# best beach for cobia in the surf?



## Mumbo_Pungo (Dec 8, 2014)

What say you guys? ocracoke, hatteras, CALO? 

I know its too late for them, was just wondering for next year.


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## surfchunker (Apr 10, 2006)

more come from Avon than most places


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## dawgfsh (Mar 1, 2005)

Buxton or Avon


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

Mumbo_Pungo said:


> What say you guys? ocracoke, hatteras, CALO?
> 
> I know its too late for them, was just wondering for next year.


Cobia move, they come into NC waters from down South and then some go on to the Chesapeake and some hang out in Nags Head all summer long, some go in the Pamlico, some hang out in SC.

So it would depend on where the main group of fish is at any given moment as to where the best spot is.

I have seen a fair amount of nice Cobia caught at all the secret locations on the OBX. In the Fall there is another secret spot that one thirty yard section of the beach 2 years ago produced an 80+ Pound Cobia that was weighed at a certain Tackle Shop and then all the evidence was eaten and then one week later I beached an estimated 60 pounder that hit my Drum Bait of Fresh Baby Fatback Head, I declined to weigh the 60 pounder preferring to release it back into the drink so I can catch it in the future at the same secret spot.

Like All Secret Spots it is best to be there when the Fish are around, start to the South and follow them up the beach, it is far more productive to follow them in a Tower Boat but each year few beached as Drum Fishing By-catch. 

If I were to spend all the daylight hours fishing for them, besides dusk and dawn on the beach I would be on a pier not the beach and I would live bait them on a slide rig or pin rig.

A few of the DrumPros have had multiple hookups on Cobia, all Drum By-Catch early in the season, I think Zing Pow got a Big one after I left back this Spring.


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

Wanted to add that there is a distinct possibility that a fair amount of Cobia hooked up by Drum Fisherman are misidentified as Sharks and when the critter who is hooked up does not to want to surrender in a timely fashion, then the critter is broken off, either on purpose or with the fisherman not taking the time to take extra care with a fish that they believe to be a Shark. I have done this, you get impatient when pulling on a fish for longer than a half-hour and put the heat on and then the line parts.

A lot of folks especially at the Point use reels with what would be considered borderline spool capacity for Cobia. Some Cobia just do not want to give up.

There are a couple of DrumPro's that even use Penn Fathom 12, they almost dump the spool on the cast and then have not a lot of line left if the critter wants to head offshore

When I fished for Cobia a lot on the piers, I used mostly used a 4/0 or an Abu 10000 for the fighting reel, for casted baits it was a Abu 9000 or my trusty Abu 8600 which both hold over 400+ yards of 20 pound test. I have had several large Cobia take a lot of line especially off the Pier where you are limited by the railing if the fish decides that Africa is a safer bet than Nags Head, the smaller Drum reels would have all been stripped of the line parted when trying to stop a lit up Cobia.

A lot of Cobia catches never get past the Secret Drum Hotline as no DrumPro wants extra company at any Secret Spot So the best answer to where to go would be at the....................spot.


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## Trevfishin (Apr 10, 2019)

I think that was as specifically vague as one could get without giving away the top secret 30yd spot that is located somewhere on the beach between the Virginia Border and Ocracoke. With additional information that may lead a reasonable person to believe that you need a spool with at least 400yds of 20lb test line IF you are fishing in that 30yd spot on the beach that you might actually have to fight for depending on the time of the year.


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

Trevfishin said:


> I think that was as specifically vague as one could get without giving away the top secret 30yd spot that is located somewhere on the beach between the Virginia Border and Ocracoke. With additional information that may lead a reasonable person to believe that you need a spool with at least 400yds of 20lb test line IF you are fishing in that 30yd spot on the beach that you might actually have to fight for depending on the time of the year.


As long as that spot remains a secret there is no fighting at all, it is generally only a few at it as the location never leaves the "Secret Drum Hotllne" and the masses are wandering around the more documented spots in jacked up Tundras and F-250's belching black smoke and waving some type of flag identifying the occupants as part of some group.

If I were going to fish exclusively from the beach for Cobia, I think I would try and get some live eels to try and keep the Flattosaurauses off my bait. A lot of days the bottom can be paved with big rays as they arrive at the same time as the Cobia. TW's NH has eels sometimes, if more people ask for eels maybe that fella you keeps slapping me around on the beach can develop a way to cast net them.

I was blessed to fish the OBX at a time when the piers really produced a lot of fish on pin rigs and when the legendary king fishermen like Romeo spent every fishable day out on the end of the planks and you had a pretty good idea that if you were out of dawn on the end of a OBX pier you stood a good chance of watching your live bait get crushed.....


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## Trevfishin (Apr 10, 2019)

Ahhh, gotta like it when the expansion of recreational fishing carries over into the "Old School Original Fishermen" all the while the fishermen who have put in the time and dedication keep a tight bond of secrecy of what they have learned through trial and error over the years.

