COBIA SEASON PART ONE

Fishing has been good but....

Captures include..... a 84 lb Cobia on 12# mono and bucktail on a Penn Slammer 460 and a 10-12# Ugly Stick Rod, 81 lb Cobia on 50# mono and live bait, 72 lb Cobia on 20# mono and bucktail on a Penn Slammer 560 and a 10-12# Ugly Stick Rod, 66 lb Cobia on 80# braid and bucktail, 61 lb Cobia on 50# mono and live bait, 60 lb Cobia on 80# braid and bucktail, 55 lb Cobia on 80# braid and bucktail and 6 other 40+ lb Cobia......

Painful misses include an estimated 90 lb Cobia that refused to bite by the boat on May 8th, an estimated 90 lb Cobia that refused to bite by the boat on May 16th, and an estimated 80 lb Cobia that pulled the hook after a long fight on May 20th.......

Catching 3 out of 29 fish on April 25th in dirty, 63 degree water was epic failure! Getting shutout on May 14th was an epic failure! Fishng East instead of West on May 10th was a major mistake!

HOWEVER, the highlights and lowlights of the past month hardly match an early half day trip (May 7th) last year..... just saying..... The proof was in the NCDMF CITATION BOOK... 

I saw more fish in ONE SCHOOL last year at ONE TIME than all the one's I've seen this year combined.....

May 22 Great Sightcasting Afternoon

Well, I couldn't take it... So I launched the boat after lunch... Then came some mechanical difficulties.... So we were really late leaving, like 3pm, and as fate would have it, I ran into a friend by Duke Marine Lab that told me exactly where to go... So 30 seconds after climbing into the tower, my bucktail was in the air, and I was hooked up. Ten minutes later, we got a 40 lb Cobia laying on deck. After that I meandered back to the west and found another of those brutally large, powerful fish that destroys a Number Count. He was hanging out under a black trash bag! One cast and Bang! A mile to the northwest and 60 minutes later, I had "my big fish of the year." A 71 lb Cobia. As usual, the 10-12 lb Ugly Stick is a killer, but has no lifting ability. It turns the big fish into "hour eaters". After a quick photo session, I climbed back upstairs and ran back to an area where I hoped the fish might be, and pulled into a group of 3 Cobia milling on top over a deep bait ball. One cast, one hook-up. I passed the rod down to Connie and tried to get a doubleheader but couldn't pull it off.... She landed her 38 lb Cobia 25 minutes later and I was thinking, "this is going to be an epic". 3 casts and 3 Cobia. At this point, bait balls was poping up everywhere and there was a couple hours of light left. Unfortunately, from that point on, every brown shape that we saw was a Blacktip Shark. These Blacktip Sharks ran from 18 to 40 lbs each. I hooked some for the heck of it, and I made them chase the bucktail.. After I'd lost enough tackle, I said "no more casts unless its a Cobia". And we never casted again. Great day, great advice on where to go, and a heck of a way to end a 3 week run of fishing. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobia up to 71 lbs and 5 Blacktip Sharks up to 40 lbs

Back to Hatteras and the Cobia Chase takes a break

Tommorrow I return to Hatteras for a week back on the Ferry. Its been a great 3 weeks. I've had some great days and some really fustrating ones. That's Cobia fishing in a nutshell. The amazing thing is... If BJ could've got his monster Cobia... That would've been 3 80+ pound Cobias in 8 days. Pretty good fishing. The huge Black Drum and Thresher Sharks were definitely different too! The Chopper Bluefish, I been in love with those things since May of 1976! This little vacation aint quite over, I'm still thinking about this afternoon or tommorrow morning, but I need to stay on land. yeah right. Any how, next week when I return, I expect hot/cold Cobia Fishing and lots of Blacktip Sharks, Spanish Mackerel, Amberjacks, and other things as well. Right now, I have June 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 open. Anybody looking for a day of fishing, call me. 252-241-8350

