The beachfront might offer some great sight-fishing for cobia, but there places other than 10 feet of water where cobia can be caught. Often, cobia will trade between the baitfish schools behind the breakers and the gangs of baitfish covering up the reefs just a few miles away. If the beach bash isn’t going, fishermen must be ready to check out the nearshore reefs.
J Baisch of Fishfull Thinking Guide Service always starts his trips running the beach at first light, but if the action isn’t up to par, he’ll head fro the reefs.
“We catch roughly half of our spring cobia at the reefs,” said Baisch. “Every reef from the 3-Mile reef to the reefs in 60 feet of water will have cobia on them in May.”
The reefs will also be full of Atlantic threadfin herring, aka greenbacks, another reason they’re a great place to hook up with a brute cobia.
Baisch fishes the reefs a lot throughout the season, and he’ll have a couple of pitch rods ready, knowing a cobia’s curious nature will put fish into his boat.
“A lot of times, the cobia will come up to see what is going on when they hear the vibrations from the boat and then disappear,” he said. “You can have a shot at the fish right off the bat if you are ready when you pull up.”
If you miss that first opportunity, however, there are ways to get fish back to the surface. Baisch will chum and draw a few fish up to the surface
Cobia can also be caught deeper by fishing live bait or by casting large bucktails or grubs around the structure, and structure doesn’t have to be buried beneath the waterline or on the sea’s floor, either. They frequently will hover just under reef buoys and around channel markers.
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