27/04/2022
A review I wrote pre covid
Hi all , just got back from another good weeks fishing on Orango . No Big Tarpon landed this week , but two big fights from the usual big girls , made it an interesting afternoon for Darren and Dave .
However what has turned on is the Cobia bite . It was incredible last week with good sized fish 40kgs turning up alllover . Porco reef has been very consistant producing Big Snapper , Jacks , Lots of Cassava and the aforementioned Cobia . All these fish coming on a combination of Speed jigs , Soft baits and livebaits .
The Channel also conjured up Captainfish , Big Barras , Sharks , Jacks , Tarpon strikes , and some large guitarfish.
But the most amazing spot was a small offshore wreck we sometimes fish . We set off in the morning with the specific intention of fishing the West wreck , a lot further offshore , but a combination of wind over tide and apperence of a huge shoal of yahboys meant we had a decision to make , whether to push on and get very wet or to take the path of least resitance , catch a few liveys and head for the closer mark. Anyway sense prevailed , and we commenced and unequal battle to fill the live bait tank . Using very small sabikis , is the normal practice and often string after string will come into the boat filling the tank in very short order , however the big yahboy shoals are frequently harrased by packs of Spanish mackeral , thgis morning virtually every string of feathers was getting ripped to shreds , the smaller mackerals hitting swivels , leads and feathers , and the larger ones attacking the hooked but livebaits destined for the well.
Although Sabiki rigs are only £1.50 each , after you have thrown the 6th set to the aquatic wolves lin quick succession you start to worry about what you are going to use for the rest of the week , after a while we managed to hone our technique to dropping rigs only into the mass of the baits and then winding like mad , this meant that at least a couple of baits would make it to the boat and most of your hooks would stay in tact. Using this technique we managed a "well full " , Max agreeing it was enough , there was one score we had to settle before we left the shoal in peace . So small wedges and light wires were selected and the fun commenced , hit after hit , casted , jigged , however they were presented the wedges were smashed and some great little scraps ensued with Mackeral up to 11lb , if these things grey to 25lb we would never fish for anything else !!!.
Anyway score settled we headed off to the wreck . After a couple of short test drifts we set the position and dropped down a couple of livebaits . Well that was a waste of time because the fish came to us !!! . Within a minute there were 20 large cobias circling the boat , "wind up , wind up " and as the baits appeared from the gloom , the mayhem began . The first was smashed by a fish of 40kgs and the second by a slightly smaller but non the less respectable fish , as Dave and Darren fought the first two , I was amazed to see between 20 and 30 fish circling the boat , in amongst them where some of the biggest Cobia , I had ever seen , and Ive seen a few . First fish came in the boat , and after that every on was released , the action was fierce and chaotic as fish after fish hit livebait , leadhead jigs and stick baits , It really didnt matter what you threw at them they were so wound up they hit almost anything.
Another amazing thing was that at no point did we move the boat or reposition , as we passed the wreck , the fish were massed on the mark , almost filling the sounder , but as we drifted away they came with us. Even to the point that when we called our second boat over , it sat at a distance of 80 yds with no bite but when we called them over to us as soon as the dropped in at a distance of 15 yards they had a triple hook up . Again all good sized fish , probably the smallest would have been 18kgs , but most well above .
As the drift continued it became a hunt for the big fish , Max encouraging Darren and Dave to target only the largest amongst the school , which was great fun . pulling the baits and lures away from the smaller fish , snapping and smashing on the surface in an attempt to grab the baits . I tried to get some photos , but they are not particularly clear , but they give you the idea . Anyway at this point there was one big fish cruising around the boat , much bigger than anything else we had seen , but like most big fish it was retisant to take close to the boat , crusing along with the bait and then turning away at the last minute . During all of this fish were being caught and released all the time , a rough calculation at the end of the session , added up to around 30 -35 fish for 2 anglers on one drift .
These photos are of big fish , maybe 20-40kgs competing for a bait on the surface , sorry about the quality guys but the mood on the boat was manic , and there was so much going on with fish after fish , that as usual its all over and you remeber you havent taken any photos . Must use my go pro more !!!. Anyway it was at about that moment that Darren got a huge hit that sent him carreering to the back of the boat , it was a good fish , it didnt stop , charging off 200mts , before beginning that "cobia" rise to the surface , as it breached Max said "cest un gros " , anyway to cut a long story short after a lot of grunting , groaning deep dives , surface circles we boated the fish , and Max was right , it was huge , 57 kgs on the scale making it the biggest we have ever weighed .The current world record is 61.5kgs caught in Australia ,I believe . So a monster in my book !!. Ive seen one bigger but that one broke the leader .
Yep its an absolute horse of a cobia.
Well done guys . Fight time of 39mins , caught on a 30/50lb class I built for Dave , really nice to see your own rods perform and subsequent to that fight I have taken the two rods back home to add a longer top grip and shorten the lower section , not often do you get the chance to see them work with a good angler on a big fish .
Anyway not quite a world record but a superb fish none the less. More of the trip later .
