Cobia Season in South Walton

March 28, 2011 by Larry Pentel

After a long run of calm seas we have gone into a more normal spring weather pattern of some swell at the beach. The surf yesterday was too much to try to launch.

Even though it was a weekend, nobody launched from Grayton and there were only a few Destin boats out cobia hunting. The cobia have popped up pretty good a couple days but are still hit and miss. The run should just get better as the water temps continue to climb.

I cancelled this mornings trip at 6AM due to a  4 foot swell that had the potential to get bigger, now at 8:30 the conditions don't look so bad- always better to err on the side of caution with the surf though. The guy who said you can't fight mother nature lied- You can always fight her but but you are probably gonna lose and it won't be pretty if boats are involved!

I got to run some trips on some calmer days this past week and we continue to do good bottom fishing. I ran one dedicated "big fish " bottom trip and the Jacks cooperated for us. We caught our 4 keeprs and released a few more pretty quick and had some time left to chase the Vermillion Snappers. They bit real well also and my anglers put a couple dozen in the box

Always nice to be able to hang big fish!

I ran a just cobia trip a couple days ago and we looked hard for 5 hours but got shut out- didn't even see a fish. two days prior I took some folks out on a short combo trip- bottom fish for a couple hours and then look for cobia for a couple and were fortunate enough to find 2 cobias and put a nice one in the box 'bout 50 pounds.

The first Pompano at Grayton was caught this past week by Niles King. I have heard of several others around but like the cobia they are still spotty. You never know when it will all come together but it will be soon!

I have lots of cobia trips booked for April this year and look forward to get to messing with a bunch of the brown backed critters. Capt Jody Wesly has allready set the bar , bringing in a 76# fish a couple days ago. He said it was the only fish they saw all day , got it after 4 Pm- . You just have to be there to make it happen!

 

 

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Larry Pentel's picture

Captain Larry Pentel is a native of South Walton, growing up just 300 yards from the beach. Having fished the local waters for over 40 years, he is very familiar with all the different types of local fish, their habits, and most importantly - their habitats. Captain Larry is the owner of Dead Fish Charters

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