# The Wad



## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

This happened about ten tears ago when the limit was two cobia per person. I thought maybe I would stoke the fire while we wait. It was Tax Week in April, and Billy, Zack, and I were enjoying a picture perfect cobia day off Destin. The days prior had beaten us up pretty much, and since the three of us were getting a little long in the tooth, the gentle southeast winds were a welcome relief to our ?tower bruises?. We already had a 45 pounder in the box, and had seen a couple more spooky fish, so we were having no problem staying alert. We were headed west, following the color change near the Back Porch, with Zack on inshore watch, me looking offshore, and Billy was driving and scanning for turtles, dark spots, V wakes, or whatever. I noticed Billy had locked his gaze on one spot and I said, 'Whatcha got, Billy?', I'm not sure? a cloud shadow? maybe a bait ball?? I looked but couldn't find. ?How far out?? He was staring at our eleven o'clock. ?About six or seven hundred yards.? Dammit, Man! I can't see that far! How far can you actually see?? I can see the moon. How far is that?? Uh, ok. Billy slowly closed the distance to his dark spot and worked offshore of it to put it in our ?window?. Then Billy's voice went up two octaves and he started blathering, ?COBIA! GOOD GOD AT THE COBIA!? Shit a mile, YES! It was the wad from God! At least thirty cobes were piled up on top of each other, totally oblivious to our approach. Zack and I dumbfounded until Billy started yelling, ?Feed the sombitches! Get a bait in there!? Zack tried to free up his rod with a giant gold spoon with big red bead eyes, but it tangled all to hell. What seemed like two hours later, he fired a shot ahead of the wad. Five or six cobia peeled off and attacked the spoon, and Zack jacked up the winner of the race. Line ripped off his reel as he climbed out of the tower. I fired a rubber eel into the wad and jacked one. When its first run slowed, I handed the rod to Billy and snatched a live eel out of one of the tower buckets. The eel landed in the middle of the wad and immediately dove for the bottom. A football huddle of cobia stood on their heads and gave chase. I felt the thump and set the hook. Billy's yelling. 'Don't hand me any more rods! I've got to drive and keep up with the wad!? I backed off on the drag and put the rod in a holder. Then I snatched the other eel out of its bucket and fired again. Instant hook up! It was time to go to work. I swapped rods with Billy and headed down. Zack was working hard and sweating. ?Kick it out of gear, Billy! I can?' gain any line!? Can't. Gotta stay with these fish!? Now I'm sweating and we're both yelling at Billy. He's paying us no attention. I look up at the rod in the holder and the reel is nearly spooled. I tell Billy, he takes a look and takes the boat out of gear. Zack takes advantage and one-hand gaffs his fish and lets out a yell when he pulls a muscle in his back. He made a face, bopped his cobe in the head, boxed the fish, threw his rod down and ran up the ladder to get another bowed up rod from Billy. Billy had been taking a few turns on one rod and then the other. Things were looking better. My fish was getting close when Billy puts the boat in gear again! ?Here comes the fleet! Gotta stay with these fish!?Geez! Zack and I are panting and Zack's back is killing him. I guess he learned to play with pain, cause when my fish got close, he yammed his rod in a gunnel holder, grabbed the gaff and stuck my fish and dropped it on the deck. I threw my rod down, bopped and boxed the fish, and stood by with the gaff for Zack. Billy's not slowing down, and we're not gaining much line. Finally Billy gets alongside the wad and goes to neutral. Zack goes to work and shortly I gaff it. His fish comes over the side and we bop and box it. Billy has the last fish tamed from the tower and alongside. Zack takes a look at it and says, 'That's a big one there. We'll need two gaffs.? We're both in slow motion now. My breathing is shallow and rapid. Zack has lost all his color and he's in pain. I stick the first gaff and Zack mans up with another. It's a slob. We heave once, twice, and she's on the deck, rearranging all the furniture. Zack and I go to high ground and try to get our breath. Damn a cobia. Billy's yelling again, ?What the hell are y'all doing? Get a bait in these fish!? I swear he was eating jelly beans. 'Feed 'em yourself!? ?What the hell are y'all doing?? Another handful of jelly beans. 'Go to the bow and feed these sombitches!? 'We're waiting on this last one to dry out so we can box it.? ?Hurry up! The tourists are gonna chop them up with their props!? We were unprepared for a wad this big. We only had four rods rigged, and they were all still tied to a cobia, one of which was slapping the rods all around the cockpit with her big ass tail. I tell Zack that I'll sedate the slob while he frees up a rod. We get up and go back to work. Zack retrieves his spoon, but the treble hook is totally fubar. He tries the rubber eel, but it's cut in half. He finally gets a live bait hook loose, but all the lines are fouled. Billy's yelling again, but this time, not at us. ?BACK OFF! YOU?RE GONNA PUT THEM DOWN!? Our boat was now surrounded with other boats, tower monkeys leaning out of their towers with bails open. The closest boat was yellow and white and clean and spanking new. Apparently, so was her skipper. His bow was almost on top of the wad. Zack had managed to untangle a rod and grabbed our last live eel; a hot one. With considerable effort he nape hooked it and ran to the bow. Before he got there, you guessed it, the eel had wadded up into a mess. It only takes a nanosecond. Zack doesn't cuss, so I did it for him. Billy saw the mess and said, Just throw the damn thing out there anyway! Maybe one will choke on it!? The glob hit the wad, and three cobia circled it once, then swam off. They appeared to be nearing their lockjaw stage. We almost ran into a boat in front of us, cutting us off. Billy kicks it out gear and lets the jackals and hyenas rush in. He yells at us one last time. Put the lid down on the fish box!? 'Can't. We'd have to throw some fish back!? He climbs out of the tower, goes into the cabin and returns with a half gallon of Jack Daniels. Hope you boys kept some clean ice!?


