Florida near shore

Yellowhammer

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My wife and went to Florida last month for our 25th wedding anniversary. One of the days we met up with an old friend and co-worker who had moved to Florida about 14 years ago, and he took us out on his boat.

It was the first day of snapper season and we intended to go farther out, but some thunderstorms in the area kept us to about 3 or 4 miles.

We went to one of his honey holes after stopping to catch some sand perch and pin fish to use for live bait. Once there a ling (cobia) jumped on the bait almost at the boat.

This was my fist ling.

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Not long after I had a big bite that was stripping line and I fought it for about 10 minutes before it broke me off. I have some video but it was taking a long time to load.

After rigging back up, I had another big bite. It ended up being about an 8 foot nurse shark. To big to put in the boat, we got video and still pictures.

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He didn't fight near as hard as what ever it was that broke me off.

We also caught good number of gagg grouper, but none broke the 24 inch legal length limit.

This one was 23 7/8.

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My wife also caught a Spanish Mackeral and several of the grouper.

The ling (cobia) is excellent eating!

I wish I could go out fishing like that more often.
 
Cool! Looks like you missed a spot with the sunscreen. I bet that was a bit tender the next couple days. What did you keep and eat?
 
The top one looks to me like a cobia, based on tail/fins, great eat'n if it is... (pan seared)
Good job on filling the freezer !
 
The top one is a cobia, but most people around here call them ling. It was very good grilled. We also kept the Spanish mackerel. Everything else was released.
 
Congrats! That's part of the fun of fishing around here, never know what you might hook. Cobia are a good eating fish.
 
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