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On Saturday Doug (ravendefense), Eric (somedevil), Joe (kayakjoe), and myself took a short trip down to the Eastern Shore of VA to get in on a good cobia bite that had been going on for the last week or so. I’ve never caught a cobia before so the reports of good fish up to 60lbs in the area we planned to fish had me excited. Eric and I got to the launch around 5:30 and set off on the 3 – 4 mile paddle out to the fishing grounds. Doug and Joe were running a little behind and got out a half hour later. Once we finally got to where we wanted to fish, Eric and I anchored up together while Doug and Joe setup maybe a half mile or so south of us. With bait cut, chum deployed, and a squirt of fish oil every now and then, there was nothing left to do but hope some cobia found our slick.
It didn’t take long for stuff to find me and I was instantly into rays and sharks. Sandbar sharks up to 30” and 3 different species of rays - cownose, southern, and butterfly throughout the day. I’ve hooked some big butterfly rays before surf fishing that I had trouble turning, but hooking a big one on a kayak is ridiculous. Easily the most powerful thing I’ve hooked to date – like snagging a submarine! It towed me on anchor a little before thankfully breaking off. I probably caught a dozen or more rays total and just as many sharks.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all sharks and rays this day… I ended up getting 4 cobia between 34” – 36”. Not huge by cobia standards, but for my first time trying for them, I’ll take it! And four of them? I was ecstatic! All of them came on the chunk bait, only rays took the head pieces. Landing them was the hardest part because I knew they were border line keepers so I didn’t want to gaff/club them and find out they were under sized. I ended up fighting them next to the kayak for a while to try and tire them out a bit before I pulled them in and threw my legs over them to keep them from going wild. It worked out better than I thought. I kept reading how crazy they can go in the boat but they really weren’t that bad. One of them, as soon as I hooked it shot out of the water like a sea rocket three or four times, twice coming out of the water completely and doing a back flip! I’ve never caught anything like it before! It was amazing fishing and I can’t wait for the chance to hopefully get out again shortly. It’s going to be hard for anything else I may catch this summer to compare to the experience of those cobia. If you get the chance to try for them - do it!
My only regret is I wish I had better pictures
And of course it all didn’t go as planned and I had to pay a little back to the cobia gods. While trying to cut the hook leader on a ray, it made a quick maneuver and shot under my kayak catching me off guard and putting me in a bad spot. My rod tip ended up getting caught against my kayak before I could react and off snapped the top 5" of it
. Fortunately I had a spare tip and was able to rod an emergency repair so I could keep using it. Shimano replacement for 50% MSRP shipped today.
Eric and Joe also got into cobia, but I can let them share if they choose.
It didn’t take long for stuff to find me and I was instantly into rays and sharks. Sandbar sharks up to 30” and 3 different species of rays - cownose, southern, and butterfly throughout the day. I’ve hooked some big butterfly rays before surf fishing that I had trouble turning, but hooking a big one on a kayak is ridiculous. Easily the most powerful thing I’ve hooked to date – like snagging a submarine! It towed me on anchor a little before thankfully breaking off. I probably caught a dozen or more rays total and just as many sharks.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all sharks and rays this day… I ended up getting 4 cobia between 34” – 36”. Not huge by cobia standards, but for my first time trying for them, I’ll take it! And four of them? I was ecstatic! All of them came on the chunk bait, only rays took the head pieces. Landing them was the hardest part because I knew they were border line keepers so I didn’t want to gaff/club them and find out they were under sized. I ended up fighting them next to the kayak for a while to try and tire them out a bit before I pulled them in and threw my legs over them to keep them from going wild. It worked out better than I thought. I kept reading how crazy they can go in the boat but they really weren’t that bad. One of them, as soon as I hooked it shot out of the water like a sea rocket three or four times, twice coming out of the water completely and doing a back flip! I’ve never caught anything like it before! It was amazing fishing and I can’t wait for the chance to hopefully get out again shortly. It’s going to be hard for anything else I may catch this summer to compare to the experience of those cobia. If you get the chance to try for them - do it!
My only regret is I wish I had better pictures
And of course it all didn’t go as planned and I had to pay a little back to the cobia gods. While trying to cut the hook leader on a ray, it made a quick maneuver and shot under my kayak catching me off guard and putting me in a bad spot. My rod tip ended up getting caught against my kayak before I could react and off snapped the top 5" of it
. Fortunately I had a spare tip and was able to rod an emergency repair so I could keep using it. Shimano replacement for 50% MSRP shipped today. 
Eric and Joe also got into cobia, but I can let them share if they choose.
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