Cudo's to the "Secret Drum Hotline", hope your spot is never discovered, but I hope you pass along the knowledge to the next generation so they can learn without the aid of google.

Never learned the pin rigs method, instead, I bought a kayak and took the easy way out


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

Trevfishin said:


> Ahhh, gotta like it when the expansion of recreational fishing carries over into the "Old School Original Fishermen" all the while the fishermen who have put in the time and dedication keep a tight bond of secrecy of what they have learned through trial and error over the years.
> 
> Cudo's to the "Secret Drum Hotline", hope your spot is never discovered, but I hope you pass along the knowledge to the next generation so they can learn without the aid of google.
> 
> Never learned the pin rigs method, instead, I bought a kayak and took the easy way out


Unclear on your response. There is no tight bond on secrecy on my part other than not to direct people to spots on the internet. All the spots on the OBX are known and have been there for generations, as far as the next generation if someone exhibits a willingness to learn, I have been known to freely give tackle and advice to those in need. 

For the folks on the internet that think they are entitled to whatever just because they ask................


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## Guest (Aug 7, 2019)

Garboman said:


> Unclear on your response. There is no tight bond on secrecy on my part other than not to direct people to spots on the internet. All the spots on the OBX are known and have been there for generations, as far as the next generation if someone exhibits a willingness to learn, I have been known to freely give tackle and advice to those in need.
> 
> For the folks on the internet that think they are entitled to whatever just because they ask................



I will attest to this. Garbo has helped me more than he will probably ever know and I have yet to meet him in person.....


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## Jwalker (Jan 18, 2014)

Garbo is a wealth of knowledge. He's taught me a lot but just listening to him tell stories of the good ol' days is even better. Spending time with him at the "not secret spots" has been fun. One of these days though i may need to slip a tracking device on to his vehicle to find the "secret spots". Or maybe i could trick him into showing me by offering a case of beer and taxi service.


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## Trevfishin (Apr 10, 2019)

Sorry Garbo, my last post was a little confusing, but yes, you put in the time and effort to find the 30yrd spot I’d keep it too. 

Took me 5 years to find the trough off of Siesta Key in Florida to catch tarpon. 

I learn from your posts, I appreciate the seasoned knowledge.


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## Mumbo_Pungo (Dec 8, 2014)

Thanks for the help guys. Think I'll give it a shot next June. Though I don't know if my 30sha can hold enough line if it decides to go out. Will at least be a story.


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## phillyguy (Aug 9, 2010)

Find where I am. And go someplace else. Your sure to find them there.


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## Reelturner (Dec 24, 2003)

Garboman,

I may or may not have met you at NHP back in the day but I think Ive been live baiting when you walked out there. Hey matter of fact I bet the last time you kinged out here you had your heaver as the fighting rod didn't you?

You got a hell of more stories to talk about ANDY than me but Im quite sure we could really laugh at a lot of them?

And oh BTW, Mr Biker Ricky........I used to work w him in Burlington, NC lol LIttle Stubby but an ox he worked in the warehouse and I was in the wet processing lab.

You should have been around when he first started getting the drum fix and he got it bad..Ha, we all do there for a while I should have called him suicide Rickestar!!!

I didnt know but I guessing he got himself a motorcizzle sometime or another. Question...which does he do better catch drum or ride that bike?

I havent' seen or heard of him in a long time and not since I left Burlington Chemical back in '93 for diabetic related health reasons. Next time you see him tell him Arthur said Hey?


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

Reelturner said:


> Garboman,
> 
> I may or may not have met you at NHP back in the day but I think Ive been live baiting when you walked out there. Hey matter of fact I bet the last time you kinged out here you had your heaver as the fighting rod didn't you?
> 
> ...


I always used two heavers for pin rigging, when your fish heads across the T it is a lot easier to walk after it holding a heaver rather than asking a bunch of folks to lower their rods. People who clamp a clamp to the railing and then stick a short fighting rod in it look cool, except is someone blunders by and knocks that rod up and out of the clamp set and into the drink. Plus when I fished for real, I never put my anchor rod up in the air, on Rodanthe back in the day it was not allowed, now they let anything go on that short dock.

I would not call Lil Stubby, Lil Stubby to his face, he is fifteen years younger than me and I am not the same fella I was fifteen years ago. Lil Stubby rides the bike better than he drum fishes except when he is drum fishing around me and then he usually does better than me. Lil Stubby now has this gang of FHB's he runs with and they by and large hang on to their bait. Fall is a different story though as I have places to get Mullet where they would have issues with access.

Sturgis is going on now so I am not sure where Biker Ricky is these days, likely up in the Dakotas with a Stripper on his Fatboy although his running buddy Joker knows. Biker Ricky I mean Lil Stubby will be on Avon most days this fall I would imagine.

Andy and I go way back, I was there the first year when he bought the pier with his partner Bill E from Joe Justius the former owner of NHP.


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