May 21 Beautiful Weather and Terrible Fishing

Yesterday there was enough Menhaden on the Shackleford Banks Beachfront to keep Omega Protein up and running for 6 months..... And the Cobia were flat out chewing Menhaden.... So the plan for this morning's half day trip was simple.... Catch Bait and Bail Cobia.... One problem-- All the Menhaden disappeared overnight. No Bait to be found, so with limited time I headed into the wild blue yonder. By noon we were sightcasting off Shark Island and I got a call that there was a small school of Menhaden 15 miles away. It was little too late for such an abrupt change of location and plan! And really, conditions were great for sightcasting. We saw lots of life. We saw a Barracuda, a King Mackerel, thousands of Bluefish and Spanish Mackerel. We saw dozens of Turtles and Bottlenosed Dolphin. We just didn't see any Cobia. Maybe we ran out of time? Regardlesss, my apologies to my crew. We did manage to toss some top water plugs at some Chopper Bluefish, but that was difficult. Those fish are skittish and finicky right now. Beautiful day on the Atlantic Ocean and a 55 mile boat ride with poor fishing results. I hate that! Total Catch for the Day: 2 Bluefish at 8 lb each

May 20 10 Cobias and the 80 Pounder that Popped Off

BJ and I decided after yesterday's success and today's 18 kt SW Honker to forget about sightcasting and soak bait. And we didn't soak it long. The Cobia were chewing under the Top Water Boat this morning..... Cobia Fishing, for me, has always been about streaks of luck, good and bad, and yesterday afternoon and this morning I've been on a HOT Streak. An hour after dropping anchor, we had 2 nice Cobia on the deck, a 41 lber and a 38 lber, and we had released a couple of legal fish too. Then BJ hooked up a trophy Cobia. He jumped twice and circled the boat. He was about to make us guess at the anchor. Under/Over. Then he popped up on top, clear of the anchor. Another Cobia banging 80 pounds, easy! Now he was swimming free and clear and no trouble in sight... A big, long Lemon colored Monster.... Then the hook popped and my winning streak was over. The next couple of hours produced finicky Bluefish on top water plugs and Dog Sharks. Then we finally caught three more Cobia, one at 35" and two that were way too small. At the end of the day, we popped the hook on another big mystery fish??? I say Southern Stingray, BJ was not so sure and he sunk into a depression. Tommorrow the circus starts again. Total Catch for the Day: 10 Cobia up to 41 lbs, 3 Bluefish up to 11 lbs, 15 Smooth Dogsharks up to 20 lbs

May 19 Big Cobias and Big Bluefish

Jim and Phil had a great half day trip. It was an afternoon trip and I'm always skeptical about those.... Here in NC, we go fishing at 6am. This aint Mexico! So real quick, Phil releases a 32" Cobia on a swimbait. Then we hit the Chopper Bluefish on top water plugs. Jim got out the fly rod, but they were gone! Then we hit a dead spot, a couple hours of nothing. Then we tried something old school. Anchored up and baited up. Within minutes Phil was hooked up to a 61 lb Cobia. I screwed up the gaff job and the fish was fighting again. I was sweating bullets. Five minutes later, the fish finally hit the deck and a celebration followed. Then came an endless procession of big Dog Sharks. I said "I think there was one Cobia here and we caught it". Jim said, and I quote, "No Phil got his, now I'm gonna get my 80 pounder" And I'll be damned if 2 minutes later we were hooked up. I had to drop anchor and give chase. 45 minutes later, Jim was proudly standing over his 81 lb Cobia. End of story. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobia up to 81 lbs, 2 Bluefish up to 12 lbs, and 12 Smooth Dogfish up to 20 lbs

