by Capt. James Vadas
We were recently on an offshore trip with a couple of college kids who were treating their dad on his birthday with a charter. We headed west to a public reef just a few miles from Anna Maria, on a beautiful Saturday morning with a few boats already out there. The bait schools were busting and the birds were hitting on top of the water. I hooked a live pilchard through the nose with a #3 circle hook at the end of 4 feet, 40lb fluorocarbon leader. I casted off the back of the boat and the moment I handed the rod over, I felt the line tighten. “Happy Birthday!!!” I shouted, as Dad pulled back on the rod. The drag was screaming, I figured we hooked a kingfish or a shark. After a ferocious fight, a dark shadow came to the surface. “Cobia” I shouted, gathering the attention of all the other boats. I decided to use the big net to land what ended up being a 38” fish. Cobia have to be 33 inches long to the fork of the tail, so use a net instead of a gaff when you’re not sure if the fish is long enough to keep. The limit is one per person or 2 per vessel. Picture the brother and the sister, holding this massive fish, posing for a picture with their dad on his birthday and all the other boats around us are shaking their heads in disbelief that we caught him in the first 5 minutes. Everything else we caught that day did not compare to the cobia, also known as “Crab Eater”, “Black Kingfish”, “Black Salmon”, “Ling”, and “Lemonfish”. They are excellent to eat and are desired all over the world. The demand for them is so high in Taiwan and Australia, that they are commercially farmed. Here we are, lucky enough to sight fish them in our gin clear water. They migrate to the Keys in the winter and we see them more in the spring, hanging out near the top of the water around reefs, buoys, markers and structure.
Last April, I was fishing a tournament just for trout and redfish in Palma Sola Bay. We were fishing close so we could be back in time for weigh-ins. While looking for some redfish around the oyster bar, we came upon a cobia following a large stingray. I bet he was eating whatever the stingray was stirring up off the bottom. I casted a plastic swim bait in front of the cobia, who did not think twice about grabbing it. This battle was epic, in only 2 feet of water! Catching a cobia on the flats is rare. We may not have won the trout and redfish tournament, but we did end up with some delicious cobia, which I wrapped in bacon and shared with my family for dinner.
God bless and tight lines,
Captain James at your service.