Fishing for Cobia or Prodigal as we know it.

[BigVan]

Hi guys

I do not know why but  these fish are special to me. This was the first fish I caught going out the first time with my first seaworthy boat. I caught a prodigal of about 30 kg on a TLD 25. At first I thought the lure hooked onto the reef. I was just thinking of cutting the line when I noticed the line is changing direction. After about 20 minutes I saw the fish the first time and I thought "Ag this is a bloody shark" I did not want to loose the lure so decided to bring it to the boat. Next to the boat I only realised it is a cobia. I released the fish as it was so beautiful and big.

Now, why I want to ask more info on the fish is that we fish some species comps and would like to target them more. It is often with the comps like Durban comp etc that you see cobia is one of the other bigger species that won.

The cobia we have caught over the years were all with trolling. We caught them on the following Halcos.

 

[BigVan]

Hi to follow on. I have studied this fish and found the following about it. Cobia loves to eat eels. They are resident to reefs and will only migrate when they want to breed. I started to look for a plastic eel lure but could get any. I ended up making "eels" out of surgical tubing with a torpedo weight in the head and some trebble hooks in the body. I have tried it but havent got a bite from a prodigal yet but reef fish like them.

Attach a photo.

Please tell us on what did you get cobia and what tactics you used.

 

[Dorado75]

I caught a couple of them on live bait up to 10kg off madagascar and Tanzania and recon that pound for pound they have to be one of the hardest fighting fish i have ever encountered!

I know a spearfisherman that was almost drowned by one in Ghana two years back, they eventually landed it, and it was around 50kg!!

 

[Tunaman]

BV very good topic. Firstly they are actually a scarce catch so you are fortunate for having caught such a specimen before. I for one have allways wanted to catch one but they have eluded me. Most are caught on livebait while targeting Couta and what is interesting is that a large part of their diet is the swimming crab.

Just as a matter of interest. Over the years they have mostly been caught during the KZN festivals (Pennington/Hibberdene/Durban). Yearly the catches however differ where one year a few would be weighed and other years not many weighed. This indicates to me that they probably do move around when on our coastline. Remember most data is from USA that we read about species. I also belief that during they are caught during these comps not because of the area but because of the method. Up north there is more lures (Marlin) involved etc. and less baiting drifting on average.

Since my fascination with the species I have collected info on them. I will attach a 21 page document covering some of the species info.

Just my 2c.

 

[BigVan]

Hi Tunaman

Thanks for the info it is very interesting. Yes may we catch more of them.

Tight Lines

 

[Porra Newbie]

Interesting  thread BV

 

[shagnrelease]

Hey gents, interesting thread!! I agree that they are not really a targetted species out here as they are in the states, however we do get them in numbers but I would not be able to identify the time of the year is best for them.

However I have caught them in Zavora Mozambique oct-feb, we used to find the whale sharks and drop a livie or a sard/Carapou/mackeral underneath them,generally with a loose drag and drift about near the whalers and we could get up to 2 or 3 fish at a time. nothing massive but in 8kg range, they are very good eating.

Also one year I think it was april, we caught 2 of 12 and 18kg on the north patingo bouy at richards bay, we were looking for live baits at the boy when we saw a shoal of around 20 fish just cruising around the Bouy, I flipped out a couple of whole sards on a cuda duster and we went tight, we could not get another of the fish to eat another bait for the rest of the day, and that shoal was around for about three hours never moving far of the bouy. So I reckon they do like structure and as I said when ever we see a whale shark we always have a go underneath it.

 

[skipfari]

All of my catches were at Sodwana. In desember I caught 1 of about 8kg. In April I caught another 4. They seem to prefer the shallow reefs (+-10 meter deep) close to the shore. All of them were caught trawling lures (Halco & Rapala).
When filliting the Prodicals I opened one's stomach and found only small fish. (but suppose the feeding habbits may depend on the locations)

My family is hooked on Prodical. The meat is a rough grain similar to chicken. It batters beatiful and just as nice on a grill.

 

[BigVan]

Hi Skipfari

Nice catches. What colour lures did you use? and what lures.

Cheers

 

[Tunaman]

SHAG... That sounds typical prodigal. That is good info. It sounds one has to be ready for the opportunity when it presents itself.

SKIPFARI .....You are making me hungry now.

 

[dugongboy]

They often travel in pairs (spearos often see this) and sometimes in small groups of 3-5, I have had doubleups on two occasions in Mozambique once on rapalas and once on halfbeaks while fishing for couta.
I have also seen a shoal of 15+ under a whale shark that I was snorkelling with, they stayed about 5m under it the whole time, I think a speargun could have done some serious damage!!

 

 

[BigVan]

Hi Guys

The more guys are contributing are seeing a trend coming up. Look for whale sharks or whales. Slow trolling and livebaits works catching these okes at medium depths.

Great input guys, tight lines

 

[Cam Mundy]

I remember as a lightie my dad caught one of 16kgs off the beach at Pennington during the sardine run everybody's eyes just about fell out there heads.