Summer 2019 Cobia Review

[Yam]

Unfortunately, my 2019 cobia season is now over. The purpose of this post is to summarize my season.

In short, it was a great season. My 7 year old son graduated to bringing in fish on his own and we caught many, many fish. I cant tell you how many days we stopped at 10 plus fish because we couldn't take anymore action. We had multiple times with 3 fish on but were skunked 4 days out of 24. Our biggest fish of the year was 56", 54lb. We improved on our bait finding techniques and only had to resort to using croaker 1 day out of 24. All other days we used menhaden. However, the size of the menhaden were not as big as previous years. Below are some pictures. Our biggest fish is shown at the end along with what came out of it's belly. Food for thought!

[mwardncsu]

“Food for thought”

I see what you did there

Great catching and great memories!

[drag4striper]

Wow, I very much enjoyed this read.
Thank you for sharing with us.👍

[ajrod88]

Very Very nice Yam! That is Awesome! Love the kid throwing the chum and reeling in the fish! I have yet to catch a Cobia but I hope to change that some day! Well done! I also see where the Junkee has been hiding! LOL

[KB]

Great report buddy. Loved the pictures. I caught the Cobia bug this year for the first time and went two different times for 8 days in total. Yep I'm hooked. I see what the fuss has been all about.sounds like you had a great season. That's an awesome feeling seeing your son reel those beast in for sure by him self. I'm sure your a proud dad. See ya this fall

[Yam]

Aug 10, 2019 18:09:29 GMT -5 KB said:

Great report buddy. Loved the pictures. I caught the Cobia bug this year for the first time and went two different times for 8 days in total. Yep I'm hooked. I see what the fuss has been all about.sounds like you had a great season. That's an awesome feeling seeing your son reel those beast in for sure by him self. I'm sure your a proud dad. See ya this fall

How did you do? Did you throw for menhaden? That's what has hooked me. Menhaden are simply magnificent. So beautiful and Hardy. And when they swim your net to the surface, it's like 50 Xmas mornings.

8 days? How did you manage that? I camp in a tent at an RV park. Fish all morning, get back by 6pm, clean boat, shower, go out to eat, crash at 9pm, wake up at 4am...repeat.

[31Airborne]

a great story and awesome pics. your 7 yo has graduated way beyond landing fish on his own. he is now a man who will carry on a lifetime of memories. hope he pays it forward. well done, dad.

[fatdaddy]

Just Alsome Yam !! I think Mike might be a little Envious on the net full Bait HUM ?? Just saying !!!

[quackquackboom]

Fantastic report and fishing season. Thanks for sharing.

[bushwacker]

Awesome report Yam!!! love seeing that boy reeling in those fish and just being able to be apart of all aspects in fishing. Great job Ol buddy.

[drag4striper]

Mr. Yam, can I pick your brain for some knowledge?

I have noticed that you have switched from the striper ugly stiks to what appears to be the tiger ugly stiks for your cobia fishing.
If they are tigers, how do like them for the cobia and would they be to heavy for fresh water striper at SML? I was kinda thinking about having a do all type rod. Also what weight and model are you using?

Looks like you are still using Shimano tekota 500 reels, how are they holding up to 50 plus pound fish? Did you make any drag material changes to your reels and have you had to go to braided line to give you more line capacity?
I've read that those big cobia can make some long runs.

Appreciate your time. Hoping to get into more saltwater fishing in the future and would like to be prepared with the right equipment.

[Yam]

I used my striper rods for a few years and they worked. However, anything over 45 inches could take a half hour to get in. And the giant stingrays were a real PITA! But the real determining factor to upgrade was losing a couple really big fish last year. In short, the tiger sticks are a must for me. I use model Ustb2050c701. They can horse big stingrays, and are sensitive enough to show crabs and blues nipping at your bait.

I have 8 striper rods and 4 tigers. I wouldn't use tigers for sml stripers. That would make striper fishing really boring. 4 rods for cobia is more than enough. When you get on the cobia, 2 rods can be too much for me.

For the reels, I use the same 25 pound mono I use for stripers and tie on 40 lb mono leaders. I rarely have line breaks if the sharks are not around. However, I change the leader constantly. When hooking stingrays, the goal is to get the weight back and it can be scary. I have yet to be spooled by anything. I also use carbontex washers. I buy the material in sheets and make them myself. The trick here is to not over grease them. Too much grease gives you less drag options (all or none). However, not enough grease is bad too. I just dip my fingers in the shimano drag grease tub and cover them lightly. I also make sure to clean the reels after each salt season and rinse them with fresh water after each trip.

[Yam]

Aug 10, 2019 13:53:18 GMT -5 ajrod88 said:

Very Very nice Yam! That is Awesome! Love the kid throwing the chum and reeling in the fish! I have yet to catch a Cobia but I hope to change that some day! Well done! I also see where the Junkee has been hiding! LOL

Junkee is the only reason I know anything about cobia. In fact, if it were not for Junkee introducing me to his mentor, Anthony, I would still be tossing spoons. No nets, no bait passion and my son would be catching bluegills with rooster tails.

[drag4striper]

Aug 21, 2019 3:52:18 GMT -5 Yam said:

I used my striper rods for a few years and they worked. However, anything over 45 inches could take a half hour to get in. And the giant stingrays were a real PITA! But the real determining factor to upgrade was losing a couple really big fish last year. In short, the tiger sticks are a must for me. I use model Ustb2050c701. They can horse big stingrays, and are sensitive enough to show crabs and blues nipping at your bait.

I have 8 striper rods and 4 tigers. I wouldn't use tigers for sml stripers. That would make striper fishing really boring. 4 rods for cobia is more than enough. When you get on the cobia, 2 rods can be too much for me.

For the reels, I use the same 25 pound mono I use for stripers and tie on 40 lb mono leaders. I rarely have line breaks if the sharks are not around. However, I change the leader constantly. When hooking stingrays, the goal is to get the weight back and it can be scary. I have yet to be spooled by anything. I also use carbontex washers. I buy the material in sheets and make them myself. The trick here is to not over grease them. Too much grease gives you less drag options (all or none). However, not enough grease is bad too. I just dip my fingers in the shimano drag grease tub and cover them lightly. I also make sure to clean the reels after each salt season and rinse them with fresh water after each trip.

Thank you very much for taking your time and sharing you vast fishing knowledge. You are a teacher no doubt about it.

[fokromix]

Thanks for the report and awesome pics.  That kid is tougher than me!  Love me those tiger rods...if you can't get em with those...you're n need a bigger boat.