Fish of a Lifetime
Capt. Larry Pentel
April 28, 2008
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
The weather and the fish have finally decided it's full on Spring. I have run 13 days out of the past 2 weeks and the catches have just been getting better and better right along with the weather.
Day before yesterday was a trip I won't forget anytime soon. A couple of cobia season regulars with some buddies from Louisiana that want to fill the box with bottom fish and then find a cobia or 2. We were in the middle of a snapper rally 1st thing in the morning with the bull sharks stealing most of our biggest fish. One of my crew gets a big bite and after 10 minutes is convinced he has a shark. I had watched the bite and said it sure didn't act like a shark when it hit. After a 2o minute fight with the angler wearing down and the crew wanting to cut of the "shark" the fish finally came up to the top where we could see what it was. What a fish! A huge cobia that wasn't really tired yet- just wanted to see what was ruining breakfast. My angler suddenly had a burst of second wind energy and things got chaotic with lots of yelling by the crew and me looking for the perfect shot with the gaff. All the stars lined up just right and after another 10 minutes I was able to stick the fish solidly enough to drag it (with some help !) over the rail. I was calling it 100# and was probably more exited than the angler. We went on to catch a great limit of Red Snapper, 4 Black Snapper (including 2 over 10#) a grouper, a king and then went to the beach and found a "regular cobia" sight fishing that was more than willing to co-operate. When we made it to the beach at 1PM and hung the fish she pulled the scales down to 104#. The first cobia over 100 I have ever had the pleasure to be involved with and, as I said, the fish of a lifetime!
What a Fish!!
While that one was exceptionally huge the fish count was pretty average for last week!!. We had several days where we had a great catch of bottom fish and then came in to the beach to successfully catch cobia by sight fishin' 'em. It's hard to say which bite is better right now!!
What a board! and it was a 4 1/2 hour trip! Back on the trailer at noon!
Another "perfect" 1/2 day trip! This fellow flew over just to go fishing for the day !
Not everybody likes to cobia fish (I know, hard to understand). I ran one trip last week where they just wanted to bottom dig- We ran out a little deeper and found the groupers starvin' on several spots. We landed 4 nice ones along with our snappers and some banjo sized triggers.
This one made it to the boat- we probably lost 4 to every 1 we landed this day!
And, as if it wasn't hard enough to decide what to chase already--- The kings have shown up in force! The past couple days have had HUGE schools of herring and cigar minnows all up along the beach. The toothy predators are right behind 'em sending showers of scales in the air. We have seen several (big ones) swimming right down the bar while we were looking for cobia. I've flipped a "flyline" out several times and been hit almost immediately
If all this doesn't get you excited enough to get off the couch and get out there I figure you must be a golfer!
Capt Larry Pentel
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