love to catch spade fish so decided to give it a try sunday…ended up catching 47…kept 8…4 for us…4 for a friend…nice filets!!..BAD case of noodle arms today…thats one fighting fish for its size!!! had some cobia hanging around the boat…couldnt get them to bite all morning…they just hung around taunting me…finally hooked up on one but it didnt last long:smiley:…one look at the boat and he was gone! lots of barracuda…couldnt find any jelly balls so had to use shrimp…taught some guys nearby who had been watching us how to catch them and they finally managed to catch 15 or so…and said they had a blast…real nice fellows in a 26 foot boat, said they fished off shore but had never fished for spadefish and now love it too…said they couldnt believe we would help them like that…but hey…lots of you have helped me in the past(thank you!)…so turn around is only fair…caught 2 small kings (small…very small:smiley:)also…back in by 2 …great day on the water!!! boat washed/fished cleaned and gear stowed away…chilled at the cut the rest of the afternoon…donnie is still asleep:smiley:…heres a few pics
Sounds like yall had an awsome day on the water! How far out were the spades if ya dont mind? We thought about trying for them but I figured I would have to cover a little more ground than I wanted to in my boat.
how do you fish for spades? if you dont mind sharing your secret. i know you need to catch some jelly balls and cut them up real small, but didnt know you could use shrimp. set up would be great if you dont mind. thanks
we couldn’t get the cobia to bite anything. watched one spit out our bait. they stayed under the boat for hours it seemed. we ran over a school of jelly fish that lasted for several hundred yards also.
Father of:
2006 SC JR. BASSMASTER CHAMPION
2008 SC TBF(FLW) JR. CHAMPION
we couldn’t get the cobia to bite anything. watched one spit out our bait. they stayed under the boat for hours it seemed. we ran over a school of jelly fish that lasted for several hundred yards also.
Father of:
2006 SC JR. BASSMASTER CHAMPION
2008 SC TBF(FLW) JR. CHAMPION
What were they spitting out? We caught 3 Cobia Saturday on live eels. A friend brought them up from Savannah. That seemed to be the ticket.
we had never used shrimp before either…but couldnt find any jelly balls…even the 2 shrimp boats we talked to that had hauled back had none…so i had some froze srimp and used it…peel it…little pieces…Capt, robert Olson is prob. lot better at it than me and having free seminar on the 9th…its posted on here on home page…this timemof year you can catch them at the near shore reefs…
i saw that seminar advertised on the front page, but its a good little ways from savannah. i have fished for them before, but just couldnt get them hooked. what size hook do you use, j or circle?
Hi Penn, Thanks for report. Sounds like fun. I have not been to the reef since 2002 at 4KI. My wife caught the state record that year but would not wieght it in. It went 29 inches long and took her 25 minutes to land with 15# test. It would not fit in the hoop net. Would not fit in a 48 qt. cooler in any direction but head first.
we caught 2 last year that wouldnt lay flat in the cooler either and had a hard time dipping…those cobia about did me in mentally!!! I even got the net and stuck it down in fromt of one of them and it nosed in on it…donnie saw me and warned me to back off:smiley:…dont know if he was worried about me or losing the net:wink:…but boy was I tempted…even thought about grabbing the gaff and stabbing at it that way… but figured I wouldnt be able to work or do anything else if it pulled my arms out of socket:smiley:’’
as for the hooks…we use short little number 2 circle hooks…i like to use the black ones because they seem a little more leery of the silver…I tie it on to about a 36 inch piece of flourocarbon and attach it to the line with a little spro swivel…tiny piece of bait…I usually do not use a split shot…just let it suspend and slowly drop down,donnie likes a split shot…if current is moving then I use one too…I use a little jig movement if they are checking it out but not taking it…they can be pretty stubborn and swim right around and by it too which is pretty frustrating…so I reel it in and recast in front of them…they can sure do a number on your line…even with the swivel…swim in circles… and when you feel them on…start reeling fast if you havent caught them before…because when they realize they are hooked…they are gone!
I use #2 bronze color bait holder hooks. They keep the bait on well. If any of the hook shows spades will shy away from it.
As for cobia a vibrating or darting lure will some times get them exited like rattle traps and work them fast. Also caught a few on large bass worms texas rigged.
thanks for the tip…when I told donnie he said to ask you what size hook to use on me then because if "rattle traps " work I should be a duzzy of one:imp:…mmmm no dinner for him tonight
Thanks Drum…sorry you arent fishing with us this week:frowning_face:
