This Week's Report
Well folks, as sure as the sun rising in the east, the cobia have arrived here on Florida's Space Coast. The water temperatures have finally reached the preferred comfort range of 68 to 72 degrees and the cobia, manta rays, and bait pods have arrived and are moving north through our near-shore waters. While they are on their northerly spring migration, cooler water temperatures out of Ponce De Leon Inlet and St Augustine may hold them up for another week or so.
Although the brown clowns are in town, it doesn't mean they are easy to catch. During the past week I fish near-shore on two differ occasions, and we only boated one 33-inch cobia. On each trip we covered at least 40 miles of ocean, and we had good shots at fish, but between rough conditions, hardship and calamity, opportunity eluded us.
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of fishing with the Dan clan. Well, you might ask why the Dan clan, but you must understand, there was the father Dan, then there was birthday Dan the son of father Dan fishing for his 18th birthday, and then there was Tennessee Dan who was the cousin of birthday Dan. Fortunately for me, all three, were very seaworthy, because sea conditions were rougher than planned.
With winds from the south at about 10 knots, my plan was to run way south in the morning and work our way back in the afternoon keeping the sun to our backs on the ride home sight fishing back. As we rounded the Jetty leaving the Port, we faced with a solid three foot sea and a good hour and a half ride before wetting a line. Working on information of bait pods and cobia holding on a wreck, we continued working southeast for about 18 miles. Our first and only cobia came on our first stop where we located bait pods on the sonar at 50 feet and dropped jigs down into the bait schools. We then moved on to the wreck where we found a good number of cobia as well as free divers spear-fishing and 4 or 5 other boats. After about an hour of chasing fish and dodging boats, we started our ride back. Within a few miles, we sighted two manta rays covered up with cobia, and Tennessee day hooked up on a hefty fish that ended up taking him under the boat and breaking off.
After losing Tennessee Dan's fish and the rays we continued north to the Port cobia looking instead of catching. Arriving back at the Port empty handed, we decided to soak some crabs off the north jetty with hopes of catching a big redfish, when birthday Dan hooked up on a monster from the deep. Using 20 pound test tackle, he battled the mystery fish for over an hour, before passing the rod to his dad who ended up losing the fish when the line gave way, and we packed it up and headed home.
My next adventure was with a group of folks from Orlando, and I took a gamble heading north out of the Port hoping to fine fish north of the Canaveral Shoals. In the game of guiding you are either a hero or a zero, and in this case I ended up a zero. We spent the better part of the day looking, only to end up finding fish working bait pods just outside of the Port near Buoy 2. By the time we located fish, the winds and the seas kicked up, and we ended the day stinking to high heaven.
Even though we didn't catch many fish, both days were full of adventure, and great fun on the water.
Also, be sure to check out the April addition of Coastal Angler Magazine Orlando in print and online for free at www.coastalanglermagazine.com.
As always, if you need information or have any questions, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing,
Captain Tom Van Horn
www.irl-fishing.com
mosquitocoast@cfl.rr.com
407-366-8085 office
407-416-1187 on the water
For all you outdoor shopping needs, visit Mosquito Creek Outdoors at www.mosquitocreek.com.
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