# 4/13/2011 Destin



## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Took my father in-law fishing today. We tried for some reds under the bridge early and missed a couple fish. Decided to head out and troll for some kings. Took a hard right out of the pass to avoid boat traffic and ran over a massive cobia. Didn't have time to slow down before a went over him and by the time I stopped he was long gone. Trolled down to the pier, had one hit that stripped about 50 yards of line and then came off. Decided to head offshore a bit to a wreck since it was so calm. As we pulled up, I could see many large fish only 10-15 feet below the surface. By the time we anchored, we had several cobia and some large unidentified fish right under the boat. I free lined a pinfish trying for a cobia when an AJ, as most of the fish under us turned out to be, came right up to the boat and nailed it. After a good fight, 29.5 inch AJ got put back in the water. The only live bait we had was pinfish and the cobia just wouldn't take them. They would swim up to hit then turn away at the last second. We were able to catch about 10 AJ's with the pinfish, all free lined right under the boat. No keepers unfortunatley. My father in-law picked up my light inshore trout/redfish set up and tied on a rebel broke-back, pretty much a big bass lure. A couple casts later he is hooked up on an AJ with 10 pound test. It was really funny, and he actually landed the fish, about 24 inches. His next cast he hooked up with a much larger fish and after a 15 minute fight got broken off. We continued to throw a variety of lures, just to see what they would and wouldn't hit. The best hit of the day came on a zara spook. AJ came half way out of the water and nailed it. The AJ's seemed to actually prefer the lures on top of the water more so than divers. Never seen anything like it. The wind and current picked up by lunch, so we headed in. On the way in the pass we spotted a couple big ol cobie on the edge of the bar. After trying Jigs and a couple barely alive pinfish, we gave up and headed in. All in all a great day, even if we didn't have much for the cooler. Lesson learned, don't go out without either live eels or live mullet for the cobia.


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## CountryFolksCanSurvive22 (Dec 3, 2010)

Don't feel to bad! Seen 18 YES 18 on SUnday and not the first fish would take a bait. Tried eels, crabs, pinfish, jigs, ruby reds, you name it woulnd't eat.


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## Frenchy (Oct 2, 2007)

*fun day*

Sounds like a fun day on the water Adam, wish we saw so many cobia when we were looking for them last time out !!! Thanks for the report.
Wish I was fishing.


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## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

It was a good day, although it sucked to watch two other boats within 50 yards land a couple nice cobia. I will definitely have some other live bait options next time.


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

It's not always bait options, sometime they just have lockjaw. I put an eel on two last Wednesday and they just laughed at me and continued to swim right on by. Some fish are just finicky. Only way I know how to describe it. Glad you had a blast on light tackle We take it all the time. As a matter of fact I had tuna up to my eyeballs yesterday offshore and a few yellows thrown in the mix. Wouldn't hit anything we threw at them so I grabbed my ultralight and chunked a small yozuri crystal monnow at them and had one blow up and miss, pretty good thing he did because the blowup looked like someone dropped a watermellon off the empire state building. It would have been fun while the show lasted. I would guess about 2.2 seconds that is before he found the end of the spool.


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