Florida Cobia Fishing
Monday, April 20th, 2009Spring fishing here in the Tampa Bay, Florida area continues to produce outstanding results. I spent the morning Sunday at the Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach, targeting grouper on the incoming tide. They were aggressively hitting whole frozen sardines, and I landed around a dozen, up to 20″:
There were a few mackerel around, and even a decent flounder. But the big fish of the day was a 40″ cobia that nailed a Spanish Sardine. With fairly light spinning tackle, and 20 lb. test SpiderWire, it was a fun fight. Thankfully, Cap’t Joe was on the pier, and had a gaff handy- this fish wouldn’t fit in the net! It’s the first legal cobia that I’ve caught on the pier. Fresh grilled cobia steaks tonight!
I spent Friday and Saturday at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event on the beach behind Sloppy Joe’s in Treasure Island. Our Team, Digital Eel (a Tampa web design company), has raised over $10,000 to date for this worthy cause.
Cap’t Joe preparing to fillet the catch of the day: