You know the saying “What’s old is new?” Well, the older I get, the more sense it makes. I see the kids pegging their pant legs like we did in the ’80s. Star Wars is more popular than ever. And certain old-school fishing tactics are back in vogue.

When I was a kid, my dad would load us and his gear into his 24-foot Albemarle, carry us across the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to the edge of Inner Middle Ground Shoal and throw out the anchor. He’d break out a half dozen Penn setups rigged with fish-finder rigs. After baiting up with chunks of menhaden, he’d cast the rigs around the boat and deploy a bag of chum. Then, we’d wait.

Fishermen are famous for their patience, but waiting for hours while boiling under the hot sun, all the while swatting flies and listening to the waves slap on the hull, would test the resolve of a saint. Not to mention the weird bycatch fish. Skates, car-hood rays and small sharks were more annoying than the green flies.

In those days, cobia fishermen were a special sort of crazy, suffering the worst conditions to catch one of the biggest inshore trophies. On a hot August afternoon, with thunderstorms on the horizon, the shoals at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay were lined with boats and covered in a sheen of menhaden oil. Many anglers tried to catch these finicky beasts, but few were successful.

Those few had turned cobia fishing into a passion, devoting their lives to the pursuit. The payoff came in one of the largest and most unpredictable coastal game fish. These fish can grow up to 100 pounds, bigger than most inshore sport fish.

No two cobia fight the same. They will run, charge, roll, dive and even jump. Often, a free-swimming cobia will follow a hooked fish to the boat. That’s when real chaos kicks in as the crew scrambles to pitch a bait. Then there are the stories of hooked cobia getting wrapped up in the anchor rope and chum line. I’ve seen guys jump off the boat to free a cobia caught up in bridge pilings. After sacrificing blood, sweat and sanity, they were not about to let a cobia get away.

Chumming for Cobia Lost Favor Over the Last Decade

About 20 years ago, local anglers returning from the fabled cobia waters off Florida brought heavy spinning rods, big bucktails and stories of free-swimming cobia. Within a couple summers, sight-casting towers were popping up like tulips in spring. The chumming hopefuls had become sight-casting cowboys. I was one of them.

If I could catch cobia by driving around the bay at 10 knots, to hell with chumming! The choice seemed obvious. Trade in chum, cut bait, live bait, hours in the sun, no breeze and trash fish for cruising around, face in the wind, a bucket full of eels, a couple of bucktails, two rods and no trash fish. I was sold. So were many, many anglers.

It wasn’t long before I figured out that sight-fishing for cobia isn’t easy either. The sun is just as hot, the fish are just as finicky, the outboard burns more fuel and my success rate improved only slightly. After a couple of summers driving around and going blind staring through the bright sun into the empty water, I was ready to catch a trash fish!

Chumming for Cobia is Popular Once Again

I caught up with my old friend Wes Blow to learn more about chumming for cobia. While the rest of us were sight-fishing, Blow was perfecting his bait-fishing tactics.

“I like the chaos,” he explained to me over the phone. Blow often fishes alone. Juggling a spastic cobia while trying to clear lines, pull in the chum bucket and then land the thrashing fish solo makes his blood run hot. Instead of explaining his methods and madness, he invited me to join him on his next trip.

We met at Wallace’s Marina in Hampton, Virginia, hours before sunrise. Blow loaded the boat with a half dozen three-gallon chum buckets and two dozen eels. He grinds his own chum out of fresh menhaden. His recipe mixes one gallon of menhaden oil with 100 pounds of fish. We ran out of Back River, and Blow stopped the boat in a deep channel. He armed two rods with two-hook bottom rigs baited with Fishbites bloodworm and 2-ounce bank sinkers. We drifted down the channel and quickly added three dozen croaker to the livewell.

By the time the sun peeked over the horizon, we were heading toward the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Blow said he starts cobia fishing as soon as the water temperature hits 68 degrees. “The first fish show up off Hampton, at York Spit and Bluefish Rock,” Blow said.

On this slick-calm August day, Blow motored to the shoals on the inside side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. He anchors on a sharp drop or significant hump so the boat is in shallow water and the chum slick is drifting into the deep. “I like the tide and wind going in the same direction,” he said. “That way the stern of the boat and chum slick are pointing in the same direction.”

With no wind and a morning outgoing tide, Blow anchored along the edge of Inner Middle Ground Shoal so the chum slick trailed toward the bridge. Blow keeps the anchor rope tied to a polyball so he can quickly ditch the anchor when he hooks a big cobia.

As the boat settled in the current, Blow dumped a three‑gallon bucket of chum into a five-gallon bucket with holes drilled in it and diving weights in the bottom. He dropped the bucket over the stern and let it sink to the bottom.

Cobia Fishing Techniques

As the greasy slick snaked its way with the current, Blow pulled out four medium-heavy combos spooled with 65-pound braided line. When I noticed that each reel has a different color line, he explained: “If I get a tangle, I quickly know which line is coming from what reel.” I joked, “They must love you at the tackle shop.”

Each rod is outfitted with a fish-finder rig. Blow threaded a plastic fish-finder slide over the braided line and tied on a 250-pound-test swivel. He attached a 2½-foot length of 80-pound Ande monofilament snelled to a big J hook. “I use an 8/0 hook for eels and a 10/0 for croaker,” he said. He likes a J hook because it improves his hookup ratio. “Big cobia have a hard, bony jaw,” he told me. “And a J hook will stick anywhere.” Because cobia often pick up the bait and charge the boat or jump and thrash, Blow feels the J hook has a better chance of finding purchase. “Very few cobia [that I catch] are deep-hooked,” he insisted.

No one is more concerned with the well-being of these brown bombers than Blow, who serves on the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council subcommittee for cobia. He’s fought for years for sensible regulations to protect both the species and anglers’ rights.