May 18 A Leatherback Turtle.... The Slump Buster

I needed to stay home and work. Especially since all the work is mine now and with the next 4 days looking busy...... But I couldn't do it! Not with a 14 lb Bluefish released yesterday! I figured this might be my chance to knock off a Bluefish citation. So this afternoon, I headed off to Cape Lookout on a solo mission.... And guess what appeared in the Bight? A Leatherback Turtle... Basically public transportation for Cobias. And this one had enough Brown underneath it to keep several boats busy. So I flung my bucktail and instantly hooked up. Ten minutes later, I had a bloody mess and a nice fish. I rode around the corner just to see if a miracle could happen but the turtle and his entourage was nowhere in sight. I motored back into the Bight and looked for yesterday's Bluefish, but they were nowhere to be found. In 2 hours, I was back on the trailer and I was cutting a 55 lb Cobia. Amazing, all the hours and miles spent searching and today, when it didn't matter, there he was... begging to get caught. Crazy. Hope tommorrow is half as good. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Cobia at 55 lbs

May 17 Rough Riding and Awesome Top Water Bluefish

Ron and Dave came a long ways to go fishing. The weather sucked. 20 kt SW wind and 4-6 ft seas. Worse was the incredible long shore current caused by the Full Moon which is creating super high tides and super low low tides. The effect on the Ocean near the Beach is incredible. There have been times the past couple of days when I was a little scared in the Tower. The worst part was, there was no possible way to climb down. When the Capt feels fear, that is a terrible thing. Honestly, what can "get us" is lose of power. I've been in some spots the past 2 days where a loss of propulsion would cast us into an instant calamity. I recognize it because of all the things I've encountered on the water. I hope my fellow guides and fishing captains think about these things too... Anyway, we ended up at Cape Lookout in perfect calm conditions and fished bait on the bottom with no real results. Dave released a 75 lb Butterfly Ray and Ron battled a giant Ray for a while. Then we casted poppers and bucktails to a school of Big Bluefish. It was great while it lasted, but it hurt me in the "tackle box". Ron released a stud of a spring Bluefish at 14lbs. I think the guys managed to release 2 Bluefish each and had several bite off. Total catch for the Day: 4 Bluefish up to 14 lbs and 1 Butterfly Ray at 75 lbs

May 16 Tough Fishing in Rough Conditions

Yesterday I got cancelled and the report from the Far West was excellent. Few Boats and lots of Cobias... So this morning Joey and I braved the seas and the wind and ran down off the western beach, looking for baitballs. Unfortunately, either they were gone or we just didn't go far enough. The water quality had changed alot since Saturday afternoon. It is dirty and there was hardly any bait in the clear water. Where did it all go? SW wind doesn't usually kill the fishing, just makes it rougher. Anyway, on the way home we found a Cobia, and she was a big one. Unfortunately, we couldn't make her eat. Casts were followed and she really liked hanging around the boat. She got to carefully examine lots of baits... Too bad I took the Harpoon out of the boat. It takes up a alot of space and is a little dangerous on a rolling deck. Good way to turn or break an ankle.. Today was the day that it would've paid off... It would've been so easy. Oh well, since we were Cobia or bust, and we didn't bring the harpoon... Total Catch for the Day: ZERO

May 14 Failure of Gigantic Porportions

Today we had a Grand Slam. It was a rare one too. An overslept Captain (first). A screaming TLD 25/custom rod dropped overboard with a fish on. And 2 Cobias pulled off bucktails after solid hook-ups. Can I buy flags for those? My apologies to Joey but our early start didn't materialize and I'm not sure it would've helped. I didn't see anything this morning than was "must see fishing". I am sorry he had to come to my house and beat on my door though. Ouch. We found the fish by mid-morning and could've, should've  made our day, but 2 Cobias pulled the hooks and one strike that never got hooked. So we had our chances at 3 Cobia on a day when a few had 2, several had one, and most had ZERO. My biggest regret is, one of our fish had all the characteristics of a big fish. Nearly spooled us twice and made three major direction changes and ended up in the same baitball where it started 10 minutes earlier. Then finally when we where out of trouble and headed away from the fleet with 75% of the string on the spool..... The hook popped out... or something... By then, that one little baitball was covered with boats, 2-3 were hooked up, and that was over. And so were we. We should've been looking for our third Cobia, not our first, and 7 hours later, that's how it ended. Total Catch for the Day: 3 At Sharpnose Sharks

