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How to catch Cobia
Cobia feed in 66–84°F water and bite best at 68–78°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 19 waters; in October they are at their peak in Tampa Bay & Sarasota, Charlotte Harbor & the Islands.
About
The ling, the lemonfish: a brown torpedo that looks like a shark from the tower and rides the backs of rays and turtles. Migrates along the beaches in spring.
How to fish it
Sight-fish from a tower or a bow: scan the rays, the markers and the buoys. Cast ahead of the fish and let the jig fall. Gaff early — they wake up in the boat.
What it eats
Live bait for it
Live eelsHooked through the lips on a 5/0 to 7/0 circle hook and sight-cast to a cobia or dropped to a cobia on a ray — the eel is the cobia bait.
PinfishHooked through the back ahead of the dorsal on a 2/0 to 4/0 circle hook; the small ones free-lined, the big ones on a fish-finder rig.
Blue crabsWhole and small for permit and tarpon; halved or quartered on the bottom for black drum, redfish and cobia.
Blue runners (hardtails)Nose-hooked and slow-trolled on a wire stinger rig for kings; bridled for sailfish and cobia.
Finger mulletLip-hooked on a 2/0 to 4/0 circle hook and free-lined, or on a fish-finder rig in the surf. Cut mullet on the bottom for redfish and drum.What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itThe rule
not confirmed hereMinimum size and bag limit apply; confirm the current numbers at MyFWC.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
Cobia winter in south Florida and the Keys — the one place both stocks mix — riding rays and hanging on wrecks. In late winter they start north up both sides of the peninsula. On the Gulf side they turn west at the Panhandle and run the beaches from mid-March through April toward the Mississippi River; Mississippi and Alabama see the heaviest push in early May, and many fish spend the summer off Louisiana and Texas. On the Atlantic side they reach Canaveral in March, Jacksonville in May, and the Carolina sounds and the lower Chesapeake from May into July, where they spawn. Angler tagging (15,000 fish, Texas to Virginia) shows most come back to south Florida in late fall, though some stay in the northern Gulf all year and tags show only about 1% swap between the Atlantic and the Gulf. Towers, bucktails and live eels.