Blow clips 8-ounce pyramid sinkers to two lines. The other two lines get a 4-ounce bank sinker. He drops the heavier sinkers right off the stern. “I catch 75 percent of my fish on the baits right next to the chum bucket.” The other two lines are stationed 20 feet behind the boat. “I catch the biggest fish on the longer lines,” he added.

Blow clears the deck and keeps the menhaden oil scrubbed off. The anchor is ready on the buoy. His rigs are fresh and tackle pristine. “Cobia will test every inch of your gear,” he stressed throughout the day. “You have to be ready when that 100-pounder is on the line.”

Hot Cobia Fishing

With the lines set and the chum flowing, we sat back and waited. The early morning humidity was already sitting on us like a wet towel. It wasn’t long before we got our first bite. I grabbed my camera, and Blow grabbed the rod. “It’s a shark,” he announced even before seeing the fish.

I stowed the camera, and Blow brought the 4-foot biter to the side of the boat. “Hold the rod,” he ordered, and I obeyed. He reached down, took a couple wraps on the leader, threaded the line onto a dehooker and, with a twist of the wrist, released the shark. The dehooker easily grabbed hold of the J hook, although a circle likely would have had similar results.

Blow rerigged the leader and replaced the bait in the spread. “I must catch a thousand sharks each summer,” he lamented. “Maybe more.” According to Blow, trash fish are just part of the fun. The key is to keep an extra rod rigged up and ready to deploy while fighting a shark or ray.

It wasn’t long before one of the rods bucked heavily. Then the line went slack. Blow was quick to react, jumping on the rod and reeling the line tight. A 3-foot brown fish skirted the surface of the water 30 feet behind the boat. When the fish turned to run, Blow jerked the rod tip to set the hook. Then he engaged the clicker on the reel and put the rod back in the holder. We worked quickly to clear the other rods. I pulled up the chum bucket and left it dangling at the surface. “With the clicker on, I can listen to what the fish is doing while I prepare the boat,” he explained.

Once the lines were in and the deck clear, Blow returned to fighting the cobia. Brown bombers are one of the most unpredictable fish on a line. This one pulled all the tricks. Their favorite move is to come to the boat quickly. When I reached for the net, Blow barked, “I don’t even try to land them when they first come to the boat.” He’s wise to their tricks. “I hit the fish on the head with the net and it will freak out and run again.”

I reached in with the net and scooped a 30-pounder into the boat. The fish slithered on the deck while Blow quickly removed the hook and measured it. Then he inserted an orange spaghetti tag and returned the fish to the water. He held onto the lip and let the cobia regain its composure. When the fish gave a kick that covered Blow with green water, he let it swim away.

By now, the sun was up in full force and the heat building. Blow’s open center console offered no place to hide, and my light clothes stuck to my skin. I gulped water and moved around the boat trying to find any breeze. The surface of the bay was slick-calm, and the boat hardly rocked. Luckily, the fishing was just as hot as the weather. We landed a couple more brown fish in the 20- to 30-pound range as the tide ripped toward the ocean.

When the current began to slack, Blow moved the boat to the east side of the bridge, where we rode out the incoming tide. We caught more cobia, including one fish that pushed 50 pounds. All of the fish were tagged and released. Sure, we caught a few sharks and rays, but that didn’t rain on the parade. I considered the day a major success.

At one point, I spotted three cobia swimming along the edge of the shoal, 30 yards in front of the boat. I grabbed a heavy spinning reel and 3-ounce ­bucktail that Blow keeps just for such occasions. With all of my might, I heaved the lure at the idling fish. The bucktail landed with a splash a few feet ahead of the pack. I watched their fins slash the surface, I gave the rod tip a jerk and all three fish turned on the bucktail. I let the lure drop. The fish swam down.

I jigged again, cranked a few feet of line, jigged again, but nothing happened. I did everything right, but sometimes cobia simply won’t cooperate with a lure presentation. All the more reason to chum for them.

After hours of action, we’d released a half dozen cobia. Each fish fought its own fight. With one of us on the reel and the other scooting around the cockpit, we were able to control the chaos. I saw Blow’s point about action. Too many times I’ve gone all day sight-fishing without taking the rod out of the holder. That definitely won’t happen when chumming up cobia.

Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program

In an effort to track fish movements and monitor populations, the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program recruits volunteer anglers to place numbered tags in 11 species of sport fish. Participants are trained on how to insert tags and record data. The resulting information plays a big part in tracking fish numbers and setting regulations. Cobia have been a big star of the program: One fish tagged in Virginia was recaptured in the Gulf of Mexico, off Texas. Wes Blow tags dozens of cobia each summer. Because he receives a notification when one of his tags is returned, the information helps him refine his cobia strategy. To get involved in the program, visit mrc.virginia.gov.

Cobia Fishing Supply List

• Medium-heavy conventional or spinning combos spooled with 80-pound braided line
• 8-ounce pyramid sinkers
• 4- to 6-ounce bank sinkers
• 8/0 and 10/0 J hooks on 80-pound mono leader and
• Fish-finder slide
• Five-gallon chum bucket drilled with ½-inch holes
• Three-gallon buckets of menhaden chum
• Two dozen live eels
• Three dozen live croaker or spot

The post Chumming for Cobia appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

For decades, the cobia migration along the Florida Panhandle in the spring brought Chris Wagner, of Fort Walton Beach, the most incredible fishing of his life. “Up in the tower of our Hatteras, the wind at our backs, the sun in my eyes, spotting those fish, that’s what I loved,” he said. “When I saw one, it was like an electrical shock went through my body.”

Wagner, a retired HVAC contractor, had those spring days for more than 30 years. He started fishing for cobia in 1989, and he got his own boat in ’90. “All through the ‘90s we had double-digit sightings, days when we saw 60 to 70 fish,” Wagner told me recently. “From ’97 through the early 2000s we’d get 100-pounders, routinely.”

