Captain Brandon Branch of Crystal River and father Ben Branch after scoring a cobia double-header.
April 07, 2025
By David A. Brown
Coastal anglers in Florida get justifiably excited about cobia in the spring. These fish are on the move—idly cruising along sandy beaches, suddenly appearing on shallow wrecks or near channel markers.
Like many modern fishing guides in the Sunshine State, Capt. Brandon Branch owns a hybrid type boat that enables him to alternate between shallow water fishing and trips out on open water.
He runs a 24-foot Young Gulfshore out of Shrimp Landing in Crystal River, a place that’s famous for inshore redfish, offshore grouper and—at the right time of year—those migratory cobia.
“We have a period from about mid-April until the beginning of June,” Branch said. “Typical conditions that I like are calmer weather and high sun. We’ll see a lot of cobia working near the surface so we’re able to pitch our baits to them.
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“We’re typically working in about 12 to 30 feet and for people that don’t have a lot of numbers, the artificial reefs are very good areas to check. The fish like those big structures so that’s what we concentrate on.”
Early in the season, Branch starts down around the Bayport area, south of Homosassa. With most of these fish headed for northern Gulf summering areas, he simply follows the progression through his region. By June, the movement has him looking around Cedar Key to the Suwannee River mouth.
It’s like a Chinese fire drill when more than one cobia gets hooked up behind the boat. Often, crossed lines result in one or two lost fish. “We’ll see another push when the migratory fish come back through in September and October, but I think the big migration of the fish going back south is a little farther offshore,” Branch said. “They’re usually in 50 to 80 feet of water on big structure.”
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Find ’Em Branch watches his sonar/chartplotter combo for wrecks, ledges and limestone reefs. Cobia also run the tide-formed floating grass lines, while channel markers — especially the Cross Florida Barge Canal south of Yankeetown — also merit a look.
“I have the Simrad , which allows me to see the SideScan and I put it out to about 120 feet, so when I pull up to a spot and get set up, I’m able to see those fish within 240 feet around the boat,” Branch said. “When they swing by, I’ll know if they’re there. I’ll give it 10 to 15 minutes and if I see a fish on my SideScan, I know to stay and wait for that fish to bite.”
Grab the net for cobia to ensure they meet size limits. What They Like Cobia will snap at bucktails, diving plugs, and large soft plastic jerkbaits on jig heads or belly-weighted wide gap hooks, but live bait is most consistent.
“My favorite bait, which is a little harder to get, is a live sand eel,” Branch said. “They absolutely cannot resist that, but I like to have a variety, whether it be live finger mullet, threadfin herring, or pinfish. I like to have a mix of baits.”
Branch said his artificials come into play mostly on grass lines and channel markers, where live baits tend to hide or tangle. Here, he’ll throw a 6- or 7-inch Hogy swimbait, or a 5-inch No Live Bait Needed swimbait on a 3/4-ounce lead head.
“You’re able to cast a long way and work it in front of those fish and they’ll eat it almost every time,” Branch said. “For those fish that are on markers, it’s usually easy to use artificials because they’re going to be head on the marker, so you can pull up there and really just fire that bait (repetitively) in front of them.
“Also, if you hook a fish and a pair come up with it, you can fire out an artificial and those fish will bite really good on that artificial. If you get a pair of them, most of the time you can hook that second fish.”
Branch suggests an aggressive sight fishing tactic: “If another cobia comes up with a hooked one, I try to put my bait directly on top of the fish that we have hooked,” he said. “That second cobia is gonna follow the tail of that hooked fish, so if you land your bait right on that first fish, the second one is gonna eat almost instantly.”
Sight fishing migrating cobia often leads to down time, but stay alert at all times. The One-Two Expecting hefty fish, Branch typically gears up with 7-6 to 8-foot extra heavy spinning outfits and 50- to 65-pound Diamond braid with a 60-pound Diamond Illusion fluorocarbon leader . For trolling baits across hard bottom sites, he likes conventional outfits with Daiwa Saltist or Daiwa Saltiga 30 reels.
“That way, with the clicker, I’m able to fish a bait on the bottom, I’m able to let that fish clicker eat it out of the rod holder and make a long run before I put the reel in gear,” Branch said.
Always anticipating cobia targets of opportunity, as well as those that follow hooked fish, Branch approaches each spot ready to capitalize. Better to have and not need than scramble to prep a rod a follow-up rod before the window of opportunity closes.
“It’s case by case, but when I pull up to a spot, I always like to have the spinner available to be able to fire a bait out there, if one comes up to the surface,” Branch said. “But, if I’m pulling up and I don’t see anything, I’ll usually drop two bottom baits and I’ll leave one at the bottom and reel one up to about mid-depth so we’re working two levels.
“I’ll still have the spinner ready, because sometimes, you’ll be sitting there on a spot and a fish will swim to the surface. If you’re prepared, you’ll be to pitch a bait to him before he eats a bait on the conventional rods.”
