cape moreton 45lb Cobia

[popgun19]

I took 3 guys from my Cricket team over to Moreton on Sunday morning, conditons were pretty good so I decided to head to deep Tempest. We hit the corner heading to the Cape and were greeted with a preasure waves which slowed us up and by the time we got to the cape 2 of the boys turned green and started producing burley. Decided to change plans and head to hutchies and 2 of us had a fish for 1/2 hour for 2 scorpion cod and a kingie dropped by my mate at the boat. The other 2 were still produing burley for us so decided to put out some lures and slow troll back until we were inside the bay, this would be my first attempt at trolling so expectations were low, but you got be be in it to win it.

Put out a reidy's shallow diver Judge that I got from the facory when I was in Darwin earlier in the year, 2 skirts and a Rapala X wrap magnum 6m diver. After about 15mins the reel with the xrap on it starts screaming, gee that is a beautiful sound to hear. I grabed the rod and started the battle, after about 10 mins a fish surfaced about 30 metres from the boat and the boys all called out it's a #!@#$%^ shark after a 2nd look I said no its not it's a !@#$%!% horse black king! (gee they look heaps bigger under water.) The fish had me going from one side of the boat to the other for the next 10mins before he was finally gaffed on the 3rd attempt.

High 10's all round even the 2 lifeless ones managed to join in, That was was one unlucky fish !
I was wrapped my first ever Cobia and a nice one to open the account !.

It was caught trolling at 6 knots on a red / white xwrap, line 80lb berkley whiplash pro and 65pound trace. We then trolled to moreton with no more sucess and went for a swim for an hour and took a couple of pics before heading home.

Fish measured 138 cm and went 20.54 kg or 45 pounds on the old scale.

As i am still an offshore novice but I noiced that 6 knots seamed to be a good speed on the deep divers but didn't put much action on the skirts. What speed to most people troll at when using both ?

Cheers,
Brian

[wags on the water]

Nice work Brian. Solid fish.

[byron_moses]

top fish mate well done

[5100vr]

nice fish mate top effort

[Midnight]

Well done on ya Cobia.

What shape heads are on your skirted lures?

Chugger type heads will produce more action at lower speeds. Also if they are not cycling and breathing properly, then typically they are being too long. Dont be afraid to run them really short.

Cheers,
Myles

[dayoo]

Brian I think you have been getting too many personal bests over the past couple of months... Barramundy ...Red Emperor and now Cobia . Have a rest

Cheers
Barry

[littlemac]

great cobe brian

cheers

brett

[B-MACK]

Nice cobe mate!

I have trolled hutchies with harbodies and skirts together. And have found around 9-10 knots to be best to entice the faster predators like wahoo, tuna, AJ's Kingies. I was trolling x-raps, halco laser pro's with hex heads and they seemed to handle these speeds pretty well and all resulted in fish.

Only a novice at trolling but these speeds have worked for me on a number of ocasions.

[Horse]

Nice fish to open the account. In my boat 8knts seems the best if mixing resin heads and hardbodies. If I go faster it starts to surf and plane at times

[popgun19]

Well done on ya Cobia.

What shape heads are on your skirted lures?

Chugger type heads will produce more action at lower speeds. Also if they are not cycling and breathing properly, then typically they are being too long. Dont be afraid to run them really short.

Cheers,
Myles

Hi Myles,

I was using resin head skirted lures (pushers I think) about 6 inches in size.

What does a chugger head look like ?

cheers,
Brian

[popgun19]

Brian I think you have been getting too many personal bests over the past couple of months... Barramundy ...Red Emperor and now Cobia . Have a rest

Cheers
Barry

Thanks Barry, It has been a great fishing year so far, I can't split the 1.02m 1st Barra, the 10.01kg Red and the 20.54kg 1 st cobia I rate them all equally for different reasons.

I am slowly ticking them off of the list, but still a long way to go. Still need to tick off a double figure snapp, scarlet, yellowtail king, dolly, spanish, sampson, blue maroi, gold spot, yellow sweetie, keeper coral trout, blue and black GT and an AJ to go. If I tick one more off before the end of the the year i will be more then happy.


Cheers,
Brian

[Megafisk]

Try bib lures at 6-8 knots (or as fast as they can handle for pelagics)
Skirts/Pushers anywhere up to 12 knots
You can't go too fast for wahoo - but your other lures may blow out.

regards
Peter

[Midnight]

G'day Brian,
Same as a pusher, I just refer to cupped face broad and short headed lure heads as chuggers, cos the chug

They will give you the most action at the lower troll speeds that most bibbed minnows will handle. Jetted hex heads etc are the go too.

I good heavy weighted hex head is handy for really rough days, you can troll most of them up to 14 or so knots, so you can still fish while you are at your heavy weather cruise speed and travelling. Just remember to set the drag a little lighter for strike, and keep an eye on the reel. Safety lines on your rods are a good thing there too.

Cheers,
Myles

[popgun19]

Thanks Myles,

I have to get a couple of hex heads for the kit.

Cheers,
Brian

[vertico]

top fish mate, wait till you get something 80lb on the line and you will know how hard these fish really can fight
well done
Sean