FISHING
ARE OUR COBIA BEING
overfished? BY COLLINS DOUGHTIE | PHOTO BY ARNO DIMMLING
PORT ROYAL SOUND HAS BEEN CALLED THE “COBIA CAPITAL OF THE EAST COAST” FOR DECADES. SOME DAY, IT MAY NO LONGER BE.
W
hen Hilton Head Monthly asked me to write about a hot button subject relating to our fishery, any of you that know me would instantly think cobia since I have been on that bandwagon for years now. Second in popularity only to redfish, our cobia have become the “go to” species particularly during the months of May and June when large numbers of these migratory species head our way. Did you know that Port Royal Sound has been called the “Cobia Capital of the East Coast” for decades? Well it has and for good reason. Back in the day, there were but a handful of anglers that fished for these large chocolate brown fish that resemble a mix between a giant catfish and a shark. Beginning in early May, the only way we knew to catch them was to “run the buoys” leading into the Savannah ship
channel or those buoys leading into Port Royal Sound and look for cobia hiding behind a buoy. Cobia love any kind of structure whether it is inanimate or animate. A perfect example of this is should you see a large manta ray, sting ray or shark, chances are a cobia will be right there beside one of these creatures. Curious by nature, they will often swim right up to a boat just to check it out. When that happened, we would grab a slippery eel (not an easy task), hook it up and pitch it in front of the fish. Some days they would eat without hesitation but on other days you couldn’t buy a bite. Instead they would swim around the boat and totally ignore everything you presented to them and in the process, frustrate you to no end. Even during fishing tournaments that awarded prizes for the largest king mackerel or cobia, nobody and I mean
nobody fished for cobia; it was all about king mackerel. But as the years passed and king mackerel stocks took a dive, new techniques for catching cobia were perfected and every year the number of cobia anglers increased and now that rush to catch cobia has reached a fevered pitch. On any given day during the May-June cobia run there are literally hundreds of boats anchored in Port Royal Sound as well as on our offshore artificial reefs with one thing in mind — catching cobia. So what is the problem? First and foremost are the regulations that govern cobia. Currently, anglers are allowed to catch and keep two cobia per person per day. For those of you that aren’t familiar with just how big cobia can get, the state record is around 103 pounds and to catch cobia in the 40-pound range is pretty much the norm. One 40-pound cobia is a heck of a lot of meat. The second prob-
76 hiltonheadmonthly.com
JUL 14 52-80 Fishing.indd 76
6/24/14 11:56 AM