Thrilla in Ozella

Thursday's Thrilla in Ozella yielded what appears to be my catch of a "lifetime"!! A full-shouldered brown bomber with an attitude towards being netted and held captive for photo sessions, coolers(after being "downsized"), cleaning duties and an entrée invitation.
After starting the beautiful sunrise morning catching Cobia candy(pinfish/12), I proceeded to normal activity of building a respectably sized trout limit. After anchoring in 14 fow(76 degrees), I lip-rigged some candy on a 3/0 Mustad cadium J hook tied directly to 14 lb. Berkley XT green mono. Fishing 30 inches below a 4" Styrofoam peg-float, I cast it 25 yards down current and engaged the Shimano Symmetre 2500 baitrunner and placed medium-action 7 foot Gander Mountain advantage rod in stern rod holder.
Usual routine of culling trout, checking candy, rebaiting etc., the 4 hour quiet time turned into a 45 minute chaotic chase to identify the late arrival to my party. Being solo I had to start motor, lift anchor and hold on to rod/guest and get on with the unfolding rodeo event. About 200 yards later(25 -30 minutes) I got my 1st glance at the Brown Gorilla and saw no sign of hook location which caused concern of mono abrasion/lost fish. I awkwardly got the camera phone activated to take some futile, boat side shots perhaps before the adios. After the fish ripped through some more abrasive grass/kelp beds, I noticed that the peg float was now 9 feet from the fish(not good) for single-handed netting. I eventually got within reach of the float and was able to remove it through line slot. About 10 minutes later I slipped the net under this 41 inch, 28 lb 15 oz behemoth Cobia for a truly blessed once in a lifetime moment. All factors considered, this is my personal best fish regardless of species.
Pardon the longevity but I am still amped up over the Gorilla from Ozella.

u2s
ps- The Berkley XT had absolutely NO visible abrasion, the fish was deeply hooked and I will be using circle hooks religiously.

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Wow, great day for sure, congrats and thanks for sharing. See you next fall.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Fantastic fish and some prime eating.

Great post Doug.... You certainly get results

Really good smoked.--shu

Nice catch. I love to fish saltwater the largest cobia caught my boat has been 42 pounds. I got rid of my offshore boat back when the gas was so high. A 60 mile trip out to the stream off St Augustine just got to expensive. Seening your fish makes we wonder what I am doing fishing crappie. Don

Wow great fish

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Nice one for sure

Wow, great job, especially being solo. Thanks for sharing.

Awesome story & great pics to go along with it, I especially like the ones of him still in the water - :highfiveCongrats !!:cheers2

Very nice....it's gotta give you a lot of confidence in the tackle, what a "sweet" sound that drag makes & to land it is golden...

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Originally Posted by Speck Detector

Very nice....it's gotta give you a lot of confidence in the tackle, what a "sweet" sound that drag makes & to land it is golden...

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It does, however, the most incredible learn was the Berkley Trilene XT in it's incredible abrasion resistance. Confidence is gained through personally preferred tackle/lure size although seemingly judged as undersized by many.

u2s


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Thought i had commented on this before, no idea why I didn't. That's a winner of a fish and A great story that I'm sure you'll relive many times. I bet your heart rate goes up just telling the story. Great fish, and done solo. Excellent job.