Now That, My Friends, Is A Serious Cobia

I’ve caught some nice cobia in my time, but I never thought I’d see a photo of a 172-pounder. Knowing just how hard a 30-pounder fights, and how insanely they thrash once they’re on board, I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to fight this beast.

Unfortunately, we’ll never know, because this cobe was taken by a spearfisherman off the coast of Brazil. Of course, the story is still pretty impressive. Per the article on the website of the Bradenton Herald, Marcelo Mello Lobato and Cyrus Bravin had to shoot the cobia 3 times to finally sudbue the monster. The first shot, Lobato says, didn’t even register with the fish. It just kept swimming as if it had been bitten by a gnat. It wasn’t until Bravin swam closer that the battle began.

From the story: Then the fish became aware that something was wrong. He swam with all his might to the bottom, where the anglers thought the fish would become entangled in the [sunken iron] pipe [they were dving over]_. After 10 minutes the cobia began to rise slowly from the bottom. When it was about 15 feet from the surface, Lobato hit the cobia once again. The fish bolted a second time for the bottom, but weary, it came to the surface. _

It’s a pretty epic story, and the fish crushes the current spear-fished cobia record by nearly 30 pounds.