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## snakeawave (Oct 1, 2007)

Damn, If that does't get you fired up I dont know what will ,Damn fine day, I think I'm starting to get the shakes!!


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## jackedup (Jan 17, 2008)

great story,thanks for sharing that one:clap


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## Red Fly (Jan 23, 2008)

GREAT POSTING

Thanks for the story, that got me fired up.


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## phantom (Oct 5, 2007)

great story.. ready for some more of those days myself..


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## David Ridenour (Sep 28, 2007)

Great post!


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

that's badass right there


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## Bigg J (Nov 7, 2007)

That's hardcore man.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Thanks, guys. We actually hooked a single after that that would have limited us out, but it pulled the hook at the boat.

Then we saw a pair at East Pass that we didn't even throw at. Had to get ice on the fish, you know.

Ah, if all cobia days were that sweet!


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## true-king (Oct 2, 2007)

Man, thats awesome. I would love to see a wad like that go by the pier, everbody out there'd be hooked up!


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## captainscove (Oct 9, 2007)

I'm awake now....

Lets go get em:clap


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## HateCheese (Oct 2, 2007)

Great post. Seemed like I was sitting right there. :clap


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## phantom (Oct 5, 2007)

BTT.... this is a great story... it is time to start thinking about cobias now that deer season is almost over for us..


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## LITECATCH (Oct 2, 2007)

I love days like that, non-stopped action!! it's been a few years since we have had a day like that, i hope this year will be different. hope we have a great run this year.

Are you living in Destin? i wish i knew someone with a pier i could tie up to for the night. i like to fish down to Destin spend the night and fish back to Pensacola the next day.


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## biggamefishr (Oct 26, 2007)

scott....I might beable to work something out at my uncles place on joes bayou for a boat ride


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## Misn 1 (Jul 14, 2008)

Dude, that story was so graphic...I was sweating by the time I got to the end! And, I was ready for some of that JD too! Greatstory...


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## emerfish (Jan 14, 2009)

Damn man, now i need a valium. Me and a couple of friends were in a similar situation past El Matador one time...we looked like Curly, Mo, and Larry.