Tournaments grew big, big cash and big crowds. Wagner and his team took first place in many of them. Some they won repeatedly. Now it’s all gone. The cobia are not dependable. And the big tournaments stopped. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “Last year we went out a few times. Some days we didn’t even see a fish. We kept one cobia all season.”

Anglers started seeing a slowdown in cobia numbers about 10 years ago, in 2013 and ’14.

“To me,” Wagner says, “it boils down to one thing: overfishing. I’m as guilty as anybody, too. It’s not one person’s fault. I got to the point where I felt like whatever needs to be done to bring them back should be done. Regulations can help. I still wish that they would go for a Gulf-wide closure on cobia,” he says. “Any regulation changes have to be Gulf-wide.”

Cobia Regulations Reconsidered

“We first heard about a potential problem in 2016 or 2017,” says Emily Muehlstein, Public Information Officer for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. “Commenters from the Panhandle region of Florida and from Texas expressed concern about cobia’s decline. Simultaneously folks in Louisiana and South Florida indicated that the stock was doing fine.

“Then we received a surge in comments expressing concern for cobia starting in 2018 when we were working on Framework Amendment 7, which increased the Gulf cobia size limit to 36 inches fork length,” Muehlstein said.

In 2022, the Gulf Council reduced the annual catch limit for cobia of 4,500,000 pounds down to 2,600,000 for 2023—a sizeable reduction. The Council also reduced the bag and vessel limit to one cobia per person, two per vessel. The next Gulf-wide stock assessment is scheduled for 2025. In the interim, Muehlstein said, the Council has embarked on efforts to learn more from fishing communities about how the fisheries for cobia and other coastal migratory pelagics have changed in recent years in hopes of informing proactive management decisions.

Where Did the Cobia Go?

If the biggest cobia in the Gulf were fished out of the stock, the species would need time and protection to recover. Other factors, however, might also be at play. The Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 is sometimes cited, the suggestion being that its pollutants destroyed cobia’s spawn. Changing sea surface temperatures might also have a role.

Anglers like Wagner who observe their regional waters over decades point out another possible factor—cyclical shifts in migration patterns of pelagic and coastal pelagic species. Wagner, and other anglers on the Gulf and the Atlantic coasts, say that while Panhandle cobia have declined, catches along certain Atlantic coast locations have increased.

“In the last 5 to 10 years, they’ve actually crushed them up in North Carolina,” Wagner says. “We know that Gulf cobia go up the East Coast. Some of the fish that we’ve tagged along the Panhandle have shown up in the Chesapeake Bay.”

A Cobia Mystery

Read Hendon is Oceanic and Coastal Pelagics Branch Chief at the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center. For years, Hendon conducted tagging studies on cobia with Jim Franks at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory at the University of Southern Mississippi. Among other insights, their work suggested that there might be a more western route of seasonal migration for cobia in the Gulf and that some cobia overwintered around deep oil rigs in the north-central Gulf, but he has not seen studies that confirm a shift in migration patterns.

“Based on the most recent stock assessment and lack of any direct research into distributional shifts or changes in migratory patterns,” Hendon says, “the absence is more of a mystery from a scientific perspective at this time.”

Chris Wagner said the idea that they’re still in the Gulf has occurred to him. “If we found out that they were down deeper, out farther, and still going by the Panhandle, I could live with that. But if the cobia returned and I got to catch them with my grandkids, that would make me happy.”

The post What Happened to Florida’s Panhandle Cobia? appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Native Mississippi fisherman Nick Strayham always knew the first full moon in October was the accepted time that cobia would be cruising back east along his area of the Gulf Coast during their reverse migration back to winter in the warmer water of South Florida.

So, on Oct. 9, at the height of the full moon, he and some visiting work buddies loaded up gear and headed offshore from his home port of Biloxi for a go at hard-fighting cobia.

“We got a late start, about 11 a.m., because the weather was supposed to be awful,” he says. “But it turned out perfect, calm and sunny. So, we jumped at our good fortunes and headed offshore. We were on my buddy Josh Clifford’s 36-foot Yellowfin ‘StrikeZone’, with three 300 hp Yamahas and Josh at the helm.”

There were 9 anglers aboard, including Strayham and Clifford. The other fishermen were newbies to offshore fishing, all from New Mexico on a business outing with Strayham for his Lamey Electric business in Biloxi.

The first order of fishing was catching live bait, which Strayham said was easy with two cast of a net, as menhaden schools are thick along the Mississippi Coast now.

“Then we went looking for some structure that would hold cobia,” says Strayham. “Almost anything can be good, range markers, channel markers, buoys, ledges, even big crab traps. All of them can attract bait, and that attracts cobia.”

Thr first spot they tried, they sent a live menhaden bait to the bottom, and immediately got a strike. One of the New Mexico visitors who’d never even seen saltwater previously was hooked up. He fought the fish for 15 minutes, and when it came topside and into view near the boat, other cobia had followed the hooked fish to the surface.

“We had other rods rigged and ready with live baits, so we could pick out the bigger fish with the hooked one that we also wanted to catch,” says Strayham. “This way we had double headers, and once we had a triple header of cobia.”

All their fish were big and fat, ranging from 30 to 45 pounds. Through the day they saw about 30 cobia around various structures they tried, and only a couple cobia were small fish. The only free-swimming cobia they spotted were four fish following a large sea turtle.

By mid-afternoon, the anglers had caught seven large cobia, losing only one fish. While they could have caught more, seven hard-battling cobia is plenty good enough for a short, four-hour fishing trip.

The autumn run of Gulf cobia is really overlooked, Strayman explains. Hunting season is on, kids are back in school, football games, and other fall activities have a lot of people doing other things instead of chasing cobia.

“Everybody loves spring fishing for migrating cobia when they’re coming out of South Florida and skirting the coast heading west towards Texas,” he says. “But the fish head back in the fall and are an overlooked target for many fishermen.”

