This trophy hit a bucktail jig -- the most effective artificial for enticing cobia.

The simple jig consists of a lead head with a tail made of bucktail, Mylar, nylon, chicken feather or tinsel, and sometimes a combination thereof. Tipped with a strip of natural bait such as squid, a tiny crab or menhaden, this, in my jaded opinion, is the ultimate cobia bait. 

The jig combines action and scent, yet can be cast with extreme accuracy. It can also plumb the depths, hooking cobia 100 feet below, even in a fairly strong current. It really can't be beat for versatility.

Different localities have their favorite jigs, of course. Anglers around Pensacola, Fla., have their favorite "killer baits," while Panama City anglers just down the highway a hundred miles or so have their own favorites. At the Panama City beach pier, where hardcore cobia snipers hold court each April when the surf temperature climbs to 70 degrees, a dazzling array of brightly colored 2- and 3-ounce jigs, many with glass eyes or squid-shaped heads, hang from every spinning rod. The jigs are tipped with different natural baits. Crab, white squid and menhaden strips are popular. Some of these jigs were masterful creations for those who appreciate The Art of the Jig, and they cost about $5 each. Few of these fine jigs are lost over open sand bottom except in honorable combat with passing cobia. 

Except when a school of marauding jack crevalle invade the quiet surf, tangling lines and running under the pier and through the pilings, cutting and slashing like a pack of wild Indians. Or Native Americans, anyway, on their way home from that big party held down on the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn), when Custer's famous good luck finally deserted him. So it is with cobia pier anglers on a bad day, when fearless jacks descend in countless hordes. It is here that fancy longhair jigs designed for cobia are decimated wholesale.   

Smaller boats can roam within 15 miles of the coast, which is where most cobia are taken.

Favorite color combinations for hardcore cobia anglers are pink and white, black/orange/yellow, chartreuse and orange, and white with a touch of chartreuse. Favorite tail material is bucktail; it has a natural feel and "breathes" underwater. Favorite sizes are from 3 to 4 /2 ounces. These are serious, heavy jigs meant for long casts. Casting from a crowded beach pier with such heavy-caliber lead can be a dicey proposition for bystanders. 

One should avoid standing behind a crowd of these anglers when a cobia finally appears just within casting range. Though they're careful, these people have likely been waiting hours for such a chance.  They're eager to get off a good cast; some may have been waiting for days. Stand in the wrong place and you just might get an ear yanked off by a jig . . .  or pierced, anyway. Earrings are fine for some, but the Van Gogh look is definitely out. The jig may be a little dangerous in these crowded pier confines, but they do catch fish -- lots of them.

Cobia fall for spoons, plugs, trolling lures, even flies. But overall, the jig "rules the roost" when it comes to cobia artificials. In the right hands, a jig looks alive. It covers the water column, and virtually all marine gamefish will give it a serious look.                            

Early on, I learned to dance the jig around cobia just enough to drive them crazy. It requires some dexterity. It's a common rookie mistake to dabble the jig before a cobia. These fish, noticing the lack of action, become disdainful and wary. In the right hands, the jig has a mesmerizing effect. It breathes, changes direction and darts ahead of the cobia's lips until he grows impatient and careless. 

Countless cobia are caught around production platforms off Louisiana and Texas. A favorite trick is to plumb the depths with a bucktail jig weighing from 1.5 to 3 ounces.

The first fish, a 40-pounder, inhaled my jig on the surface and made short work of me, almost yanking me off the platform, which lacked any safety railing on the outside. The rod bent double, the reel gave line until it was cut. Hmm. The next jig lasted only a few seconds more. And the next. 

In the distance my crew could hear me screaming on the platform, and they even saw the splashes. But there was nothing that could be done. No help was forthcoming. And after a time, it grew quiet. 

When they returned, I was slumped against a steel pipe with no fish, and only a quarter spool of frayed line left on the reel. My jigs, many of them hand-made, were gone, just gone. All of them! They said I looked dazed and had a touch of that "thousand-yard stare," which happens sometimes after too much action.  I settled down on the ride back to Port Arthur. 

Plugs

Trolling plugs for cobia? You bet. The first cobia I ever saw was a fish we caught with a trolled plug meant for kingfish. It was a momentous day for me, my first offshore trip in a small craft, an old 24-foot Scottie Craft. Our captain, a salty old Korean War Marine vet named Seaweed, chomped his cigar at the helm, and we trolled past a radar reflector tripod, one of a half dozen in the shipping lane a dozen miles off Sabine Pass on the Texas/Louisiana border. 

So much for cobia plug memories and nostalgia.  In many parts of the world, cobia are still taken with the same deep-diving Rapala plug we used that day. In many cases, cobia are not targeted by trollers, and they're mostly taken by accident. The plugs are more often meant for kingfish or wahoo, even grouper. Yet a wandering cobia will often spot that enticing plug wiggling down the reef, and chase it down. These big plugs are certainly not   considered the artificial bait of choice for cobia in the Gulf of Mexico, and I know of very few cobia taken on trolling plugs in this manner. However, my offshore friends do not as a habit pull diving plugs. 

