March Madness is here bringing in the cobia! This is the historic time along the central east coast when migrating cobia swim by, well at least they’re supposed to. The water is warming back up to the 70-degree mark. Look for sunny skies, you must be able to see into the water a little bit and try to get as high as possible.
A hungry cobia is not a picky fish nor are they the smartest. My bait of choice is a buck tail with a whole squid hooked on it. This gives a natural look and smell. There are many different types of baits and lures people use.
Live bait – bunker and pinfish work great. It’s fun to watch a cobia go nuts trying to eat a livey. Sometimes there are days that you will see 30 fish and maybe only 2 actually eat or get Fired-Up on a jig. It is few and far between to have cobes 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 FiredUp others they swim away from whatever you throw.
Gear of choice is a 7-foot medium action rod with a light tip to jig the lure and enough backbone to stick the hook. Line is 50lb braid and a 50lb leader. If using live bait, try an 8/0 circle hook and hook the live fish through the back of the head, then cast forward and past the fish.
