Where is the rockpile?

Blue fish Rock..... is the rock pile. It is up off of hampton near grandview.... Check a local chart and it should be on there. ..
As far as hints........ #1 thing you need to have is patience... You may get lucky your first time, more often than not you need to put some time in.. So basically how Ive had success is, I use about 30-40lb class line... First get lots of chum, I use Tournament master menhaden milk... Its like 20$ for a 30lb block... Get a dozen eels, and some fresh frozen bunker/menhaden too. You need a live bait well too. Pick up some 50# floro carbon for leader material, some fish finder rigs, barrell swivels, and circle hooks with offset eye, extra -extra sharp, 8/0.... I snell up at least a dozen or so.. about 3' leader of floro, to the barrell swivel, with a palomar knot. Make sure your snells are nice and tight, you would hate to see one come un done with a monster on the line. Also You need to have some bottom rigs, hooks, for croaker/spot and I use the fishbites bloodworm to catch the croaker/spot to use for cobia bait. I always like to catch at least 20 -30, nice smallish-medium ones to have for bait before I go off to set up. Try to get spot, as I find them to be more lucky.. Best bet would be get some nice live bunker in a cast net... After all that your pretty darn ready... So go find your place to anchor up.. I like between 10-20' near shoal ledges... Get anchored up, throw chum over.. Get baits in water. I use at least 5 -7 rods at once, all set in free spool, clicker on. Then you just wait for it to sound. You more than likely will encounter sharks and rays... Just cut em off and re-rig, and get it back in the water..Rays suck but often are a good sign as cobia like to travel with them. Also check your baits often, blue fish and other little scoundrels will do a number on your live baits biting tails off. Make sure you Keep em fresh.. I usually put out 2-3 live fish.. croaker or spot, 1-2 eels, and 1-2 cut bunker, all on the bottom..I check em every 20 minutes or so.. Keep a rod ready to pitch to ones you may see on the top behind the boat... Usually if a cobia hits ,your clicker will start screaming like hell...A good Trash fish indicator is a slow click click click ..Cobias usually scream em... let her run for a good 5-10 mississippi count, and then start reeling, keeping line tight and rod up.. If it is a cobe, when the line comes tight and the hook sets, it will more than likey immediately come to the surface and start thrashing.. Set in for a good fight..Take your time and dont horse it unless you have to.. Make sure you have a good gaff or a huge net. And it is best to bring an extra set of hands, it makes it a world easier. Dont have things cluttering you boats deck cause you may be running around... some people like to have a little fish bat to put em down once you get em on board cause they can be a bit hasty.. I hope this helps. Im thinking of putting in some time tomorrow.. Looks good if the weatherman is right. Will let you know how it goes...GLTA!

Customerprices...Greta synopsis. I have never tried but my neighbor is interested. I am a little apprehensive to go with only my normal crew (7 yr old son). Not sure how I would hand a 50+ lb fish with just the two of us. Guess it would make for an entertaining day and a great fishing story.

--Brett

Thank you for an EXCELLENT POST!!!!! I can't wait to get out there for the first time this season. Put in a little time last season without luck--so maybe this is the year. May try on Wednesday.

Thannks for the helpful entertaining posts.

great post! we were there on sunday. even though it was blowing hard, we ran down off grandview on sunday morning from gwynn's island (loved that 5 - 10 forecast!) and anchored in 12 feet of water for the morning high tide. Nothing but whitecaps and 3 foot chop! ... picked up stakes and moved out to 16 feet at the edge of the channel and fished through the afternoon change. Again ... nothing ... nada ... zip. At least the winds calmed down so we did not have to pound our way back up the bay. it was actually a pretty decent 20 couple mile run back to gwynn's in the afternoon.

we fished with eels, croaker, spot and menhaden .. chum top and bottom. it just was not our day!

bo

When you guys gaff em its through the lip right?





NICK

Awesome story. Congrats!

nice report and some good helpfull hints.

I have been there also with the engine problems, but that was after trailering the boat all the way to Hatteras.

Cobia usually are Gaff shy so you have to stick them in the shoulder with the gaff.I have lip gaffed a few so I didnt ruin any meat but they have to be played to do it.It is perfictly legal to stick a Cobia.I keep a few each year but I also use a 6 foot net for the ones I release.Stacking them on the dock like cord wood is wasteful and just not the thing to do.

Great Post and Great fish...Ya earned that one friend.
Tight lines.
Dave

Hey thanks for the reply. Can not wait to get out there.

Thanks Mega, I have never caught one so I wasnt sure although I have tried a few times like today. We were on the water at about 10:30am and caught our bait by 11, we had about 8 nice croakers and spot. We got to the rock at about 11:15 and got all our lines and chum in at about 11:30, we had 2 on top and 2 on bottom and also had a side pole catching plenty of nice croaker and spot.The dolphins where everywhere in the morning untill about 12:30. at about 1:00 we saw about a 3-4ft needle fish messing with our bait on the top. He went through 2 fish on the top when we finally tried to catch him. He was interested in the small spoons we where throwing to him but he was a bit shy and wouldnt swallow them, just hold them in his mouth. At about 3:00 the clicker on the pole that was on the bottom started to pull out at a steady speed. I grabed the pole and faught this fish for around 15 min. When he surfaced and it was a big skate. we left the Rock at about 4 and headed to the Back River Reef try for some flounder with some of the smaller bait that we couldnt use for cobia, but had no luck on that eaither, so we headed in at about 5:00. After it was a slow day but was nice out....




NICK