not Abaco, but we had an encounter with a whale shark

[Mont]

and I thought y'all might want to see some pics. It's the 2nd time she's visited our boat. Pics were taken 100 miles south of Galveston, TX


http://2coolfishing.com/whaleshark/ws2.jpg

http://2coolfishing.com/whaleshark/ws3.jpg


http://2coolfishing.com/whaleshark/ws4.jpg

[Mont]

and a few more...

http://2coolfishing.com/whaleshark/ws5.jpg

http://2coolfishing.com/whaleshark/ws7.jpg

[Island Daze]

Mont those are some pretty neat pictures, are those cobia following the whale shark?

[Mont]

Cobia (ling here in Texas) and a few ramora. One of the ling was huge.

[TurtleDreams]

Sooo cooool!

[TurtleDreams]

And ... I gotta get back to work, bleck!

[toledopirate]

All I can add is Wow! Awesome pics you have there!

[Island Daze]

Mont do you guys ever throw jigs to the cobia, here in NC they will eat up a bucktail jig with feathers.

[SamFamAustin]

My impression is that they are very curious fish and will investigate anything, although they prefer the smell of real bait and love shade even more. We call them ling down here in Texas. Mont?

[Island Daze]

Sam toss a 3 or 4 ounce bucktail jig to them and jig it back to the surface and they will tear it up and then they will procede to destroying your boat if not subdued.

[SamFamAustin]

LOL, the minimum in TX is 37 inches and we tried to get one on the boat in like 3 minutes. We has Noooooo idea. It about tore us up, jumped overboard, and I swear it winked at us. Rascal! I still have some bucktails from striper fishing up north so I'll give 'em a whirl, thanks for the tip. :p

[DrRalph]

Wonderful photos of a relatively rare critter. Here's a great link to the Florida Museum of Natural History about Whale Sharks (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Whaleshark/whaleshark.html).

We throw bucktails and bombers at cobia here in Central Florida when we find them under giant manta rays. When they get close to the boat like that, they seem to lose their aggressiveness and won't hit the jig any more. I've had one sit under the boat for a half-hour while we tossed everything in the box at him, wouldn't hit a thing. A guy I was with told us he read a story years ago in Florida Sportsman about a similar situation. Seems the angler got frustrated, stopped fishing, opened a sandwich, threw half of it overboard, and the cobia drifted up and swallowed it. He had another sandwich, put a 4/0 hook through it, dropped it overboard, and the cobia hit it. So we tried it, and damned if it didn't work, caught a beautiful 40" fish in 16lb spin tackle. I did kinda miss the sandwich though.

[Island Daze]

That is just to funny

[Stephanie Piercy]

Beautiful photos!

[SamFamAustin]

That's our birthday boy!

Hey DrRalph, I've tried baloney but it doesn't have much hook potential, so it falls off easy. I like a double hook rig baited with a weiner, the cheapest hotdog money can buy. I'm a little embarrased about this, but it works if you can stop laughing. :p

[AbacoBoy]

Great pictures of the Whale Shark.

re: Cobia...they will hit just about any natural bait that you put in front of them if they are in a school. Livies are best, but I caught a 75 pounder with a dead Ballyhoo that I had been using for trolling. They will thrash the boat if you bring them aboard, so watch out. Great eating too.

[DrRalph]

Several years ago I belonged to the Halifax Sport Fishing Club here in Greater Daytona Beach. One of the members was a guy named Eddie who was a very accomplished veteran fisherman. One night he told us this story.

Eddie's wife surprised him with a birthday present, a gorgeous custom spinning reel and rod, spent about $600 on the rig. This was in February, and Eddie was Jonesing to test his new rig against a big cobia.

In early April, the beginning of our cobia run, Eddie, his wife, and their youngest son who was visiting for the weekend, went out of Ponce Inlet in their 24' center console looking for giant manta rays. They found a big ray that was carrying two nice cobia, and Eddie threw a jig at one of the fish. It followed the lure several times all the way to the transom, but wouldn't hit. Eddie got very frustrated, and finally stopped to pop a brewski, Meanwhile, the biggest of the fish set up shop just under the outboard, and it drove the son crazy.

Eddie went up to the bow to take a leak, and the son decided to free-gaff the fish. He actually managed to get a good bite, and he heaved the cobia, estimated weight 50 lbs, into the cockpit. The very green fish went ballistic, quickly clearing everyone from the pit. His next move was to whack the top off of Eddie's fire extinguisher, and in a moment the pit was covered with slippery foam.

By now Eddie had finished his business, and he literally dove into the foamy pit, trying to throw a towel over the enraged fish. Eddie's wife produced a fish billie, a small baseball bat as it were, and Eddie swam around his cockpit, trying to subdue the fish. Somewhere in the process the cobia found the new rod and reel, and with a flick of the tail he launched the rig overboard. Eddie's son made one last valiant effort the grab the fish, but it slipped out of his arms, over the transom cutout, and into the drink. The fish then set up under the outboard, just where it had been when the encounter started. The son says, "Pop, you want me to gaff him again?" We'll spare you the rest of the conversation.

Never, I mean never, bring a green cobia into the pit! :eek:

[DrRalph]

The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta has four whale sharks in captivity, the largest 22 feet. Take a look at their web cam (http://origin.11alive.com/specials/local/aquarium/aquarium_video.aspx), they swim by every 1-2 minutes.