I had the pleasure of fishing with SellsFish and Quincy with John and O’Dell too yesterday. The seas were A MESS to say the least, 3 to 4 all day.
The day started with a trip out to get some bait. While getting the sabikis loaded we spotted two cobia, one good size and one HUGE ONE! I scrambled around as did Quincy to get lines out with bait… I picked the first rod/reel I had rigged with a biggish circle hook (4/0) put on a live cigar minnow and tossed it out but no go 3 times. Then Quincy hooks the smaller cobia on a greenie, the BIG cobia followed the hooked fish trying to get that bait! I tossed the cigar minnow and almost hit the big one in the head, it sucked in the cm and the fight was on! For about 40 mins I fought this fish on a Cabo Boca 80 w PowerPro 65lb line. My first rodeo with this rig, I didn’t want to mess this up so I had the drag on about 40 lbs but this fish sounded 8 times! Finally, Quincy took the rod and we had to get it in, tightened the drag down to 50lbs and he horsed it up, gaffed it and it was in the boat! OMG this was the biggest meat fish I’ve ever landed in a boat. Score: 2 for 2 on the cobia! The big one: 59 to 60 lbs on SellsFish’s store scale. When we cut the big one open, HUGE sack of roe! That will not go to waste! And, the belly had big greenies in it!
The rest of the day we bottom fished and got our limit on some big B-Liners; also some very nice silvers, triggers, ring tails, etc. We filled a 150 qt cooler. Michael Godbout was a prince and helped clean all the fish for the tired team.
All I have to say is… The Boca Cabo and the Tiger Lite rod came through with a huge fish! That was the first fish ever on this rig, so I’ll just say it tested out fine!
That is a nice cooler full of fish! That cobia is a stud for sure and surely gave that rig and the angler a good test haha. Fishing with Sellsfish seems like a trip everyone needs to put on their bucket list, as well as eating his catches if they don’t already.
#40 drag should stop a fish like that in a 15 or so. thats alot of drag to fight with for 40minutes. i dont know that many people who could fish more than #20 for 15minutes. not to take anything away from your very nice cobia. good work you got em in and thats all that matters
Ya didn’t want hit upon that because some people get ego defensive on here but my guess is you had around 15-20lbs drag on it to take that long. If you can fish with more than 20# for 40mins without a harness you are a monster. Also idk many spinning reels that will truly put out 50lbs of drag under 1k$. Hell my 10k stella can barely boost that amount of drag, and that is perfect spool line amount conditions.
FYI those boca reels have some serious drag… Not everyone wants to horse in the daymaker just to lose it. Sometimes some finese is needed. I’ve had no issues with my boca 80 on jumbo reef donkeys and some stud sharks
The two fish that will test out a Boca would be a big Cobia and a sizeable AJ. This cobia was just brutal, the Boca drag was set at home to 35 and I thought that should be plenty. After the fish took a 4th trip to the bottom the drag was tightened up two more times. We were not in a big hurry but we did need to get that fish in the boat, so Quincy put that last hard pull on her and helped make the day. Fish like that make you wonder just how far you should push it and not mess it up. And, this was the initial fish on the rod, reel, line, rig and me using it. In hindsight I wish I had picked the bigger Boca but it was fun knowing the 80 worked as well as it did, just fished it a bit slower to be sure. Moral is: that is one heck of a rod/reel and a pleasure to be using - it beats the heck out of wrestling a 6/0 all day! I’m glad Paul pushed me to get some rigs like this although I would like to add in a Stella!
Oh, by the way, during the fight… the reel came off the rod! Fortunately I kept a tight line and got help from John getting the reel back on tight and laughed it off. Sorta.
Had some B-Liner filets last night, my wife LOVED them as did I.
Haha the reel coming off the rod and still landing the fish?! Talk about one hell of a story. Last year I picked up a stella pg and matching jigging rod, it is by far best $ I have ever spent on fishing setup. I have more fun with that setup than I have with any other fishing my entire life. I am actually in process of setting up a similar setup in the conventional yet slightly heavier in hopes of having another setup ready when a certain jig/presentation is not working. If want get hands on a stella and test out before making a purchase let me know, as I know when I was considering was difficult as no dealers in area actually have one to physical touch and test out.
I’ve got 4 of those Quantum Cabos from 30 to 80. By far the smoothest drags I’ve ever seen on a spinning reel. I’m slowly phasing out my others for Cabos too.
My money’s been put where my mouth is, and I have had access to the same deals on stuff as anyone else here.
Buy a Van Staal if you want more value for your $1,000.00 on a spinner. You won’t have one of them with a broken bail mechanism, faulty anti-reverse or looking like a 10yr old Kia’s paint job after a bit of use…
I’ll take 4 Quantum cabo’s for the price of 1 stella over and over and over. Quantum makes a 120 now, btw… Similar to a Stella 18/20K.
that’s a nice fish!