Yes, you guessed it, March Madness is here so bring on the cobia! This is the historic time frame here on the central east coast that the migration of cobia swim by us. Although we catch them all year long, this is usually the best time. The water is warming back up to the 70-degree mark (give or take a few degrees). Free-swimming cobia are the most fun to target in my opinion. A few things must come together though. One being sunny skies, you must be able to see into the water a little bit and two, try to get as high as possible. The 50-foot fly bridge will obviously do better, but most of us get lucky enough from the crow’s nest on top of the T-top and that works well too. And I’m sure you all have seen the extension ladder tied to a T-top as well. Maybe not the safest but it works.
A hungry cobia is not a picky fish. My bait of choice is a buck tail with a whole squid hooked on it. This gives a natural look and smell. There’s many different types of baits and lures people use. I also like live bait. Pogies and pins work great too. Sometimes there are days that you will see 30 fish and maybe only 2 actually eat or get fired up on a jig and I have had many turn down a live fish. Some say they will never turn down a live choice shrimp or their magic swim bait etc. Fishing is just what it says, fishing. Some days they’re on fire others they swim away from a live bait.
My gear of choice is 7-foot medium action rod with a light tip to jig the lure and enough backbone to stick the hook. Line is 40lb braid and a 50lb leader. If I’m using live bait, I use an 8/0 circle hook and I hook the live fish through the back of the head. The 2 live bait rods on the boat have 50lb fluorocarbon on them. The 2 jigging rods have regular mono. Reels are 6000 shimano bait runners. I use them because I also use those rods for sending a livey out while doing other types of fishing. They’re a great all around reel and so far haven’t had any issues with them.
Good luck!
[easy-social-share]