Cobia

[rigdvr]

Some of us have been having a pretty informative discussion about cobia under the rig diving thread under places to dive. Kind of curious...here they are considered excellent eating and gamefish as well but apparently that feeling is not worldwide...so I was just wondering what others thought of these fish.

 

[Iyadiver]

Rig,

As far as I know most Asian do not place Cobia as good eating cause they are never found in any restaurant menu or even being mentioned.

In my city ( does not necess. reflect the entire country ) , Cobia are usually turned into salted fish, a good price one but it means other cooking method not do-able or like-able.

However, I had the opportunity visiting a Cobia collection or fish hold in Jakarta, somewhere 40 miles north at the group of island where I frequent. The owner of the operation is Korean, market destination is export............where, I don't know. I seen the small 5" cobias, all striped like cat fish babies. The bigger ones are like 5 kg something. I don't know what is the export size they are aiming.

One question for you, how come these 5kg Cobias : Some are just plain mud brown color and some have the disctintive white stripe. Is this male-female indication or camoflauge capability of Cobia ? They were all in a relax state swimming in a circle, in the 15 x 10 meters net, 5 meters deep.

OK. Out.
IYA

 

[rigdvr]

not exactly sure of the coloring difference but I know exactly to what you are refering. I know a man here locally that does a tremendous amount of research on these fish and Im going to give him a call. Offhand I am pretty sure it is not a sex difference and my first guess is adaptive coloring....like the color changes among many fish to factors such as water quality...maybe mood i.e. feeding or excitement. I have caught them large and small some dark some striped.....hhhmmmm

 

[Murat]

I don`t like them much. They usually travel with sharks especially with bulls which are potential dangerous for divers.BTW when i first saw speared big cobia from top view i though it was a shark

What can i say. I don`t like sharks. I wish to have kill them all (kidding):rcard .Actually my heart says they have to be never exist on the other hand they were apper to earlier than us (2 million years i think).On the other hand my brain says they have to be exist to control food chain and in the case of absence of these contol mechanism all the other species altough humans will be in permenant danger. I though i will wish to have none of us be in their food lists

I sure most of you guys know that sharks don`t eat man`s flesh beacuse our meat is salty muscular and has bone . Death is occur beacuse of the lossing of blood. But i don`t choose a life against death with one leg or one hand :waterwork

 

[Abriapnea]

I once speared a cobia with stripey phase colouring in waters full of bluebottles (portuguese man of war ) . It got stung a couple of times while swimming it to the boat and turned completely white .Speared another with markings like an orca ,really beautiful , wish I still had the photo :waterwork

 

[ivan]

hi

When we catch them here on line we usually throw them away cos we get better eating fish such as Coral Trout but the reason Im so desperate to spear one is cos their rare ive only seen one im desperate to spear any rare fish Dog tooth, Wahoo, Cobia etc.

cheers

 

[Abriapnea]

Originally posted by ivan

im desperate to spear any rare fish

cheers

Yeah , spear one before they become extinct rofl
No worries Ivan , I know what you mean . I am looking forward to spearing some serious tuna .
BTW if you want some truly rare fish , I know where a small school of coelacanth live nly 150 m. deep

 

[Amphibious]

coelacanth, Now that would be a hunt!!!

(I heard three reseach divers are now visitng davey jones because of the "hunt" for that critter)

be a crazy "no-limits" sled hunt.......


Hmmmm.......


I wonder what the taste like....

 

[Iyadiver]

Hi Amp,

So long no see u. If you want to know how a Coelachant taste like , I can make some calls to Manado. They have these fishes there, Discovery team been there. The traditional fisherman were the first to get it and I am sure they ate it cause it look like a deep water grouper...... I know a few must have eaten it.

Well, let me see if they have phones..........oops sorry I think not.

But I will try to find out for personal curiousity sake, I am betting that these deepwater fish must taste good because they don't move much and in very cold water ( I mean cold for tropical sea ), so the oil and fat must be plenty.

If I do find out it will hell be fun to let u guys know cause at almost US$10,000 or more a fish ( that is what the local paper said the scientist are willing to pay, if I remember correctly ) , this one fish will never be eaten anymore. This is even rarer than a 1000 pound Blue Fin tuna. Yummy Yummy, this is the world's most expensive fish pound per pound.

IYA:t

 

[Amphibious]

long time no see? Been working as a Doorman for a french floating nightclub, seem to spend most of my free time sleeping ;-)

$10K a fish huh? little out of my budget...


oh and Cobia - Hunt'um, Eat'um, damn good BBQ'd.

Willer

 

[ivan]

hi

Today I got to see my mates 120cm carbon stealth railgun it was beautiful, anyway the ocean is rough its blowin 30knots fot the last month the vis is 50cm. What do you do dream about Cobia and Wahoo I guess and watch spearfishing movies for the millionth time.

Ps my railgun still hasnt arrived Im goin spastic

 

[divedog]

i used to work off the rigs in the gulf of mexico and we caught a lot of cobia. they were considered some of the best eating fish around, and if cooked properly they were excellent. they are a dense meaty fish with little fat that is unforgiving of being overcooked. we generally targetted the smaller ones around 20-30 lbs and left the larger ones alone.

 

[rigdvr]

Cobia killin time! I got a new Riffe MT 4 and I will be breking it in tommorrow! Look out because I think this gun will do more than just ding a 'ling'!:martial

 

[rigdvr]

No cobia but I put the SMACK on some jack!:blackeye

 

[divedog]

hope they were amber jack and not the yellow tail, i remember the smaller amber jack to be pretty good eating.