Went out on a trip last friday with Harry and Jim. The plan was to hit the deeper wrecks for big blacks we had seen the week before.
We went out in forcasted less than 2 ft seas which turned out to be easily 3-5 with some big waves making their way over the bow at times. Harry's boat handled waves like a dream so much I wasn't even worried about the seas.
We motored to the first spot and we must've put in the wrong numbers because we were in 50ft when it should've been 90. So we headed further south to another wreck holding blacks and couldn't find it either so we decided to drift the reef in 70ft with top to bottom vis.
The reef was beautiful but completely barren of any shootable fish. About 10 minutes into the drift I caught a glimpse of 4 shadows in the blue about 100 ft away and 50 ft under the surface. I had just come up from a dive and realized they were cobia.
I remembered what Harry told us about cobia not being spooky and I bolted right after them. The biggest one came up and met me half way. As I shot him I looked to the bottom and saw the reef moving. There must have easily been 50 or more circling around a sleeping ray on the bottom. Jim dove and shot a small one before he too realized all of the other cobia on the bottom.
This fish put up a great fight and made a long run instead of just rolling like they usually do. It was like shooting a train and there was no stopping him. Harry found us and made a shot in the cobia since he saw the flopper was right under the skin. The cobia immediatley bent his shaft and we both hauled him up to the surface where it proceeded to kick my ass. I was so determined to kill it since Harry said it couldnt be done and I think he is right. Even with it throat cut and all of its guts out it still thrashed like crazy.
I measured the cobia in 3 parts (11 pound head, 14 pound fillet, 17 pound other fillet and bones) on my scale which came out to about 42lbs gutted.
By the time all was said and done we lost the school and couldn't find it again so we decided to go home since the seas were rough and I puked all over the place.