THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 1996 TAG: 9606060521
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bob Hutchinson
LENGTH: 28 lines
Cobia have started to move into the Chesapeake Bay, where anglers are anxiously waiting to see just how good the season will be.
If's it's only two-thirds as good as 1995, it will good enough to go down as the second best in the 39 years of the Virginia Salt Water Fishing Tournament.
Last year anglers registered a record 603 cobia for citation awards from the state-sponsored contest. The previous best year produced but 300 awards.
Anyway, several of the big brown-and-white battlers already have been boated or released in the lower Chesapeake Bay, with a few more claimed by beach and pier fishermen along the Outer Banks.
So how good is 1996's promise?
If Florida fishermen provided a barometer earlier this year, the answer should be ``pretty good.'' Florida's East Coast cobia run this winter and spring was outstanding.
The bottom line is that time will be the judge. But things look bright for Chesapeake Bay cobia aficionados.
Too bad the same doesn't hold for the once-prolific cobia grounds of North Carolina sounds. For whatever reason, the fish are not nearly as abundant there as they were a decade ago. by CNB