First Legal Cobia 2023

Doc Stressor · March 24

My neighbor wanted to commission his new autopilot on Wed. 03/23, so we headed out of FIT ramp around noon to run the boat in circles and do the rest of the configuration stuff that needed to be done in the water. We had picked up some shrimp to catch a few mangroves after the work was completed. So we ran out to the CR artificial reef at about 2 PM. There were only 2 other boats but a large school of bait was hanging around. When we ran up to them to get an ID (they were cigar minnows), we marked a few fish hanging underneath. All we had rigged was trout gear with half oz sinkers and 1/0 hooks. But we cast next to the school and immediately got cut off by gags. I eventually hooked something that was not a gag right off the bottom.

It was a 38" cobia that was pretty cool to fight on 10 lb test. After 20 min or so circling the boat and another 10' min to get him into a trout net, we had him in the boat.

This is the earliest I've ever gotten a keeper cobia. The water temperature was 67 degrees.