53lb Cedar Key Cobia

[Fishin' DC's]

My wife, Debbie, and I launched early last Saturday, May 29th. Water conditions were a bit choppy, but after stopping off in a couple of spots for live bait we made our way out to our spot where we anchored up, put the chum bag out and settled in for a kingfish bite. She landed a nice spanish mackeral on a live bait under a balloon. A few minutes later, this guy shows up around the boat. The live baits were way out behind the boat so I grabbed every rod I could find with an artificial and threw at him but he turned his nose up to them. Debbie thought to reel in her live bait and was able to get the cobe's attention on the livey. He hit it within 20 feet of the boat. She fought him for 25 minutes on a 3500 baitrunner on a lightweight ugly stik rod. The fish took her from one side of the boat to the other, but she fought him like a pro. When he was within reach, I put the gaff to him and held on for the action. He thrashed around and I felt like I was going to lose grip of the gaff a couple of times. With a big heave, I pulled him in the boat. He was pretty much whipped. He weighed 53lb. This is the biggest fish we've put in the boat.

 

[NCangler]

Nice work! It has been a great year for Cobia on the NC coast too. That is fine eating there. Way to go Debbie!

 

[Push&Pull]

Beautiful fish, nicely done. Kuddos to the better half.

 

[cagrove]

Sweet! That's a great fish. Congrats to angler and Captain!

 

[Genelie]

Wow, thats big..looks a bity slimy too.

 

[BeeReel]

Light weight tackle and big fish

Really nice job Debbie.

I was pulling in 40" stripers/rockfish on a baitcaster 4500, 17lb test mono on a lightweight ugly stick just Saturday, difference is the stripers were 20-25lbs and dont' really fight. Guys on board were in disbelief that I could use such light tackle for such big fish, and you provided extra proof it is not necessarily the tackle but how you use it.

 

[Fishin' DC's]

BeeReel,
Nice job on your stripers. We had the 3500's set out as our primary kingfish rods, but the cobia would not hit any of the artificials I had rigged on my 6500's. So, we wound up fighting the fish on whichever bait he felt like biting and prayed it would hold.

I had the 3500 spooled with 30lb Suffix-to-25lb fluoroleader-to 31lb wire leader with a 4X treble hook with a 4X stinger treble as well. The ugly stik was bent double and she could only crank the reel a quarter-turn at the time, but she hung with him and eventually got him up. After seeing the way it handled this pig, I'm a believer in them.