My friend Scott had not caught a cobia all year and was dying to go. He had spoken with a friend that caught a few down at Windmill point recently so we decided to give it a go. We left out early Saturday morning and headed to Dividing Creek. Dividing has always been a good place for us because it has lots of places that transition from deep to shallow. For me that transition is maybe 10 ft of drop-off so don’t over think it.
We were early in my mind because I like the hours surrounding the tide change, but it is always fine for me to be early rather than late. We got everything setup and started our chunking.
Our first run came about an hour into the morning. We could tell it was not big enough to keep but was thinking we could get a cobia on board to get the day going. Even when this guy came up to the boat my first instinct was that it was a small cobia. Well, it was a surprise to us both. We got our hook back and sent him on his way. Look at the eel, looked like a surgeon cut, and under his fin is another cut. Amazing sharp set of teeth and jaws to match.
We got everything reset and about 30 minutes before tide change, we did hook a nice cobia. We fought this guy for about 15 min or more. He was never ready to come in the boat. Thankfully, we have gotten pretty good about understanding when the correct time is to try to land him. We only dipped the net in one time for him. For me, I want to see him turn his white belly up when he comes to the surface before trying to net him. That may not be best, but it has to be close because you rarely miss one after that occurs.
The day was not over, we caught one more shark and one more under cobia (no pic). It’s the last cobia because I am not sure I can get back out there before the season ends.
