6/6 AM – 5 HR Trip
This morning I went out with Mary, Lois, Ross and Ron – Mary is an old friend from the area and wanted to take her brothers out to a little east coast fishing. They wanted to do something fun and easy so we went out to put some blues and spanish in the cooler. The wind was dead, the ocean was slick calm and a hazy fog came in and out reducing visability to less than 100yds at times. The action was constant though – we had fish on the plugs and bird rigs constantly for the better part of two hours and caught ’em and caught ’em until we couldn’t reel anymore. After that, I made a turn for deeper water to see if I could better coax some spanish to the lures – it was then that a massive turtles surface and went under 30 feet from the boat. A turtle the size of a car – an extremely rare LeatherBack Turtle. Only the second one I’ve ever seen. A half hour later, we put 2 nice kings in the boat right as another leatherback came up and went back down making a hole in the water so large I thought a depthcharge had went off.
Trying to get a few more kings in the boat, all of a sudden I found myself amongst a large school of stingrays – so many that they covered the surface of the water for as far as the eye could see. Thousands and thousands and thousands of rays! Knowing what this means, I dove for my heavy rod with a bucktail and just as I grabbed it – 3 large brown shapes appeared off the starboard side and made a turn for my propwash. As someone yelled “sharks!!” Hearing sharks and seeing cobia, I tossed the bucktail into the wash as the three cobia went racing after it before I had a chance to even flip the bail. One I estimate at 40lbs, the other one 80lbs and the last one about 10lbs. As they turned towards the bucktail the smallest one found himself on the inside and grabbed it first just at the giant cobia rolled on thge little one – trying to take the bait away!! Ten minutes later we had the 32.5inch fish in the boat for a picture – still a great sight!!! We finished off the day looking for more cobia – we saw 12 more!!! I had several follows, some spit hooks and as I left for the inlet I spooked several more cobia!!! What a great Day!!
6/6 PM 6hr trip
After dropping off my morning trip, cleaning a few fish and snarfing down a sandwich I met up with Gary and his two sons. I told them about the cobia and they were all about it – we raced back to the area in the hopes of landing another. Within minutes we were back with the rays and within 10 minutes, we spotted a small cobia off of the bow. He hit a bucktail and followed it in before losing interest. Ten minutes later we had another looked (went maybe 20lbs) that followed but would not bite. 15 minutes later – again, another cobia. It was then that we had out great site – off of the bow, a giant leatherback (the size of a car) surfaced and started sunning itself on the surface. Now, I have only ever seen four leatherbacks in my entire life – three of which i saw today! I cannot impress upon my clients and everyone else how amazing it is to see one of these creatures -not only are they extremely rare but they are truly magnificent in a way you cannot imagine.
But it was what was circling this giant turtle that was so incredible – the instant i let the bucktail fly, I saw three huge brown shapes in the wake of the turtle. The instant the lure hit the surface a 5foot long, probably 70lb+ fish inhaled the jig and i laid into the weight of the fish. As the fish began to run, I handed over the rod but it was in that instant that a bit of slack opened the way for hte massive fish to spit the hook. So dissapointing… After this we spent maybe 45 minutes looking for more fish, spotting a couple in the distance and we decided to change tactics a bit. Now, having seen 20+ cobia in one afternoon I can’t imagine how many I would have seen if I were in a tower boat!
We spent the next few hours trolling blues with pretty constant action – then we went and chased spanish along a tide line and ended the day bouncing a few baits for some flounder – landed one within minutes and decided to call it a day as the sun set on the water. It was a long but incredible day!
The cobia action should continue – I currently have Thursday PM, Friday (cancellation), Saturday and Monday available. The fishing is awesome so come on down 😉