May 12 A Big Cobia on Light Tackle, By a Girl catching her first Cobia, oooops

What happened to this post???? I'll fix it later. Sorry out of time, Connie's Cobia weighed 84 lbs. Marty's Cobia weighed 39 lbs. Connie's fish took 2 hours to land because the Captains Daily Blunder was to cast a Penn 460 Slammer on a 10-12 lb Ugly Stick with 12# mono into a school of 15 Cobias that looked to be 60-80 lbers..... Its a little more complicated than that, but it all worked out in the end.... The problem was that it ate our morning up when the fishing was at its best. Who gives a crap, who needs a limit! Two nice Cobia and one of them is a Fish of a Lifetime on light spinning tackle on her first Cobia. Way to go Connie, Im sorry if I screamed once or twice. After landing this fish and taking a 30 minute celebration break, the wind kicked up and conditions changed horribly. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Cobia up to 84 lbs

May 10 60 lb Cobia and Every Cast Spanish Mackerel

Could've been better.... Like if I turned right instead of left this morning... Too late now, but here's our story. We caught bait and cruised the Bait Balls off Shackleford Banks. We headed east and looked at beautiful water and beautiful scenery. We got a little bored with the "nothingness" and casted some metal lures. At one point it was pretty much a Spanish Mackerel on every cast. I caught an Albacore that I was hoping was a Bonito. We caught a couple of bottom fish. Finally, we found a Cobia, and after a short delay, he inhaled a bucktail. Bob played him expertly. I gaffed him amatuerishly. When he hit the deck, the bucktail fell out of his mouth. The Fishing Gods smiled, for a second....... We saw a Humpback Whale, a few Sand Tigers, a Barracuda, a Chopper Bluefish, and a bunch of Rays.... The whole time we did this, there was a massacre to the west.. Why do I go east every day? Total Catch for the Day: 60 lb Cobia, 25 Spanish Mackerel up to 3 lbs, 6 lb Albacore, a 19" Gulf Flounder, 1 Black Sea Bass, and 1 Hogfish  

May 8 The Cobias are Laughing at me!

This is getting old... Looking back over the last couple years, since the sightcasting craze, every season has periods of horrible results.. I don't like it. Today was going to be different. For starters, with wind and rain this morning, my intentions were to cast poppers to big Bluefish. Of course, yesterday's Chopper Bluefish were gone this morning... Now what, well the clouds blew away, the sun came out, and the wind dropped out. Chasing Hammerhead Sharks drew me east from the Rock Jetty and before I knew it, I was 2 miles south of Shark Island in the best sight casting conditions of the year, with very little pressure. Cobia, Red Drum, Black Drum, Shark, Bluefish.... Nothing had anywhere to hide. But, there was nothing there. Finally, I found an acre of 3 lb Bluefish and caught 20. Stuffed the livewell and filled a small cooler. With clouds building again and the wind picking up I started running the eastern shoal and guess what found me. 2 big Cobias out of the wild blue yonder and I saw them in plenty of time. They were headed right at me and they got bigger and bigger and bigger. I fired a bucktail and the big one accelerated right up behind the bucktail... and stopped, just followed... Nearing the boat, I let it sink. The Cobia, joined by her partner both did headstands on the bottom over the bucktail but refused to react to my twitching. Last year, the twitch under a headstanding Cobia was MONEY.... Meanwhile the whole time the wind was setting my boat over them... When they disappeared under the boat I cranked the bucktail up and miraculously they followed. Now right beside the boat and showing NO FEAR, I hurried down the ladder and fished a 3 lb Bluefish out of the livewell. Nose hooked and tossed at the now obviously 90 pound Cobia. The Cobia turned on a dime and charged the Bluefish. The MFing Bluefish juked left to right, just off the transom and hesitated for a second... The big Cobia lined him up and lunged... And, take a guess........ The freaking Bluefish jumped back into the damn boat. First time I've seen that.... The big Cobia blasted off upwind to join the other fish, a merely solid 60 pounder, on the edge of my vision. I scrambled back up the tower and searched for them. In shallow, gin clear water... But now the clouds came. Light. Dark. Light. Dark. Frantically I circled. I never found them. When this started it was sunny and 10kt west wind... When I gave up, it was raining and blowing 20kt North. I need not even go into the 60-70 pounder I found off Cape Point. Needless to say, she's still swimming too. 0 for 3 on the Cobia. 1 Giant fish and 2 Big Fish.... Today hurt the most.... Total Catch for the Day: 20 Bluefish

