CRESTVIEW — Spring marks the arrival of two things along the Emerald Coast: the migration of college kids from the north, and cobia from the southern Gulf of Mexico.
Like college students, cobia will only be around for a short while. They usually arrive in mid-March and migrate to parts north by early May.
If you want to hook the popular game fish, you can fish from a boat or one of the local piers stretching into the Gulf.
Crestview High School outdoor education teacher Ernie Martin has some tips for landing a prize cobia.
UNDERSTAND THE FISH
“When you go after cobia, you need to understand what they are doing,” Martin said. “Cobia are now following the warmer water and migrating towards the Louisiana coast, where they will do their spawning.
“Right now, they are cruising with the southeast winds, laying up in the surf and just swimming lazily down the coast, letting the wind and tide push them to the west. They feed on the way. They are bulking up, getting ready to go into spawn.”
The fish follow a highway of sorts from the second sandbar from the shore to about a mile into the Gulf. It's not uncommon to see them swimming under a turtle or manta ray to shade them from the sun.
Since the fish migrate from the east to the west, anglers should watch for fish to the east as they come toward them.
GET THE GEAR
Whether fishing for cobia from a boat or pier, it’s important to have the right gear.
“The first thing is a great pair of optics,” Martin said. “Your sunglasses have got to be polarized. You’ve got to be able to see into the water.
“That water clarity is going to differ. Sometimes it’s going to stain up and make it virtually impossible (to see). As the water clears up and you get a little bit of that southeast breeze, you are going to want to get that sun to your back.”
It's important to have the right rod and reel combination set with a proper line and rigging, Martin said.
“You are probably going to want to start with medium-heavy to heavy 7-foot rod, depending on if you are on a boat or a pier,” he said. “The longer rod would probably do better for a pier than a boat.
“You are going to want a spool on a reel that is saltwater-driven. In other words, it is for the saltwater. You don’t want anything that is going to rust or corrode when you put it in saltwater.”
Martin recommends a number of brand name reels such as Shimano or Penn. He said the most important thing is getting a reputable name brand spinning reel with a line capacity of close to 250 yards.
I spool it up as much as I can get on that spool,” he said. “If I don’t have 250 yards of line, I’m going to be scared. The biggest one I’ve got on record was 68 pounds, and it took about 35 minutes to land it. We caught it on a 12-pound test.”
Martin recommends using line rated between 15 and 20 pounds.
Rig your line with a braid, a monofilament leader and a circle hook and you’ll be ready to choose your bait.
BAIT AND LURES
“I’ve heard of about seven or eight different things that you can catch cobia on,” Martin said. “The number one ticket that everyone wants to have is those live American eels. They will rig them up on a circle hook or a live bait hook.
“They will get the eel in front of them and keep the eel up on the surface and get them (the cobia) to eat it. And then the show is on.”
If the thought of handling live eels or other baits doesn’t appeal to your senses, you can use a lure.
“Several people have made a good living building lures just for cobia,” Martin said. “Most of them are jigs — anywhere from a one-and-a-half to three- or four-ounce jigs. They have everything from Mylar string to feathers.
“There are all kinds of combinations. Pink and white and orange and chartreuse are the ones we’ve had the most success catching cobia.”
Martin has successfully used jigs when cobia fishing, but prefers the live bait.
BE PATIENT
“When you go cobia fishing, you need to understand it can be countless hours of boredom and relentless turning of the engines and rocking of the waves, broken up by 15 to 30 minutes of absolute chaos,” Martin said. “You may roll up on a pod of cobia — four or five — and every one of them wants to eat and you’ve got three hooked up.
“You can watch this from now until the middle of April just by sitting on the beach and watching those boats. They all parade from east to west from here (Okaloosa County) to the Pensacola Beach pier.
"When you see (a boat) turn around in a tight circle and start throwing (lines), the chaos has ensued.”
Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Tips to catch cobia on the Emerald Coast