High School Friends Get Biggest Cobia In Years

Louis Landi, Josh Agresti and I grew up together. We went to middle and high school together and were friends growing up. Today, Louis's brother Carmine joined Josh, Louis, James, Wes and I on a great half day trip. We got an early start and the bait came easy. Once we hit the edge and got the kites up we started getting kingfish bites. They would jump out of the water on the bait, but they were hard to hook. We managed to get seven of them in the boat and then Louis hooked a nice sailfish. The fish fought hard and showed beautiful colors when it jumped. Louis did a great job and we got the fish to the boat for some photos and then released it. After the sail we went offshore looking for dolphin. Before long we found some birds and a nice school of mahi. The fish were not biting great and would grab the bait and spit it right back out. We ended up getting most of them and I was feeling good about how the day was going. While trolling south we hooked some hard fighting bonita and the guys had good fun with these fish. Louis and Josh wanted to get some snapper, but the current was just too strong. The water was clear enough to look for cobia so we gave it a shot instead. After a short while we found some fish just outside the dirty water. I told Wes and James to hook as many as they, can as fast as they can, because I knew we wouldn't be able to stay with the fish for long. Josh, Louis, and Carmine were all hooked up and our team was working like a well oiled machine! Wes was hooking the fish, the guys were fighting them and James was doing the gaffing. Josh was fighting a fish and when I saw it I couldn't believe the size. We had five keepers in the boat already and only needed one more to get the limit. After a while, James came to the tower and asked "How big is it Dad"? I told him if it was fat it could go eighty. The fish stayed down and Josh did a great job putting maximum pressure on the fish the entire time. After thirty minutes the fish came to the surface and we could see it was foul hooked near the gill plate. I feared the hook could pull out at any second. Josh stayed smooth and did an outstanding job. Finally we got our chance. The fish came to the surface and I leaned hard on the throttles in reverse! Wes reached out as far as he could and made a great gaff shot. At that moment the big cobia turned toward the bow and with the momentum of the boat still going backward, Wes was pinned against the forward corner and stretched all the way out. He refused to let go of the gaff until James was able to get the second gaff in. Together they muscled the giant cobia in the boat! Back at the dock the cobia would weigh in at 82 pounds! What an outstanding catch! It was a terrific day fishing with my friends and a day I will not soon forget! Thanks Alot!