May 17- Bait Fishing in the Cobia Fleet

This morning saw way too much NW wind for the Weekend Spanish and Yellow Bouy Fleets to do their usual thing, so wouldn't you know it...... They were up in my Hole, crowding the Cape Lookout Cobia Grounds. I'm kidding, but seriously, there was 75 boats anchored up inside the Bight at Cape Lookout soaking baits for Cobia. The wind was NW and was blowing at 20 kts. I probably should've bagged it and went Sight Casting. I must say with the windy forecast, I was looking forward to bait fishing, but I was absolutely stunned when we popped out of the Drain, looked west, and there was 40 boats already anchored up at 7am....... Too many boats really. It really wasn't the Boats anchored so much. But take the Cobia Fleet, add in the mindless Mackerel Trolling Fleet, plus the Joy Riders, and Cape Lookout was ONE BIG CLUSTERF*CK this morning..... Now I can't see everything, but all I saw was 5 Cobia caught and my man Wally caught one of them. Our's was a 45 pounder. We had all the bites we wanted, but only one was the "right one". We also caught a grand variety of Sharks and Rays, from a baby Smooth Dog Shark to a 100 lb Sandbar Shark to a 100 lb Southern Stingray to a 125 lb Spiny Butterfly Ray. All in all, it was a successful day. We tried to run to a Black Drum event around lunchtime, but it was too distant and too windy. So we bagged it...... Total Catch for the Day: 45 lb Cobia, 2 Sandbar Sharks up to 100 lbs, 2 Blacktip Sharks up to 55 lbs, 4 Sharpnose Sharks up to 10 lbs, 1 Smooth Dog Shark at 3 lbs, 1 Southern Stingray at 100 lbs, and 2 Spiny Butterfly Rays up to 125 lbs