Hook ‘em however you can, but don’t underestimate the ensuing battle. Cobia pack a lot of power.
“Get ready to work around the boat, because a hooked fish is gonna want to run around the boat and get around the trolling motor,” Branch said. “I use a little lighter drag than most people because a cobia is not going to get you around structure unless fishing a marker and it’s not going to get you into the bottom like a grouper.
“I allow that fish to run and wear itself out. I’m not the guy that wants to bring that fish into the boat in 30 seconds because they are absolutely crazy. If you get that fish next to the boat, you have to get his head straight into the net first. If you try to go from the tail, you’re never going to get him, they’ll kick right out of it. Head first and you’ll get ‘em every time.”
A 5-inch NLBN jig is often irresistible to cobia. Bar Hopping Another Florida captain who knows about capitalizing on those targets of opportunity is Capt. Brian Ball, in the Charlotte Harbor area of Southwest Florida. Ball says he tends to find more cobia on nearshore wrecks from Captiva Island to Venice, but spring delivers a mix that includes good numbers of inshore fish.
“That time of year, we get a lot of them that push up inside and get on the bars up in the harbor,” Ball said. “It depends on the conditions and what we’re doing. As far as the nearshore fish, we may be sitting on a break or wreck, chumming and snapper fishing and they just kinda show up.
“Usually, the ones I catch up in the harbor, I catch in transit. I’m running down the bar, going to another location for snook or redfish and it’s like, ‘Oh, there’s a couple,’ so you spin around and catch them.”
Wreck cobia are notorious for walking right up to a boat like a kid approaching the ice cream man. Ball keeps a live bait pitch rod ready, but he’ll also pick up more distant snoopers by flat-lining a pinfish while bottom fishing.
The ones on the bars take a little more stealth. A cobia’s a cobia, which means they’re not the valedictorians of the inshore world. Nevertheless, shallow water puts any fish on high alert.
“I’ll go past them, drop the trolling motor and work back to them,” Ball said. “Usually, those fish are in 4 to 8 feet of water, so it’s more sight fishing and trying to get a bait out in front of them.
“Every now and then, you’ll see them get on manatees or rays, but it’s not uncommon to see them plugging along by themselves. We have tons of manatees in the harbor, but rays are more popular because they kick up more stuff that cobia would eat.”
Pinfish and threadfin are excellent baits for cobia fishing. Once he’s lined up on a shallow cobia, Ball will pitch a pilchard, pinfish, or threadfin on a 5/0 circle hook . A decent cast typically earns an immediate response, but technique counts.
“Don’t hit them on the head but get it on their line,” Ball said. “Make sure they can see the bait. Ideally, you want to have it out in front of them and pull it to them.
“As far as finding them on the bars, they prefer low incoming tide and the calmer the better. We do get big schools of threadfins and, occasionally, you’ll see them working around the edges.”
While Ball has seen cobia up to 80 pounds on those nearshore wrecks, mid-40s is a good in Charlotte Harbor. Whatever size he encounters, he knows that once he gets a fish interested, appetite usually leads to their downfall.
“One of the biggest cobia I’ve ever had a person catch, we hooked it three times before he actually caught it,” Ball said. “The first time, it broke off, the second time, the guy had it on, but it pulled off and spun back around and tried to eat the same bait, but it was double hooked.
“We had another rod ready and pitched a live bait. It wasn’t even a cast; it was more like cane pole fishing. Just dropped it in front of him. They’re an opportunistic fish. When you get around them, you can usually catch them.”
Two large cobia search for baitfish to eat. COBIA STATUS AND STUDIES Ashley Williams, Public Information Specialist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Division of Marine Fisheries, shared insights on the status of cobia.
The most recent stock assessment, completed in 2020, indicated the Gulf of Mexico cobia stock was not overfished, but was undergoing overfishing. The past decade has seen a steady decline in total and spawning stock biomass, prompting the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (GMFMC) to increase the minimum size limit for cobia in the Gulf Zone from 33 to 36 inches fork length for both recreational and commercial sectors. (The South Atlantic Council followed soon after with a 36-inch minimum, making for consistency from coast to coast; the figure represents the point at which scientists say female cobia reach maturity).
Captain Brandon Branch said that during the past couple of years, he’s seen more big cobia in the Nature Coast/Big Bend region. Williams said the next stock assessment in 2026 may or may not confirm Branch’s observation. Anglers along the Florida Panhandle beaches—Pensacola, Destin, Panama City Beach—have lamented the dramatic decline of what was once a celebrated spring cobia run.
“FWC and other researchers around the Gulf utilize acoustic telemetry and other methods to better understand cobia migratory patterns,” Williams said.
COBIA REGULATIONS (for Florida Gulf and Atlantic waters, state and federal) Size limit: 36-inch minimum fork length. Bag limit: 1 per person or 2 per vessel, whichever is less.
This report was featured in the March 2025 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe
