Today my fishing buddies were Eric Coppola, Matt Thornton, Stephen Woolf along with Mike and Terri Abrams. Eric is no stranger to the Goin Off and today he's finally gotten an opportunity to go fishing with friends from his workplace. In the past when their work schedules allowed the weather didn't cooperate and finally their schedules and the weather came together. Eric's daughter Sarah had sent dad to sea with a dinner request for a Cobia so the pressure was on dad and I to produce a keeper Cobia for the fish box.
    Picked up the pogies as usual and out to 8A reef we went where the bite was steady for most of the morning and the kingfish were sized a little larger than the normal summer kings. At least half of the Kings we caught were over 15 pounds. We were able to catch our limit of 12 Kings by around 11:30 which left a little time to find the cobe we needed for Sarah.
    Poseidon must have heard Sarah's request and on the way back into the port we spotted a relatively small Manta Ray that had an entourage of about five Cobia and we were able to catch one short Cobia and one keeper at 34" to fulfill Sarah's dinner wish and keep Eric and I out of trouble.
    The weather was simply outstanding with clear skies and flat calm seas. A great time again with good friends and the makings of a fine fish dinner.

Final tally for the day:
12 Kingfish to 30#
2 Cobia with one released to grow up
A few of Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks released