The cobia bite is going off on the Ft Lauderdale drift fishing boats. A friend of mine in Jacksonville, Florida called me last week and said get ready for some great cobia fishing… they're headed down the coast. We're catching them almost every trip these days, nice ones between 20-40 pounders and some even bigger. Drift fishing is a great way to catch cobia. If a school is swimming down the reef and comes within scent of your drift, you have enough baits set out there to catch every fish in the school. Cobia love to travel following just behind sea turtles, manta rays, sting rays, whale sharks, whales, or any slow moving marine creature. In fact, any time I ever spot any of these creatures swimming out there, I always try to get a few baits just behind them in case any cobias are following. Cobia will eat just about any bait you throw at them… a live pilchard, blue runner or goggle eye, a dead squid, ballyhoo or sardine, and they will even eat cast baits and artificial lures. Finding them is much harder than getting them to eat. And above all else, remember that cobias rarely travel alone. Where there is one, there are almost always others… be ready!
The sport fishing boats are also catching some cobias, either by kite fishing or deep dropping around the wrecks. The deep wrecks are also a great place to catch cobia. When you hook into a cobia on a wreck, they almost always swim right up to the surface to see what's happening. If the fish you hook on a wreck shoots right up to the top, it's probably a cobia. Around the wrecks this month, the groupers are also biting very good. Black groupers on the 100-200 ft wrecks and snowy groupers and warsaws on the 300-400ft wrecks. Groupers are finally in-season again here in Florida, and we can catch them at will. Sailfish are spotty, but they are still around. A few sailfish, blackfin tuna and wahoo are being caught this week on the sport fishing charter boats, and some smoker kingfish and snappers biting on the drift boats. There is some good Ft Lauderdale fishing going on out there. Good luck fishing this week everyone, I'll sea ya on the water.
