Captain's Corner

By Larry Blue

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 13, 2000

It's that time when big permit are on some of the offshore wrecks.

Targeting permit, we arrived at our destination with a live well full of shrimp and crabs. Blue runners made the best of the baits and rudderfish rounded out the catch ... but NO permit. After a couple hours of releasing the pesky runners, we were down to the last live shrimp. It was one last try.

It wasn't long before the rod bent from the strain of a fish. Angela Raymer set the hook, and the line began to sizzle off the reel. We hoped it was a permit, but as the fish broke the surface, it appeared we had hooked into a big cobia. Another run and the cobia again broke the surface, this time jumping out of the water, something cobia almost never do. One more jump and suddenly the line went slack. Angela reeled in as fast as she could trying to catch up to the fish on the line, thinking the fish was running toward the boat. Imagine our disappointment and surprise when we found not the cobia, but a large remora hooked in the mouth.

It was apparent the remora took the bait and swam to the cobia for a ride. When the cobia felt the resistance of the remora, it did its best to shake the hitchhiker and did so during its last jump.

Unfortunately, we did not catch the cobia.

- To get in touch with Larry Blue, call (727) 397-3773 or send him an e-mail, www.captlblue@aol.com. To find out how to get your tournament results in the paper, call (727) 893-8123.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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