My brother and I took our annual trip to Singer Island, West Palm Beach, Florida.
We killed te Cobia’s. caught 4 in the 25-50lb range and nailed our first Sailfish which measured 80 inches (TL) and weighed in at a little over 60 lbs.
Here are the pics of the trip, and yes, that is a FULL sized wheelbarrow full of Cobia:
Mac
P.S. And I don’t care about taking the sail out of the water, so save your breath… because he never went back. Mounted him and took a TON of sailfish steaks, some of which we smoked in parchment paper! AWESOME!!!
The Cobia are great eating fish - the sail ain’t too awful bad either-(I like it grilled) Back in the 60’s where I grew up in Hatteras Village, NC we ate everything that came across the dock off the charter boats. Marlin, Sails, Dolphin, Puppy Drum, and if fishing was bad that day we’d eat the bait that was left over! My Mom could make fish stew out of anything that swam even pogy’s & mullets.
Mike Austin
Trailco Equipment Sales
Greensboro, NC
My grandfather sailed in the Asian/Pacific conflict during WWII and he told stories about fish eye soup, stringray scallops and said they ate alot of shark as well.
I don’t believe in wasting anything. If it is coming out of the water it is going into someone’s belly or it is going back to the drink.
Kept the sail to eat and mount. The guy who is doing it is a personal friend of our friend, who runs the boat. He met us at the dock, took all the measurements, photos, etc. Then we cut the steaks. He said he will have it for me by Christmas. Could not believe it. He only does 1 at a time and his quality is amazing.
Fished out of the Sailfish Marina on Singer Island near the Blue Heron Bridge at Lake Worth.
yea i got a few friends that run boats out of there. Just asking the reason on why you kepts it cause some of the guys will tell you to kill it because they get a percentage i think on the mount and publicity for tourist. They are pretty good to eat.
I had decided to keep and mount my first sail anyways… My brother and I have known the Captain for many years and have fished with him many times… The price he got for us was about 40% less than the going rate, and being a personal friend helps speed things up and ensure good quality…
We are going back in January after the Buccaneer Cup. The sails will be real heavy then. Last year 50 boats caught and released 952 sails in 3 days… our friend had 16 of those.
Caught the Cobia’s sight casting with butterfly jigs on penn sg8000 graphites. The school was following a huge ray, so we just followed the ray and they would surface… then it was on.
In Florida Cobia are 1 per person per day, unlike here we can keep 2 per person per day.
The pictures are from Nov 29… we caught the cobia just north of the lake worth inlet and caught the sail on a kite using a live goggle eye just south of the inlet near the Breakers Hotel.
The cobia were thick for about 3 days, as we saw others with some nice fish as well. Dolphin bite was good as well a little further offshore in the 400’s, but we stayed shallower looking for the sails.
The others were caught in the 125-145ft range. Air temp was 85… sea surface temp was 78-82 depending on tide.
My Mom could make fish stew out of anything that swam even pogy’s & mullets.