Cobia.
Buoy-cruiser. Sight cast a 50-pounder following a turtle.
How they feed in the Keys
Cobia are the most exciting Keys sight-cast outside of the flats. They're coastal pelagics that follow rays, sea turtles, big sharks, hammerheads, and any floating structure — buoys, the Gulf towers, weed lines, navigation markers. Sun-up and you're hunting the surface for a long brown shape behind a turtle. Hook one and they fight harder than anything their size has business fighting.
70–82°F
Active 64–86°F · Migrate north as water warms
Less direct — cobia are surface-cruising sight targets more than tide-driven feeders.
Moderate. Wind/visibility matters more than current strength.
Sunny, calm to light-chop conditions. Sight fishing requires sun overhead and water you can see into.
Stable for clear visibility.
Mid-morning through mid-afternoon when sun is high enough to see fish from the bow.
Less direct correlation.
Less direct.
Always cobia behind manta rays, often behind sea turtles, occasionally behind hammerheads. Watching big slow shapes on the surface is the game.
The Florida Gulf navigation towers are reliable cobia structure. Pitch-bait approach: ease up, drop a live eel or pinfish, watch a brown shape rise.
12-month outlook
What they eat, what catches them
Live eel
The single best cobia bait — they cannot resist. 12–18" live eel pitched in front of a cruising fish.
Live pinfish (large)
8–10" pinfish on a 6/0 circle. Reliable when eels are unavailable.
Bucktail jig (3–4 oz)
White or chartreuse bucktail with a curl-tail trailer. Pitch and let it sink past the fish; jerks erratically.
- Live blue crab· Cobia eat crabs — big crab on a 5/0 hook is a backup pitch bait.
- Topwater plug (Spook)· When you spot a fish in shallow water and want immediate eat.
- Behind a ray or turtle
Live eel on a 6/0 circle, 80 lb leader, no weight. Pitch in front, let it sink, twitch.
- Tower / buoy
Live pinfish or bucktail jig. Approach quietly; drop bait into the shadow.
How top captains rig it
Spin: 50–65 lb braid.
Spin 6000–8000 with strong drag.
7'–7'6" medium-heavy with backbone for the runs.
80 lb fluorocarbon, 4–6 ft.
- Sight pitch
7'6" medium-heavy spin + 50 lb braid + 80 lb fluoro + 6/0 circle + live eel. Always rigged and ready on the bow.
Recreational rules
36" fork length minimum.
1 per harvester, 2 per vessel per day (Atlantic).
Open year-round.
Spearing legal in many Atlantic federal areas.
Note · Be aware of state-line crossings — Atlantic and Gulf state rules differ on cobia bag limits in some years.
What actually moves the bite
Each factor is rated by how much it shifts the bite for this fish in the Keys. Calibrated against the Bite Score weights — see the Bite Score reference for what each factor measures.