One angler who has pulled big plugs for countless miles over the years is the old troller himself, Stan Blum of Fort Pierce, Fla. Stan has, by the look of his house, about a thousand big plugs from all over the world. If anyone has hooked a cobia or two in this manner, it has to be Stan. Fort Pierce is halfway decent cobia country, so I contacted the old trolling master himself. Even went trolling with him. Despite being 81 years old, and with a gravelly voice almost exactly like that of the late actor Burgess Meredith, Stan is still fishing offshore, though now he only makes half-day trips. Here's what he had to say in that raspy voice of his, as we trolled off Fort Pierce in his single-diesel Shamrock boat, watching big spinner sharks blasting through schools of baitfish:

 "Sure, I've caught cobia on the big plugs over the years, maybe 200, 250 fish, something like that. Hard to say. We catch them best when they're mixed in with the big kings near the beach, in 30 feet of water or so. They're feeding on schools of threadfin herring. We catch 'em blind trolling, and the cobia usually hit my deeper-running plugs, much more so than the surface runner. My metal King Getter plugs have taken most of them, running 12 to 15 feet down like they do. Those big treble hooks stay in the cobia just fine, long as you sharpen them some." 

Trolling plugs more often catch other fish. And yet, Stan has taken perhaps 250 big cobia with the trolling spread, the fish averaging 35 to 40 pounds. When I fished with him one November, Stan was hot on the latest triangle-lipped MirrOlures, with thicker walls, a sturdier bait. He pulled a spread of five different colors that day.   

The biggest cobia ever to hit into Stan's spread of plugs made a strong run, freezing the gears on one of his 4/0 Penn reels, which are always filled with 50-pound line. They had to hand-line the fish in, and finally sank two gaffs into it. Back at the dock, it weighed 73 pounds. 

Stan feels that his spread might be effective along Florida's Panhandle during their popular spring cobia run. He says that cobia aren't always on the surface, where they can be spotted and cast to. "You pull a spread of diving plugs along that coast off Destin or Pensacola in April, and see what happens. Remember, almost all of my cobia hit the deeper plugs, down deep where they can't be seen," said the old trolling guru. 

Someone should try blind-trolling all day along Florida's Panhandle, out in 20 or 30 feet of water during the cobia run in April, just to see what happens. 

Spoons

Pete Churton of  Beaumont, Texas, has spoon-fed more big cobia than perhaps anyone. He happens to live near the best port in Texas for cobia, and his years on the water have totaled up a large number of these fish. And he does it almost always with spoons.

Pete uses the 7/8-ounce spoons, rather large and wobbly, usually silver. Cobia seem to favor them just fine.

On a number of occasions Pete, who mainly sight-casts to passing cobia around the buoys and platforms offshore, has hooked and briefly had on two cobia on the same cast. The big spoon dangles and flashes from the lip of a hooked cobia, and others in the school can't resist grabbing on.  But it's difficult for a spoon to hold two cobia. Pete's biggest cobia landed with his pet spoons weighed 65 pounds. 

These spoon-fed cobia were usually early-season fish, April through June, not yet accustomed to heavy summer fishing pressure. 

Pete's tackle is classic Texas gear, a red Ambassadeur 6000 baitcasting reel, matched with a 7-foot rod with enough backbone to "lay into" a big fish.  

Pete's biggest cobia, estimated at 90 pounds, was accidentally taken not with a spoon but with a small jig. He lowered  it down in 45 feet of water, hoping for a live bait of some sort, perhaps a bluefish.  Something huge and ponderous slurped the tiny jig down there in the murk, and two long and painful hours later, Pete had his monster. Pictures were taken and the fish was released, much to Pete's credit. So, there is one extra monster cobia swimming around out there, hopefully a female full of eggs. 

Flies

Taking cobia on fly tackle isn't difficult, if you can find these fish cruising in open water, away from structure. Cobia perhaps haven't been taken on a Royal Coachman just yet, but they are not finicky around flies. They seem fascinated with small, brightly colored, weightless baits, and the opportunities for fly fishermen are very good here.   

Most anglers chasing cobia with a fly rod prefer some some standard and well-proven fly like the Seaducer. But tarpon and even sailfish flies will work. Homemade bushy flies should entice cobia cruising by at short range. 

Plastic Baits 

Some plastic eels are available for cobia fishermen, a rubbery imitation of the American eel. The jury is still out with this bait; I haven't tried it yet. One plastic that does work is a 16-inch plastic worm that was designed for some very optimistic bass fishermen headed for Florida and perhaps Cuba. Large plastic earthworms of 8 inches and more will certainly catch cobia. They're often rigged with an egg weight in front, with a single large hook set midway back, rigged with a sewing needle. No need to worry about making this bait weedless, a common problem with freshwater fishing.   

The huge worms are cast at the base of navigation towers offshore and worked back to the boat. The majority of cobia do not loiter on the surface but remain hidden around structure. This is especially true in choppy water. The big earthworm really does wake them up; I suppose they love it because they think it's an American eel.

Joe Richard is a Gainesville, Florida, writer and photographer who owns Seafavorites.com, a stock photo web site of outdoor photography.