May 6 70 Miles of Nothing

Mike and Mark cast off today, pretty much the plan was to catch Mike a Cobia. After yesterday's fustrations, it seemed I might have learned my lesson to the East. Time to roll the dice towards the West? Nope,  not today. The Hardheaded Captain pretty much went 8 miles east, then turned 12 miles north, then back 12 miles south..... Only this time it was into the teeth of an 18kt SW chop maker... There went 2 hours... Round and round Shark Island, just like yesterday... Just like yesterday, No Cobia.. Finally off Cape Lookout and into the Bight... No Cobia.. In 70 miles, here is what we saw: Turtles, gulls, terns, a myriad of Rays, a 150 lb Ocean Sunfish, 1 Tripletail, 2 small Crevalle Jacks, 2 small Sheepshead, and 1 8 lb Bluefish... Mike chose not to cast a popper at the Bluefish or snag the Sunfish. It was his Cobia Quest and I failed. What would've happened to the West? We'll never know... Total Catch for the Day: Zero

May 5 Cool Sharks and Cold Cobia

I can't find a damn Cobia. This morning was windy and cold and the damndest thing was happening off Atlantic Beach.... Thresher Sharks were crushing Butterfish and the action was certainly easy enough to find and fishing was simple. Landing them was a little tougher. Josh had one escape off the gaff, a nice 100 lb Thresher Shark. Korey and I each got our hands on a Thresher Shark. Mine was around 35 lbs and Koreys was close to 42 lbs. Sweet double on the fish that turned Hoopers inboard into an outboard.... Love those JAWS references!!!!!. Much later we found a nice Hammerhead Shark that Korey sightcasted a bucktail with a Mackerel strip in the direction of... He went for it and a few minutes later we were releasing a beautiful 40 lb Hammerhead Shark. Another great thing was the Spanish Mackerel showed up big time. Easy casting with metal, the boys caught 25 in 40 minutes with about 25 Bluefish as well. The Spanish were nice ones, mostly between 1-2 lbs. The Bluefish were from 8" to 2 lbs. We also caught some other things.... Absent once again were the Cobia. I'm hearing some reports, but hte Top Water Boat is striking out. This must end... Tomorrow... Total Catch for the Day: 3 Thresher Sharks, 1 Hammerhead Shark, 1 At Sharpnose Shark, 25 Spanish Mackerel, 25 Bluefish, 10 Black Sea Bass, and 3 Spottail Pinfish