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## atlast740 (Dec 19, 2007)

them days are gone forever.fished by myself for 25 years and catch 12 or 15 fish a day , take them down to shirahs ice house and sell them


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## LITECATCH (Oct 2, 2007)

Cool Josh, have no idea where Joe's Bayou is.


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## atlast740 (Dec 19, 2007)

scott its out of ur range about 12 miles east of destin pass on south side of bay


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## atlast740 (Dec 19, 2007)

when mprorr lol comes down would love to go out with u guys if possible


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## netboy (Aug 28, 2008)

Dude, great story and very well written! You should try to publish it in one of the fishin mags!



Capt. Jeff



www.themadgaffer.com


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## biggamefishr (Oct 26, 2007)

Scott....if you look on mapquest its the body of water just west of the airport. I'd say it might be 3-4 miles from destin pass, nowhere near 12 miles. Its a large deep water bayou. my uncle had a 40+ sailboat tied up at his dock for the longest time. so its plenty deep for the litecatch


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## atlast740 (Dec 19, 2007)

macks bayou is east of sandestin but im not going to argue with u i drove it to many times


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## biggamefishr (Oct 26, 2007)

sorry atlast but i believe I offered up a spot in JOES bayou, i was unaware that you switched the conversation to macks.....regardless the spot in JOES BAYOU is still open to you scott and its less than 4 miles from destin pass


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## atlast740 (Dec 19, 2007)

i was razzing scott about being out of his range to far from gulf


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## King Crab (Dec 28, 2008)

> *atlast740 (1/29/2009)*them days are gone forever.fished by myself for 25 years and catch 12 or 15 fish a day , take them down to shirahs ice house and sell them


 And thats why they are dissapearing at a serius rate. Killing them to sell. Come on cobia farms. Could you imagine the bass in a tournament getting sold instead of released?:nonono


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## phantom (Oct 5, 2007)

> *King Crab (1/29/2009)*
> 
> 
> > *atlast740 (1/29/2009)*them days are gone forever.fished by myself for 25 years and catch 12 or 15 fish a day , take them down to shirahs ice house and sell them
> ...


I agree w you King Crab... But back when atlast sold them many years ago he was the only one out there fishing for them.. Could you imagine if no one was fishing for them today..


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## atlast740 (Dec 19, 2007)

i agree 110% but back then u might see 5 boats between destin and pensacola === im very sorry to deplete the population


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## konz (Oct 1, 2007)

I say that if the season isn't good this year we just blame Frank oke oke oke

Awesome story brother! Heck I don't even fish for them and I found myself reaching for a rod!


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## mekell (Sep 27, 2007)

> *phantom (1/29/2009)*
> 
> 
> > *King Crab (1/29/2009)*
> ...




He was not the only one fishing for Cobia in those days. Almost hate to tell how many pods we would see in a day and the numbers in the pods.



If I remember correctly at last had a 18-20 foot boat with a Chrystler(sp) and had ropes and pulleys to steer it from the Tower. It takes more time and effort to Cobia fish now.


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## LITECATCH (Oct 2, 2007)

Hey Josh, that looks perfect!


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## amberj (Oct 1, 2007)

Damn I am shaking like i just saw a big pod of em. Damn it when we going cobe fishing!!!


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

I was able to shoot my first cobia last summer. I can't wait to get another one. Those lazy swimming fish become monsters when you put a steel shaft in them.:doh


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## konz (Oct 1, 2007)

> If I remember correctly at last had a 18-20 foot boat with a Chrystler(sp) and had ropes and pulleys to steer it from the Tower. It takes more time and effort to Cobia fish now.


He was telling me the story last night.......16' boat with a Chrysler engine........ropes and all......haha!


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## atlast740 (Dec 19, 2007)

dont never put ur rod in the rod holder on top of step ladder u might get swamped if he heads south with a full drag


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Thanks to Philip at admin for cleaning up this old post so I could bump it to the top. This was one of my first contributions to PFF, and I thought some of the newer members might like it.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Also, to some of the younger crowd, contributor Atlast740 was none other than the legend himself, Frank Helton.


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