Annie Gets The Cobias

Our friend Annie Holcombe was back for another day of fishing with us on the L&H.  Annie is an accomplished angler who has caught nearly everything that swims from Miami to New York.  My daughter Laurel always joins Annie when she fishes on the L&H and this time my wife Debbi came along as well.  The day started off kind of slow with very little action on the surface, so we decided to head south and try some bottom fishing.  At the first spot we began to get some bites and before long Annie boated a couple of big amberjacks.  We hit a few more spots, catching more jacks and a nice snapper.  At one of the wrecks the girls landed two nice size blackfin tunas on baits that were fished closer to the surface.  As the day wore on the conditions for sight fishing (clear water and good sun light) continued to improve.  I mentioned to Annie that I thought we should spend the remainder of the day looking for cobia and she was happy to do it.  We searched the clear, calm waters for a while without any success and I told Jim and Deb who were in the tower with me that we would give one more pass before heading home.  As I steered the L&H toward the channel leading to our marina, Jim tapped me on the shoulder and very calmly said "MOTHER LOAD"!
Looking almost directly into the sun, Jim had spotted a big school of very big cobia several hundred yards out.  I backed the L&H down hard after the fish and it seemed to take forever to catch up with them, but when we did it was open season!  Our team began to catch these big, strong fish one after another.  Laurel and Annie were both hooked up on the bow as we followed the school in reverse.  After a half hour I could see Annie's fish and knew it was a good one, over sixty pounds.  When I saw Laurels fish I could not believe my eyes.  The fish she bad been batteling for nearly a half hour was no more than twenty pounds (or so I thought).  How could such a small fish give my daughter (who holds four IGFA world records) such a difficult time?  As I peered deep into the water I found the answer I was looking for.  Somehow she had two cobias on the same line, the twenty pounder that I saw first and thirty feet away, swimming just off the bottom was a much larger fish of over fifty pounds.  My daughter Laurel had been fighting two cobias, totaling over seventy pounds, on a twenty pound spinning outfit!!!!!  As usual, Jim came through for us and was able to untangle and release the smaller cobia.  Laurel made quick work of the tired fifty-two pound fish and Annie subdued hers (a sixty-two pounder) a short time later.  After that we headed for home with our limit of cobias and a very happy and tired fishing team!