Capt. Eric Jared and I
First off, I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! I fished a lot over the weekend, in fact Easter was the only day that I did not fish, just a chill day on the beach. Well that was enough for me to go looking for Cobia. The weather has been beautiful, calm and sunny for days. The water temp. is coming up quick and it is about 70 to 71 degrees along the beaches around Sebastian. We launched the boat at the Inlet Marina. We headed out towards Bethel, there was bait on the buoy but they wouldn’t hit a sabiki. We went off and fished the ledge for the morning. Not much action, we fished a few spots and had two Cobia swim to the boat. Jared hooked one up and lost it twice. It was close to being a keeper. They swam off as quick as they came up to the boat.
It was 1 p.m. and we decided to head in and start looking around. We got on the other side of the shoal and we had some luck. First, we ran across a floating buoy ball and there was a small Triple Tail under it. I casted a jig with a shrimp and let it sink. The Triple Tail went for it and it was fish on! I landed the fish and it 15 inches, barely a keeper so I safely released it back. Second, we ran into some manta rays swimming on the surface. We both made a few casts on it. Jared hooked up and landed a 20 pound Cobia. Jared landed the next Cobia, which was a little smaller at 18 pounds. While he was hooked up with his fish, I lost a 40 lb approx. We moved on with our two fish and came across a set of two rays that had one fatty on it. After several attempts on it, Jared finally got the fish to bite. He fought it for awhile and landed it, it was 31 pounds. With Three fish in the box, we continued our search for the final fourth. I was up on my perch and was spotting and noticed a free swimmer. It was a nice fish. Jared spotted it as well and positioned me for a cast. I missed the first and figured I only had one more shot before Quick Draw Mcdraw Jared took a cast. It was a perfect shot five feet out in front. I jigged it once and it was on!!! This was a good fish. Man I couldn’t believe it what a blast, a good fight. Jared gaffed it and was biggest yet. It weighed 401/2 lbs. Good enough for first place in the Whitey’s tournament, so far. There is still a lot of April left.