The arrival of big cobia in such abundance near Biloxi now bodes well for similarly good fishing over the next couple months to the east and south along the Gulf Coast. Cobia eventually spend the winter around reefs, wrecks and ledges off South Florida, until spring weather triggers the opposite migration north, then west, along the Gulf Coast.

The post Fall-Run Cobia Rocking Along the Mississippi Gulf Coast appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The fish was tough and deep, and even though Connecticut angler John Bertolasio thought he was battling a shark, he stayed the course and boated the fish. It took 90 minutes to land it, which Bertolasio still believed to be a heavyweight shark.

Until he sent a photo of his catch to a buddy.

“John did not know what he had caught until he sent the picture of the fish to a friend,” according to a Facebook Post from Connecticut Fish and Wildlife (DEEP). “Once he found out it was legal (and good eating), he kept it.”

Bertolasio used a live eel bait on Long Sand Shoal to dupe the fish. Then he battled the 44-pound cobia for 1.5 hours, even breaking his fishing rod in the process when the fish made a deep, straight down run.

The DEEP reports that Bertolasio’s cobia unofficially measured 54-inches long and weighed 44-pounds.

Cobia are so rare in the Northeastern U.S., that the DEEP saltwater record fish listing doesn’t even mention cobia. The species is so infrequently caught off Connecticut that the state relegates the species to an “Exotic Marine Species Category”.

There, the official Connecticut record for cobia is an 18-pounder, caught in 2008 by anger Nicholas Carafeno off East Haven. Once Bertolasio has his cobia’s weight certified on proper scales and fills out state record paperwork, his fish should easily be the top cobia ever caught in the state.

Long Sand Shoal where Bertolasio caught his fish is located in the Connecticut portion of Long Island Sound. Long Sand Shoal stretches six miles from east to west, paralleling the towns of Old Saybrook and Westbrook, Connecticut and 1.5 miles south of Cornfield Point.

Cobia are a popular and much sought after fish wherever they’re found, which usually is in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico region. There, 20 to 40 pounders are caught regularly, and fish pushing 100 pounds are occasionally taken.

Their demeanor, size and swimming style is very shark-like, and they commonly are mistaken for the toothy predators. Cobia, however, do not have such fearsome dentures, but are very strong fighters on hook and line.

The IGFA All-Tackle World Record cobia weighed a remarkable 135-pounds, 9-ounces, caught off Shark Bay, Australia in 1985 by Jarvis Walker using a mullet bait.

The post Slammer Cobia Caught Where They’re Not Supposed to Exist appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Hot Spot: Virginia Beach, Virginia
Species: Cobia

In the lower Chesapeake Bay, summertime means hot action on big cobia. Fishing out of Virginia Beach, Captain Ben Shepherd of Above Average Sportfishing (757-621-5094) has been sight fishing for cobia northwest of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, along the split in the York River channel.

Shepherd’s primary tactic is hunting cobia that are swimming just below the surface. To find cruising cobia, Shepherd slowly drives his 31-foot Cape Horn, Notorious, along the channel edges and shallow shoals looking for the big brown fish in the clear-green water.

Cobia fishing is simple. Shepherd keeps a handful of seven to eight-foot spinning rods with 4000 to 5000 series spinning reels spooled with 50-pound braided line. He ties an arm’s length of 50- pound fluorocarbon to the mainline and attaches a three-ounce bucktail or leadhead jig and seven-inch soft plastic tail. He also preps several rods with an 8/0 circle hook and live eel, croaker, or spot. When he spots a cobia, he first casts the bucktail. If the lure doesn’t get bit, he switches to a live eel, croaker, or spot. Shepherd says, “Spot have been the hot bait this year.”

Shepherd says this summer’s hot new lure is the Yozuri Inshore 3D Twitchbait. “Just throw it at the fish and give a good jerk.” Once he has the cobia’s attention, he works the twitchbait with a twitch, twitch, pause cadence. “They really pile on it.” he says.

This week, Shepherd is happy to announce bait balls have finally moved into the area. To find the cobia, Shepherd first finds schools of menhaden bunched up on the surface.

“Look for the schools to open up as cobia feed below,” he says. He rarely spots the cobia in the school, instead he looks for nervous bait.

When he finds an active school, Shepherd casts a bucktail near the menhaden and lets it sink. Then, he jigs the bucktail in place before working it back to the boat. If the bucktail doesn’t get bites, he moves to a live eel or spot he light-lines into the school.

As the season progresses, Shepherd expects the cobia to gather around the pilings of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. In early August, he will change tactics to slowly patrolling the edge of the bridge looking for cobia swimming just below the surface.

Toward the end of summer, cobia will move to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay where they will swim on the surface with schools of stingrays. Shepherd says, “We’ve already found cobia on the rays this summer, so I expect the fishing will be really good in August.”

The post Bite of the Week appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

I remember seeing my first free-swimming cobia. I’d heard reports about Florida and North Carolina anglers bringing their sight-fishing skills to my home waters of the Chesapeake Bay. I had to try that technique.

Since we needed full sun to spot a fish on the surface, I didn’t even launch the boat until 9 a.m. The summer day was glass calm, hot and humid. I stood at the helm of my 20-foot Jones Brothers bay boat; my brother Roger took the bow position, holding a heavy spinning rod baited with a 2-ounce bucktail. We zig-zagged at 6 knots up the Chesapeake Bay on the lookout.

With perfect sight-fishing conditions, we quickly spotted a fin cutting a V wake across the mirrorlike water.

As I worked the boat closer, we saw a 4-foot long brown fish swimming just below the surface. I slowed the boat; Roger launched a cast, and the lure landed a few feet ahead of the cobia. The fin swirled, and the brown fish pounced on the lure. Roger came tight and hooked the fish.

Easy, right?

