by Fishin’ Frank
Cobia Fishin at Marker #2
My mom and dad asked me to help find my nephews a big fish to fight and I right away started thinking about the mouth of the Myakka River. One of my favorite places for big fish. Now funny thing is, there I average about 4 to 5-foot fish, not quite as large as farther down in the Harbor, but just right for younger people with little or no experience fighting big fish. But the weather gods had other plans and there just was not time to go that far. So, looking at the building weather, we stopped at marker #2, out in front of Alligator Bay. The tide was coming in, so we anchored up on the west side, about 200 yards away from the marker and as always, I cast out a bobber line and my luck was good. The bobber was pointing right at the marker. I mean I tested the wind and used my ancient sea lore to perfectly position the boat so the chum would flow right at the marker.
Now there are two or three reasons not to be closer to the marker. #1- boat traffic- just when the fish, shark or cobia, would be interested in the bait, a boat would chase them off. The second reason is that people cast net there for bait all day, on and off, so with the nets crashing down on the water, again spooking my larger fish. And #3, it is not fair to others to take up room that close to where they want to get bait so they can go fishing. And to be truthful, that is what the chum is for. It takes about 30 minutes or so for the chum to start working on the bait fish by the marker and my regular frozen chum, which come already in the bag or a box, whatever you like, will pull the bait, at least some of it, from the marker over towards my boat. Combine the chum smell in the water and a school of bait fish feeding on the chum line, that is the recipe for Big Fish on.
So, not knowing if it would be sharks or cobia or what, I went back to my steel leader, the bleeding ones from AFW, and put out a set bobber line, a free line and a sinker rig. Now I had a larger spinning rod with 50-pound braid on it, so I took a chance and free lined a sardine on that line and the other rods I put on the bobber with a half of a pilchard, on the free line I placed a whole pilchard, but cut a slice from the back of the bait under the tail up into the belly cavity, to release a bit more smell.
My two nephews flipped a coin for first hit. We put out the rods. Each of the boys had one and the other extra rods we put in rod holders and then flipped a coin to see who gets first hit on them. If you are holding the rods, of course that is your hit, but it eliminates questions/problems if you know who gets first hit. The first rod to go was one in the holder. I took the rod Jesse was holding, as he won first hit with the coin toss. Now I reeled that rod in as fast as possible and had Ethan reel in his rod. The rod Jesse had was peeling line and right before I could get to the last rod and start reeling in, it went off. I got Ethan’s rod from him and he settle in for the fight. By now Jesse had his fish coming at the boat and last minute it did an end run around towards the back of the boat. At that moment, I could have told him to get down on his knees and put the rod tip as far under water as he could, but the fish was deep and I decided to have Jesse start going to the back of the boat. Now this is a boat I got for my parents. A 23-foot fiberglass pontoon boat with two Bimini tops and a lot of straps to hold them in place. Jesse was working the rod towards the back, holding it in one hand and grabbing it with the other, to get around all of those straps. The Biminis which keep the sun off, so mom is comfortable, are great until you have a big fish heading to the back of the boat, then pain in the pa-toot.
Just before he made it to the back, the fish came up and I watched the line hit the prop. Bink, it was gone, leaving Jesse panting, trying to catch his breath and wondering how that could have happened. For me no time, as Ethan still had a big fish on at the front of the boat. So, I started coaching, slowly lift the tip of the rod up and start reeling and lower the rod as you reel. Stop reeling, lift the rod up, more pull, ok 12 o’clock stop, and start reeling while you slowly lower the rod. Now a big problem people have is they get anxious to let the rod down after the big pull, and if they drop the tip of the rod too fast, the line will wrap around the tip of the rod, tying the fish hard to the pole, and bang fish gone. But that did not happen and Ethan did great, slow up and slow down while reeling. Once it came close to the boat and for the first time we could see it was a cobia, about 40 inches to the tail. Yummy! Now cobia have a thing, like many of our things and the thing about a cobia is they play mind games with you. It will stay right out of reach, I mean just out of reach of your net and if you hate your landing net, cobia are wonderful, as they will go right through the mesh of a landing net like it was made of butter. So, once it is close and if you are going to eat it, grab a gaff. I had the gaff ready and Ethan was pulling up and reeling down, but as he pulled up the drag just let out line. after another 15 minutes of this, and I had to stay right him, as if you get impatient, you will lose that cobia. That is its mind game right there, just out of reach waiting for you to make a mistake.
He made no mistakes so the pressure was on me now with the gaff. 4 times I tried, but I was going to go through the gills, so not to mess up the fillets. Steel leader, good hook set, we had time. Finally, I got the gaff through its gills and into the head and on to the boat it came. Which after, it went straight into the ice chest, letting Ethan have a break and letting the fish expire on the ice. Have you ever landed a big fish and went to take pictures and it thrashed and it was out of your grip and back into the water? Me, well, I don’t want to talk about it. So now the fish stays on ice until I know it is calm. After the pictures, we put the lines out again and got just railed by a fish we could not stop, on the rod with the 50-pound test on it. Big, huge it must have been. We got the anchor up and followed the fish. Then a big lunge and pow the line broke. Yes, Poor Jesse had no luck that day. With the storms building we decided to head back to the dock. Great day, batted 250- hooked 3 lost 2 landed 1.
Enjoy yourselves out there,
Fishin Frank