Cobia

Cobia are the easiest fish to sight fish for without having to go a hundred miles offshore to see. They migrate each year up the coast from the warmer waters that they went south to for spawning.

When Cobia come back home in the migration, they swim on top anywhere from 100 feet of the beach to several miles offshore. Of course it’s easier to see them in the shallower water when the sun is out. You typically ride into the flow of the fish at a slow pace because they will go down deep and then pop back up, usually right in front of the boat when they hear us coming. Then you throw a bait at him just in front of his line that he’s swimming far enough ahead so you don’t spook him and watch to see if he takes the bait.

Usually there are several fish in a pod. Once you get the first one hooked up, you can concentrate on trying to get one of the others to bite. It can get quite exiting to say the very least! What a rush. They have been called “Brown Back”, “Crab Cruncher”, “Lemon Fish”, “ Ling”, “Eel Sucker” and other fond names. I call them “Delicious”, grilled, fried, blackened, it’s all good.

If you want to get in on the “Run”, you have to be here early March and into April as they run in the spring.