Judging by that first try, sight fishing seemed easy. But if that was true, why do 10 percent of cobia anglers seem to catch 90 percent of the fish? To improve my game (and yours), as the cobia linger through late spring and early summer, I called three top pros and asked for some of their secrets. With new tools now in my box, I’m looking forward to looking for cobia.

First Find

Sight-fishing for cobia requires driving around a big ocean looking for a small brown dot. To narrow the odds, scan for bait pods, color or temperature changes, circling birds, turtles, sharks and rays. Cobia also hide around structures like buoys or pilings. Basically, anything out of the ordinary could hold a curious cobia.

But consistently finding the fish takes more knowledge and effort. Guides who are on the water day after day track trends year after year. To truly target cobia, they have to predict the unpredictable.

Off of Destin, Florida, often considered the Mecca of cobia sight-fishing, Cameron Parkhurst, co-captain of the Instigator Fishing Team, says the season has seemed shorter in recent years, and it tends to wax and wane.

Parkhurst theorizes that cobia ride ocean currents from Brazil into the Gulf. Any disruption in the current could result in fewer cobia passing northwest Florida.

With current playing a big part in cobia behavior, Parkhurst pays close attention to the direction and speed the coastal water moves. “Cobia are lazy and will use every advantage to migrate,” he says.

Parkhurst prefers current-against-wind conditions. “This seems to bring the fish to the surface,” he says. Choppy seas also make it easier to spot the fish riding the face of a wave.

On Florida’s east coast, Capt. James Dumas of Drum Man Fishing Charters has also seen tougher cobia conditions. “The last few years have been horrible,” Dumas says bluntly.

For Dumas, manta rays hold the key to finding cobia. As the giant winged fish glide down the beach, cobia follow in their wake. One ray can have a dozen cobia in tow, he says.

To start his search, the captain first puts water between himself and other anglers. South of St. Augustine, the next navigable inlet lies 40 miles away. Fishing the area in between, which Dumas calls “the desert,” gives him easier access to unmolested rays.

Cautious Approach

Just because you see a cobia doesn’t mean you’ll get a chance to cast. Every time I spot a cobia, buck fever begins. I scream and point, ordering my friends around the boat while trying to get in position for a cast. In contrast, cobia pros remain cool and calculated in their approach.

Capt. Donnie Davis of DOA Charters, who fishes the North Carolina Outer Banks for cobia and red drum, maneuvers his boat to match the fish’s speed and parallels its direction. He carefully closes the distance until he moves just inside casting range. “I want to make the longest cast possible,” he adds.

Davis positions the boat so that the fish swims directly off to the side or slightly behind him. When the fish takes the bait, Davis can motor ahead to help drive the hook home.

As the angler fights the fish, Davis keeps the boat in gear so the fish stays off the stern. “If I lose a cobia in the motor or under the boat, it’s my fault,” he says

When it comes to hooking a cobia, Cameron Parkhurst advises captains to develop a strategy. Parkhurst keeps two live eels, two 2-ounce bucktails and a live pinfish or ruby lips ready to deploy. “First we throw the eel and then follow-up with the live bait,” he says. When Parkhurst finds a cobia school, he uses the bucktail to entice smaller fish away so he can target the biggest cobia with an eel.

When Dumas spots a ray holding cobia, he approaches carefully. “If the ray goes down that’s it,” he says. Dumas used to turn off his outboard and drop the trolling motor, but he says the change in pitch spooks the fish.

Tackle Time

While anglers often describe cobia as curious and aggressive, these fish can also be frustratingly picky. The trick to teasing a fussy cobia into taking your bait comes down to the details.

The typical cobia rod and reel comprises a medium-heavy to heavy action spinning rod paired with a 5500- to 8000-size reel. Use the heavier set up for heavy jigs and big live baits; the lighter combo best casts a live eel.

Spool the reel with 30- to 50-pound braided line tied with a line-to-line knot or a 250-pound swivel to a 2-foot, 40- to 80-pound fluorocarbon leader. Clearer water and finicky fish call for lighter leader.

Starting with this base set up, each pro adds his own personal touch. Davis likes a shorter, 6-foot, 6-inch rod. “I hate to lose a fish close to the boat,” he says. A shorter rod offers more control when the fish is near gaffing range.

To pull a cobia off a ray, Dumas uses large paddletail swimbaits such as the Z-Man Mag SwimZ. “I think the thump of the swimbait’s tail gets the cobia excited,” he explains.

When cobia grow finicky, he switches to a 6- to 8-inch jerk bait on a ½ ounce jighead. “I can cast the jerkbait 60 yards,” he says.

Read Next: Sight-Fishing Cobia off North Carolina

For Parkhurst, the secret to suckering a cobia is downsizing the leader and hook size. He likes to hook a live eel with a No. 4 4X treble hook. He pins the bait through the back just behind the pectoral fins. The small treble and light line are almost undetectable to sharp-sighted cobia.

Little touches like that separate the cobia elite from the masses. This summer, consider tracking migration trends, developing a strategy for approaching the fish, and using the right tackle to up your odds.

The post Pros’ Tips for Sight-Casting to Cobia appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Many anglers who fish the northern Gulf of Mexico have expressed concern over a perceived decline in the Gulf cobia population. As a result of that, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has announced plans to modify the commercial and recreational minimum size limit for Gulf cobia in federal waters to a 36-inch fork length.

The announcement came October 25, after the council heard public comment at its October meeting in Mobile, Alabama.

According to the council, the most recent Gulf cobia stock assessment was completed in 2013, and the next assessment is scheduled to begin in 2019. Increasing the Gulf cobia minimum size limit to 36 inches fork length is expected to reduce landings by 10.3 percent for the commercial sector and 26.1 percent for the recreational sector.

The suggested Gulf cobia management changes will now be transmitted to the Secretary of Commerce for approval and implementation.

