Okay more news from Western Australia, WA, this time its fishing, a charter boat out around durian Bay, this not far north of Cervantee, ,about 150 km north of Perth, as the title said, pending World record Cobia of, 79.6kg, caught on a 13 kg line, I think the lad that caught it, may have been a deckie, on the charter boat, he said he hooked something large, that stayed down deep,( being form-ilia with that area of water, i would say they were fishing in less than 50 M of water). he went on to say they thought it was possibly a ray, & the scipper told him to cut the line, but he stuck with it, & it was a Cobia, they referd to it as a tropical fish, they have been caught a lot furtther South than that, & to top it all of the lad that caught it , his name is Coby, it was on channel 7 news tonight, keep well cheers Don.
Holy cow, that's a monster cobia!
:d
You get some big cobia in West Australia. I had a jumbo follow my fly right up to the boat off Exmouth. It was so big, and with that shark-like swimming motion, I thought it was a decent sized shark, so I wasn't that excited until the last moment. My partner hooked it on a popper as it was swimming off, but it got unbuttoned fast.
Here is one with the same guide, different customer. Too big to bring in the boat for a photo and a live release.
-J
Gotta be a badass to hold a live cobia. I've wanted to catch one for a while but I've heard stories.
Well, they don't have a pointy bill or razor teeth, so not too bad to handle when worn out. That cobia in the photo in the previous post is probably around half the size of the pending world record in Don's post.
You will like this Jason - This is what a typical ladyfish (they call them giant herring) looks like in West Australia:
(photos from guide Brett Wolf of Ningaloo Fly fishing)
-J
Ye the giant hering, are caught in the swan river near Perth, but not that large, there is lots of shallow water South East of exmouth were there caught, as from the size of the cobia you posted, we caught one about the same size out of point Samson, that it near Rowebourne,?, we tried to get some photos of it, but it was to strong to lift by holding it near the butt of the tail, it would flick its body, & we could`nt maintain our grip, so strong, they are not bad eating though, cheers Don.
Quote from: Donnyboat on February 20, 2025, 11:08:38 PMYe the giant hering, are caught in the swan river near Perth, but not that large, there is lots of shallow water South East of exmouth were there caught, as from the size of the cobia you posted
That makes sense. I got a giant herring larger than the one in the photo out on the Kimberlies. I thought I had done well, but the Aussie locals were not impressed at all.
Out here in Baja California, a really big one is maybe 24" They have many local names, but the most common is sabalo, which is also used for tarpon on the other side of Mexico.
You are really blessed with some excellent fishing out in WA. I have fished only as far south as Broome, but hope to get down more toward your end of the coast one of these days to try my hand at those samsonfish
:d
-J
that is one enormous cobia..
I've caught a couple of smaller ones off the rocks, with my brother in NW Australia.
The one we ate was wonderful eating.
the 'giant herring' is known as 'springer' in S. Africa, where it grows to 15lb or so. In SA my brother hooked one about 10lb plus, ran straight out to sea into the surf from the estuary mouth, jumping all the way, and threw the hook.. we gazed at one another in wild surmise.
best fly rod fish in the world imo, can sight fish or blind fish for them, runs like a bonefish, jumps like a tarpon..
In Latin, it is elops saurus for the S. African one. I thought it was the same fish across the world, although by many names, springer in za, machete in Mexico, ladyfish in Florida and Hawaii, giant herring Aus. They surely all took a fly the same way and looked like the same fish, though the US ones don't grow as big for some reason. Wrong as usual, e. saurus was the name Linnaeus gave it, since reclassified into e. machnata, e. capensis, e. hawaiiensis. At least one ichthyologist believes them all to be the same species, though.
See Fishbase (https://www.fishbase.se/identification/SpeciesList.php?famcode=46&areacode=&spines=&fins=)..
Me in my head trying to convert KG to LBs
79.6 kg is 175#! I had no idea they got that big!
Here it is....
Thanks Ted, good work, they say there tropical fish, this time of the year, when the water down this way, is very clear, and warm, as the current, comes down the coast, and around cape luewin, near Augusta, hence the luewin current, not sure if I spelt that correctly, not uncommen for me, cheers Don.
Ya wanna see something totally cool, have a look at this. It's at a pier in S.Florida, guy hooks a big cobia, by the time he's lifting it, this is what's left. That had to be near the 100lb range, wonder how big the shark was!
Thanks its amassing how a shark can bight through the spine, such powerful jaws, we once caught a hammerhead 11ft in a 6 inch gill net, and there was another small shark about 2.5 m lond bitten of just behind the dorsal fin, so we opened up he hammerhead that was already dead, it only had a small squid in it, so there was a third shark involved, cheers Don.
Quote from: Donnyboat on February 22, 2025, 12:06:53 AMThanks its amassing how a shark can bight through the spine, such powerful
Yeah, cobias are very hard critters. I remember when I boated my first cobe, my buddy hit it with a club and CRACK went the club!