By CAM Staff
Cobia fishing has always been known as a ‘sight fishing’ technique. I have spent many hours looking for a brown smudge in a seemingly endless green ocean. An exercise that many times ends in the big goose egg, el zilcho, zip, negative…..you get the idea. But just because you cant see the cobia, doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
Cobia are structure related fish, and when you can’t see them to get a bait to them, your best approach is to get DOWN to their level.
Rigging:
Most traditional cobia jigs are 1.5 oz. and are thrown on spinning rods. Leave those rigged up and ready to go, and grab your light snapper gear. A 3/0 spooled with 40 or 50lb line with a conventional reel, and a rod that has some backbone to it. Tie on a 60lb fluorocarbon leader, and a jig with some weight to it. Many differ- ent varieties work, but bucktails seem to be the most popular. Anywhere from 3 to 6 ounces are best. A soft plastic trailer or a squid head to tip the jig never hurts your cause.
Where to Fish:
There are numerous wrecks of the space coast that are frequently loaded with cobia. Any of the ones from 50-130ft are the best producers. Drifting works great with this presentation, and 5 or 6 drifts will usually tell you all you need to know about who is home. Generally I have two rods with the heavy jigs on them and one person manning the sabiki rig. I have caught more cobia than I can remember that have followed a loaded sabiki rig to the surface. Just have a rod ready to go just in case one shows up.
Technique:
This is one of the few times that I will say most any jigging style works. I have caught them on fast retrieves all the way to just bouncing the jig on the bottom. The goal here is to get their attention on the bottom. Most of the time more will follow the one that you hooked first to the surface, so then a traditional jig/technique will work just fine. What is most important here is making sure your jig is hitting the bottom on the structure.
You will catch many other types of fish doing this like Amberjack, African Pompano, Kingfish, Grouper, and EVEN the rare, elusive, endangered RED SNAPPER! So when you are jigging wrecks this spring be ready for anything and everything! JIG ‘EM UP!
