It’s been a busy Summer for most of us here at Port Canaveral. We did manage to lose a few days to some unseasonable  windy weather. The main species out there are Kingfish, but we are also catching a good amount of Cobia too. They are holding on the offshore reefs with the Kings as well as Sailfish.

The other day I had 2 fellows from Japan. On the way out ,I filled them in on the previous days action and said that we may pick up a Cobia or some Mahi Mahi while we were live baiting for Kings.

We started off with some good action on the downrigger, hooking up our first King within minutes of getting to the wreck. We caught a couple of them pretty quick as well as lost a few. The shotgun line went off with a nice fish on it and after a while it made the desired move to the surface from the bottom which more times than not is the sign of a Cobia. It was a nice fish too, at least 40lbs. As Mr. Yamashita worked the fish close to the boat, we saw that it had 2 more “Hero’s” with it. At that moment, here comes a 20+ lb bull Dolphin running at the boat. It now turns into a fire drill. I grabbed a pogy and stuck it on a spinning rod and pitched it out towards the Dolphin. It didn’t waste any time and pounced on the bait. I set the hook and passed it off to the other fellow who’s name I couldn’t pronounce and he fought it for a minute or 2 and they the darn fish made another jump and threw the hook.

As he hands me the rod back, I look at one of the Kingfish rods that was holding a bait next to the boat and its bowing over big time. It seems that one of the Cobes ate that pogy while it was just swimming boat side. Mean while, Mr Yamashita is still working the first Cobia, but couldn’t get it close enough to gaff. The other fish was coming close to gaff when the 3rd fish comes within range. I quickly put a pogy on it and pitch it out towards the fish. Whamo!!!, 3 on now. I stuck the 2nd fish and put in the box and now the same fellow takes over on the 3rd fish . Unfortunately, Mr Yamashita’s fish pulled the hooks, an occasional problem when hooking up Cobia on a kingfish wire rig. I now was ready to gaff the last fish and into the fish box to join it’s buddy. We hooked up one more Cobia on a jig a little bit later, but it came off.

When we came in we had 2 Cobia, a 35 and a 37lb’er, 2 Bonita for Sashimi, a small Mahi Mahi and 2 Kings, a nice half day trip.

P.S., we are catching some Amberjacks too, offshore a few more miles