Cobia Fish-Finder Rig Kevin Hand No one is more concerned with the well-being of these brown bombers than Blow, who serves on the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council subcommittee for cobia. Both rods should measure at least 7 feet; reels should hold enough 50-pound braid and generate enough drag to tire a 100-pound cobia. Tony has paid both by the pound and by the eel. In the spring, the fish move north to their summer grounds the Panhandle on the west coast, and from northeast Florida up to North Carolina or higher on the east coast. I like Tony. ... Where: Anchored ships, buoy and channel markers, and gas rigs in Mobile Bay, Alabama, ... 1- to 3-ounce eel lures, swimbaits, cobia bucktail jigs. It’s home to the Cobia World Champion season-long event and the Frank Helton Crab Cruncher weekend tournament. The eel has survived long enough in brackish water to grow between 3 and 9 inches. 06-20-2007, 07:51 PM. Black Friday, Cyber Monday & Holiday Specials Unite! I find rigged plastic eels to be the best plastic lure for cobia. Cobia have large mouths, so as far as hooks go, you can easily go with a 7/0. The beauty of fishing with Gulp is that they’re easy to store on the boat and cobia can’t resist the taste and smell of the bait. Also, have a Dubro Release attached to the bucket to clip your line coming form the rod that is rigged and ready on the rod holder is nice. And Harbor Docks, in Destin, is like the world capital of cobia fishing. This is the preferred method for hooking up an eel, a.k.a. The office is Buddy Gentry’s mother’s house. Short and sweet, catch them when you can, and right on time for the Panhandle cobia … The added scent and movement of the Gulp eel will help you get a few more bites when targeting cobia. American eels are popular baits among Florida Panhandle cobia fishermen. All Rights Reserved, Entering your valid email address signifies you wish to receive our newsletter and have read the, Florida Sportsman Launches Action Spotter Podcast. In the past, all of my cobia outings included a stop at the local tackle shop to purchase a box of frozen squid to tip my jigs with. Fishing with squid is messy business, usually resulting in a dark purple ink squirt on the boat or your shirt and slippery, stinky hands, which translates to a slick rod grip. One of the best lures for cobia is a plastic swimming eel, which can be used in a wide range of fishing situations and conditions including along beaches, inshore structures, and on reefs. Tony wants his eels 16 to 24 inches, two- to four-count per pound. Eels are usually fished with a loose drag, which allows fish to take line for several seconds before the hook is set. Tony has paid both by the pound and by the eel. He's fought for years for sensible regulations to protect both the species and anglers' rights. It seems everything likes to eat them, not just those beach-cruising cobia in the Florida Panhandle. You will also want good casting abilities with your rig. In the past I used a PowerBait eel or some other kind of wiggly soft plastic worm to enhance the action. Attach a leader with 80 pound mono and snell to a hook. These eels make perfect pitch baits for cobia, stripers and white marlin but work equally as well being trolled on dredges or fished with mojo rigs. So, at the stage of being abandoned by its now-dead parents in the middle of the ocean, the eel is called a grass eel and is between 1.5 and 2.5 inches long. The Eel Rig Capt. I also feel like having a large soft plastic on a jig slows down the decent of a heavy lead-head jig, keeping it in the strike zone longer while surface fishing. That is the size preferred by the white-lipped cobia. Rigging/Lure Selection: 24" Perfect Tubes Why This Bait? We love Tony. He is a Yankee like me. It is a state secret to what his deal is, but they cost you 5 bucks, and Tony never runs out of eels. Tony has a standing order for 10,000 eels starting them coming anytime mid March until he yells stop sometime around the first of May, when the last fish go by us to the westward. To learn more about Gulp eels, visit www.berkley-fishing.com/gulp/eel. Paul Wagner Backcountry Outfitters The Full Pull 2, 22 Cape Horn, 150 Yamaha DESTIN [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For the cobia fever to start, we have to have water temps of 62 degrees and above to even start looking for cobia. Rigging for cobia from Alabama’s wonderful fishing pier is a very important point. Tony buys all the fish for Harbor Docks. Tony Martin is Harbor Docks’ fish guy. The eel will spend almost its whole life in fresh or brackish water, traveling pretty much to the middle of the Atlantic (Sargasso Sea) to spawn and die. One of their favorite baits are eels and that’s the idea behind the tube, you’re imitating an eel. Cast far enough ahead of the fish so you can retrieve it in a swimming motion. Reading up on the American eel, I found that they are pretty interesting. Cobia can be found year-round in some areas, but are generally migratory. These eels are made of a durable rubber and are hand painted to closely mimic what an eel looks like in the wild. When hooking the eel like this it allows the head of the eel to be pointed downwards. To fish with the Gulp eels for cobia, simply place them on the hook of your bucktail jig. Only thing more wriggly is the quarry itself; a sturdy landing net is recommended. They’re feeding on … Hoses should be run 15 to 20 feet behind torpedo weights, ranging from four to 20 ounces. Get the Top Stories from Florida Sportsman Delivered to Your Inbox Every Week. The food is the best to be found in the area and owner Charles Morgan is one of the top 5 cobia fishermen on the planet. The larger eels are more expensive, and they are graded into three classes: large, 1 pound and up; medium, 200 grams to 1 