Today I took my wife, my 6yr old son, a friend I grew up with, and one of his friends out for some near shore fishing. Since I didn't want to try my son very far offshore yet, we stayed within 9 miles of shore, and left a little later than I normally would.(7AM) My main goal was to get my son on some fast fishing to try to get him hooked on offshore fishing. In the past he got scared being in the ocean, got sick, and got bored easily.
We started out at a very busy Sisters Creek boat ramp. I'm not used to that. I'm normally using the sabiki poles at my first bait stop as it's cracking daylight. Anyways, when we finally get to the first bait stop close in, I had 2 people working sabikis, and one dropping spanish sardines down for game fish. The sabikis weren't producing, but the sardine returned in a grouper's mouth. We gave up on the live bait since we seemed to have what they wanted, so we anchored up.
We must have caught 15 short grouper at this #, and my son was having a ball. There was also action to watch at the surface as what appeared to be spanish macks jumping, and a barracuca skyrocketed out of the water about 30 feet behind the boat. We also saw sea turtles and about a dozen medium sized rays swimming by. I looked for tag a long cobia, but none were spotted. After a while, it was nothing but those pesky sharks. We left when the sharks invaded.
At spot number 2, it showed some fish on the bottom, so we didn't mess around. We anchored. First fish to the boat was another short grouper, followed by a short red snapper. hmm... We caught another 10-15 short grouper, and 1 24" red snapper. We also got a few mangos about 16". As the tide changed, we swung off the site, and sharks showed up on our hooks, so we decided to try another spot.
After a boater beat us to our planned destination, we changed up and picked our third site, the farthest of the day, 9 miles from shore. I was happy to see my son wasn't getting scared yet. (maybe because of the calm seas) For the third time in a row, my wife brings up the first fish. It's another short grouper!! This site was hot with barely short grouper, and we lost count of how many we caught. We managed a few more mangos, then I fight a fish up that feels like it's shaking it's head. hmm...this feels different. It was a 19" flounder. I was surprised, but I shouldn't have been..we've caught several at wrecks before. At all the spots we fished, I had a flat line out with a live bait on it, with no takers. We start catching sharks again, and I see about a 4' long golden brown looking bull shark swimming in and out of our boat shadow. We watched him do this for about 20 mins, when about a 10' long hammerhead shark appears about 100' away from us scanning the surface with his fin out of the water. I was bored, so I figured I'd have a little fun with this bull shark and maybe strike up the interest of the hammerhead with the commotion. I reeled in my live bait on the flatline, and the bullshark makes a b-line to it and bites it. I let him chew for a few secs and then I put the whammy on him. about this time, that big hammerhead puts off a wake charging toward us on the surface. The bull shark gets about 5 feet straight down, and turns sideways. That's no bull shark, that's a @%$%#%^ Cobia!!! :o"Get the gaff, QUICK!!" Now it's a rat race to try and boat this thing before jaws eats him first. My wife tries to steady the fish for my gaffer, by grabbing the end of my rod just as the fish surges downward. BAD IDEA!!!
the fish came off. The hammerhead got about 10' away, and turned away from us not to be seen again. My heart sank, and I almost crapped it out.
We talked about what just happened, and thought about moving for about 20 mins, when I see Mr. Cobia swim out from under the boat again. It's on like donkey kong again now. I put a fresh grunt on the flat line, and toss it to the front of the boat letting it drift into the shadow. He followed it about 6 times, and just wouldn't eat. This took about 30 mins waiting to see him, and pitching the bait. Finally he messed up and ate. I immediately freespooled some slack to him and just let him eat. After I thought he had enough time, I ever so slightly eased tension on the line to coax him out from under the boat to see if the whole bait was in his mouth. It was. I set the hook with about 7' of line out, and brought him to the side of the boat where he got gaffed. In the boat this GREEN cobia came!!! I dropped my rod and opened up a case of whoopass on his head with my club. He saw things my way very quickly. Ever notice how high pitch of a ring a cobia's head gives when hit with a club??? He wound up being 39" to the fork, and this concluded our day.
My neighbor says he took pics of the fish with his cellphone. When I ever get them from him, I'll post them. We were very pumped up after stalking this fish for so long, then thinking we blew it, only to finally get the last laugh. It was an awesome adventure.
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