We started out at first morning with a skeptical outlook on the day even though the wind had been blowing West for a week, we had a moderate cold front approaching so we were hoping the bite would be on. We came out of the Ft. Pierce Inlet and headed SE towards the inshore bars in search of a quick Kingfish bite to at least get a fish in the box. We hit 80' and lines went in and we started working deeper trying to find the fish. We hit 120' and the outside rigger went off and the reel screaming. We knew we had a good fish hooked up just not what species as all we saw was a crash on the bait and no color or anything else to let us know what we had. The reel screamed more like a Wahoo then a Kingfish as the fish did not seem to want to tire. WE got the belt strapped onto the client and he started going to work on this mystery fish. After 25 minutes we got the opportunity to see what we had for the first time. A large brown shadow about 4' long with white lines on his side. I started shouting that we had a really big Cobia hooked up and for the mate to be extremely careful with this fish as I have seen them clear decks of boats if gaffed too green. The fish came to the back of the boat and the mate grabbed the line and I advised him that this was only her first run and she would make another before getting a shot with the gaff. True to my word the fish saw the boat and took off again taking another 200+ yards of line. We knew we were going to be there for awhile with this fish. Another 15 minutes later sshe came within gaff shot range and my mate stuck her and brought her into the boat. With a weight of about 40-45 pounds and a totally exhausted fish and fisherman. We went back on the troll and listening to the radio had not heard much from the other boats in the area. We hit 90' of water and 2 more lines went off this time seeing the fish come out of the water and being Kingfish. We quickly got them aboard with both being in the 15 pound range. We continued working a zig zag pattern from shallow to deep and back most of the day and produced another 6 Kingfish and 5 Bonito.
Now the East winds have come back and we are definitely ready to put fish into the box after this next couple of days blow.
Capt. Gil Coombes
Smokin EM Charters
www.florida-fishingcharters.com
