Stuart Area Offshore and Inshore

Capt. Kevin Drennan
May 13, 2009
Stuart - Saltwater Fishing Report

We have had some really good days of fishing the past two weeks and a couple of days that were not so hot. The dolphin bite would be hot and cold. One day everyone caught and the next day the bite would shut down. We were able to get into some thirty pound permit on the sandpile. The first time we saw them all that we had for bait were live sardines and various jigs. We could not get them to strike at anything we threw at them. We went back the next day with live crabs and we were able to hook up and boat a couple of nice fish. We also caught some undersize amberjack and twenty pound jacks. A few days later we heard reports of cobia in the Donaldson reef area. Our first trip there we were able to hook into two fish. The first one was humongous and we lost it at the boat when the hook shaft snapped in half. Our disappointment vanished when we boated a thirty pounder an hour later. But it only got better. Yesterday we put the hook into eleven cobia in the same area. We fought one for thirty minutes and lost it to a big bullshark that was cruising the area. We had several double hookups as schools of ling swam by the boat. Several fish were netted before we unhooked them because we wanted to be sure they were thirty three inches to the fork. Netting a cobia is definitely not an easy task. The biigest one we caught was a fifty pounder which ran at the boat as soon as he was hooked. My buddy oicked up the biggest gaff we had and hit him as he was going under the boat. We almost lost both him and the gaff has this monster went bezerk. Once in the boat it took several wacks from the billy club to sudue the fish and get him in the box. In the midst of all the cobia action, the king bite went red hot. We caught a thirty three pounder and kept him for the smoker. We released maybe a dozen or so because we knew we had a cobia each in the box. More later.

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