As an avid inshore angler, I don’t get too many opportunities to go offshore. But my good friend Captain Eric Root invited my girlfriend and me to do some offshore fishing out of Naples. We got a nice early start to the day and went out about 30 miles to catch bait off a wreck. Squirrelfish, grunts, blue runners and pinfish were all willing to bite the squid we used. We put them in the live well and off we went to deeper depths. We got on some structure around 50 miles out in 90 to 100ft of water and dropped cut bait down and got into a mess of vermillion snapper with a few lane snappers in the mix. Fun on light tackle and very good table fair. We caught a few red grouper that were just short of keeper size. We dropped down a squirrelfish head and got a solid bite. Turned out to be a really good sized porgy in the 5 to 7lb range. Shortly after, I tossed down the rest of the squirrelfish body and hooked into a monster. Took all my strength to pull this fish away from the structure. But then the line snapped and rod nearly hit me in the face. The Captain said I may have been sharked.
We decided to change it up and hit a different spot nearby where big amber jack were present. Always a fun fight! Captain tied on a big Yozuri popper to see if they’d come up to the surface and that they did! The whole school of AJ’s ranging from 20 to 60 pounds came up trying to eat the top water lure. One about 30 pounds finally grabbed it just feet from the boat and drag started peeling off. Captain Root put the hammer down and kept that fish from getting down into structure. What a fight! With the AJ safely released what happened next was unbelievable. A dark figure at the surface swimming around, that at first looked like a shark. Then the captain shouted “huge cobia!”. In all his years fishing this was the biggest cobia he had ever seen, easily 100 pounds. He proceeded to toss his trusty popper right in front of this fish. It instantly started to follow it. With each pop it got closer and closer and with amazing force, exploded on it. One head shake and the line snapped at the braid. A true heart breaker. An amazing sight to see a fish of that magnitude eat a top water!
Blane Garrett is running guides for Ablecat Adventures in with Capt. Mike, providing guides for the handicap in a handicap accessible boat. Look them up at https://fishingbooker.com/charters/view/8607. Follow him on Instagram @blane_be_fishin or Capt. Root @CaptRoot, www.CaptRootFishingCharters.com