pound; and small, under 200 grams. You may also use large, colorful lures such as jigs, plastic crabs, shrimp, and fish. Experience a great fishing adventure and catch every game fish out there with Al Gag's Whip-It Eel and Whip-It Fish fishing lures. Marty buys from 150 fishermen up and down the east coast to the tune of 800,000 pounds a year. However, there are other artificial baits out there that won’t leave you slimy and stinky but still get a cobia to hammer your jig. Berkley’s Gulp eels come in both 8 and 10 inches and a range of colors, but I prefer black for contrast. Hook them through the chin and top of nose with a circle hook to match the bait size. It’s kind of the opposite of Pacific salmon, which also spawn and die, but at least they don’t expect a bunch of newborns to find their way across the Atlantic to some stream on the east coast of the U.S. How To Use Relief Shading To Find Rockfish Spots, 2021 CCA CAL Sportfishing Tide Calendar Sale. Staggering the baits through the water column is a good approach. Captain Chip Day advises anglers to get a seven-foot-long, medium-heavy spinning rod with a good reel that has a very good drag system. The fish migrate to find a preferred water temperature, and can be found overwintering in south Florida. reviews, fishing videos, fishing recipes, Okay, so now we are all eel experts, but still it would be good to know a bit more, so I expanded my research by telephone and spoke to some real eel guys. As we mentioned, Eels are among the best baits for Cobia. The Gulp eels produce an enticing action that easily imitates live eels. JavaScript is disabled. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission calls them “sexually immature adults.” What that means I have no clue (and no, I don’t recommend you Google the term) but they are now yellow and fishermen can now catch them in eel pots, from Maine to Florida and sell them to me so I can now feed them to Panhandle cobia and hopefully beat the Moaks in a tournament. Berkley offers several different eel-shaped soft plastic baits in its line of Gulp scented baits, and they’re perfect for cobia fishing along the coast of Florida. You can check out some useful Eel rigging tips here. There are also some historic areas where cobia are commonly found that often act as a starting point. The tail of the eel also adds great action. Tony has a standing order for 10,000 eels starting them coming anytime mid March until he yells stop sometime around the first of May, when the last fish go by us to the westward. 06-20-2007, 09:02 PM. I was told the fishery has been pretty stable the last ten years, and the majority of the eels are sent overseas to Europe. After all, it’s the one part of the cobia equation that we anglers have some control over. Most were cruising on their migration pattern to the Chesapeake Bay. mono or #9 wire. Eels love to tangle your rig once you hook them. Bottom fishing there is pretty simple. Almost Alive lures is proud to present our Almost Alive Eel; the most realistic representation of a soft plastic eel bait in the world. We like the extra-large saltwater rubber eels like the Savage Gear Sand Eel as well as smaller sizes that you would use for largemouth bass or a Texas Rig. When Alaskan salmon do their thing (finding their way to a stream) they are fully grown and have a bit of time under their fins. 7/0 Hooks with our 1/2 ounce hair and mylar witches in various colors with a nose spring, chin weight & 100 lb. That is a whole heap of eels and Tony our hero back in Destin is a small (but important) customer of Marty’s. Loaded with the powerful saltwater Gulp scent and flavor formulation that drives fish to strike. Most predatory fish react much stronger to a live bait that is swimming down as it looks as if he is trying to elude the predator fish. View Full Version : Rigging live eels for Cobia. Two outfits cover all your cobia needs: a heavy-action spinning rod with a stiff tip for casting a bucktail, and a lighter stick with a slower bend to toss an eel. >>Take a 5/0-7/0 circle hook and get enough meat and about an inch of hide, and stick the now very mad eel in a bucket of ice water and hold onto him till he forgets about you sticking a hook in him. A good spread places a pair of heavy rigs forward and a lighter pair aft, with a mix of colors. That is the size preferred by the white-lipped cobia. Yo-Zuri Mag Popper Contest – Last Day To Enter!! Fall Cobia Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The best way to hook an eel is by hooking the eel from the bottom jaw out of an eye. A good all-around rig for cobia fishing is a medium-heavy 6- to 7-foot spinning rod paired with a high-quality reel. The reel should be spooled with at least 225 yds of 20-30 lb test. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Tony buys as many as 15,000 eels for the Destin cobia fishing season, so Tony knows a lot about eels. Back then a spot was a preferred bait but bluefish or menhaden worked. fished for cobia for 23 years on Kitty Hawk Pier and we caught the vast majority of cobia on pin rigs. What is the most effective way to rig a live eel and fish for cobia? Thawed squid that has been left out too long is probably the worse smelling bait in the world to fish with, but squid works well when fishing for cobia. Custom Rigging upon request< mono 8/0 Hooks with our 1 ounce hair and mylar witches in various colors with a nose spring, chin weight & either 130 lb. Equipment for Cobia Let’s start with gearing up for a cobia season. Have a 5 gallon bucket with mostly saltwater and just a touch of ice to calm them down a bit. Hogy Lure Company PO Box 570 Falmouth, MA 02541 info@hogylures.com 1 (888) 654 4649 Customer Service >>Use 40-pound-test fluorocarbon leader 2 or 2 ½ feet long.
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