Cobia Culture

The first time I sight-casted to a cobia, I was fishing in the Lower Chesapeake Bay with Capt. Ben Shepherd. He was a young captain, I was an aspiring outdoor writer and we were finding our way in a relatively new fishery. Shepherd and I left Lynnhaven Inlet in his 25-foot center console. The sleek boat was outfitted with a tower installed over its T-top. When we arrived at Thimble Shoal Channel, Shepherd invited me to join him in the tower.

The mid-summer day was hot and bright, the clear, green water glowing as if illuminated from below. Standing in the tower, I could see into the water for 100 yards. “They’ll stick out like a sore thumb,” Shepherd said, and instructed me to scan the water for long, brown cobia. With the boat rolling along at 4 knots, my eyes scanned from