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For me, a true sign of spring making the transition to summer follows on the heels of the first reports of cobia being caught off the North Carolina coast.

Sight-fishing for cobia had its genesis, at least in terms of boat design, in the northern Gulf of Mexico, where many boats bear towers and elevated casting platforms. Similarly, as the cobia sight-fishery off North Carolina has exploded in recent years, these days you’ll see many boats sporting towers and elevated platforms.

Cobia sight-fishing has become a major sport in the saltwater recreational-fishing scene along the coast of North Carolina, a sport to which many — like me — are totally addicted.

During the first half of May, North Carolina anglers normally encounter the season’s first cobia around nearshore open-Atlantic shoals. As water temperatures warm, cobia move from offshore to inshore areas. This availability makes North Carolina one of the top bets on the Atlantic Coast for spring cobia action. (Though mid-May through ­mid-June is a peak period, cobia continue to be targeted and caught through the summer.)

Major hot spots for spring cobia include Cape Lookout Shoals and Diamond Shoals, as well as Oregon Inlet.

Sight-Fishing Hot Shots

Early in the season last year, I joined sight-fishing enthusiasts Carl Perry and J.T. Frazier on the charter Rock Solid (a 36 Ricky Scarborough), departing the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center at 7:30 a.m. For me — still recalling our 4:30 a.m. departures when I worked as a mate on an offshore charter boat 30-some years ago — we were uncomfortably late. However, Capt. Aaron Kelly reminded me that “there’s no use in our getting out there before the sun’s up high enough for us to see clearly enough into the water” since we were all about spotting cobia.

Kelly was no random or casual choice of a charter. I knew that Kelly runs one of the most accomplished cobia boats on the East Coast. At the same time, his first mate, Bob Feldhaus, is a cobia expert who has developed a line of Meat Hog jigs, extraordinarily effective bucktails for cobia.

As we cruised out the inlet, Kelly told us that yesterday they’d spotted 24 cobes but hooked only eight. “The fish weren’t turned on,” he said, as they had been earlier in the week.

Adapt and Hook Up

Rock Solid headed toward the fourth set of inlet buoys. The sun hadn’t really materialized; we faced a 15-knot southwest wind under mostly cloudy skies — not great conditions for sight-casting.

We strained to see any cobia that might be on these navigation markers. Kelly believes these to be the best cobia attractors in the area, commenting, “I’ve made my entire day on many occasions by fishing these markers.”

However, on that morning, we found no fish on any of the markers, including the last of the markers that locals call the sea buoy.

After clearing the sea buoy, we ran south of the inlet, all three anglers in the tower trying to cover every angle of water, gazing through our polarized sunglasses and hoping to spot a cobia through the glare and chop. Kelly zigzagged from within 400 yards of the beach to a half-mile out, but we spotted no brown-backed surface swimmers.

After three fruitless hours, as we arrived off the beaches of Rodanthe, we spotted our first cobia. Unfortunately, after we made several unsuccessful casts, the fish disappeared. Not much later, we saw a pair of cobia. I managed a good cast just to their left, and the larger of the two darted out to eat the ­bucktail. After a brief battle, we had the 32-inch cobia unhooked and released.

Over the next three hours, we saw another dozen cobia, in singles and pairs, and we hooked and released six, the largest of these fish at 36 inches, which is the minimum size limit for cobia in North Carolina.

By 2:30 that afternoon, a line of storms made sight-fishing impossible. We adapted quickly, changing techniques to slow-troll live menhaden that we had cast-netted earlier, rigged behind 2-ounce egg sinkers. The baits weren’t in the water for 15 minutes when both rods went down.

After the first fish came unbuttoned five minutes into the fight, we saw that the hook had broken. I continued to wrestle the other cobia. But after another 15 minutes, with the fish finally boatside, the unmistakable copper orange of a red drum appeared.

Setting the rod in the holder (as years of being a first mate had me acting instinctively), I grabbed the line, led the redfish to the boat, and lifted it carefully onto the deck. Quickly unhooking the hefty catch once we had measured the fish at 46 inches, we released it.

Successful First Day

By then, the storms had passed and we resumed sight-fishing. We ended up spotting three more cobia, releasing two of those, for a day’s total 17 fish sighted and nine caught and released (none quite went the legal size).

Bottom line: We had seen a good number of fish under very challenging conditions and managed a decent success rate. We were, however, puzzled as to why we saw no legal-size fish that day, and speculated that we’d caught smaller cobia that had recently made their way to waters near the beach.

Clear, sunny days with winds remaining less than 12 knots offer best conditions. On such days, I’ve seen totals as high as 70 fish spotted and up to 30 hooked and released.

Heavy-overcast windy days take sight-fishing pretty well out of the equation, but skippers still catch cobia by fishing live croakers or eels near a chum bucket on the bottom. No live bait? You can sure catch cobia on cut bait, but also expect a higher percentage of hookups from fish you don’t really want.

Best Tackle and Jigs

Kelly and Feldhaus have collaborated to make great advances in sight-fishing for cobia, including the development of best colors and optimal bucktail jigs, presentation techniques, and best rod-and-reel combinations for casting to and landing cobia, they have truly advanced the fishery.

From time spent with them, it seems that the best outfits for sight-fishing cobia are 8-foot spinning rods with soft-action tips for casting, and stiff butts for putting on the pressure, such as the Shimano popping-rod series. While I favor Shimano reels, in general, spinners from 8000 to 14000 size filled with 40- to 50-pound braid work well. Feldhaus adds to each rig a 4-foot section of 40- to 50-pound-test Seaguar fluorocarbon leader attached to the braid with an FG knot.

I’ve had great success with Feldhaus’ Meat Hog jigs, especially lighter-colored heads dressed with brightly colored feathers. My personal favorite is a bright-green squid-head Meat Hog jig called the Green Goblin, with bright-and-dark-green feathers and a translucent-green twister tail.

