PELAGIC PIRATE PLAYS HOOKIE & SCORES BIG TIME ON THE COBIA

**TITLEWAVE** · 04-25-2010 12:14 AM

Decided at 5PM on tuesday it was time to head own for a last minute unplanned trip to Panama City for a perfect weather window Wednesday through Friday. Called my buddy Chris who was up to the task of leaving late to drive 6 hours get no sleep and get up and go cobia fishing.

DAY ONE:
Woke up Wed morning at 6 am and went straight to get eels , Ice and food, then loaded the boat and cleared the pass at 8 am. Saw the first fish at 9:30 am and hooked it on a eel. We let this one go in hopes of a larger fish and moved on . Saw the next fish not long after and boated a nice 45 pounder to start the box off. Continued on and see fish right away and hook another on a jig in the high forties and we are limited at 10:30 am. We fished on all day seeing and catching and releasing a few more fish till 3 pm when we spot a huge double that i spotted. I fired a jig as they got past us and i was on instantly with the fish ripping off fast then coming off. I jigged the jig a few time and i am on for good fighting what turned out to be a nice 50 pound plus fish with a monster 60 plus pounder in tow. My buddy chris fires his jig from the tower and hooks the toad. Now we have two cobes on and both headed in different directions and no one to drive. I worked mine to the swim platform and some how get my jig back without getting killed, then help drive for chris getting the boat into position to get his fish up onto the platform to get my other jig back. We got the fish up to the transom where was able to get the fish under control on the leader and shake the jig out of a estimated 65 pound fish. Tally for the day was 7-11 with 5 releases , 2 fish boxed for a combined total of almost 100 pounds.

DAY TWO:

Woke up early again and off for more eels as we lost and used a bunch on the first day . Cleared the pass to another awesome morning of conditions and began out westward trek to the fishing grounds. Along the way about 2 miles form the pass i am in the tower watching as i ride right over a nice fish at 8 Am. i quickly let off the throttle and get my jig rod out looking for the fish which pops up 50 yards away off the bow where i threw and instantly hooked up . 20 minutes later we have a nice 40 plus pound cobia up to the boat and released in hopes of good karma and bigger fish. We fished on for some time with nothing while other boats seemed to have all the luck. As we passed one boat at about 300 yards i see him waving us over ? I start to move over and see he has a double going and is pointing that a wad was off his bow. We eased over and west of him about 100 yards and start looking but dont see anything at first but them chris sees a monster of his side and fires a bad cast , but quickly recovers and fires in front of the fish which was 40 yards or so off the bow. The fish sees the jig and swims over and engulfs the jig and we are on a PIG. The fish towed us out off the beach for 35 minutes till i was able to cut her off and gaff her green as i saw the jig wasn't going to hang in that fish much longer. Getting the fish over the gunnel was the next issue as i had near 6 ft long green cobia flailing , but i some how managed to get the beats on the deck and then get the hell out of the way. after a short Baseball Bat Pounding the fish calmed down and we had the new boat record cobia laying on the dead dead weighting in at 81 pounds !!!!

Thanks for the boat "FISRT ONE"(I think) for the the heads up the fish and for being cool enough to call us in , not many people are nice enough to actually do that so Thanks !!

We cleaned up and took a bunch of photos and got back to fishing so i could have a chance at rounding out our box. We continued on a missed a fish here and a fish there till 2 pm when i spot a monster slide right down my side close enough for a eel to be tossed first. The fish sees the eel and pounces on it jumping 8 ft in the air with it in its mouth then running off about 200 yards in one run before coming off. I quickly open the bail and guess what ......shes back .....and i am on again. This fish was the toughest cobia i have ever fought and wouldn't come in . Every time we would get the fish close it would dig its head in and swim down to the bottom again. this went on for almost 1 hour till i was able to get the fish close enough for me to be able to hold my rod between my legs and gaff the fish myself as chris was driving the boat from the tower due to the high winds. I slung the cobia over the rail and quickly realize this fish is almost the same size of the one i caught last week which weighted 73 pounds. We clean up and take a bunch of photos and weight it on my scale where it pegged down right at 70 pounds. Thats two fish in the box for a total of 155 pounds in one day. Needless to say they didnt fit in my 150QT cooler very well so we packed ice all around them and covered the cooler with wet towels. We fished on and missed a double after that but the wind came up so bad we decided to call it a day at 5 and head back in 3-8.

Total Tally for two days was 19 fish, with 10 caught and 4 kept 6 released. We were so tired we decided not to fish friday and slept in, cleaned fish and boat and headed back to Atlanta before the rain got to Florida. Without a doubt the best cobia fish i have ever had PERIOD!

Dream come true for sure: Pictures to follow.