Tidelines – June 18, 2015
On a day in mid-June when we weren’t sure we would even see a single cobia cruising off the Hatteras coast, Capt. Donnie Davis of DOA Charters (out of the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center) first found the good water and then found not only a single cobia but enough singles and pairs to keep us busy into the early afternoon.
Capt. Michael Goetsch (left) and Gary Hurley (right) hold up two of the four cobia they hooked casting bucktails just offshore of the temporary bridge north of Rondanthe. They were fishing with Capt. Donnie Davis of DOA Charters out of the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.
The wind was low and Oregon Inlet was calm that morning, so even before we got to the Oregon Inlet Bridge, Donnie had made his way up into the tower for a better vantage point on our cruise out the inlet and down the Hatteras shoreline. Capt. Michael Goetsch, Donnie’s friend and perhaps soon to be co-captain of DOA Charters, and I rode behind the console, waiting for Donnie, as he had predicted back at the dock, to come off plane somewhere near Rodanthe.
The houses of Rodanthe, though, were still off in the distance when Donnie slowed the boat to just above idle.
Michael and I, like Pavlov’s dogs, immediately grabbed a rod with a big bucktail and a large soft plastic trailer, but then Donnie told us he was just stopping to take a look. We were just off the new bridge (or temporary bridge) several miles up from Rodanthe, and Donnie liked all the life he was seeing: rays, turtles, and bait pods.
Donnie was a little torn—he had dependable reports of good water off Rodanthe and didn’t want to abandon the plan already, but here was water that looked attractive (and had produced some cobia several days before). So we continued to head to Rodanthe, sticking to the original plan but sticking to it hesitantly; however, it wasn’t long before we were back at the new bridge cruising just offshore of the tideline.
The first fish of the morning caught us a little off guard, swimming almost into the bow of the boat before either we reacted to the fish or the fish reacted to the boat. That single cobia turned and swam away quickly before Michael or I could get off a cast, and all of us wondered (one of us wondered out loud rather pessimistically) whether or not that would be the only fish we saw all day.
Not that I’ve created any, but I’ll end the suspense—it wasn’t our only cobia. Rather, it turned out to be our first of about 20 fish.
Our second cobia sighting of the day, depending on how I want to spin it, could be (1) a testament to the skill at spotting cobia that Donnie has developed over the years, (2) the lack of skill at spotting cobia that Michael and I had at that moment, or (3) both. Michael was in the tower and I was on standing on the bow of the boat, each of us scouring the water for anything brown, while Donnie sat in the shade of the console enjoying a breakfast wrap. Then Donnie jumped up, pointed out a fish just off the starboard that Michael or I should have seen way before him, and had a bucktail in the water before I could even grab a rod. After bouncing the bucktail repeatedly in front of a cobia that just wasn’t that excited to eat, he finally coaxed the fish to turn and follow the bucktail as it dropped down the water column, and soon Donnie was hooked up to our first cobia of the day.
Our next sighting was a double, and here’s how I’ve decided to tell that story. One of the fish was big, and one wasn’t as big. Donnie had me cast to them first, knowing that the smaller of the two would be more aggressive and pounce on my bucktail, leaving him with the second cast and the larger fish.
Donnie, though, would probably tell the story a little differently. He would probably say that my cast landed right in front of the smaller fish and that’s why I hooked the smaller fish, leaving him with what would easily prove to be the biggest fish of the day.
Whichever version is correct, my fish (approximately 30 lbs.) went in the box first, and then Donnie’s fish (weighing in at 64 lbs. back at the OIFC) went in second.
By early afternoon, we put four fish in the boat, broke off a couple, had a few fish interested in our bucktails but not enough to strike, and had other fish that didn’t want anything to do with us and swam away from our boat and bucktails as quickly as they could.
Sight casting for cobia is about as exciting as fishing can get, and I recommend going with Capt. Donnie Davis of DOA Charters (out of the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center) to get in on the action. You can give him a call or text at (252) 202-5565, or visit him online at www.doacharters.com to see the other fishing trips he features throughout the year.
And if you see a pair of cobia, I suggest casting first but casting in front of the bigger fish.
