By Lawrence Cooper Jordan, Jr.
In the late Spring, the nearshore reefs in the ocean come alive with the presence of spadefish and cobia. Ryan Stephens and I were both at the beach with family for the weekend and we planned a trip to fish for these species at one of the reefs, about 10 miles offshore.
We fished Saturday with no luck, and we planned to repeat the exact same plan the next day and hope for different results.
I woke up at 5:30 on Sunday morning and made some last-minute preparations on the boat. My 4-year-old nephew, Essam, asked to go and I agreed since my Dad, Cooper Jordan, was willing to pick him up when Essam was ready to go home. Essam put on his life jacket and his mom, Abby, rushed to pack his snacks, then we rode North on the Intracoastal Waterway to pick up Ryan. Ryan was standing on his dock when I arrived, and he loaded a fish cooler bag, some food, and a spear gun into the boat. We pushed off from the dock and rode out into the ocean. We left the shore with no bait and depended solely on catching bait along the way.
We kept our eyes peeled as we rode out through the inlet, searching for the splash of a menhaden flipping it’s tail in the water. We rode the beach in search of menhaden that would be used as cobia bait, but none could be found. I changed my focus to cannonball jellyfish which would be the bait for spadefish. The jellyfish were few and far between, but we managed to scoop up 7 with a net as we rode along the beach.
I dropped the last jellyfish into the bucket and said to Ryan, “Take her to sea Mr. Stephens! Let’s stretch her legs.” Ryan set the course and we rode about 10 miles offshore. Even though it was calm, we still took a few waves over the bow. Essam said, “Uncle Lawrence, I don’t like when we go in the air.” We wedged Essam in between us on the seat and told him that we don’t have far to go.
We arrived at the reef and found a few other boats already fishing. Ryan and I navigated into our optimal location and deployed the trolling motor to hold our position. I stepped to the back of the boat and started cutting chunks of jellyfish to put on the hook. Ryan put shrimp chunks on a sibiki rig and sent it to the bottom to catch pinfish for bait. Essam began to miss his mom, but Ryan cured his homesickness by letting him reel in some pinfish.
We rigged one live pinfish on a bottom rig, one with a cork behind the boat on the surface, and one more under a balloon, on the surface and further behind us. The balloon catches wind and prevents the bait from swimming in the wrong direction and getting tangled with other lines. The jellyfish chunks were dangling beneath the boat at staggered depths and the pinfish were staggered at different distances behind the boat. Our setup was complete, so we occupied ourselves with tidying up the deck and having snacks.
The silence was broken by the whining drag of a rod that was bowed under the pressure of a spade. Ryan took the rod and began fighting the fish. Essam ran to the port side of the boat and clutched the rail as he looked into the water to see what was on the line. The spade fish came into view after a few minutes and the sunlight flashed off its sides as it swam. I grabbed the net and scooped up the fish, then placed it on the deck.  The spade fish was a keeper and Ryan packed it inside the cooler.
To keep Essam busy, we either gave him a constant supply of snacks, or put a brush in his hands so he could swab the deck. Ryan looked up and saw that the lines from the back deck were crossed and stepped to the stern to correct them. One of the lines was going the wrong direction and the cork was underwater. Ryan reeled in the slack line thinking that the pinfish had pulled it tight when all of the sudden, line started to be pulled from the rod. “I’ve got one!” Ryan shouted, and a cobia came into view beneath us. I cleared the rest of the lines in the water to make way for the ensuing battle. Ryan had the cobia alongside the boat several times and it darted away at the sight of the net. I finally had a chance to scoop it up with the net and drop it on the deck. Ryan had landed his first cobia and measured the length after removing the hook. Cobia must be 36″ to keep and this one fell short so Ryan released it.
Ryan pitched the other baits back out and I put a new pinfish on the hook before throwing it out. All of the lines were in the water, and it wasn’t long before another rod bent. The fish raced underneath other boats until the line snapped. The rod with the bottom rig also got a bite, and the fish made its initial run, snapping the line again. Ryan and I were confused because the drag was not too tight on either reel.
Cooper appeared on the horizon and pulled up alongside us at about 11:30 to pick up Essam and take him home. Essam thanked us for taking him and said bye, then climbed aboard with Cooper to ride back to land. Ryan and I remained at the reef, determined to catch more.
The tiger sharks became more active in the afternoon. The presence of tiger sharks is advantageous because they often bring cobia that follow them. A large tiger shark swam just beneath the surface and Ryan spotted the brown shape moving in the water. He yelled, “Tiger shark at 11 o’clock! It has a cobia with it!” I sprung up to the bow with a casting rod and bucktail lure. I couldn’t see the shark, but I hurled the bucktail out over 75 yards. “You missed by 20 yards!” Ryan shouted. Suddenly, I felt the hit and set the hook. The cobia thrashed in the water, and I fought until it was beside the boat. Ryan netted the cobia, and it was the same size as the first cobia. Both fish were just shy of the necessary 36 inches. I released the cobia and stood on my cooler looking for more sharks to cast at. I spotted the brown shade of a shark crossing our stern about 50 yards out. Cobia were following the shark so I snatched up the casting rod and ran to the stern. I paused before casting to take note of our other lines to avoid a tangle, then launched the bucktail over the stern. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I retrieved the bucktail as usual and felt the cobia latch on. I set the hook and battled our third cobia into the boat.
The shark must have brought a school of cobia because I looked back and saw a large cobia chasing and chewing on our live pinfish under the balloon. Ryan and I watched the chase, waiting for the hook to be planted when our neighboring boat, who lacked sportsmanship, started casting bucktails at the fish and scared it away.
Another boat to our right was better positioned on the reef and we could see them running around the boat looking at the schools of spadefish passing them. They were only casting bucktails for cobia and could not catch the spadefish because they didn’t have jelly fish for bait. At 2:30, we watched them bring in the lines and stow the trolling motor to make their departure, so Ryan and I prepared to move over to their spot.
We were the first boat to arrive and the ocean came alive immediately. Spadefish swam in front of the bow of our boat in an endless column. Ryan and I used corks with six feet of leader, and hooks baited with jellyfish to catch the spadefish. We pitched our corks into the schools of spadefish and could see the fish gather around the bait in curiosity. We could see one of the fish eat the bait but it was not time to apply pressure until they take the cork under. We missed a few opportunities because of our excitement but began hooking them on every cast. Ryan and I were so busy fighting fish and baiting hooks that we had to net our own fish beside the boat. We were always in a hurry to get a line back in the water, so we just dropped the spadefish on the deck, baited the hook, and made a cast before placing the fish in the cooler.
One boat had been trolling in the area and decided to take a swipe at our spot. They stopped upwind of us and instead of stopping to cast at the spot from the other side, they passed over the fish, spooking them. The boat came within 20 feet of us and we asked if they wanted lunch or something before they moved on. It was another crew that lacked sportsmanship. Despite the disruption, the spadefish returned.
Ryan and I called it at 4PM with the fish still biting and counted our haul before returning home. We had caught 3 cobia and 11 spades, keeping 10 of the spades. We set our course for Shallotte Inlet and raced home with a full cooler. It was a great feeling to have been successful for the day and we looked forward to some blackened spades on the grill. Ryan had found another favorite species to add to his list and would return multiple times to catch keeper cobia throughout the summer. It is important to note that, of the many boats that came and went while fishing, only two showed bad sportsmanship. We typically talk, share information, and make friends while out there. We can’t help what others do but we can control our own actions and operate with respect.