To minimize the twister tail interfering with the hook, I snip off some of the plastic body to shorten the lure so the hook comes out just ahead of where the round body flattens to the tail. While fishing with Kelly a few years ago on Diamond Shoals, I caught 98- and 96-pound cobia the same day using a Green Goblin jig. Kelly likes a Meat Hog flathead bucktail in a brownish-copper color dressed with emu feathers, which he calls the Emu Flash. He fishes this lure without a tail because “on that jig, the feathers provide the lure action.”

One Leatherback, a Zillion Pogies and Dozens of Cobia

That first day on Rock Solid had been successful given the somewhat-challenging conditions, but we were ready for a bang-up second session.

Unfortunately, the weather for the Oregon Inlet area the next morning was unsettled. Radar showed a line of slow-moving storms west of the strand of beaches from Rodanthe to Buxton to Hatteras Inlet.

But the captain confidently asked us, “Are you guys ready to go?”

“What about the weather?” I returned.

“You can’t catch ’em at the dock! Let’s go.” And with that, Kelly fired up the diesel engine on Rock Solid and we headed out.

Read Next: Chumming for Cobia

Sure enough, at the can buoy on the way, a cobia that looked to be in the 60-pound range nailed my bright-green Gremlin model of Meat Hog bucktail with a white plastic tail, but it came unbuttoned.

A half-hour later, heading south off the coast, we spotted a giant leatherback turtle and aimed toward it in hopes that a retinue of cobia would be in tow.

Sure enough, just as the leatherback raised its mammoth head out of the water, we saw four nice-size cobia. From the tower, we struggled to get the right angle to cast jigs in front of the fish. Perry and I both hooked up; the cobia promptly had our lines crossed and we scrambled to keep lines clear, ­eventually getting a pair of 40-pounders to the boat. We released both.

The weather improved, and we continued to see cobia, catching and releasing nine.

Then we came upon a school of menhaden that stretched as far as the eye could see, with bait showering here and there. We noticed areas within the acres of bait where the surface was smooth. We quickly discovered that within these calm areas, the baitfish had cleared out to make room for cobia looking for a meal.

I wondered if in those circumstances, with unlimited bait all around, the cobia would eat a bucktail jig. “Well, we’re fixin’ to find out!” Kelly said with a laugh.

I cast a pink-and-white bucktail in front a big cobia sitting in the middle of tens of thousands of pogies. The fish didn’t even hesitate, eating the jig right away. Some 20 minutes later, I landed that healthy 60-pounder.

By day’s end, we had seen more than 50 cobia, catching and releasing 12 fish more than 40 pounds.

During the peak of North Carolina’s cobia season, days like this aren’t uncommon. The excitement and visual impact of sight-fishing for cobia is as good as fishing gets. Up and down the nearshore coastal waters of the state, from the Crystal Coast to the Outer Banks, sight-fishing for cobia reigns supreme in late spring and early summer.

About the Author Rob Wittman grew up working on charter boats in North Carolina and Virginia. He now represents the First Congressional District in Virginia in the United States Congress. He is chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, which works on issues and ­legislation important to recreational fishermen.

Popular Cobia Lures

In recent years, whole new lines of lures designed to target cobia have cropped up, primarily jigs, including lead-heads dressed with various types of bucktail and feathers in bright color combinations, suspending jigs and jig heads rigged with eels or swimming bodies.

Bob Feldhaus hand-makes his line of Meat Hog jigs, which he co-owns with Aaron Kelly, and they enjoy a devout following in the mid-Atlantic area. Bowed Up lures made in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, also have a very dedicated following. Magic Tail bucktails, from New Jersey, are well-made and reliable cobia catchers. Wahoo! lures suspending bucktail jigs with a rattle chamber sink very slowly, staying in front of cobia longer than a lead-head jig. Hogy lures’ 9-inch HUDV Jigging Eel has a great action and is a proven cobia catcher. Similarly, RonZ Performance Soft Baits in the 6- and 8-inch original series do a great job of fooling cobia by imitating eels. The Elaztech Z-Man 10-inch HeroZs are nearly indestructible and so light that they fall slowly, making them great for cobia. Berkley’s Gulp! comes in a 6-inch grub that works ­­beauti­fully on a bucktail jig, and its scent technology helps persuade finicky cobia.

It never hurts to have some live eels or bunker if you can get them. Many days I have found success on my second, third and fourth presentations of various offerings, as I figured out what will turn them on at that time. Always have a variety of lures and baits for cobia because their feeding moods can be different, and options simply increase your odds of success.

The Cobia Conundrum

Managing species that routinely cross geopolitical boundaries is one of the greatest challenges in fisheries management. In the Southeast, cobia are found in bays, estuaries and near offshore ocean waters during their annual migrations, making them subject to both state and federal regulations.

Federal fishery managers base management in the Exclusive Economic Zone (federal waters) on genetic studies that describe two distinct populations of cobia. Fish caught north of the Georgia‑Florida line along the Atlantic Coast are considered Atlantic Migratory Group Cobia, while those caught off the east coast of Florida and throughout the Gulf are part of the Gulf of Mexico Migratory Group Cobia.

In 2017, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council closed federal waters of the Atlantic Ocean northward of the Georgia-Florida line to the harvest of cobia. This unprecedented precautionary action was taken after the 620,000-pound recreational Annual Catch Limit for AMG Cobia was exceeded by a wide margin during the two preceding years.

Recognizing that much of the harvest of AMG Cobia occurs in state waters, the SAFMC encouraged states to take measures to reduce cobia harvest. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission stepped in to coordinate state efforts through development and implementation of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for AMG Cobia.

States from Georgia to New Jersey now have measures in place to regulate recreational harvest so as not to exceed 620,000 pounds annually, obviating the need to close federal waters during 2018. Meanwhile, the SAFMC is deliberating whether to transfer AMG Cobia management to the ASMFC.