Capt Marty's NC CITATION QUEST

Lots of you know this, but here is a re-cap and pretty much my life story. Probably doomed my marriage to a great woman and has been chasing off recent girlfriends as well....... On June 24, 1988 I caught a 66 lb Amberjack on a clarkspoon in Beaufort Inlet. The next spring I got my citation in the mail... I decided that I wanted to collect them all... In the next 23 years, I have personally landed 520 NC Citation Fish for 33 different species. There are only 4 more to go... This year has been pretty good so far with 2 new species knocked off. However, the remaining NC Citations are getting harder to click off.... Here is my present status: I need Bluefish and Tarpon. I need Croaker and Bigeye Tuna...... Bluefish was at 17lbs for years and I've caught a dozen 15 pounders. Now the min weight has dropped to 15 lbs and I'm looking... Tarpon is certainly attainable. I've caught 20 or so in Florida, but I've never fished for them in NC and remarkably, I've never stumbled on to one in the thousands of days that I've fished. I've seen my share, but never on my line. Now the problem fish........ A 3 lb Croaker in NC waters is like the Loch Ness Monster. However, in the cold dark waters off Hatteras in the winter, the drop netters catch them. But damn, what a way to roll the dice. Jigging speck rigs, among the commercial fleet on top of every Croaker in the Atlantic Ocean, is worse than looking for the needle in the haystack. The 3 pound Croaker is there 100 feet below running a gauntlet of nets, but he is surrounded by 100 million of his smaller brethren. Talk about bad odds and we aint even factored in the Hatteras in Winter part, Jeeez..... The Bigeye Tuna is simple, but expensive. Go Charter Fishing out of Oregon Inlet and hope your lottery number comes up. Lots of Bigeyes up there, but just a couple of boats a day hit them on random days throughout the year... Pretty expensive way to close out a Quest... So that's it, the Quest that has destroyed my marriage and defined my very existence. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I can't tell which way its moving... The Bigeye Tuna could be waving a Croaker on a string in front of me, luring me deeper into the Tunnel... Farther and farther away from reality... But, hey, I got my Black Drum!

May 3 Black Drum Day of a Lifetime

Josh sailed with Tuggy and I in a Cobia voyage today, but I wasn't exactly feeling good about it for some reason... Might have been last nights craziness spilling over into today! Anyway, we ran East, then North and we found the fleet but the fishing was slow. Maybe we were too late? In our only flurry of action up North, Josh lost a huge Cobia jigging in a good bottom mark. A smoker, nearly spooled a Penn 650SS before the 80# braid buried in the spool and the line popped like a rifle shot! Meanwhile, Tuggy released a 50 lb Sandbar Shark and that was our first and only doubleheader. Fail. Then 3 Cobia swam up to us and I hooked up and passed the rod down to Tuggy. An hour later, we had a 40 lb Cobia that was foul-hooked. Little did we know then, but our "Cobia Fishing" was over. Hours later, we ran back towards the Lighthouse and Tuggy released a magic Albacore that changed the entire fate of our day. As bad fishing hung over us like a dark cloud.... the short Albacore pursuit had us pointed towards my home sweet home at Shark Island... I said, "Lets go see if we can find a school of them big foot soldiers, I hear there's been a few hanging around". Do what, Foot Soldiers Tuggy scowled? After a quick scan, there they were, for the first time in my 25 years of serious fishing.... 2000 Giant Black Drum in a tight ball, marching steadily North at two knots, just like Foot Soldiers on the Battlefield in WWI. It was a simple cast and ka-boom situation. First Josh, then Tuggy..... As Josh pulled the hooks on a 100 pounder beside the boat and Tuggy was waging battle with his 57 lb Drum,  I was blowing serious steam because I couldn't get hooked up.... My steam was turning to rage, and I attacked Josh seriously jeopardizing my life over a stingsilver. (The safety of the Tower!) Finally I hooked up.... Finally, when we all had our Citation Drum on deck we started releasing fish. I got another Monster Drum, then Tuggy again, then Josh, then Josh again. The Citation Train was rolling. My first was the biggest Black Drum we weighed at 67 lbs. We also had a 57 and 62 pound Black Drum. We each released at least one Citation Black Drum. We probably released a couple of Drum larger than we killed, because my 60# Boga-Grip was bottomed out a couple of times. My NC Citation Quest took a giant leap forward with today's captures.. It was incredible Black Drum fishing and the Cobia fishing was a huge letdown. Total Catch for the Day: 7 Black Drum up to 67 lbs, 1 Cobia at 40 lbs, 1 Sandbar Shark at 50 lbs, and 1 Albacore