I m hoping to get out Thursday for Cobia. This will be my first time fishing for them down here so I have a couple of questions.
Has anybody spotted any groups of pogies in the area between laurel bay and PI? if so what stage of the tide how deep how close to shore ect. Alternate baits if no pogies? What about mullet?
What’s the prefered method for rigging in this area? Top or bottom? How much weight? How long of a leader between the weight and the hook? I was planning on 4oz weight 6/0 circle hook on 4 ft of 60lb leader.
Any and all info will be appreciated. I may not get another chance to get at the Cobia this season because it’s back to work on Monday. Such is the life as a Drill instructor and a dad of 3 little girls.
Hey Ben,
In case you get desperate, we found pogies on the other side of HHI, between Palmetto Dunes & Port Royal. Not sure about the LB & PI area, but it’s still a little early for Pogies. Live bait is best, for sure. If you can’t find pogies, try a sabiki around structure or a marker. Mullet, crab, pins should work fine too. Worst case, cut mullet or squid. I like to keep a pitch bait ready in case a cobia swims up to the boat and always fish something on the bottom. Depending on current, you’ll probably need a #5 or #6 egg weight around here, 30-40 lb leader at 4’-5’ and I prefer a #3 or #4 circle hook. 6 is a little big in my opinion. Good luck and Semper Fi brother. Ran through PI in 1997. Good times:)
We caught one on Wed and four on Thur all with similar tackle as you guys mentioned. All but one with cut bait on the bottom, one came on a live greenie. We probably saw at least ten fish caught between ours and the boats around us.There were huge schools of greenies around the fishing peir and bridge all morning, huge schools. We fished Fri and Sat as well, without a cobia, just a bunch of sharks. What a difference a day makes! Good luck.
Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo.
6oz weight - 6/0 hook will be fine - 5ft leader 50-80lb test will do - as many rods on the bottom as u can stand without getting all tangled up - one bait swimming around on a balloon 50-75ft away from boat - one attached to a line/leader with no weight swimming around right beside the boat this bait can be uses as the pitch bait if something surfaces near by - chum bag on top and on bottom - live bait sabiki up some greenies but live menhaden are doing better right now in my opinion - you can find bait off the beach not giants but they are there
Or leave all that stuff at home and sight fish for them on the slack tides. They will eat artificial as well as live bait now. We have not had one well presented fly turned down and color has not mattered.
One more good bait not mentioned is live whiting. We probably catch more on whiting than anything else and you can usually catch them while you are waiting for the big boy to show up.
Once you get anchored up get your chum on the bottom and use bottom rigs with cut squid to catch live whiting and blue fish and fish another rod with a sabiki rig to catch some greenies. I was down all last week and we caught cobia on all three above mentioned baits. The nice thing is you can catch them where you want to fish instead of hunting up and down and all around looking for menhaden like I used to do.
Nobody mentioning eels?Ive always been told they are one of the best bait for cobia.The few ive caught have come on greenbacks sabikied from the bottom.Good luck.Def 5-6oz needed at times.
2 hours or so on either side of the slack tide… Less current is better. There again I’m no expert! Be prepared to sit in the river and watch every boat around you hook up and you don’t even get a knock down and go home empty handed. That’s cobia fishing haha
I’m going out on Thursday too Ben. Taking a buddy out on his boat to teach him how to fish. Planning to bait up early then go after 'em. Good luck out there bro! PM me if I can ever help you out around HHI. I’m always more than happy to help out a fellow jar head.
Nobody mentioning eels?Ive always been told they are one of the best bait for cobia.The few ive caught have come on greenbacks sabikied from the bottom.Good luck.Def 5-6oz needed at times.
Not sure who carries them now. But IMO live eels are the best, just most people don’t like handling them. Sharks love em too. I’ve seen people use a sock on there hand, but for me spanish moss works the best to hold them while rigging.
when using live eel, how do you rig them on the hook?
I, too, am interested in this…
I was going to go with some cut shad and squid tomorrow, but thought about maybe some eels if I knew how to use them (And Boat and Dock doesn’t sell out in the first 5 minutes).
I have always hooked them through the lips… they have a hard “nose” on the upper part that I try to catch. They will roll and coil and go crazy once you hook them… but I rarely have issues after they get in the water. I will also pull my eels up when the tide slacks so that they don’t twist into a mess up your leader/line.