Headed out of G-town at 6am, headed to the Hector wreck approx. 15 miles outside of the jetties. Chummed with jellies and shrimp, and within 20 minutes we had a massive school around the boat that we kept on top for more than 5 hours. I’ve never seen a school linger for so long, it was incredible. Used jelly teasers and the first spade we caught, we tied em’ up and dropped him back in to use as a decoy. We boated over 50 spades with a few kept for supper, and once the jellies were all gone we packed up and almost headed home. However, we’d been seeing big cobia moving around the spades occasionally throughout the morning, but we didn’t have any tackle heavy enough to boat one (we cursed ourselves for that all morning). But right before we left, we said to hell with it and rigged a 6/0 circle hook onto 15lb braid, a shimano 3500 and a loomis gl-2 and rigged up a dead menhaden that was left in the livewell. It was awesome sight fishing, I’ve never done anything like that in my life. Cast to a group of 2 cobia about 4 times, but they didn’t seem too interested in the dead haden so they only mouthed the tail a few times. I started twitching the bait on the next 2 casts, and sure enough the momma blew up on it and took me on an hour long ride that was the most memorable fish-fight I’ve ever had. Let the drag wayyy off and used my palm to slow the reel when I had the chance to keep from breaking the line, pumping him and reeling when I had the chance. Brought him in the boat, dropped him in the cooler with his head and tail sticking out about 8 inches on either side, and ran back to Winyah. Awesome day.
Nice job on the cobia. We always have better luck with live bait, sometimes they want a menhaden, or a greenie or a mullet or whatever else. Cobia are very inquisitive and like to chase so always keep the bait moving if fishing lures or dead bait. Many times i have found myself wanting to stop the bait in front of them when they get interested as it is natural for me to do that and then they lose interest, but when I move it they get on it. And sometimes they just dont want to eat.
Sails Pitch
196 CC Sea Pro
150HP Yamaha
“Get Hooked On The Sails Pitch”
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![http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m257/TripleTail/Picture4.gif[/img=left]](http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m257/TripleTail/Picture4.gif%5B/img=left%5D){kind=link}
Wow, Awesome report! You will remember that day forever
2000 SeaPro 180CC w/ Yammy 115 2 stroke
1966 13’ Boston Whaler w/ Merc 25 4 stroke “Flatty”
Great job, David. Wow! Hell of an effort, too. Thanks for sharing that! Pics, pics, pics? LOL!
Vinman
19.5 Triumph, 115 HP Honda
“Every saint has a past, every sinner a future”
Fanfreakingtastic!
Umm, you gonna eat that?
Thousands have died to save my freedom. Only one has died to save my soul!
No pics Vinman, unfortunately. I’m that jerk that everybody knows that doesn’t take pictures of anything, even if I do have a camera. I’ll regret that someday. I’ll snap a pic of the steaks when I get em’ in the freezer tonight.
Observation on spade fishing: I hear lots of people talk about anchoring perfectly over the reef/wreck and not being able to raise a school, yet all the times I’ve been spade fishing, we’ve never been able to raise fish on top of the wreck. It’s always when we’re a good 20-40 yards to the outside of the wreck that the spades will come up, and that’s where we’ll see fish cruising constantly. Maybe just coincidence, but if you’re out and not having any luck it may be helpful to move.
And Optiker, being my first cobia, I learned first hand today what you meant about gaffing. But just as we were undergunned with our tackle, we also only had a small diameter net. Even after an hour that fish absolutely lost it with a gaff in it’s side, and it took a solid 5 minutes on the floor of the boat to calm down.