Red X hospitality and a Cobia on a Zebco

Had the absolute pleasure of fishing with Brenardo and his very capable first mate over the weekend. Plan was to run out to CALO for some cobia chasin. Saturday's weather was less than perfect to say the least, but nothing ventured ..........
We connected with the Grand Poohbah (Island Man) at the RI ramp. Tim had graciously agreed to take a couple of new Red Xers out and run with us out of Beaufort inlet and up to the Cape. Wind was blowin hard from the west and the ramp was the usual weekend zoo, but we got away from the docks gelcoat intact(no thanks to a particularly clueless Donzi jockey).
We got out of the inlet and started up Shack with the wind at our backs and started looking for fish. Got wet, got cold, got cobia!
Took a couple hours to find a fish but Brent finally spotted one close enough for a cast ..... or two. Adrenaline sent the first pitch a little wide but the second one landed close enough to get some attention. A stout tug to set the hook and it was on! The fish made a couple of short runs but for the most part just bulldogged to the bottom and stayed stuck. Managed to bring her up a few times and by the third or forth she was done. Brent did a fine job with the gaff and a couple(3) whacks with the little mallet finished the job.



Zebco - Last year during old drum season a fellow Red X Angler got a chuckle over my old Zebco Rhino Tough "pool cue". Well sir, 30# cobia in the corner fish box thanks to that old pool cue!


We spent another hour or so looking for fish but that one was it. The wind continued to pick up and we ran back in behind the hook to see how Tim and crew were faring. They were certainly more comfortable and much drier but luck wasn't with them as far as the fish went. After making a start at running back to the ramp on the outside it was decided that running the back way was a better option. Tim lead us back thru with no problems and after surviving the zoo one more time we were loaded and headed back to camp.

Here's a couple more pics of the fish.
Before ........

and after ...........