Cobia tips, tactics, and rigs

[Three se7ens]

With the cobia season approaching, I'd like to hear what you all do to put fish in the cooler. I only had a couple of opportunities to go offshore last year, and while we saw some, and hooked one or two, none actually made it into the boat.

[CaptDavDavis01]

Where are you fishing out of?  Gulf, Florida, mid atlantic?

I fish off Va, I swear it get better every year.  All sight fishing with eels and buck tails, no body bothers with chumming anymore.

[Three se7ens]

Coastal Georgia, Savannah area and a bit south. Typically we fish reefs around 20 miles offshore.  Depth is around 60'

I haven't had much luck with buck rails here, but I've heard of other people having success with eels and plugs for cobia on the surface. 

[Stan]

Danny:

Some of still chum in the lower Chesapeake...I had a good year chumming this past year.

Stan

[Newell Nut]

When pulling fish up from the reef here they chase them up. Toss a bucktail with eel in the water or a chunk of squid and you have instant cobia hook up. Slap a gaff in them and you are done. One of our mates just free gaffed a 40 pounder a couple weeks ago. We got 15 cobia on one stop. We don't fish for them really but when they show up we get a few and a normal day is two to three and some days none. One of our regulars jigs with a Viking chrome jig and he gets one on the bottom just about every trip.
I don't fish for cobias but have a rod in the rack with squid on a hook just waiting for one to swim by. On our last trip a guy got one flat lining a sardine on a piece of wire.
They are not too picky.