Read Next: Cobia Bowl Aides in Virginia Cobia Fishery Research

If this happens, AMG Cobia management will be the sole responsibility of the states through ASMFC, pursuant to the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act. No longer would AMG Cobia be managed through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

A stock-identification workshop is scheduled for 2018, during which the genetic basis for cobia management will be re-evaluated with new data. A stock ­assessment for AMG Cobia will begin in 2018, with final results available for managers in 2019.

The results of both will have far-reaching impacts on cobia fishing, so it is important that anglers and guides stay engaged by participating in catch-and-effort surveys, providing tissue samples for genetic analysis, serving on advisory panels, and attending public meetings.

—Capt. Spud Woodward, ASMFC commissioner — Georgia

The post Sight-Fishing Cobia off North Carolina appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Scientists are listening to fish.

No, not like some piscine therapists hoping to solve adolescent crises. Scientists are using underwater receivers to listen to sonar signals transmitted from a wide variety of acoustically tagged fish species. And this is happening throughout coastal waters of the Southeast Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

In late March, three scientists studying tarpon, tripletail and cobia presented some of their Southeast regional findings to a group of more than 15 fishing guides and interested anglers at south Georgia’s Cabin Bluff corporate retreat on the Cumberland River, about 10 miles north of the Georgia/Florida border.

Cabin Bluff has worked with the Florida-based Bonefish & Tarpon Trust organization for the last two years to acoustically tag tarpon through research trips and local release tournaments. Lucas Griffin, a Ph.D. student working with BTT, presented current tarpon results, encouraged guide input and solicited support for summer tarpon tagging.

Lucas was joined by Chris Kalinowsky and Ryan Harrell from the Coastal Resources Division of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources. Kalinowsky presented local and regional tripletail studies and cobia results from acoustic tagging.

Tarpon Migrations

Of the 50 tarpon tagged since the BTT study began in 2016, 11 fish came from Georgia waters; the rest were captured in Florida or South Carolina. Griffin explained that fish of virtually any age can be acoustically tagged because the devices come in a range of sizes and are tucked into the fish’s abdominal cavity using a small incision.

Tarpon are considered “vulnerable” as a species: They’re long-lived, thriving up to about 80 years old, and they mature late — at 7 to 12 years old. Data have been poor because tarpon fishing is purely recreational.

Scientists don’t know exactly where tarpon spawn, but they have identified significant population hubs in Mexico, the northern Gulf of Mexico, West Florida and Southeast Florida. Now they want to know the connectivity between possible spawning locations and where the fish migrate or take up residence, Griffin says.

Sounds of Science

Once a fish is acoustically tagged, it’s like a swimming sound machine, transmitting sonar pings at a frequency of 69 kHz. Scientists from a variety of entities throughout the Southeast and Gulf have deployed more than 2,000 listening receivers by anchoring the footlong devices to the sea floor or deploying them from sea buoys. These autonomous devices do what humans can’t — listen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Scientists in South Florida dive to retrieve the receivers and download the data once a year. Georgia scientists have averaged three dive trips a year to retrieve and redeploy receivers.

Griffin showed several documented migrations. One 55-pound tarpon swam 1,100 miles in 52 days, averaging 21 miles a day. Many fish appear to travel north in summer and south in winter, but others defy that path. BTT has also started looking at permit migrations, which has resulted in a change in seasonal protection for the fish, which swim to offshore wrecks and reefs to spawn as early as April.

Tripletail Tagging

Off Georgia, where Kalinowsky is listening, 24 receivers line up like gates from near the beach to 12 miles offshore. Each receiver has a listening range of about 400 meters. Thus far, he’s detected 662 individual animals from 33 different species, including tripletail and cobia — his target species — but also red drum, white sharks, sea turtles, and Atlantic sturgeon.

In fact, his acoustic pilot program began in 2009 as a pilot study of tripletail site fidelity in Georgia’s Ossabaw estuary. It evolved into a larger study on the temporal and spatial distribution of Atlantic sturgeon in nearshore waters.

From that single-estuary study has blossomed the nearshore listening arrays and evidence that tripletail migrate to Cape Canaveral and South Florida as the water cools toward fall, and swim up as far as South Carolina in summertime.

Cobia Tagging

The cobia-tagging study launched as a result of changes in fisheries management, and a ruling that divided cobia into two stocks of fish — one swimming throughout Florida and the Gulf and the other that ranges from Georgia northward. The study involves a collaboration between scientists from South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Kalinowsky says the data will be presented this month to the Atlantic Cobia stock-identification workshop (for the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council). State representatives attending will discuss whether the current boundaries remain appropriate. The study and preliminary results have spurred North Carolina and Virginia to pursue grants to tag and document their fish.

While these studies have just begun to produce important data, they hold promise for better understanding the movements and habits of important game fish. Unlike hyper-expensive satellite tags that pop off after three to five weeks and only work with larger fish, acoustic tags have a five-year battery life and can track juveniles as well as adults.

For more information about these programs, contact Mark Rehbein at BTT or Chris Kalinowsky at the Coastal Resources Division of Georgia’s DNR.

The post Tarpon, Tripletail and Cobia Acoustic Tagging Update appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced the approval of several changes to the management of cobia in Gulf of Mexico state waters, including a reduction of per-day bag limits for commercial and recreational anglers and boats.

The changes, which were finalized at the group’s December meeting and go into effect Feb. 1, 2018, include reducing the commercial bag limits for cobia in Gulf state waters. The commercial limit, currently two per person, will drop to one per person, the same as the recreational limit. Also being reduced is the recreational and commercial vessel limit for cobia, from six to two per day in Gulf state waters. The third major change is the creation of a Gulf/Atlantic management boundary, which defines all waters north of the Monroe-Collier county line as Gulf state waters.

The current 33-inch minimum size limit will not change.

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