The Cobia That Wouldn't Go Away

So we are heading in from a full day of cobia fishing when Dave yells “Big Cobia! We ran right over it”. So we spin around and much to our surprise, there she is heading right for the boat. Dave puts down his jig pole and bolts to the front of the boat with his artificial eel pole. I grab a livie. Now Dave is working the eel and the fish is all over it just 20 feet away when suddenly Dave jumps off the back of the boat into the ocean with his rod in hand! I soon realize that he is trying to save his other rod that has fallen in the water. You see the jig pole he had sat down in the heat of the moment had gotten caught in the prop and was yanked in the water. I watch the cobia disappear yet again as Dave splashes head first within 15 feet of her. So I’m standing there with my live sardine dangling, watching this spectacle. I pitch the sardine into the water, stick the rod in a holder, flip the bail open and go to assist my man overboard. Dave is now in the water, holding two fishing rods above his head. He swims back to the boat leaving a debris field in his wake. As he hands me the rods I notice my line slowly going out. I put down his dripping rods and grab my livie pole which is now loosing line fast. I close the bail and bow up on something big. I yell to Dave who is still in the water “I got him Dave!”. We worked the fish in and snapped the photo below to commemorate the event.